YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

SKETCHES

OF

CELEBEATED CANADIANS,

AND

PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA,
FROM THE
EARLIEST PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE
PROVINCE DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME.

BY

HENRY J. MORGAN,

COMPILER OF "THE TOUR OF H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES," I860.

MONTREAL:
PUBLISHED BY R. "WORTHING-TON.
1865.

TO
COLONEL THE HONORABLE
A.D.C. TO HER MAJESTY TEE QUEEN, M.L.C., AC.

Sir, — I am induced by the consideration of my admiration
of you, as a Native Canadian, in your several capacities as
a soldier, a statesman and a citizen, to venture to dedicate to
you these sketches of the lives and characters of your dis
tinguished countrymen, and others connected with the history
of Canada, in which you have played so highly important
and creditable a part.
Trusting that you will pardon me for the liberty I have
taken, I beg to remain,
Your obedient and humble servant,
HENRY J. MORGAN.
Quebec, January, 1862.

" The worth of a atate in the long run is the worth of the individuals composing
it."— J. S. Mill.

" It is very certain that no man ia fit for everything ; hut it is almost as cer
tain too, that there is scarcely any one man who is not fit for something, which
something nature plainly points out to him hy giving him a tendency and pro
pensity to it. Every man finds in himself, either from nature or education
(for they are hard to distinguish), a peculiar hent and disposition to some par
ticular character ; and his struggling against it is the fruitless and endless labor
of Sisyphus. Let him follow and cultivate that vocation, he will succeed in
it, and be considerable in one way at least." — Lord Chesterfield's Miscella
neous Works.

"The chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character in which
it abounds. Our great forefathers still live among us in the records of their
lives, as well as in the acts they have done and which live also ; still sit by us at
the table, and hold us by the hand ; furnishing examples for our benefit, which we
may still study, admire, and imitate. Indeed, whoever has left behind him the
record of a noble life has bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good, for
it lives as a model for others to form themselves by in all time to come ; still
breathing fresh life into us, helping us to reproduce his life anew, and to illus
trate his character in other forms. Hence a book containing the life of a true
man is full of precious seed ; to use Milton's words. 'It is the precious life-blood
of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.'
Such a book never ceases to exercise au elevating influence and a power for good.
It may not have the power of the living life of a man; but it is a record of greatness
which we cannot help admiring, and unconsciously imitating while we admire.
******* " The solid foundations of liberty must rest upon individual character, which
is also the only sure guarantee for social seourity and national progress." — Db.
Smiles.

PREFACE.

The present work has been written during short intervals,
which we have been enabled to snatch from office hours,
and in the short space of a few months.
We do not presume to advance any claims to originality
with respect to a great portion of its contents, derived as they
have, necessarily been from various home and local publica
tions, a list of which is subjoined; nor do we claim for it any
thing like perfection. We are sensible that it is imperfect,
not only in its details, but in the exclusion from its pages of
numerous names which ought to have figured in and graced
the work ; nor has justice, we fear, been done to many whose
biographies do appear. These circumstances must not be
ascribed to any intentional defect on our part ; but we must
plead in excuse the inexperience and incapacity of youth in
matters with which we have, perhaps, prematurely grappled,
the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, and the long
period of time which the work covers.
In a work of the kind where so much has to be inquired
into, studied and examined, in a short space of time, we
have laid ourselves under many and deep obligations to nu
merous persons — noblemen and gentlemen who have kindly
"responded to our enquiries, and occasionally come to our as
sistance, aiding us in our adventurous undertaking ; and we
cannot overlook the material assistance rendered to us by
Professor Andrew, M.A., of Quebec. To these parties we
return our most sincere and hearty thanks. It is our hope

VI PREFACE.
that a second edition will shortly appear, when any errors
which may have crept into this will be rectified. Lastly, as
to these and all such errors, we pray the kind indulgence of
our readers for the reasons assigned in another portion of
this preface ; these imperfections must not be ascribed to
the heart, but rather to the head and judgment.
Quebec, January, 1862.

INTRODUCTION

When we first conceived the design of compiling a work of
this description, we were not aware that any previous work
had been written on the subject, and were quite surprised
when M. Bibaud's "Pantheon Canadien" was placed in
our hands. Upon examination, however, of this little
book, we found that many of our greatest men had been
excluded from notice, and many obsolete characters flourished
therein who had hardly any claim to be mentioned at all ;
and above all that it was devoted nearly altogether, or in
a great measure, to one portion of the community. Observ
ing this, we determined to pursue our undertaking, with
what success, we must leave the candid, discriminating and
indulgent reader to say.
The great object which has actuated us in writing these
series of biographical notices or sketches, has been to place
on record, in as simple and unostentatious a manner as pos
sible, "the services of those men who have fought, bled, and
served in this province, and with whose names history has
made us familiar, but with regard to whose private career it
is silent ; we trust that hereby some worthy names and me
mories may not be allowed to pass into oblivion. From these
annals it will appear that we have had and do possess men
as truly great, talented and devotedly loyal as any other
kingdom, not excepting the mother country herself. We
may also be able to convince the youth of this rising nation,
that their sires, grandsires, and great-grandsires, had names
associated with great deeds and glorious efforts in the cause
of freedom and loyalty. We have endeavored, perhaps,

Till INTRODUCTION.
without success, to render this work as complete as possible,
so as to satisfy both portions of the communities in which
we live, and to be as unprejudiced and dispassionate in our
opinions as we could. What we have written has been written-
in no cringing or servile spirit, but in honest sincerity, and
comes impartially from the heart. A just pride, an intense
love of our native country, and an ardent hope and desire
for its future greatness, have alone enabled and prevailed
on us to go through a task of great mental labor, yet to
us one of love. Our only regret is, that the work is not suffi
ciently perfect ; and that we have not done sufficient justice
to those characters whose portraits and careers we have
endeavored to pourtray.

BOOKS CONSULTED
BY THE AUTHOR IN WRITING THIS WORK, AND TO WHICH HE 13 INDEBTED
FOR INFORMATION.
Cote's Political Appointments ; Bibaud's Pantheon Cana
dien ; Smith, Garneau, Christie, Rogers and McMullen's
Histories of Canada ; Buchanan's National Unihrift ; Gor
ton's Biographical Dictionary ; Appleton's Cyclopaedia of
Biography ; Norton's Life of Bishop Stewart ; Cannon's
Historical Records of the British Army ; Burke, Dodd,
Debrett, and Playfair's Peerages ; Penny Cyclopaedia ;
Canadian News, (London) ; Colonial Magazine ; Mountain's
Sermons ; Yan Cortland's Records of Ottawa City ; Hay-
den's Booh of Dignities ; Journals of Education, C. JH. and
C. W. ; Bonnycastle's Canada; Anglo-American Magazine ;
American Law Journal ; Gourlay's Canada ; Kaye's Life
of Metcalfe ; Tupper's Life of Brock ; Scrope's Life of
Sydenham ; Head's Narrative ; Harrison's Upper Canada
Law Journal ; Smith 's History of 'New York; G-entleman's
Magazine; Illustrated News of the World; O'Byrne and
Marshall's Naval Dictionaries ; Hawkins' Picture of Quebec ;
Shea,' a Discovery of the Mississippi ; Canadian Review ; Ure's
Handbook of Toronto ; Canadian Magazine ; Hart's Annual
Army List; Appleton's New American Cyclopaedia ; Lange-
vin's L' Histoire du Canada en Tableaux ; Sabine's American
Loyalists, &c.

INDEX

Adamson, Rev. Dr., 387.
Alcoek, Chief- Justice, 135'
Allan, Hugh, 669.
Allen, Rev. J. A., 747.
Alleyn, Commander, 274.
Alleyn, Hon. C, 633.
Alleyn, E., 633.
Amherst, 50.
Angers, Real, 761.
Arthur, Sir G., 376.
Aylmer, Lord, 288.
Aylwin, Hon. Judge, 422.
Baby, Hon. J., 277.
Badgley, Hon. Judge, 492.
Bagot, Sir C, 415.
Baldwin, Admiral, 155.
Baldwin, Hon. R., 397.
Baldwin, Col., 733.
Baldwin, Lieut., 734.
Barclay, Capt. R. H., 212.
Bardy, Dr., 69.
Barre, Do la, 30.
Barthe, J. G., 482.
Bayfield, Admiral, 480.
Bayne, Rev. Dr., 486.
Baynes, Gen., 200.
Beauharnois, Marquis de, 36.
Bedard, Justice P., 245.
Bedard, Justice E., 353.
Berczy, W., 110.
Berczy, C. A., 113.
Bibaud, M., 412.
Biband, F.M.U.M., 759.
Bidwoll, Hon. M. S., 349.
Billings, E., 693.
Bisshopp, Col. C, 225.
Blackstone, H., 152.
Blanchet, Francois, 164.
Blanchet, Dr. J., 548.
Bloomfield, Gen. T., 93.
Bonnycastle, Sir R. H., 356.
Bouchette, Col., 141.
Bouchette, Commodore, 141.
Bougainville, 58.
Boulton, Hon. H. J., 263.
Bourdages, L., 161.
Bourlamaque, 57.
Bo wen, Bishop, 458.

Boxer, Admiral, 483.
Braddock, Gen., 57.
Bradshaw, Lieut., 712.
Bradstreet, Gen., 60.
Brant, Joseph, 96.
Brock, Sir Isaac, 174, 692.
Brown, William, 80.
Brown, Hon. G., 769.
Bruyeres, Col., 215.
Buchanan, Isaac, 553.
Bulger, Capt., 202.
Buller, C, 371.
Burgoyne, Gen., 88.
Burnham, Hon. Z., 378.
Burton, S. J., 309.
Bury, Viscount, 677.
By, Col., 254.
Cabot, Sir J., 5.
Cabot, S., 5.
Caldwell, Sir J., 316.
Callieres, De, 32.
Cameron, Angus, 773.
Cameron, Hon. M., 630.
Cameron, Hon. J. H., 773.
Campbell, Sir W., 238.
Capreol, F. C, 751.
Caron, Hon. Judge, 472.
Cartier, Jacques, 1.
Cartier, Hon. G. E., 603.
Cartier, Hon. J., 603.
Cary, T., junr., 157.
Cary, J., 157.
Cary, T., 156.
Cathcart, Earl, 448.
Cathcart, Sir G., 456.
Cauchon, Hon. J., 609.
Chabot, Hon. Judge, 470.
Chambers, Admiral, 91.
Champlain, 8.
Chapman, Hon. Judge, 296.
Charlevoix, 34.
Chauveau, Hon. P. J. O., 545.
Chewett, Col., 230.
Christie, Robt., 357.
Clarke, Sir A., 113.
Clemo, E., 766.
Clitherow, Gen., 406.
Cqchraji, Hon. Judge, 132,

X

INDEX.

Cochran, Hon. A. W., 382.
Conyngham, Sir F. N. B., 286.
Cook, Rev. Dr., 463.
Craig, Sir J. H., 157.
Cramahe, Hon. H. T., 101.
Crooks, Hon. J., 314.
Crookshank, Hon. G., 164.
Cuvillier, Hon. A., 394.
Dalhousie, Earl of, 248.
D'Aillebont, 16,
Daly, Sir D., 375.
D'Argenson, 17.
D'Avaugour, 17,
Dawson, Professor, 659.
Debartzch, Hon. P. D., 357.
De Beauharnois, 36.
De Blaquiere, Hon. P. B., 542.
De Blaquiere, Sir J., 542.
De Bonne, Hon. Judge, 163.
De Callieres, 32.
De Fenouillet, M., 760.
De Frontenac, Comte, 19.
De la Barre, 30.
De la Gallissonniere, 38.
De la Jonquiere, Marquis, 40.
De la Verendrye, Sieur, 37.
De Lery, Vicomte, 151.
De Levis, Due, 68.
De Montmagny, M., 13.
Demers, Rev. M. 2S7.
Denonville, De, 31.
De Peyster, Col., 100.
De Pusiage, Col., 166.
De Rottenburg, Baron, 187.
DeRotlenburg, Col. Baron, 699.
De Rottermund, Baron, 767.
De St. Real, V., Chief-Justice, 419.
De Salaberry, Col. C. M., 197.
De Salaberry, Col. A. M., 200.
Des Barres, Col. 78.
Desjardins, AbbS L. J., 251.
De Tracy, 19.
De Vaudreuil, Marquis, 34.
De Vaudreuil, Pierre Francois, 42.
De Vaudreuil, Comto, 45.
De Vaudreuil, Chevalier, 46.
De Vauquelin, M., 43.
Devine, T., 758.
D'lherville, Lemoine, 33.
Dickerson, S. H., 413.
Dieskau, Baron, 43,
Donnacona, 7.
Dorchester, Lord, 81.
Douglas, Sir J., 60.
Douglas, Sir C, 100.
Douglas, Sir H., 100.
Douglas, Comte de, 168.
Douglas, Dr. J., 646.
Downie, Commodore, 222.
Drummond, Sir G., 204.
Drummond, Lieut., 208.

Drummond, Col. G., 208.
Drummond, Col., 223.
Ducalvet, 104.
Dunlop, Commodore, 362.
Dnnlop, W., 412.
Dunn, Col., 701.
Dunn, Hon. T., 134.
Dunn, Hon. J. H., 268.
Dunn, Gen., 273.
Du Ponte, 40.
DuprS, Col., 97.
Duquesne, Marquis, 41.
Durham, Earl of, 364.
Durnford, Gen., 415.
Eccles, Capt., 276.
Eccles, H., 277.
Eccles, W., 277.
Elgin, Earl of, 500,
Elmsley, Chief Justice, 140.
England, Gen. Sir R., 377.
Eustache, Sir J. R., 344.
Evans, Wm., 766.
Eyre, Sir Wm., 635.
Falardeau, Chevalier, 711.
Fargues, Dr., 372.
Faribault, J. B., 410.
Fenouillet, Emile de, 760.
Ferland, Abbe J. B. A., 749.
Fisher, Dr. J. C, 308. .
Fitzgibbon, Col., 191.
Fletcher, Hon. Judge, 231.
Forsyth, Major, 728.
Foucher, Hon. Judge, 140.
Fraser, Gen. S., 69.
Fulford, Bishop, 636.
Gage, Gen. T., 6S.
Gallissonniere, De la, 3S.
Gait, J., 264, 618.
Gait, Hon. A. T., 618.
Garneau, F. X., 655.
Gibert, Rev. P., 23S.
Gilmore, T., SO.
Gingras, Rev. M., 411.
Gipps, Sir G., 321.
Gore, Sir C. S., 343.
Gosford, Earl of, 319.
Gourlay, Robert, 246.
Gowan, Ogle R., 777.
Grant, Sir W., S6.
Grant, Hon. A., 146.
Gregory, Chief-Justice, 70.
Grey, Sir C. E., 323.
Griffin, Col., 345.
Gugy, Col., 517.
Gugy, C. 517.
Gugy, B., 518.
Gugy, T., 519.
Haldikand, Sir F., 102.

Index.

XI

Hale, Hon. J., 114.
Hamel, T., 762.
Hamilton, Col. G., 347.
Hamilton, H., 106.
Hamilton, Sir J., 99.
Handcock, Col. R. B., 228.
Harrison, Robert A., 661.
Harvey, Sir J., 217.
Head, Sir F. B., 340.
Head, Sir E. W., 550.
Head, Sir R., 550.
Hennepin, 27.
Herriot, Gen. F., 314.
Hey, Chief-Justice, 84.
Hincks, Dr., 407.
Hincks, Rev. E., 407.
Hincks, Rev. W., 408.
Hincks, Rev, T., 408.
Hincks, Hon. F. 407.
Hind, H. Y., 665.-
Hodges, J., 706.
Hogan, J. S., 764.
Holmes, Admiral C, 58.
Holmes, Rev. J., 280.
Holmes, Dr., 485.
Howe, Lord, 63.
Hunt, T. S., 644.
Hunter, Lt. Gen., 139.
Huron, Bishop of, 703.
Hurst, C, 165.
Iberville, Lemoiue D', 33.
Irving, Col. P. M., 80.
Irving, Hon. J. M., 275.
Jackson, Sir R. D., 406.
Jenkins, Capt., 228.
Johnson, Sir W., 89.
Johnson, Sir J., 90
Johnson, Col., 315.
Jolliet, 24,
Joly, Lieut., 723.
Jones, Sir D., 319.
JonquiSre, Marquis De la, 40.
Julyan, Capt., 152.
Kane, Paul, 731.
Keefer, T. C, 648.
Keefer, Geo., 648.
Keefer, S., 655.
Kemble, W., 318.
Kempt, Sir J., 266.
Kerr, Hon. Judge, 232.
Kertk, L., 13.
Kertk, Sir D., 12.
Kieffer, J. D., 649.
IiAFlTAu, J. F., 58.
Lafitau, P. 58.
Lafontaine, Chf.-Jte. Sir L. H., 417.
lajoie, M. A. G., 761.
Lartigue, Bishop, 352.

La Salle, 20.
Laval, Bishop, 14.
Lawson, Dr., 709.
Lemesurier, H., 234.
Leonard, Col., 229.
Leprohon, Mrs., 746.
Lery, Viscomte de, 151.
Levis, Due de, 68.
Lindsay, C, 656.
Livius, Chief-Justice, 101.
Logan, Sir-W. E., 533.
Lymburner, A., 85.
Macaulay, Sir J. B., 468.
Macaulay, Hon. J. S., 468.
Macaulay, J., 468.
Macdonald, Hon. John A., 581.
Macdonald, Hon. J. S., 537.
Macgeorge, Rev. R. J., 667.
Mackenzie, J. T., 741.
Mackenzie, Sir A., 110.
MacNab, Sir A. N., 473.
MacNab, Major, 473.
Macpherson, Lieut., 317.
Magrath, Rev. J., 258.
Maisonneuve, De, 16.
Maitland, Col., 353.
Maitland, Sir P., 244.
Marquette, P5re, 25.
Maseres, Baron, 70.
McCarroll, J., 757.
McCaul, Rev. Dr., 641.
McColl, Evan, 694.
McDonell, Hon. A., 357.
McDonell, Bishop, 268.
McDouall, Gen. R., 216.
McGill, Hon. P., 358.
McGill, Hon. J., 316.
McKay, Lieut., 725.
McKenzie, D., 287.
McKenzie, W. L., 330.
McLachlan, A., 755.
McTavish, D., 153.
Meilleur, Dr., 420.
Menard, Col. M. B., 380.
Metcalfe, Lord, 432.
Milnes, Sir R. S., 134.
Molson, Hon. J., 360.
Molson, Hon. J., senr., 360.
Monck, Viscount, 768.
Monckton, Hon. R., 65.
Mondelet, Hon. Judge, 536.
Montcalm, 47.
Montizambert, Hon. L., 461.
Montizambert, Major G. S., 461.
Montmagny, De, 13.
Moodie, Col., 355.
Moodie, Mrs., 742.
Morin, Hon. Judge, 351.
Morin, Hon. L. S., 678.
Morrin, Dr., 763.
Morris, Hon. J., 541.

xii

INDEX.

Morris, Hon. W., 429.
Morris, A., 432.
Morrison, Col., 208.
Morrison, D., 658.
Mountain, Col., 459.
Mountain, Rt. Rev. J., 123.
Mountain, Bishop, 497.
Mulcaster, Sir W. H., 226.
Murray, Miss, 745.
Murray, Sir G., 168.
Murray, Gen. John, 1 89.
Murray, Gen. James, 65.
Murray, A., 753.
Neilson, Hon. J., 297.
Neilson, S., 297.
Nelson, Dr. W., 337.
Nelson, Dr. R., 349.
Nichol, Col., 201.
Ontario, Bishop of, 729.
Osgoode, Chief-Justice, 130.
Panet, Hon. Judge, 163.
Papineau, Hon. L. J., 327.
Parent, E., 354.
Pattinson, Major, 737.
Patton, Hon. J., 639.
Patton, Major, 639.
Phipps, Sir W., 28.
Plenderleath, Col;, 188.
Plessis, Bishop, 147.
Pontiac, 55.
Pope, Capt. J. A., 720.
Pope, Capt. J., 722.
Popham, Capt. S., 216.
Prescott, Gen., 129.
Prevost, Sir. G., 169.
Prevost, Rev. Sir G., 174.
Prideaux, Gen., 61.
Pring, Commodore, 224
Proctor, Gen., 187.
Puisage, Comte de, 166.
Quesnel, J., 99,
Quesnel, Hou. J., 99.
Quesnel, Hon. F. A., 99.
Radclipp, Hon. T., 355.
Raej Dr., 682.
Reid, Chief-Justice, 253.
Riall, Gen. Sir P., 214.
Richardson, Major, 295.
Riohmond, Duke of, 241.
Ridout, T. G., 730.
Ridout, Thos., 730.
Roache, Commander, 154.
Robertson, Capt., 729.
Roberval, 7.
Robinson, Sir F. P., 236.
Robinson, Chf.-Jte. Sir J. B., 283.
Robinson, J. B., 286.

Rogers, D. M., 138".
Rolette, Capt., 202.
Rose, Hon. J., 637.
Ross, Hon. John, 612.
Rottenburg, Baron de, 187.
Rottenburg, Col. Baron de, 699.
Rottermund, Baron de, 767.
Routh, Sir R. J., 380.
Rowan, Sir W., 549.
Russell, Hon. P., 98.
Ryerson, Rev. Dr., 534.
Ryland, Hon. H. W., 136.
Ryland, G. H., 138.
Salaberry, Col. C. M. de, 196.
Salaberry, Col. A. M. de, 200.
Sangster, Charles, 684.
Sarrasin, Michel, 38.
Saunders, Sir C, 56.
Schank, Admiral, 97.
Scott, Col., 202.
Seaton, Lord, 259.
Selkirk, Earl of, 272.
Sewell, Chief-Justice, 146.
Sewell, Dr. J., 147.
Sewell, Rev. E. W., 147.
Sewell, Sheriff, 147.
Shank, Gen., 121.
Sheaffe, Sir R. H., 185.
Sheppard, G., 659.
Sherbrooke, Sir J. C, 239.
Simcoe, Capt., 115.
Simcoe, Gen., 115.
Simpson, Sir G., 490.
Smallwood, Dr., 674.
Smith, Chief-Justice, 106.
Smith, Sir D. W., 237.
Smith, Hon. William, 232.
Smith, Hon. Samuel, 240.
Smith, E., 626.
Smith, Hon. Sidney, 626.
Smith, Hon. Judge, 447.
Smith, Sir Henry, 622.
Stanwix, Gen., 63.
Steele, Commander, 154.
Stephenson, Rev. W., 692.
Stephenson, Robt., 704.
Stewart, Bishop, 256.
Stewart, Hon. J., 379.
St. George, Gen., 190.
Straohan, Bishop, 290.
Strickland, Miss E., 742.
Strickland, Miss A., 742.
Strickland, Miss J. M., 742.
Strickland, Col., 742.
Stuart, Rev., J., 126.
Stuart, Sir James, 324.
Stuart, Andrew, 510.
Stuart, Capt., 728.
St. Vallier, Bishop de, 32.
Sullivan, Hon. Judge, 395.
Sydenham, Lord, 385.

INDEX.

XlU

Tache, Sir E. P., 680.
Tach6, J. C, 676.
Talon, Jean, 18.
Tecumseh, 184.
Thompson, W. A., 168.
Thompson, Hon. Judge, 168.
Thompson, J., 168.
Thompson, D., 318.
Thorpe, Hon. Judge, 128.
Townshend, Marquis, 64.
Tracy, De, 19.
Traill, Mrs., 744.
Turgeon, Bishop, 535.
Turner, Col. C. B., 234.
Turton, Sir T. E. M., 371.
Uniacke, Hon. R. J., 150.
Vallieres de St. Real, Chf.-Jte., 419.
Van Cortlandt, E., 750.
Vankoughnet, Hon. P. M., 615.
Vankoughnet, Miss, 617.
Vansittart, Admiral, 423.
Vansittart, J. G., 426.
Vansittart, H., 428.
Vassal, F. A., de Monviel, 92.
Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 34.
Vaudreuil, Pierre Francois de, 42.
Vaudreuil, Comte de, 45.
Vaudreuil, Chevalier de, 46.
Vauquelin, M. de, 43.

Verendrye, Sieur de la, 37.
Viger, Hon. D. B., 373.
Viger, Jacques, 458.
Vincent, Gen. 196.
Wallace, Col. J. H., 346.
Walker, Sir H., 35.
Waller, J. 286.
Walley, Major, 30.
Waudby, J., 395.
Wells, Col., 276.
Wells, Major, 702.
Wetherall, Sir G. A., 342.
Wicksteed, G. W., 632.
Widmer, Hon. C, 252.
Wilby, J. R., 414.
Wilkie, Rev. Dr., 310.
Willcocks, J., 167.
Williams, Sir W., 214.
Williams, Sir Wm. Fenwick, 737.
Willis, Hon. Judge, 258.
Willis, Rev. Dr., 465.
Wilson, Prof. D., 642.
Wolfe, 51.
Wright, P., 153.
Yeo, Sir J. L., 221.
Young, Gen., 346.
Young, Hon. J., 528.
Zimmerman, S., 735.

SKETCHES

CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA.

JACQUES CARTIER.
We know not better how to commence the series of Sketches of
Celebrated Personages connected with Canada, than by presenting
at once to our readers "the bold and intrepid mariner, Jacques
Cartier, the discoverer and explorer of the country. The first to
discover Canada, and to plan out a great country ; the first to
colonize it, though on a small scale ; and the first to take an inter
est in and endeavor to advance her interests and welfare, even at
the sacrifice and expense of his own.
To us the career of such a man from whom we have sprung, and
to whom the province owes its existence, is full of material interest.
He was the founder and discoverer of this country, and although it
was then a vast wilderness, and sparsely peopled by barbarians, yet
as he glided up the placid and limpid waters of the St. Lawrence, he
was forcibly struck with the beauty and the variety of the scenery,
and with the excellent spots which nature had formed to be inhabited
by more civilized beings. Cartier predicted that this would become
a great country in time, and his prediction has been verified. Con-

SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS

sider the history of the period, extending from 1534 to 1861, and
mark the result ; it is wonderful, it is magical ! Although in one
sense it may appear a long time; yet for an infant colony how short
does the space seem for the achievement of such miracles ? The
country was not colonized for fifty years after Cartier first disco
vered it. and then very sparsely ; and so it continued for many
successive years. When the conquest took place, there were very
few settlers or settlements in Upper Canada ; yet, in the present
day, we have cities and towns and villages and hamlets, and cleared
lands and farms, from one end of the country to the other ; com
merce and trade allied together, and active business carried on
everywhere ; railroads cross our country at every point ; rivers
are connected by magnificent bridges ; steamers, propellers and
river craft traverse our lakes and rivers from the Gulf of St. Law
rence to Lake Superior ; valuable public works are constructed so
as to make the most distant points available to trade ; and nearly
every nook and corner of the province has been explored and found
or made useful for settlement ; hidden treasures have been brought
to light that would gladden the heart of an Eastern Nabob. The
country is peopled by a population of nearly three millions, which
will soon be doubled. The population is becoming an enlightened
and intelligent people, active and energetic, anxious and willing to
advance the country ; in fact, there is no country which, for its
size (and we might nearly put England in one of our counties), is
possessed of such superior privileges and such valuable sources of
wealth. Who could have foreseen all this as Cartier sailed tran
quilly up the St. Lawrence ? Did he, in his " mind's eye," think
of it, and raise up before 'him the happy settlements, cleared lands,
and large, thriving and gay cities and towns, and crowded and
teeming, industrious populations ? We fear not ; notwithstanding
his prediction, he could never have dreamed that the country just
discovered by him could be brought to such a state of perfection
and magnificence, and become such a source of wealth and pros
perity to the nation that held it ; yet, such is the case, and the
name of Cartier will undoubtedly be ever allied with the discovery
of this country, and be entwined in unison with that of Champlain,
as our national benefactors, and as the establishers of a young and
vigorous nation.
Unfortunately, in this present sketch, we are unable to give any
more information concerning the interesting and erratic history
of the adventurous navigator than has already been given in several
biographical works.
He was celebrated in France as an enterprising mariner and pilot,
and was a native of St. Malo. After the voyage of the Cabots,
who discovered Newfoundland and the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
the French perceived the value of the recent discoveries ; and in a
few years began the cod fishery upon the banks of Newfoundland.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 3
The Baron de Levis is said to have discovered a part of Canada
about 1518. In 1524 John Veranzza, a Florentine in the service
of France, ranged the coast of the new continent from Florida to
Newfoundland. From a subsequent voyage, in 1525, he never
returned, and it is supposed that he was cut to pieces, and devoured
by the savages. His fate discouraged other attempts to discover
the new world, till the importance of having a colony in the neigh
borhood of the fishing banks induced Francis I. to send out Cartier
in 1534. That monarch, tradition has it, said : " The Kings of
Spain and Portugal are taking possession of the new world, without
giving me a part ; I should be glad to see the article in Adam's
last will which gives them the whole of the fine continent of
America." Cartier sailed from St. Malo on the 20th April, with
two ships of sixty tons, and one hundred and twenty-two men. On
the 10th of May he came in sight of Bonavista, on the Island of
Newfoundland ; but the ice obliged him to go to the south, and he
entered a harbour at a distance of five leagues, to which he gave the
name of St. Catherine. As soon as the season would permit, he
sailed northward and entered the Straits of Belleisle. In this
voyage he visited the greater part of the coast which surrounds
the Grulf of St. Lawrence, and took possession of the country
in the name of the king ; he discovered a bay, which he called
Baie des Chaleurs, on account of the sultry weather which he there
experienced. He sailed so far into the great river, afterwards
called the St. Lawrence, as to discover land on the opposite side.
15th August, he set sail on his return to France, and arrived at St.
Malo on the 5th of September.
When his discoveries were known in France, it was determined
to make a settlement in that part of America which he had visited.
Accordingly, in the following year, he received a more ample com
mission, and was equipped with three vessels. When he was ready
to depart, he went to the Cathedral Church with his whole company,
and the bishop gave them his benediction. He sailed 19th May,
1535. He encountered a severe storm on his passage ; but in July
he reached the destined port. He entered the Gulf, as in the
preceding year, being accompanied by a number of young men of
distinction. He sailed up the St. Lawrence, and discovered an
island, which he named L'Isle de Bacchus, but which is now called
Orleans, in the neighborhood of Quebec. This island was full of
inhabitants, who subsisted by fishing, &c. He went on shore,
and the native Indians brought him Indian corn for his refresh
ment. With his pinnace and two boats he proceeded up the
river as far as Hochelaga, a settlement upon an island, which
he called Mont Royal, but which is now called Montreal. In
this Indian town were about fifty long huts, built with stakes,
and covered with bark. The people lived mostly by fishing
and tillage. They had corn, beans, squashes and pumpkins. In

4 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
two or three days he set out on his return, and arrived 4th October
at St. Croix, not far from Quebec, now called Jacques Carrier's
river. Here he passed the winter. In December the scurvy began
to make its appearance among the natives ; and, in a short time,
Carrier's company were seized by the disorder. By the middle of
February, of one hundred and ten persons, fifty were sick at once,
and eight or ten had died. In this extremity he appointed a day
of humiliation. A crucifix was placed on a tree ; a procession of
those who were able to walk was formed, and at the close of the
devotional exercises, Cartier made a vow, that " if it should please
God to permit him to return to France, he would go in pilgrimage
to our lady of Roquemado." The sick were all healed by using a
medicine, which was employed with success by the natives. This
was a decoction of the leaves and bark of a tree. The liquor was
drank every other day, and an external application was made to the
legs. Charlevoix says the tree was that which yielded turpentine,
and Dr. Belknap thinks it was the spruce pine. In May, Cartier
set sail on his return to France, carrying off with him Donnacona,
the Indian king of the country, and nine other natives, all of
whom, except a little girl, died in France. He arrived at St.
Malo, July 6, 1536.
At the end of four years, a third expedition was projected.
Frangois de la Roque, Lord of Roberval, was commissioned by the
king as his Lieutenant-Governor in Canada ; and Cartier was ap
pointed his pilot, with the command of five ships. His commission,
which may be seen in Hazard's collection, was dated Oct. 17, 1540.
He sailed, however, May 23, 1540, to Newfoundland and Canada,
August 23, he arrived at the haven of St. Croix, in the river St.
Lawrence ; about four leagues above that place, on a cliff, at the
east side of the mouth of a small river, he built a fort, which he
called Charlesbourg • this was near Quebec. In the spring of
1542, he determined to return to France, and accordingly in June
he arrived at St. John's, in Newfoundland, on his way home.
Here he met Roberval, who did not accompanying him in his voy
age, and had been detained till this time. He was ordered to return
to Canada, but he chose to pursue his voyage to France, and sailed
out of the harbour privately in the night. Roberval attempted to
establish a colony, but it was soon broken up, and the French did
not establish themselves permanently in Canada till after the expi
ration of half a century.*
Cartier published memoirs of Canada after his second voyage.
The names which he gave to islands, rivers, &c, are now entirely
changed. In this work he shews that he possessed a large share
* " InJa^k1°.wledgment of hls raT0 merits, it is said that he and his race were
ennobled by his royal master. Few of the mariners, upon whom that distinction
1?Bc!S0?;erre.T m~ Franoe> m«it<*l it so much as Jacques Cartier, master mariner
of St. Malo.' — Garneau.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 5
of the credulity and exaggeration of travellers. Being one day in
the chase, he says, he pursued a beast which had but two legs, and
which ran with astonishing rapidity. This strange animal was
probably an Indian, clothed with the skin of some wild i>east.
He speaks also of human monsters of different kinds, of which
accounts had been given him ; some of them lived without eating.

Sir JOHN CABOT.
Sir John Cabot, the discoverer of the continent of America,
was a Venetian, who embarked from Bristol in 1497 with a com
mission from Henry VII. to conquer and settle unknown lands,
and to find out a north-west passage to the East Indies. In latitude
58°, floating ice compelled him to pursue a more southerly direction';
and, on the 24th June, he came in sight of some part of the coast
of Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. He followed the line of coast to
the north-east till he reached the latitude of 67$°, when he changed
his course to the south, and never saw land till off Florida. A
mutiny, owing to the scarcity of provisions, now compelled him to
go back, without turning his discovery to any practical account.
Columbus did not see the coast of America till the following year ;
but as his previous discoveries had prompted the voyage of Cabot,
to him after all belongs the honor of having unveiled the New
World to the gaze of mankind.

SEBASTIAN CABOT.
The celebrated Sebastian Cabot was a navigator of great
eminence and ability. He was born at Bristol, about the year
1477; and was the son of the John Cabot, mentioned above.
Sebastian was early instructed in the mathematical knowledge
required by a seaman ; and, at the age of seventeen, had made
several voyages. In 1495, John Cabot obtained from Henry
VII. Letters Patent, empowering him and his three sons-1-

6 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctias— to discover unknown lands, and
conquer and settle them. In consequence of this permission,^ the
king supplied one ship, and the merchants of London and Bristol
furnished a few smaller ones. In 1496, John and Sebastian sailed
to the north-west, and in July of the same year, discovered
Newfoundland, and explored up to 67° lat. The accounts of his
voyage are attended with much obscurity ; but it seems that, in a
subsequent voyage, the father and son sailed as far as Cape Florida,
and were actually the first who saw the main land of America.
Little is, however, known of the proceedings of Sebastian Cabot
for the ensuing twenty years ; but it seems that, in the reign of
Henry VIII., by the patronage of Sir Thomas Peart, Vice-Ad-
miral of England, he procured another ship to make discoveries,
and endeavored to make a voyage to the East Indies by the south,
in which attempt he failed. This disappointment is supposed to
have induced him to quit England and visit Spain, where he was
treated with great respect, and appointed Pilot-major. An opulent
company of Spanish merchants soon after gave him the command
of a projected expedition to the Spice Islands, through the newly
discovered Straits of Magellan. Accordingly, in 1525, he sailed
from Cadiz to the Canaries and Cape de Verd Islands, and failing
from the opposition of his crew in his view of reaching the Spice
Islands, he proceeded to the river La Plata, where he discovered
St. Salvador, and constructed a fort there. He subsequently
reached the great river Paraguay, and remained on the American
coast a considerable time, with a view to forming an establishment.
Being disappointed in expected aid from Spain, he ultimately
returned home with all his crew, but was not very favorably received,
owing to his failure in respect to the Spice Islands, and his severe
treatment of the mutineers of his crew. He, notwithstanding,
continued in the service of Spain for some years longer, but at
length returned to England towards the latter end of the reign of
Henry VIII. At the beginning of the reign of Edward VI. he was
introduced by the protector, Somerset, to the young king, who
took much pleasure in his conversation, and settled a pension on
him as Grand Pilot of England. From that hour he was consulted
on all questions relating to trade and navigation ; and in 1552, being
governor of a company of merchant adventurers, he drew up
instructions, and procured a license for an expedition to discover a
passage to the East Indies by the north. These instructions, which
are preserved in Hackluyt's collection of voyages, form a very
honorable proof of his sagacity aud penetration. He was also
governor of the Russian company, and was very active in their
affairs. He is supposed to have died in the year 1557, at a very
advanced age, leaving behind him a high character, both as a skilful
seaman, and as a man of great general abilities. He was the first
who noticed the variations of the compass ; and besides the ordi-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 7
nances to be found in Hackluyt, he published a large map of the
world, as also a work under the title of " Navigatione nelle parte
Septentrionali, per Sebastiano Cabota," Fol., Venice, 1583.

DONNACONA.
Donnacona was an Indian Chief, whom Cartier carried away
with him to France, after his discovery of Canada, in order to prove
to Francis I. that what he had stated of the people inhabiting this
country was perfectly true. He was brought to the French court,
and had an audience of the king, and underwent a great ceremony
on the occasion of his baptism at Rouen. The climate of Europe,
however, was unfavorable to him, and he died shortly after his
public admission into the Christian Church.

SIEUR DE ROBERVAL.
Jean Francois de la Roqtje was a nobleman of Picardy, and
the first person who attempted to colonize New France after Car-
tier. He was a soldier of distinction, and had obtained the
king's consent to govern and colonize the territories recently
discovered by Cartier. He was to have set out for New France
early in the summer of 1541, but he did not start until the follow
ing year. He reached his destination in safety, and wintered at
Stadacona (now Quebec), sending home two vessels to ask for
provisions ; but these were never sent. The nations then being
too much engaged, in fact upon the eve of war, Roberval started
on an expedition of discovery into the interior of the country, but
was not successful in his attempt. Great misfortunes occurred to
him : fifty-eight of his men perished at Quebec, and one of his ships
was sunk. The king, instead of sending the desired succor to him,
commanded Cartier to bring him home, as his valuable services
were required in Picardy, where war then existed.^ Having per
formed several gallant exploits in his native province, Roberval,

8 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
after the death of the king in 1547, sailed a second time for
Canada, with a large and valuable expedition, accompanied by
a great number of emigrants, who were destined never to see the
country in which they had intended to settle. They all perished,
the fleet of vessels being wrecked on the passage.

CHAMPLAIN.
Samuel de Champlain, a name rendered illustrious in our
annals from his services in not only founding the ancient city of
Quebec, but in establishing Canada; in spreading civilization,
repelling the attacks of the hordes of Indians, and thus saving the
lives of the early French settlers ; in exploring the country and
its valuable resources, and thus bringing its name conspicuously
before not only his own nation, but many others.
He was of a noble family of Brouage, in the Province of
Saintonge, in France. He commanded a vessel, in which he made
a voyage to the East Indies, about the year 1600, and acquired a
high reputation as an able and experienced officer. After an
absence of two years and a half, he returned to France, at a time
when it was resolved to prosecute the discoveries which had been
commenced in Canada by Cartier. The Marquis de la Roche,
and Chauvin, Governors of Canada, had endeavored to establish a
colony, an,d the latter was succeeded by De Chatte, who engaged
Champlain in his service in 1603. Champlain sailed March 16,
accompanied by Pontgrave^ who had made many voyages to
Tadoussac, at the entrance of the Saguenay into the St. Lawrence.
After their arrival at this place, 25th May, they in a light batteau
ascended the St. La"wrence to the Falls of St. Louis, which bounded
the discoveries of Cartier in 1535. This was in the neighborhood
of Hochelaga ; but that Indian settlement was not now in exist
ence. After making many inquiries of the natives, and exploring
much of the country along the St. Lawrence, he sailed for France
in August. On his arrival in September, he found that De Chatte
was dead, and his commission as Lieutenant-General of Canada
given to the Sieur De Monts. This nobleman engaged him, as his
pilot, in another voyage to tlie New World.
Champlain sailed upon his second voyage March 7, 1604, and
arrived at Acadie, May 6. After being employed about a month in
the long boat, visiting the coast, in order to find a proper situation

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 9
for a settlement, he pitched upon a small island about twenty
leagues to the westward of St. John's River, and about half a league
in circumference. To this island De Monts, after his arrival at the
place, gave the name of St. Croix. It lies in the river of the same
name, which divides the United States from the Province
of New Brunswick. During the winter, Champlain was occupied
in exploring the country, and he went as far as Cape Cod, where
he gave the name of Malebarre to a point of land, on account of
the imminent danger of running aground near it with his bark.
Next year, he pursued his discoveries, though he did not pass more
than ten or twelve leagues beyond Malebarre.
In 1607, he was sent out on another voyage to Tadoussac, accom
panied by Pontgrave\ In July, 1608, he laid the foundation
of Quebec. He was a man, who did not embarrass himself with
commerce, and who felt no interest in traffic with the Indians,
which proved so profitable to many engaged in it. Being entrusted
with the charge of establishing a permanent colony, he examined
the most elegible places for settlement, and selected a spot upon
the St. Lawrence, at the confluence of this river and the small
river of St. Charles, about four hundred and ten miles from
the sea. The river in this place was very much contracted, and it
was on this account that the natives called it Quebec ; (although
various surmises are advanced by historians and others as to the
origin of the name.) Here he arrived on the 3rd df July. He
erected barracks, cleared the ground, sowed wheat and rye, and laid
the foundation of the " Gibraltar of America." The toil of subdu
ing the wilderness was not very acceptible to all his company ; for
some of them conspired to put their leader to (Jeath, and to embark
at Tadoussac for France. The attempt to destroy him was to be
made by poison and by a train of gunpowder; but, the apothecary
having discovered the scheme, one of the conspirators was hanged,
and others were condemned to the galleys. During the winter his
people were afflicted with the scurvy. Champlain sought after the
medicine which had been so successfully used by Cartier ; but the
tree, which was called Auneda, was not now to be found. From
this circumstance it was concluded that the tribe of Indians, with
which Cartier was acquainted, had been exterminated by their
enemies. In the summer of the year 1609, when the Hurons, Algonquins,
and others, were about to march against their common enemy, the
Iroquois, Champlain very readily joined them ; for he had a keen
taste for adventures ; and he hoped, by a conquest, to impress all
the Indian tribes with strong ideas of the power of the French,
and to secure an alliance with them. He did not foresee that he
should force the Iroquois, who lived in what is now called the
State of New York, to seek the protection of the English and
Dutch. He embarked on the river Sorel, which was then called
2

10 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the Iroquois, because these savages usually descended by this
stream into Canada. At the Falls of Chambly he was stopped,
and was obliged to send back his boat. Only two Frenchmen
remained with him. He ascended with his allies in the Indian
canoes to the lake, to which he gave his own name, which it
retains to the present day. The savages whom he accompanied,
hoped to surprise the Iroquois in the villages, but they met them
unexpectedly upon the lake. After gaining the land, it was
agreed to defer the battle till the next day, as the night was now
approaching. In the morning of 30th July, Champlain placed a
party with his two Frenchmen in a neighbouring wood, so as to
come upon the enemy in flank. The Iroquois, who were about
two hundred in number, seeing but a handful of men, were sure of
victory. But as soon as the battle began, Champlain killed two of
their chiefs, who were conspicuous by their plumes, by the first
discharge of his firelock, loaded with four balls. The report and
the execution of the fire-arms filled the Iroquois witn inexpressible
consternation. They were quickly put to flight, and the victorious
allies returned to Quebec with fifty scalps.
In September, 1609, Champlain embarked with Pontgrav6 for
France, leaving the colony under the care of a brave man, Peter
Chauvin. But he was soon sent out agaiD to the New World. He
sailed from Honfleur, April 8, 1610, and arrived at Tadoussac on
the 26th. He encouraged the Montagnais Indians, who lived at
this place, to engage in a second expedition against the Iroquois. Ac
cordingly, soon after his arrival at Quebec, they sent him about sixty
warriors. At the head of these and others he proeeeded up the
river Sorel. The enemy were soon met, and after a severe engage
ment, in which Champlain was wounded by an arrow, were entirely
defeated. He arrived at Quebec, from Montreal, June 19, and land
ed at Rochelle, August 11. After the death of Henry IV. the inter
est of De Monts, in whose service Champlain had been engaged, was
entirely ruined, and the latter was obliged to leave a settlement,
which he was commencing at Mont Royal, or Montreal, and to go
again to France in 1611. Charles de Bourbon, being commissioned
by the Queen Regent Governor of New France, appointed Cham
plain his lieutenant, with very extensive powers. He returned to
Canada in 1612, was engaged in war with the Iroquois, and made
new discoveries. His voyages across the Atlantic were frequent.
He was continued Lieutenant-Governor under that distin
guished nobleman, the Prince of Cond6 and; Montmorency. In
1615, his zeal for the spiritual interests of the Indians in
duced him to bring with him a number of Jesuit Fathers,
some of whom assisted him in his warfare. He penetrated
to Lake Ontario, and, being wounded while assisting the Hu
rons against their enemies, was obliged to pass a whole winter
among them. When he returned to Quebec in July, 1616, he

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 11
was received as one risen from the dead. In July, 1629, he was
obliged to capitulate, on account of the sparsencss of his forces,
and the exhausted state of his men through famine, to an English
armament under Sir David Kertk. He was carried to France in
an English ship ; and there he found the public sentiment much
divided with regard to Canada; some thinking it was not worth
regaining, as it had cost the government vast sums without bringing
any returns ; others deeming the fishery and fur trade great
national objects, especially as a nursery for seamen. Champlain
exerted himself to effect the recovery of this country, and Canada
was restored by the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, with Acadie
and Cape Breton.
In 1633 the company of New France resumed all their rights,
and appointed Champlain the Governor. In a short time he was
atthe head of a new armament, furnished with a fresh recruit of
Jesuits, settlers, as well as all kinds of necessaries for the welfare
of the revived colony. His attention was now engrossed by Ihe
spiritual interests ofthe savages, whom it was his principle object
to bring to the knowledge of the Christian religion. The number
of ecclesiastical missionaries, exclusive of lay brothers, was now
fifteen, the chief of whom were Le Jeun6, De None, Masse, and
Breboeuf . A mission was established among the Hurons ; the colony
was gaining an accession of numbers and strength, and an
attempt was just commencing to establish a college in Quebec,
when the Governor died, and was succeeded the next year by
De Montmagny.
Champlain merited the title of the father of New France.
Though he was credulous, he possessed an uncommon share of
penetration and energy. His views were upright ; and, in circum
stances of difficulty, no man could make a better choice of
measures. He prosecuted his enterprises with constancy, and no
dangers eould shake his firmness. His zeal for the interests of his
country was ardent and disinterested ; his heart was tender and
compassionate towards the unhappy ; and he was more attentive to
the concerns of his friends, than to his own. He was a faithful
historian, a voyager who observed everything with attention,
skilful in geometry, and an experienced seaman. He appears to
have been fond of good cheer ; for-, in the early part of his residence
in Canada, he established with his associates an order, " De bon
temps," which contributed not a little to the gratification of the
palate. By this order every one of the same table was in his turn
to be steward and caterer for a day. He was careful by hunting to
make a suitable provision, and at supper, when the cook had made
everything ready, he marched at the head of the company with a
napkin over his shoulder, having also the staff of office, and wearing
the collar of his order, and was followed by his associates, each of
whom bore a dish. At the close of the banquet he pledged his

12 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
successor in a bumper of wine, and resigned to him the collar and
staff. It may not be easy to justify Champlain in taking an active
part in the war against the Iroquois. It is even supposed by some,
that his love of adventures led him to arouse the spirit of the
Hurons and to excite them to war. His zeal for the propogation
of religion among the savages was so great, that he used to say
" that the salvation of one soul was of more value than the conquest
of an empire ;" and that " kings ought not to think of extending
their authority over idolatrous nations, except for the purpose of
subjecting them to Jesus Christ."
He published an account of his first voyages in 1613, in 4to ;
and a continuation in 1620, in 8vo. He published an addition to
these in 1632, in one volume, entitled, Les voyages de la Nouvelle
France occidentale, dite Canada, in 4to. This work comprises
a history of New France from the first discoveries of Verazzani to
the year 1631. There is added to it a treatise on navigation, and
on the duty of a good mariner, with an abridgment of the Christian
doctrines, in the Huron and French languages.

Admiral Sir DAVID KERTK.
A French refugee in England, who entered into her naval service
during the reign of Charles I. He had previously been a master
mariner at Dieppe, in France. He is mentioned in our history as
the commander of a very successful expedition against Canada
during the French occupation of this country. The Duke
of Buckingham, to gratify a private pique against Richelieu,
had taken advantage of the hostility entertained for the French
by the English, on account of the persecution of the Hu
guenots by the Cardinal, and induced the king to declare war
against France. The resolution was accordingly taken to deprive
him of his American dependencies. Kertk therefore was placed in
charge of a formidable expedition, and, accompanied by his two
brothers, sailed for Canada, or rather New France. He arrived at
Tadoussac, then the only considerable trading place in the country,
in the middle of the summer of 1628 ; and, after destroying the
stores, &c, sent a summons to Champlain to surrender, which the
latter, although his works and forces were in a very weak condition,
refused to do. Kertk, thinking that Quebec was strongly fortified,
and that Champlain had a large force within it, did not proceed

And persons connected with Canada. 13
any further up the river, fearing a defeat, but ' contented himself
with capturing a French convoy on its war to Quebec, and several
fishing and peltry vessels, and proceeded to England. In July of'
the next year, however, having learnt his mistake, he returned, and
for the second time demanded Champlain to surrender, threatening
otherwise to capture the city by assault. Champlain being in a
weaker condition than ever, after consulting the other authorities
of the plaee, resolved to capitulate. He did so, and the French
were allowed to march out with all the honors of war. Kertk,
leaving his brother, Lewis, in command of the city, proceeded
to England, taking Champlain and some others with him as
prisoners of war. He afterwards captured Cape Breton, which wa3
re-captured by Captain Daniel. These events took place two
months after peace had been concluded between England and
France, and therefore could hardly be recognized by either nation.

LEWIS KERTK
Was the first military commandant of the city of Quebec, or the
province, in the employ of the English government. On his
brother capturing the city in 1629, he left Lewis in command until
his return, or until a successor should be appointed. The restoration
of Canada to the French by the treaty of St. Germains-en-Laye,
rendered that measure "unnecessary. Kertk, from what we can
learn from history, was a wise and good man, and treated the
conquered people so well, that but few left the province during
the interval which elapsed between the capitulation and the resto
ration.

M. DE MONTMAGNY.
M. De Montmagny succeeded M. De CMteaufort in the go
vernment of New France in 1636. De Montmagny was a knight
of Malta, and a gentleman of estimable qualities of mind and heart.

i4 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Several important events signalized his administration of affairs;
such as the establishment ofthe Island of Montreal, and the com
mencement of the ruin of the Hurons, which was consummated
under the administration of his successor. The Jesuits extended
their explorations very far during his time, towards the north and
in the west. Father Raimbault even formed a design of penetrating
as far as China, evangelizing all nations by the way; and thus
completing the circle of military stations around the whole globe.
Although the opening up of heathendom by the indefatigable
propagators of the faith were transactions apart from the action of
the government, they threw a lustre on the administration of M.
de Montmagny, and gave him personally a certain celebrity
throughout Europe.
This governor had sought to imitate Champlain s policy in
regard to the aborigines; and if the insufficient means put at his
disposal did not always enable him to put a curb on their pugnacious
tendencies, he contrived nevertheless, by a happy union of firmness
with conciliation, to make his authority respected among all tribes,
and to suspend, for a considerable time, the blow which at last fell
upon the luckless Hurons. He was succeeded by d'Aillebout, in
1647.

His Grace FRANQOIS DE LAVAL,
Bishop of Quebec.
His Grace Francois de Laval de Montmorency, AbbS de Mon-
tigny, first Roman Catholic bishop of Canada, and a most able,
talented and zealous prelate, was born at Laval, in Maine, France,
on the 23rd March, 1622. He was ordained priest at Paris on the
23rd of September, 1645, and was made archdeacon of Evreux in
1653. He was consecrated Bishop of Petrea in partibus infidelium,
and appointed Vicar Apostolic of Nouvelle France, by Pope
Alexander VII., on the 5th of July, 1658. He arrived at Quebec,
for the first time, on the 16th June, 1659 ; and returned to France
in 1662. On the 26th March, 1663, he founded the seminary of
Quebec, a measure which was afterwards duly confirmed by Louis
XIV., by letters patent, dated at Paris in the month of April
following. He returned to Canada during the same year, and
arrived at Quebec on the 28th September. He consecrated the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 15
Parochial Church of Quebec, on the 11th July, 1666, the second
Sunday of that month. He returned to France in 1674, and was
named Bishop of Quebec, a suffragan Bishop of the Holy See, by a
bull of Clement X., dated 1st October of the same year. On this
occasion the revenues of the Abbey of Meaubec, in the diocese of
Bourges, were united to the Bishopric of Quebec.
On his return to Canada, he established his board by a decree
of the 6th November, 1684, and entrusted it to the care of the
rectory of Quebec. The 14th of the same month, the board
resigned the care of the rectory, and it devolved upon the Seminary
the same day. His Grace De Laval afterwards returned to
France to obtain permission to retire, and with the view of choosing
a successor. Choice fell upon the Abb6 de St. Vallier, to whom
was given the title of Grand Vicar, in which quality he was sent
to Canada to exercise his zeal. His Grace De Laval resigned
his Bishopric of Quebec, in Paris, on the 24th of January, 1688.
He left that city some time after to return to Quebec. He arrived
there in the spring of the same year, and retired to his Seminary,
to which he made over the whole of his effects, and had the mor
tification to see the same twice burnt before his death. In fine,
full of years and honors, a prelate, by his virtues and zeal, worthy
of the church, over which he had presided, he died at Quebec
on the 6th of May, 1708, at the advanced age of 86, and was
buried near the principal altar in the Cathedral.
M. Garneau, in his History of Canada, thus speaks of this
celebrated man : —
"The first Bishop known in Canada was-Frangois De Laval,
titular of Petrea, a scion of the illustrious house of Montmorency.
To his high descent he owed much of the influence which he exer
cised in the civil as well as the ecclesiastical affairs of the colony,
making and unmaking its governors at will. He had'great talents
and much activity, while his overbearing spirit brooked no opposi
tion. His naturally obstinate character, hardened rather than
subdued by religious zeal, caused constant dissensions between
himself and the public functionaries with whom he had to deal ;
he also got into trouble with the heads of the local religious com
munities, and even with private individuals. He was firm in the
belief that in whatever he did for the supposed weal of the church,
in any contingency, he could not err ; and firm in this persuasion,
he did some things, in a colonial sphere of action, which would
have been deemed exorbitant in Europe.
" After mounting the episcopal throne, he set about disciplining
his clergy as if they had been soldiers of a spiritual militia, just as
the Jesuits were passively subject to the orders of their general.
He sought even to make the civil power the creature of his will —
causing the Sovereign Council to decree the revocability of the
curacies, and to ordain that tithes should be paid to his Seminary

16 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
but some of his projects, as contrary in sound principle as they
were to all established usage in France, had no ultimate success.
He found invincible antagonists in successive governors, all more
or less jealous of the undue influence which he already possessed;
and these, individually, were often kept in countenance by public
sentiment, which veered fitfully for or against the people's^ two
absolute masters, lay and spiritual. The complacent recognition
of such references to popular feeling seemed to solace the minds of
the colonists somewhat, under the oppression of the double yoke
they had to bear."

DE MAISONNEUVE.
Paul Chomedy De Maisonneuve was the founder of the
City of Montreal in 1642, where he had already settled some
French colonists, and was appointed governor. In 1647, he was
advanced to the governorship of the whole province, and succeeded
in getting M. D'Aillebout appointed in his stead, when he retired.
A violent jealousy or vindictiveness existed on the part of M.
De Mesy against De Maisonneuve ; and to him is ascribed the
causes which led to his retirement.
A pension was conferred upon him by the Seminary of Paris, in
consequence of his important services to the Church of Rome in
Canada.

SLEUR D'AILLEBOUT.
M. Louis D'Aillebout succeeded M. De Montmagny in the
government of Canada in 1647. He was the descendant (according
to a note in Garneau's History of Canada, taken from a MS. of
M. De Gaspe) of a German family, which at some time had mi
grated to France. He origiually came to Canada, some years an
terior to his appointment to the government, with colonists for the
Island of Montreal ; had administered that settlement during the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 17
absence of M. de Maisonneuve, and afterwards was promoted to the
government of Three Rivers. He endeavoured to amalgamate his
forces with those of the Governor of New England, so as to put a
stop to the encroachments and attacks of the Iroquois, but without
avail. Replaced in 1651, he settled in the country, and died at
Quebec in 1660. According to Bibeau, jeune, some of his de
scendants are still living, and are residing, some in the District of
Three Rivers, others at Red River, and in the Hudson's Bay Ter
ritory.

VISCOUNT DARGENSON.
Pierre de Voyer D'Argenson, who succeeded M. De Lauzon,
as Governor of New France, in 1658, and retained that appoint
ment until 1661, was the descendant of a very high and talented
family. He was born in 1626, and originally was intended for the
church ; circumstances altered the decision arrived at by his
family, and he became a soldier. His name is mentioned hon
orably in the military annals of his country, as having distin
guished himself at the siege of Bourdeaux, and at the battle of
Lens. After having held the office of Reeve of Touraine, he was
appointed Governor and Lieutenant-General of New France, and
was sworn in as such on the 27th of January, 1657. Beyond
some progress made in discovery on one side in the country be
yond Lake Superior, among the Sioux; on another in the Esqui
maux country, on Hudson's Bay, his government seems to have
consisted of little else than " barbaric invasions and civil and re
ligious quarrels." Disease and misunderstandings at length com
pelled him to solicit his recall. He died about the year 1709.

BARON D'AVAUGOUR.
Pierre Du Bois, Baron D'Avaugour, succeeded Viscount
D'Argenson in the government of New France, in 1661. He
3

18 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
was a military officer of some talent, and had gained distinction
in the wars of Hungary. He was of a resolute temperament and
unbending character ; and brought into the affairs of Canada the
rigidity that he had contracted in the military service. He was
therefore not the man to submit to the dictation of the clergy of
the colony; and during the whole time he held office in New
France, he had constant disputes with Bishop Laval, principally
with reference to the liquor traffic, which the latter wished to pro
hibit. At length, through the bishop's representations, D'Avau
gour was recalled in 1663. After a short stay in France, he en
tered the service of the Emperor of Germany, and was killed in
1664, while bravely defending the fort of Serin, on the Croatian
frontier, against the Turks, under the Grand- Vizier, Koprouli,
shortly before the famous battle of St. Gothard.

M. JEAN TALON.
M. Talon, or rather Baron D'Orsainville, a title conferred
upon him by king Louis XIV. of France, was the second Inten
dant of the French Government in Canada, and in 1663, was ap
pointed to the office of which he was a bright ornament. He
created a military aristocracy in Canada, and opposed the India
Company, against which he addressed a luminous memorandum to
the French Ministry. It, is said everything in Canada prospered
under his fostering care ; and certainly he did much for the country,
patronising industrial pursuits, maratime discoveries, and scientific
enterprizes. He established, moreover, an excellent Judiciary sys
tem ; and was entitled to the high distinctions and honors conferred
upon him by his sovereign. In 1671 he was created a French
nobleman, by the title of Baron des Islets ; and in 1675, Baron
d'Ormale, which latter honor was extended to his posterity, both
in the male and female descent.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 19

MARQUIS DE TRACY.
Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy, was Viceroy of
New France in 1663. He was a Lieutenant-General in the French
army, and had served on the Continent with much distinction.
Previous to coming to Canada in 1665, he had proceeded, accord
ing to the commands which he received, to the bay of Mexico,
where he retook Cayenne from the Dutch, and brought several
islands of the contiguous archipelago under French domination.
He was one of the most popular as well as most able French
officials that had ever been sent to Canada. He only remained.
eighteen months in the colony ; yet, during that short time, he
did much more for its welfare than many would have done in years.
He established a military aristocracy, fortified the country against
the encroachments of the Iroquois, and, to allow the people peace
fully and without hindrance to cultivate their grounds, and so
maintain themselves, vanquished that hitherto invincible tribe, and
concluded a peace with them, which lasted eighteen years, and
proved of more benefit to the people and country, long harrassed
with the sanguinary inroads of the savages, than can easily be
conceived.

COUNT DE FRONTENAC.
Louis de Buade, Count de Frontenac, twice Governor of New
France (Canada), under the French dominion, was a bold and val
orous soldier and a most successful administrator. He was born
in France in 1620, and early entered the military service of his
country, in which he was greatly distinguished and covered, him
self with scars and honors.* He first came to Canada in 1672, as
the successor of M. de Courcelles, but principally on account ot
some despotic acts, he was recalled iu 1682. During the first
year of his administration, he built Fort Frontenac (Kingston),
which was afterwards rebuilt of stone by La Salle. In 1678, De

* Bibaud mentions that he was a Colonel of horse at seventeen, and a Lieut
enant-General after twelve years service.

20 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Frontenac was reappointed governor, and carried on a vigorous
war against the English settlements in New York, and against
their Indian allies, the Iroquois. The English retaliated, and the
Iroquois made various successful inroadsin to Canada. In 1690 he
defeated Admiral Sir William Phipps and the English fleet before
Quebec, and thereby achieved a great victory, so much so that
Louis XIV. caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of it.
He died in 1698, and was inhumed in the Recollet church of
Quebec, which no longer exists.
An eminent French writer, speaking of him, says : — "He had
all the qualities of a great man, the firmness which commands
men with the mildness and magnanimity which made him beloved.
He was generous, straightforward, and as ostentatious as a king.
He was at Quebec a worthy representative of Louis XIV. at Ver
sailles ; a single look of his electrified the Canadians, he was the
love and delight of New France, the terror of the Iroquois, the
father of the allies of the French ; his activity had for its equal
only his courage."

LA SALLE
The name of this distinguished, self-sacrificing, adventurous
and chivalrous man will ever be remembered by his countrymen
with feelings of love and admiration, blended with deep regret for
his sad and melancholy fate whilst so nobly earning for himself a
name which will be carried down to posterity with honor and
distinction. Robert Cavalier de la Salle was a native of Rouen, where he was
born about 1635. He was thoroughly educated by the Jesuits,
having been intended to be a member of that community. He left
it, however, and, about the year 1667, proceeded to Canada, in the
capacity of a merchant. In this career he appears to have been
eminently successful; but he aimed at still higher objects, having
formed to himself the magnificent scheme of opening a way to
China and Japan through the lakes of Canada, which he, not
unreasonably for that time, imagined must send off navigable
waters into the Pacific Ocean* Mr. Bibaud, author of a late history
of this country, says, "He was learned, active, enterprising, and
*The aooount of this voyage we take from tho celebrated work of Jared
Sparks, Esquire.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 21
animated with the double desire of rising to fame and to fortune."
In this attestation Charlevoix concurs, but adds other qualities of
a less favorable nature. The particulars of his life indeed show
that his reserve bordered upon distrust, his discipline upon culpable
severity, and his ardent perseverance upon obstinacy; and these
defects of character were the leading causes of his misfortunes.
Yet without the qualities themselves, he would not have had the
name he bears, nor have engaged in the schemes which he formed
and executed.
After experiencing a degree of prosperity suitable to his ability
and exertions in mercantile transactions, and receiving distin
guished marks of favor from the governor, Count Frontenac, he
visited his native country in 1677. On his return, he set about
executing the great scheme he had long meditated, of tracing the
river Mississippi, or Colbert, as it was then sometimes called, to its
outlet in the Atlantic, or, as it might be, in the Gulf of Mexico.
For this purpose he caused to be constructed a vessel of sixty tons
burden, about two leagues above the Falls of Niagara. On the 7th
of August, 1679, this vessel, with thirty-four persons on board, a
suitable proportion of whom were priests for the instruction of the
Indians, was launched on Lake Erie, and steered towards Mackinaw.
In this unknown and most hazardous navigation, De la Salle
displayed unbounded resolution, and not less address, both in
cheering on his own men amidst all their labors and perils, and
still more in securing the favor of the savages, with whom, to his
everlasting honor be it mentioned, he was never in all his lifetime,
except once, in danger of coming to a rupture. He arrived at
Mackinaw on the 27th of August, and, in a few weeks after,
anchored at a small island in the mouth of Green Bay. Here he
loaded the vessel with furs, and dispatched her to the head of the
Falls. To his irretrievable loss' and mortification, she was never
seen or heard of again.
Entertaining no doubt, however, of her eventual safety, he
proceeded himself in canoes along the eastern and southern shores
of Lake Michigan, to the St. Joseph, then called the Miami, a
name now appropriated to the river, falling into the south-western
angle of Lake Erie. All the preparations being made, they took
their departure from the island on the 19th of September. Night
fall came on before they reached the nearest part of the continent,
which was twelve miles distant. Darkness thickened, the waves
rose, and the water dashed into the canoes; but they contrived to
keep together and to find a landing place in the morning. Here
they were detained four days in a barren spot, till the lake became
calm. A single porcupine was the only trophy that rewarded the
hunters' fatiguing rambles, which, Father Hennepin says, afforded
a savory relish to their pumpkins and corn. Trusting their fragile
canoes again to the waves, they were soon overtaken by new

22 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
disasters. Clouds gathered over them, winds blew angrily, and
deluged with rain and sleet, they were glad to seek safety on a
naked rock for two days, and no other shelter than their blankets
At the end of another day they were in so great danger in
attempting to land, that the Sieur de la Salle leaped into the water
with his men, and assisted them to drag his canoe ashore. His
example was followed by those in the other canoes. They landed
somewhere in the neighborhood of the river Milwaukie.
By this time the provisions were exhausted, but they had seen
Indians, and presumed their habitations were at hand. Three
men were sent with the calumet of peace, to search for corn. They
came to a deserted village, where they found abundance of corn, of
which they took as much as they wanted, and left such articles as
the natives valued in exchange. Before night the Indians hovered
suspiciously around the party at the canoes ; but when the calumet
of peace was presented, they showed themselves friends, and enter
tained their visitors with dances and songs. They were so well
satisfied with the goods left in the village, that the next day they
brought more corn and a supply of deer, for which they were amply
rewarded. This proof of human sympathy, even in men called
savages, was a sunbeam in the path of the weary voyagers.
After some further adventures of the same nature, La Salle and
his company arrived, on the 1st of November, at the mouth of the
St. Joseph, where they spent the remainder of that month. On
the 3rd of December they ascended the river in canoes, with a view
to reach the portage leading into the Kankakoo, or eastern branch
of the Illinois. On the 1st of January, 1680, they reached Peoria,
situated on the last named river, and set about constructing a fort.
At last, after several changes, they found what they considered a
favorable position, and built upon it Fort St. Louis, which may
be considered the head quarters of La] Salle during the remainder
of his wanderings. The faithful Tonty generally held the command
during the long and frequent occasions of his own absence. On
the 28th of February, La Salle set out on an over land journey to
Frontenac, now Kingston, still bent on making further preparations
for his voyage of discovery on the Mississippi. Various disagree
able incidences occurred on this long and perilous journey ; but
the chief calamity that befell him was the murder of his faithful
attendant, Father Gabriel, who fell a sacrifice to the cruel suspicions
of the Indians. Three young warriors belonging to a tribe hostile
to that whose friendship the travellers had gained, met the venerable
Father in one of his solitary rambles, and murdered him in cold
blood. On arriving at Fort Frontenac, he appears to have spent several
months in making further preparations for his expedition to the
south, and also in making proper arrangements with his creditors,
with whom his extended schemes of discovery brought him some-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 23
times into difficulty, but whose claims he satisfied by suitable
sacrifices of his property. When finally prepared, he proceeded
to join his people at Fort St. Louis by the same route, in canoes,
which he followed two years before in the Griffin, taking the round
of the lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan. Having on these various
journeys and voyages spent the year 1681, he assembled his people,
54 in number, at Chicago, on the 4th of January, 1682, and by
ascending this stream, 'entered the Illinois by a shorter and more
direct route than he had done two years before. Oh the 6th of
February, they at last floated their canoes on the bosom of the long
sought Mississippi. On the same day they passed the mouth of
the Missouri, distinguished by its powerful current and muddy
waters. Father Zenobe, whose notes are incorporated in Le
Clercq's Etablissement de la Foi, is copious in his description of
the various tribes of Indians whom they found on the banks, and
whose friendship they were careful in cultivating. They passed
the mouth of the Arkansas. On the 6th of April, they arrived at a
triple partition of the river, soon after which the water became first
brackish, and then salt, when the broad Gulf of Mexico appeared in
view. The ceremony of taking possession of the country is thus
described by Sparks : " The following day was employed in searching
for a place, removed from the tide and inundations of the river, on
which to erect a column and a cross. This ceremony was performed
the next day. The arms of France were attached to the column,
with this inscription : ' Louis the Great, King of France and
Navarre, reigns ; the 9th of April, 1682.' All the men were under
arms ; and, after chanting the Te Deum, they honored the occasion
by a discharge of their muskets, and cries of ' Long live the King.' "
Nothwithstanding the formality and undoubted veracity of this
deed, it is nevertheless true that the valley of the Mississippi had
been traversed 140 years before by Ferdinand de Soto, one of the
followers of Pizarro, with a force of at least 500 men. (See
Bancroft's History of the United States.)
He founded the Fort of St. Louis, and gave to the adjacent
lands the name of Louisiana.
He retraced his steps, delayed a year among the lakes, and
reached Quebec, in November, 1683. He embarked for France,
was welcomed by Seignelay as "the delight of the New World,"
and received a commission, according to which all the French and
natives of the country, from Fort St. Louis to New Biscay, were
placed under his authority. An expedition for the colonization of
Louisiana, with four vessels and two hundred and eighty persons,
departed from Rochefort, August 1, 1684 ; but dissensions imme
diately arose between La Salle and the naval commander, Beaujeu.
They passed the coasts of Florida, and must have been near the
mouth of the Mississippi on January 10, 1685 ; but La Salle
mistook their position, and the fleet passed on. A few days later

24 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he discovered his error, and wished to return ; but Beaujeu per
sisted in advancing west even to the bay of Matagorda. There he
determined to end the dissension by abandoning his associate. He
disembarked with two hundred and thirty colonists ; most of his
munitions were lost in a gale, and the fleet returned, leaving them
almost without resources. Thinking himself near the Mississippi,
he fortified the post of St. Louis, and made some attempts in
agriculture, which were defeated by the ravages of beasts and the
neighbouring tribes. Excursions over land and by canoe were
alike ineffectual in bringing him to " the fatal river," which he
continued to seek. He traversed a wilderness towards New Mexico,
in a vain search for gold mines. The misery of the colonists
.increased, and Beaujeu's example of revolt began to be followed.
La Salle, whose courage and energy had never failed, no longer
sought to govern or to animate his followers by gentleness, but
made himself a terror to them. Their numbers were reduced by
manifold losses to 37 ; when, in despair of subduing their opposi
tion, or of carrying out any plan with such auxiliaries, he determined,
January 12, 1681, to seek by land the country of the Illinois, and
thence to pass to Canada. He set out with sixteen men, following
the track of the buffalo, passed the basin of the Colorado, and
reached a branch of the Trinity river. They went in groups ; and
the malignity of two men, Duhant and L'Archeve'que, who had
embarked their capital in the enterprise, found an opportunity for
gratification. They quarrelled and murdered a nephew of La Salle.
He suspected the fact, and asked one of them respecting the fate
of his relative, when the other fired upon him from an ambush,
and he fell dead. " Such was the end," says Bancroft, " of this
daring adventurer. For force of will and vast conceptions ; for
various knowledge and quick adaptation of his genius to untried
circumstances ; for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned itself to
the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by energy of
purpose and unfaltering hope, he had no superior among his
countrymen."

SIEUR JOLLIET.
For the few particulars hereafter given of this ingenious traveller
and discoverer, we are indebted to Shea's History of the Mis-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 25
" Neither his birthplace nor epoch has, as far as the present writer
knows, been ascertained. His education he owed to the Jesuit
College of Quebec, where, unless I am mistaken, he was a class
mate of the first Canadian who was advanced to the priesthood.
Jolliet was thus connected with the Jesuits, and apparently was an
assistant in the college. After leaving them, he proceeded to the
west to seek his fortune in the fur trade. Here he was always on
terms of intimacy with the missionaries, and acquired the knowledge
and experience which induced the government to select him as
the explorer of the Mississippi.
" This choice was most agreeable to the missionaries, and he and
¦Marquette immortalized their names. They explored the great
river, and settled all doubts as to its course. On his return,
Jolliet lost all his papers on the rapids above Montreal, and could
make but a verbal report to the Government. This, however, he
reduced to writing, and accompanied with a map drawn from
recollection. On the transmission of these to France, he without
doubt expected to be enabled to carry out such plans as he had
conceived, and to profit, to some extent, by his great discovery ;
but he was thrown aside by more flattered adventurers. The
discoverer of the Mississippi was rewarded, as if in mockery, with
an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This was the rocky, barren
and sterile Anticosti ; and here Jolliet built a fort and a dwelling
for his family, and houses for trade. They were not, however,
destined to be a source of emolument to him. His labors were
devoted also to other fields. Thus we find him, in 1689, ra the
employment of the Government, rendering essential service in the
west. " Two years after his island was taken by the English fleet, and
he himself, with his wife and mother-in-law, probably while
attempting to reach Quebec, fell into the hands of Phipps, the
English commander. His vessel and property were a total loss,
but his liberty he recovered when the English retired from the
walls of Quebec.
" Of his subsequent history there are but occasional traces, and
we know only that he died some years prior to 1737."

PERE MARQUETTE.
A sketch of the life of the first explorer of that great body of
water known as the Mississippi, must prove interesting to all classes
4

26 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of society, particularly when it is allied with the sacred calling
of him who devoted the best part and energies of his existence,
not only to its discovery, but also to bring within the pale of civil
ization and religion the hordes of barbarians that invested the
country during the early portion of the history of America.
James Marquette was born in the town of Laon, France, in the
year 1637, and was descended from an ancient and time-honoured
French family, who resided there. As early as seventeen years
of age, detached from the world and all its bright allurements, he
entered the Society of Jesus ; and after completing his studies
and examination, proceeded of his own free will to Canada. There
he ardently hoped to enter on an active and busy career in the
sacred discharge of his duty. He landed at Quebec on the 20th
of September, 1666 ; and after studying the language of the
Montagnais at Three Rivers, where he remained until April, 1668,
he was placed on the Ottawa mission, as it was called, but which
extended considerably further west than the Ottawa valley. He
journeyed up through that splendid scenery to Lake Huron, and
across to Sault Ste. Marie, and here he. erected a mission ; and on
being joined by another holy father, they built a church, rude, it
is true, yet none the less sacred and holy. He now entered fully
upon the most active era of his erratic life, but his stay here was
not of long duration. A mission was wanted at Lapointe, and on
M. Marquette being selected, he departed thither in 1669. Here
his labours were great; his zeal for the cause of which he was
a devoted servant, however, was never exhausted. Although
careworn and harrassed, his noble nature and strict sense of
duty rose predominant over all, and he worked long and well
in the execution of his functions. Here again he was not
destined to remain long ; war was declared among the native
Indians, and those of Lapointe trembled from fear and inferior
numbers. They removed to Mackinaw, near Lake Huron, and
M. Marquette accompanied them. His first care on reaching
this station was to erect a chapel, so that the spiritual welfare of
the people should not suffer while he was amongst them. He re
mained here for some time, until, at his earnest solicitations to be
appointed to a wider field, he was chosen to accompany Jolliet
in his mission. On the 17th of May, 1673, the expedition of
discovery embarked in canoes at Mackinaw, and proceeded to
Green Bay, through Fox River to the Wisconsin, and thence by
portage to the Mississippi. They were the first explorers of this
mighty sheet of water, having desoended to the Arkansas, and
proven by experience the navigability of the river and its mouth.
In returning they ascended the Illinois, proceeded thence across
to Lake Michigan to Green Bay, and came back to the mission in
September, without any serious accident. On this expedition Mar
quette proved himself invaluable ; he prepared a map of the route

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 27
and his buoyant spirits, activity and watchfulness, together with his
piety and earnest supplications to the men, insured, no doubt, its
success, even at the loss of his health, which from that time for
ward jfailed rapidly, and'prostrated him for some time at Green
Bay ;" but scarcely had he risen from his bed of sickness, ere this
noble-minded man again proceeded, working vigorously as ever in
the furtherance of the cause to which he devoted all his best en
ergies. Orders [came for him to open a mission on the upper
waters of the Illinois, in the settlement of the Kaskaskia; and
thither he departed on the 23rd of October, 1674. But now,
through the privations and hardships which he had endured, his
fine and vigorous constitution gave way a second time, and his
malady returned with more fierceness than ever. He was again
prostrated, in the forest ; and, through the kind attentions of the
Indians, restored to a feeble state of existence. He proceeded to
the settlement, and, in a short space of time, administered the
duties of his high office, and gave the natives such instruction as
he was able to do ; but, finding that the term of his existence was
rapidly drawing to a close, he left Kaskaskia, hoping to be able to
reach Mackinaw, there to lay his wearied head among his prose
lytes, and die in peace. But fate ordained otherwise ; for on the
way his disease returned again with increased virulence, and his
hour had come, which he hailed with ecstacy, thanking Heaven for
allowing him to die a Jesuit, a missionary, and alone. This
event occurred on the 18th of May, 1675, on the river that bears
his name. Shea says of him : " He was of a cheerful, joyous dis
position, playful even in his manner, and universally beloved.
His letters show him to us a man of education, close observation,
sound sense, strict integrity, a freedom from exaggeration, and
yet a vein of humor which here and there breaks out in spite of
all his self-command."

FATHER HENNEPIN.
This celebrated man, early connected with the history of the
province, and an adventurous and intrepid traveller, deserves
to be placed on a par with the distinguished ¦Charlevoix. He
was a French Recollet friar, famous as a missionary and
traveller in North America. He was born in Flanders about
1640. His inclination for travelling lecl him to Italy ; and he

28 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
was afterwards a preacher at Hall, in Hainault. He then went
into a convent, and being sent by his superiors to Calais and
Dunkirk, the stories which he heard from the sailors inspired him
with a desire to visit distant countries. At length he embarked
for Canada,:'and arrived at Quebec in 1675, in the same ship as
Bishop Laval and the Chevalier La Salle. Between that period and
1682, he explored the region now called the State of Louisiana, and
first saw the Falls of St. Anthony. Returning to Europe, he published
an account of his researches, entitled : " Description de la Louisiane
nouvellement dicouverte au sud-ouest de la Nouvelle France, avec
la Carte du pays, les mcmrs et la maniere de vivre des Sauvages."
Paris : 1683. 12mo. He afterwards produced other works, con
taining fuller descriptions of the result of his observations. He
was appointed guardian of the convent of Renty, in Artois ; and
refusing to return to America, after some disputes, he was per
mitted by his superiors to retire into Holland in 1697, where he
founds protectors at the court of William IIL, and accompanied
that monarch to England. Though he adopted the secular habit
among the Dutch, it does not appear that he relinquished his re
ligion or his profession, as he always added to his signature the
title of Missionary Recollet and Apostolic Notary.
He died in Holland about the year 1700. Bancroft says, re
ferring to some discoveries which Hennepin claims to have made,
that he was not merely a light-hearted, ambitious, daring discoverer,
but a boastful liar.

Sir WILLIAM PHIPPS.*
The history of this celebrated and distinguished gentleman is a
remarkable one. Raised, one may say, almost from nothing, he
attained, through his energy, perseverance and peculiar abilities,
the highest honours ; and having been appointed commander of
the gallant expedition against Quebec in 1690, deserves a high
place in this work.
Our information is chiefly derived from Allen. Sir William
Phipps was born at Pemaquid, now Bristol, Maine, on the 2nd of
February, 1651. His father, James Phipps, was a gunsmith in
* Many writers aver, among them Dr. Smiles, that this was the founder of
the HouBe of Normanby, while as many contradict it.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 29
humble circumstances ; and his mother had twenty-six children,
of whom twenty-one were sons. After living in the wilderness till
he was eighteen years of age, he bound himself as an apprentice
to a ship-carpenter for four years ; at the expiration of this time
he went to Boston, where he learned to read and write. He had
determined to seek his fortune upon the sea ; and after a variety of
adventures, he discovered a Spanish wreck on the coast of His
paniola, from which he fished up plate and pearls and jewels,
amounting in value to £300,000 sterling. With this treasure he
sailed to England in 1687 ; and such was his honesty, and so lib
eral was he to his seamen, that his own share amounted only to
£16,000. At this time he received the honor of knighthood,
which was conferred upon him by King James. Returning to
Boston, he was, in 1690, admitted a member of the North Church,
being baptized and professing repentance of his sins.- He then
commanded an expedition against Port Royal, which place he
captured. Later in the same year, the English colonists forming
the patriotic intention of capturing Canada from the French,
Phipps was intrusted with the command of the expedition by sea,
which consisted of thirty-four vessels of different burthen, and
was manned by nearly fifteen hundred of the " hardy sailors of
New England," with thirteen hundred militia under the command
of Major Walley. This formidable armament appeared before
the walls of Quebec on the morning of the Sth of October, and
on demanding, in the name of King William IIL, the surrender
of that city, the brave De Frontenac, nothing daunted, replied :
" I do not acknowledge King William, and I well know that the
Prince of Orange is a usurper, who has violated the most sacred
rights of blood and religion. I will answer your master by the
mouth of my cannon." To this Phipps replied by sending a
tremendous broadside into the town, and the siege, if it can be
called such, commenced. Walley landed on the St. Charles, and
defeated a body of French troops, which had stationed themselves
there to obstruct his movements. But, notwithstanding this ad
vantage,' the fire from the batteries was of such a terrific nature,
and so injurious to the fleet, that, on the 11th, Phipps at a council
held on board his ship, resolved to abandon the enterprise ; and
accordingly during the night, carried his determination into ex
ecution. But a terrible storm arising in the Gulf, nine of his
ships were wrecked. He arrived at Boston on the 19th of No
vember, considerably distressed at his defeat, which had, however,
partly arisen from the lateness of the season in which the expedi
tion had been undertaken.
When the new charter of Massachusetts was obtained, he was
nominated governor. In this capacity he arrived at Boston, May
14, 1692. He soon put a stop to prosecutions for witchcraft. In
August, he sailed with about four hundred and fifty men to Pema-

30 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
quid, where he built a fort. In 1 694, in a dispute with the col
lector of the port, Sir William was so far carried away by the
passion of the moment as to have recourse to blows to settle the
controversy. He was soon afterwards removed ; and he sailed in
November for England, where he received assurances of being re
stored ; but, being seized by a malignant fever, he died in 1695, at
the premature age of forty-four.
Sir William, though his origin was very humble, was not elated
by the change in his circumstances. He was a man of uncommon
enterprise and industry, of an excellent disposition (though he
did not always retain the command of his temper), and of perfect
honesty and integrity. He exerted himself to promote the inter
ests of New England.

MAJOR WALLEY,
An English colonist, born 1644. In the year 1690 accompanied
Sir William Phipps as commander of the troops on board his fleet
to capture Quebec, at which place he did good service, repulsing
a body of French troops to the number of 300, on the banks of the
St. Charles. On his return to Boston, he published a narrative of
the expedition, which is to be found in Hutchinson. Afterwards
was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts,
and a member of the Council. Was one of the principal founders
of the town and church of Bristol, U. S., and a man of merit and
ability ; zealous in his country's service, and a good Christian.
Died at Boston, January 11, 1712.

M. LEFEBVRE DE LA BARRE.
M. de la Barre was Governor of New France from 1682 to 1685.
He was a marine officer, who had distinguished himself in action
against the English in the West Indies, having taken from them
the islands of Antigua and Montserrat. However brave his

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 31
conduct may have been there, according to the record of history,
it was quite the reverse in Canada. He not only had not the
courage to confront a few wild and uncivilized hordes of Iroquois ;
but he sacrificed a small and valuable army in making some attempts
to do so, to the infinite disgust of the people of the colony. His
general management of affairs was extremely bad, and being
recalled, he left the province without the regret of any of its
inhabitants.

MARQUIS DE DENONVILLE.
Jacques Rene de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, Governor of
New France from 1685 to 1689, was at once a brave officer, and a
man of a religious turn of mind. He was also imbued with a lofty
sense of honor, and was polished in his manners. Yet he was
often liable to receive wrong impressions of things ; and his imper
fect knowledge of the relations, subsisting between the French and
the savage races, caused him to commit acts which violated the
principles of equity, and brought about that retribution which
never fails to follow, sooner or later, violations of the laws of
nature and of nations.
By not following up a victory, which he achieved over the
Iroquois, and striking a decided blow on the whole confederation,
he inspired the savages with a glow of triumph, and a sense of
contempt of what they deemed his cowardice. He likewise
kidnapped a number of their chiefs, and sent them to France to
work at the galleys, at a time when they were bound on a
peaceable mission to himself. He thus excited against himself
and the French a spirit of hate and detestation in the heart of the
" Red men " — a feeling which only terminated by the frightful
" Massacre of Lachine."
He certainly had sound ideas on many points; but he had a
speculative, rather than an energetic mind, and was not prompt
in action. Few governors of Canada ever set down on paper more
sage maxims for its proper administration, yet fewer left it in a
sadder plight.

32 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

BISHOP DE ST. VALLIER.
His Grace Jean Baptiste DeLacroix Chevrieres De St Vallier,
born at Grenoble en Dauphin^, the 14th November, 1653, was
chaplain to Louis XIV. When Bishop Laval went to France in
1684 to obtain a successor, on the recommendation of that prelate,
it was agreed that he should succeed him in the Bishopric of
Quebec. Bishop De St. Vallier arrived in Canada, for the first
time, on the 30th July, 1685, in his quality of Vicar-General to
Bishop Laval, by letters from the latter, dated at Paris the 8th
May of the same year. He left for France on the 3rd November,
1687, and was consecrated Bishop of Quebec, under the pontificate
of Innocent XL, on the 25th January, 1688, at St. Sulpice deParis,
by Nicholas Colbert, Archbishop of Carthage and Coadjutor of
the Archbishop of Rouen. His bulls were dated at Rome the 7th
July, 1687. Bishop de St. Vallier returned to Canada on the 15th
August, 1688. He founded the General Hospital of Quebec in
1693, and the Ursulines of- Three Rivers on the 8th October,
1697. It was under his episcopacy that Louis XIV. confirmed by
Letters Patent, given at Versailles in the month of October, 1697,
the erection of the Bishopric of Quebec, and the union of the
Rectory to the Seminary, as well as the union of the revenues of
Labbaye de Meubec to the said Bishopric. His Grace De St.
Vallier, after making several journeys to France, for the benefit of
his diocese, died at the General Hospital of Quebec, on the 26th
December, 1727, and was buried there on the 2nd January, 1728.

CHEVALIER DE CALLIERES.
Louis Hector de Callieres, a wise and prudent Governor
of New France, and a gallant French military officer.:" Originally
from Torigny in Normandy, he came to Canada as a member of the
Montreal Company, and afterwards became Governor of that
place. He exhibited great wisdom during the war, and in his
relations with the Iroquois, with whom he concluded a peace in
1701, at Montreal. He succeeded De Frontenac in the Government
of the country in 1698, and continued to hold his annointment
until 1703. FF
Charlevoix does not hesitate to proclaim him one of the best
generals Canada ever possessed under French rule.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 33

LEMOINE D'IBERVILLE.
A Canadian navigator, who began the colonization of Louisiana,
born in Montreal in 1642, died in Havana, July 9, 1706. He was
one of seven brothers, who were all active in Canadian affairs in the
latter half of the seventeenth century. He early went to sea, and
distinguished himself for bravery and ability as a volunteer in the
midnight attack on Schenectady ; as commander of the expedition
which recovered Fort Nelson from the British (1686), and with it
the control of the Indian commerce of the region of Nelson's river ;
as a successful invader of the English possessions in Newfound
land, and as a victor in naval contests (1697), in spite of icebergs
and a shipwreck, in Hudson's Bay. He was reputed the most
skilful naval officer in the service of France, when in 1698 he was
commissioned by the French Government to explore the mouth of
the Mississippi, which had never yet been entered from tbe sea,
and to erect a fort near it. With two frigates, two smaller vessels,
a company of marines, and about two hundred, settlers, he set sail
from Rochefort, October 17, 1698 ; was welcomed at St. Domingo,
found Pensacola preoccupied by Spaniards, and cast anchor, Feb
ruary 2, 1799, on the Island of Massacre, near Mobile. Accom
panied by his brother, Lemoine de Bienville, a Franciscan, who
had been a companion of La Salle, and forty-eight men, in two
barges, and with provisions for fifteen days, he sailed thence to
seek the Mississippi, which they entered 2nd March, and ascended
to the village of the Bayagoulas. They also visited the Oumas,
among whom they found a letter written by Tonty to La Salle, in
1684, and they probably reached the mouth of the Red River.
Returning to the bay of Biloxi, Iberville erected a fort as a testi
mony of French jurisdiction, the command of which he entrusted
to his two brothers, Sanville and Bienville. He himself sailed for
France, but returned when the French supremacy on the Mississippi
was endangered by British aggression, and the French Protestant
refugees were seeking there an asylum after their exile from France.
He again ascended the Mississippi (1700) as far as the country of
the Natchez, while his brother explored western Louisiana, crossed
the Red River, and approached New Mexico. Bilious fevers
desolated the colonists at Biloxi ; Sanville was a victim to it, and
the chief command devolved on Bienville ; and when Iberville
arrived with reinforcements, July 22, 1701, there were but one
hundred and fifty of them alive. Soon after, this fortress was
transferred to the western bank of Mobile river, the first European
settlement in Alabama, rberville also constructed fortifications on
5

84 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the Island of Massacre, which he named Dauphine Island, and
which became the centre of the colony. Attacked by the yellow
fever, he escaped with broken health. In 1706, in command of
three vessels, he made a descent upon the English Island of Nevis,
which he captured ; and he died at Havana, on board of his ship,
on the eve of an expedition against Jamaica.

CHARLEVOIX.
Peter Francis Xavier Charlevoix, a celebrated traveller
and writer, was a member of the order of Jesuits, and was born
at St. Quintin, in 1684. He taught languages and philosophy with
some reputation. He was for several years a missionary in America,
and more particularly in Canada. On his return he had a chief
share in the " Journal de Trevoux" for twenty-four years. He
died in 1761, greatly esteemed for his high moral character and
extensive learning. His works are : " Histoire et Description
G&nirale du Japon," " Histoire Ginirale de Paraguay," " Histoire
de I' Isle dc St. Dominique," " Vie de Mire Marie de I' Incarnation,"
and " Histoire Generate de la Nouvelle France. " Of these, the latter
is the most valuable, describing his own experience, and the man
ners and customs of the native Americans. He is often quoted as
a writer of good authority. His style is simple and unaffected ;
but not always perfectly correct.

MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL.
Phillipe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, a, lieutenant-
general in the French army, and Governor of New France for the
space of several years. He was a brave soldier, and had distin
guished himself at the siege of Valenoieuues. He was sent to
Canada as commander of the forces, and brought with him eight
hundred men. With three hundred of tliese he went to the relief
of Montreal during the massacre of Lachine, and served under De

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 35
Frontenac in the grand expedition against the Iroquois. , In 1690,
he was engaged in the defence of Quebec against the attack of
Admiral Phipps. Three years afterwards, he surprised and defeated
La Chaudiere Noir, the most terrible and cunning of the Iroquois.
But he gave up the military for the naval service ; and in 1702,
before inheriting his father's title, he obtained a seigniory, and was
appointed Governor of Montreal.
He succeeded M. de Callieres in the government of Canada in
1703. He was married at Quebec to Louise Elizabeth Joybert de
Soulange, daughter of Chevalier Joybert de Soulange. This
marriage was viewed with dissatisfaction by the French ministry,
who did not wish him, nor any of their colonial governors, to ally
themselves with the residents.
He displayed great activity in 1710, in the defence of Quebec
— the expense of which, however, was mainly borne by its
inhabitants ; and he made preparation for the relief of Montreal.
After the accession of Louis XV., he effected in the colony
numerous reforms, which were much required, and the most impor
tant were those of improved education and civilization. He died
at Quebec on the 10th of October, 1725, universally regretted by
the people of the colony. His administration was tranquil ;
and his measure's, whether civil or warlike, were usually crowned
with success.

Admiral Sir HOVEDEN WALKER.
From the few particulars we have at hand, we learn that this
celebrated naval officer entered the British service at an early age,
and speedily attained to the highest honors. For his gallantry
and bravery, in 1711, he was knighted by Queen Anne. He is
connected with our history in having been the commander of
the ill-starred expedition which sailed for Quebec, to wrest Canada
from the French, in the same year. Everything connected with
this lamentable epoch in his life is well known, as it forms part of
our history. The French did all they could to prevent the
squadron ascending the river, which in those days was not so easy
to navigate as at present, the St. Lawrence not having the benefit
of light-houses, buoys, &c. ; and they were successful, aided also by
a storm which overtook Walker. Half his ships were wrecked on
Me aux CEufs, in the St. Lawrence, and hejwas compelled to return
to England. It is useless now to speculate on the consequences to

36 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
this country if he had succeeded in gaining our harbour ; suffic it
to say, that the French were so reduced in numbers by ill-health,
disease and famine, that it would have been a comparatively easy
matter to overcome them.
Walker, on his return to England, suffered more reverses ; his
splendid ship, the Edgar, of seventy-six guns, blew up at Spithead,
and nearly all the crew perished ; the officers were nearly all on
shore. Sir Hoveden was blamed for some negligence in this
matter, and not having recovered his good name by his loss at
Quebec, was dismissed the service in 1715. He published in 1720,
"A Journal or full account of the late expedition to Canada, (fee," in
his defence, but without avail ; previous to which, however, he had
proceeded to South Carolina, where he settled upon a plantation.
He died, actually broken-hearted, in 1725.

MARQUIS DE BEAUHARNOIS.
Charles, Marquis de Beauharnois, succeeded M. de Vau
dreuil in the government of New France in 1726, and held that
appointment for more than twenty years — a fact which goes far
to prove his fitness and capacity for such a high office. He was
commodore in the royal navy of France, in which he had gained dis
tinction in bygone years, and had filled some important posts besides.
During the long and critical period in which he exercised the
gubnatorial functions in Canada — although inundations and earth
quakes, dearth, famine, war and sickness prevailed and had to be con
tended with — the French ministry had never cause either to reproach
him for remissness of duty, or correct him in his general administra
tion of affairs, except once, when he took part in the quarrel between
the clergy and the Chapter on the occasion of the collision of those
parties relative to the burial of the body of Bishop de Vallieres.
In consequence of the sanguinary inroads which the Outagamis
were making on the unprotected colonists throughout the country,
he found it necessary, during the early part of his administration,
to give a sudden and decided check to their proceedings. A small
army was organized composed of the colonists, who pursued the
savages as far as where the city of Chicago now stands, and the
Mississippi. They met in with the Indians, and signally defeated
them ; besides destroying their huts and plantations, they indeed
nearly exterminated the cruel and unrelentless red men of the tribe
ofthe Outagamis, while they avenged the death of their country
men. It was a just retribution.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA . 37
When war was declared between England and France, and the
conquest of Canada and the other French colonies resolved on by
the former, and when only a small and feeble force was at his
disposal, he fortified and strengthened the several weak positions
of the country, and founded the impregnable Crown Point. By
his representations and entreaties, he at length prevailed on the
French ministry to send an expedition to recapture Cape Breton,
and to drive the English from the West Indies. Had this
expedition been commanded by a competent and able officer, great
damage would certainly have been done to our sea and land forces.
As it happened, the French fleet was annihilated by fierce and violent
storms, which the inexperienced D'Auville was unable to contend
against. Beauharnois was succeeded in 1746 by M. de la Jonquiere.

SIEUR DE LA VERENDRYE.
Pierre Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, was
the discoverer of the great mountain range known as the Rocky
Mountains, in 1731. The expense of this achievement (although
it had been projected by M. de Beauharnois), was borne entirely
by M. Verendrye himself. It added great lustre to his name,
and the king conferred upon him the Cross of St. Louis. He
was a native of France, and had been previous to his undertaking
(which was an attempt to reach the Pacific), engaged in trafficking
in peltry with the natives. He died at Quebec on the 6th of
December, 1749, just as he was about, by the king's desire, to
resume his journey to the Pacific.
He once related to Mr. Kalm, a Swedish savant, who was on a
visit to Canada, that he had discovered, in one of the remotest
of the countries which he had reached, at a spot nine hundred
leagues beyond Montreal, some massive pillars, each formed of a
single block of stone, resting one against the other, or superimposed,
as are the courses of a wall. He concluded that, thus arranged,
the pile must have been formed by human hands. One of the
pillars was surmounted by a much smaller block, only one foot
high and a few inches across, bearing on two sides graven char
acters of an unknown language. This stone was sent to Paris.
Several Jesuits who saw it in Canada, said to Kalm that the
engraving which it bore resembled the Tartaric characters. This
opinion, in Kalm's estimation, tended to confirm the hypothesis of

38 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
an Asiatic immigration to America, and the real origination of a
portion, at least, of the native races found in possession of its two
continents and islands.

MICHEL SARRASIN,
A mqst learned French savant, who resided at Quebec, when
this province was a dependency of France. He was a member of
the Academy of Sciences of Paris and of the Superior Council of
the province, and held the office of what was termed, " Physician
to the King." To the Sovereign Council he was keeper of the
King's Seal, in 1733, after Counsellor. Delino. He contributed
many papers to various learned societies ; among them, " Descrip
tion ofthe Castor," in the memoirs of the Academy(of Sciences for
the year 1704 ; " A Letter on ihe Mineral Waters of Cap de la
Magdeleine," in the memoirs of Trevoux, 1736; ", Description of
the Water or Musk Rat of America," in the Paris Documents ;
and a description of the plant which he discovered and called
Sarracenia purpurea.
Charlevoix was surprised to find such a learned man in the
colony. He married, in Canada, Mile. Marie Anne Hazeur, by
whom he had a son, who died in 1739, in Paris. His decease took
place on the 9th of September, 1734, at the age of 75 years.

COUNT DE LA GALLISSONNIERE.
Roland Michel Barrin, Count de la Gallissonniere, admi
nistrator of the government of New France froin 1747 to 1749,
during the imprisonment in England of Admiral de la Jonquiere,
the governor.
He was a distinguished marine officer, active, energetic, and
enlightened as a civilian; and spent in scientific pursuits such
leisure as his public duties allowed him. He governed Canada only
two years ; but he gave, during that brief time, a strong impulse

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 39
to its administration, as well as much good counsel to the French
ministry, which, had it been followed, would no doubt have pre
served, for some time longer, this fine dependency to France. His
administration is chiefly marked by some disputes with the English
and their colonists in the other provinces, relative to their right
of way in and about the peninsula of Nova Scotia and the Ohio
region. He made extensive defensive fortifications throughout
the whole of the province, and formed the project of settling the
Franco-Canadians, who had hitherto lived on the peninsula, on the
northern shores of the Bay of Fundy — a project whieh received the
approbation and assistance of the French ministry, and was carried
into effect.
He afterwards went again into active service, and in 1756, was
charged to transport land forces to Minorca, for the siege of Fort
Mahon. His fleet was met, in returning, by Admiral Byng's
squadron ; and an action took place, which, however, the French
cannot call a victory, as all that Gallissonniere could do was to
force Byng to retire — >for which act, the latter was tried by court
martial, on his arrival in England, sentenced and shot. The
former did not long survive this event : always delicate in bodily
constitution, he undertook his last expedition only from an over
sense of duty, and against the advice of his physicians, who foretold
that the fatigues which he must undergo would kill him. Accord
ingly, October 26, 1756, having halted at Nemours, on his way to
Fontainebleau, where Louis XV. then was, he died. The king,
who had not even conferred upon him [the grade of vice-admiral,
afterwards alleged (but his assertion may be doubted), that he had
called his deceased servant to court, in order to create him a
marshal of France. His loss was much felt in the French royal
marine ; by the sailors more especially, whose affections he gained
by attending to their interests with paternal affection and kind
regard. His administrative and scientific talents, even surpassed his
genius for active war. The former shone conspicuously in New
France; and while he was military commandant of Rochefort,
when the commissariat for marine was organized, he had the
direction of that establishment. Men of science lost ra brother by
his decease, for he was a devoted student of natural history,
being especially attached to those departments of knowledge most
contributing to man's well-being. Thus, whatever foreign loca
lities he visited, he endowed with the most useful plants of old
France, and rendered to her, in exchange, whatever was likely to
enrich her from the New World, and other foreign parts.
La Gallissonniere had a great heart and a beautiful mind, seated in
a mean body,for he was both low in stature and deformed in person.

40 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

MARQUIS DE LA JONQUIERE.
Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquiere,
governor of Canada from 1749 to 1752, was born about 1686, in
the Chateau of La Jonquiere, Languedoc, and was the descen
dant of a high family of Catalonian origin. He served in the War
of the Succession, assisted in the reduction of the Cevennes — that
is, he actively persecuted the French Protestants in the south,
thrusting them out with fire and sword, — and also in the defence
of Toulon against the Savoyards. He had accompanied Duguay-
Trouin to Rio Janeiro, and fought along with La Bruyere de Court
against Admiral Matthews, in 1744, and had risen to the rank
of admiral in the service. His government was marked with
considerable firmness, and he generally carried out the policy of
the energetic and talented La Gallissonniere. He solicited his
recall in 1751, in consequence of some charges relative to his
monopoly of the peltry traffic, preferred against him by the Jesuits,
to which the ministry gave credence; but before he could receive
it, his bodily powers, severely affected by mental irritation, and
impaired by age and the fatigues of an over active career, gave
way, and he died at Quebec on the 17th of May, 1752. France lost
in him one of the ablest of her naval officers. He was of an
indominitable spirit in action — a precious quality at a time when the
war marine of France was overmatched in physical strength by that
of her rival. His person was well formed, but he was low in
stature. He had an imposing air ; but his mental acquirements,
it is said, were not great. He tarnished his reputation by an
inordinate love of wealth, and his avarice laid him open at last, after
accumulating a large, fortune, to the attacks which hastened his
death. Although possessed of millions, he denied himself, it may
be said, the veriest necessities of life, even in his last moments.

LORENZO DU PONTE.
Lorenzo du Ponte, a native of Canada ; was born there in
1749, and died at New York, 1838. He was an Italian poet
and translator of some repute. Part of his early years were spent

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 4i
in Venice. His amorous verses forced him to fly from that city,
and he went to Goritz in Austria, where he raised up new enemies,
and left for Dresden, with an introduction to Saleri, the composer.
For Salieri he wrote the libretto of the opera of the " Danaides,"
and others. He then visited France and England, Holland, and
finally the United States of America, where he tried various
schemes of living without success; and in 1806, after getting into
debt and arranging with his creditors, obtained a subsistence by
teaching his native language and by translation. He also wrote
his adventures from 1823 to 1827, in four volumes, which were
published at New York.

MARQUIS DUQUESNE DE MENNEVILLE.
A BRAVE and judicious governor of New France, who, during
three most important years (from 1752 to 1755) while he governed
the country, pursued such a firm and rigorous policy as called
forth the admiration of the people of this and his native country,
France. He was a captain in the royal marine service, and had
been recommended to his appointment by the distinguished De
Gallissonniere. He was descended from the greatest Duquesne,
grand-admiral of France, under Louis XIV. He introduced
great reforms in. the colony, placed the colonial troops on a par
with the European by constant drilling and study ; he erected forts
in the far west, for the protection of the country and his country
men, and he resisted the encroachments of the English and col
onial troops. Whether it was that he found the "speck of war,"
which was at that time rising on the i horizon, too great a task for
him- to resist with the means at his disposal, or whether he had
some prophetic warning of the ultimate destiny of New France,
and so wished to give up so great a responsibility, we are not able
to say ; but he solicited his recall on the plea that he wished to
return to active duty.

42 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL.
Pierre Francois, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, the last
governer of Canada under French domination, and undoubt
edly one of the best. This latter assertion will be readily granted,
particularly when the trying and arduous circumstances under
which he labored are taken into consideration. ' He was a son of
the former governor of New France, of the same name, and was
born at Quebec, in 1698. Having joined the military service he
rose to the rank of major in the marine corps. In 1733, he was
appointed governor of Three Rivers, and in 1743, of Louisiana,
in both of which situations he was greatly popular. In 1748, he
succeeded to his father's title ; and in 1755, was elevated to the
high and responsible appointment of governor of New France, —
an appointment, which, if Montcalm and he had acted in con
cert, and the former had paid more attention to the plans of
the latter, he would certainly have held for a much longer
period than he did. The jealousy, or rather the contempt, with
which Montcalm regarded M. de Vandreuil and his valu
able suggestions, certainly tended, in a great measure, to hasten
the downfall of the French nation in America. M. de Vandreuil
ever studied the welfare of Canada, and was devotedly attached to
his sovereign. He would rather have died, and sacrificed all he
possessed, than tarnish the glory and honor of the arms of his
country. He was a true Frenchman, bold and energetic in his
measures, and yet wise and judicious in carrying them out. This
was clearly manifested when he capitulated to Amherst at Mont
real, notwithstanding the intention of the valorous De Levis to
hold out with his scanty forces to the last ; a determination which
De Vandreuil saw .was hopeless, and would involve the needless
destruction of Montreal, and the loss of many valuable lives. He
therefore pursued the wisest, and indeed the only course open to
him, and no one can justly impeach his loyalty or patriotism in so
doing. After his return to France he was imprisoned in the Bastille, on
some charges preferred against him by the friends of Montcalm,
but a trial before the Chatelet de Paris exonorated him from
these, and from all blame in his administration of the affairs of
Canada. He was released from imprisonment, but stripped of
nearly all his worldly possessions. He died in 1764.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 43

BARON DIESKAU.
John Harmand, Baron Dieskau, celebrated as the commander-
in-chief of the French forces in this country during the time
anterior to Montcalm, and for the active part he took in the wars
between the English and French during that period. His last act
was when he commanded the expedition sent up to defeat and drive
off that of the English which was advancing to invade Canada in
1755. On this occasion he achieved a brilliant victory over the
army of Colonel Ephraim Williams, but on the same day met that
of the celebrated Sir William Johnson. A second battle ensued,
which resulted in the total defeat of Dieskau, he himself being
made prisoner, and also seriously wounded. He was conveyed to
New York, where his wounds were dressed, and he recovered, but
only for a short time. His decease taking place at Surenne, in
France, September 8, 1767.

M. DE VAUQUELIN.
A brave and chivalrous French naval officer, who commanded
the French ships at Quebec, at the time of the conquest. M.
Garneau says that " he fell, sword in hand, into the enemy's power,
covered with honorable wounds, after an heroic combat of two
hours, maintained against several frigates, opposite Point aux
Trembles." Almost all his officers were killed or wounded, as well
as most of the |scanty crew of TAtalante, aboard which vessel he
had hoisted his flag, and would not strike it.
Brave as he proved himself to be, Captain Vauquelin was ill
received at court when he returned to France. The Moniteur
de la Flotte of 1857, in an article on this brave sailor, recounts
the following touching particulars : —
" It is well known that Jean Vanquelin, the celebrated naval
captain, highly reputed for his rare merit and admirable intrepidity,
after distinguishing himself greatly in defending Louisiana, and
afterwards the city of Quebec, was, through some dark intrigues,
disgraced and put in prison. Despite his reclamations and those
of his family, he died in the year 1763, without having had his

44 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
case tried. Some. authors even say that he was assassinated in the
prison; but this report seems not to be sufficiently attested.
" He left behind him a son, Pierre Vanquelin, who devoted
himself at an early oge to the study of African history and geo
graphy ; his researches in which obtained for him a prize, in 1776,
from the Academy of Lyons.
" This young savant, highly recommended by a brave officer
who knew his connections (the Marquis de Vaudreuil), was, in
1774, placed by Turgot in the admiralty office, where he occupied
his leisure time in dn wing up a memorial, narrating the career
and services of his father, in the hope of his merit being acknow
ledged and his memory cleared of blame. A circumstance occur
ring fortuitously, came in aid of this work of filial piety.
" In 1775, Queen Marie Antoniette was present at the first com
munion of some young girls of the Commune de Meudon ; and
after the ceremony was over, one among them, chosen by the
others, presented to her Majesty a fine nosegay of white roses ;
reciting at the same time a complimentary address, prepared be
forehand, thanking the Queen for the honor she had done the rude
parishoners by condescending to come among them.
" The young girl charged with this duty was Mile. Elizabeth
Vauquelin, then aged thirteen, who lived with one of her aunts
at Meudon. She greatly pleased the Queen, who after embracing
her, asked whether she could do anything for her.
" The youne lady, not disconcerted, yet with tears starting from
her eyes, replied, 'I make bold to solicit your Majesty that you
would cause justice to be rendered to the good name of my grand
father.' " The noble heart of the Queen was softened on hearing this
appeal. She again embraced the girl, and promised that her re
quest should not be neglected. Nor was it ; for that very day she
informed the king of what had passed. Louis XVI., ever good,
ever just, ordered M. de Sartimes, then Minister of Marine, to
make inquiries regarding Jean Vauquelin, and let him know the
result. " The inquiry was entered upon at once. Among the witnesses
examined were Lapeyrouse, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, and mem
bers of the family of the Marquis de Montcalm, the hero of Can
ada. The inquiries made were eminently favorable to the me
mory of Vauquelin; they attested the glorious services whieh he
had performed as a French naval officer, and proved the injustice
of the accusations which had been brought against him in his
later years.
_ " Louis XVI. caused the son of the deceased to be presented to
him; and letting M. Vauquelin know the result of the inquiry,
told him that his father's services would' not be forgotten. The
latter presented to the king a copy of his memoire on the geogra-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 45
phy of Africa. Some months afterwards Louis sent him on an
important mission to Morocco, in which he acquitted himself ad
mirably. In 1777, the ministry having decided to establish per
manent relations in the farthest east, Vauquelin was appointed
king's consul in China, and obtained an exsequatur as such from
Kien-Long, the reigning emperor. This fact has never obtained
publicity till now. M. Vauquelin rendered great services, and
left a good personal repute in China."

COUNT DE VAUDREUIL.
The Count de Vaudreuil mentioned in the deed, after the
death of Pierre Francois, and lieutenant-general of the naval
forces, was born at Quebec in 1723. He entered the French naval
service in 1741, and commanded L' Arithuse in 1756. He gave
battle to two English frigates on the C6te de Bretagne, and did not
surrender until he had saved the fleet which he had under convoy.
The English not only requested him to retain his sword, but sent
him to France without exacting an exchange. At the commencement
of the American war, in answer to an offer made to him by the king,
of the government of St. Dominique, he said : "No, sire, the only post
suitable to a seaman in war time, is that of a commander of a ship."
He commanded: the Fendant at the conquest of Grenada, under
D'Estaing, took six millions worth of prizes during the cruise, and
captured the Senegal in 1779. He was present, in his quality of
general officer, at five naval engagements. That of D'Ouessant
against Admiral Keppel was undecided ; that of Martinique against
Hood was a disappointment, as was the encounter between Comte
de Guichen with Admiral Kempenfeldt ; but that of the Ches
apeake against Graves was a victory, which resulted in the
capitulation of Lord Cornwallis. He was present at the two
engagements with Rodney, under the Comte de Guichen, as well
as under the Comte de Grasse Tilly. Seasam, who commanded
the Triumphant, and who conducted the advance guard, spared
nothing to be beforehand respecting the fate of Paris, and thereby
saved twelve ships. The Council of War assembled in 1784
rendered entire justice to his able retreat; and Louis XVI. in
person thanked him. Already a Commander of St. Louis, he was
created Grand Croix in 1789. During this notable period he was
led to the Etats Gen<§raux. Threatened in 1792, he defended tho

46 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS
Tuileries,* and afterwards emigrated. The minister, Bertram,
wrote to him inviting him to resume his post. Las Casas, in the
"Memorial de Ste. HSlene," speaking about the emigration of Com-
blentz, says that the councillors of Monsieur were M. M. d' Avaray
and de Jancourt, the Marquis de Vaudreuil and the Bishop d' Arras,
and Marquis le Comte d'Artois. Madame de Genlis pronounces a
eulogy on him in her M&moires. He entered France with eagerness
under the consulate, and died in 1802. He must not be blended
with the Comte de Veudreuil, his contemporary, the same perhaps
to whom Charlevoix was preceptor, who pursued Nelson during the
American war, and who was chief of the squadron at Dominique,
where he commanded the Sceptre, as well as in the engagement
against Admiral Hood. He was wounded on the 12th of April.

CHEVALIER DE VAUDREUIL.
Pierre Francuis Rigaud, Chevalier de Vaudreuil, another
member of that illustrious family, and brother to the last gov
ernor of Canada, successively lieutentant-governor of Quebec and
governor of Three [Rivers and Montreal, was born in that city on
the 8th of February, 1704, and married on the 2nd of May, 1733,
at Quebec, Louise Therese Fleury de La Gorgendiere. According
to the author of the memoirs, published by the Historical Society
at Quebec, he was a brave soldier, not very ingenious, plain, affable,
beneficent, and capable of risking everything for the service of his
sovereign. He took Fort Massachusetts, achieved a victory over
Colonel Parker on lake St. Sacrement, sunk twenty bateaux, and
took five officers and one hundred and sixty men ; destroyed the
preparations of a campaign under the bastions of Fort George;
went to Fiance, where he prevailed on the French ministry to
despatch Montcalm, De Levis, Bourlamaque and Bougainville to
this country ; assembled at St. John the army which besieged
Oswego and Ontario, «nd slid in between the forts, during the
siege, in spite of a corps of troops which were there established
to keep open the communication of these two fortresses. The
last attempt to detach from the English the Iroquois cantons,
was made through his ministry in 1757. Rigaud de Vaudreuil
*But for the intrepid defenoe of the body-guard, and the exertions of the
Marquis de Vaudreuil, who suoceeded in reviving in the Frenoh guards some
sparks of their anoient loyalty, the king himself and the royal family would
have fallen a prey to the assassins. (Alison's History of Europe, Vol. I.)

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 47
left with nine canoes loaded with presents ; and the chief of the
Onnantagu6s came to meet him with twenty warriors ; they saw
him near Oswego. Each chief was saluted with three voileys of
musketry ; a tent was struck, and the two chiefs were brought
together. There is found in the " Mimoires sur le Canada," as
well as in the " Sagamos IllustrSs," the remaining description of the
conference, which, however, had no effect. He was still living
with his wife, at St. Germain-en-Laye, in 1770.

MONTCALM.
Louis Joseph de Saint Veran, Marquis de Montcalm,
celebrated in history as a brave, bold and intrepid French military
officer, and as the last commander of the French troops in America,
previous to what is termed the conquest of Canada, was distinguished
for the masterly manner in which he executed the command con
fided to him by his sovereign, and more particularly for the stout
and resolute resistence which he made to the English under Wolfe
in 1759, when they attacked the city of Quebec. He was the
descendant of a noble French family (members of which are still
living), and was born in the Chateau of Caudiac, near Nimes, in
1712. He entered the army when fourteen years of age, served in
Italy as early as 1734, distinguished himself in Germany under
Belle Isle during the war for the Austrian succession ; Italy again
became the scene of his exploits, and there he gained the rank of
colonel in the disastrous battle of Piacenza (1746). In 1756,
being then a brigadier-general, he was appointed to command the
French troops in Canada. He arrived in this country about the
middle of May, and soon after began operations against the English
with great activity and success. Fort Ontario at Oswego was carried
on 14th August, after a brisk and well-conducted attack. The
next year he forced Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George,
which was held by a garrison of over two thousand five hundred
men, to surrender at discretion, and thus became possessed of forty-
two guns and large stores of ammunition and provisions, which
were invaluable to his nearly destitute army. Scarcity of food had
been one of his greatest difficulties ; the harvest in Canada had
failed, and the French government was reluctant to send out
supplies, which were liable to be captured by the English cruisers.
Montcalm had, besides, to oppose an enemy far superior in numbers
and discipline to his own troops, whioh consisted in a great measure

48 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of Canadian volunteers. Notwithstanding these disadvantages he
held his ground firmly, when, in the campaign of 1758, the English
under Abercrombie, marched from the south toward the French
dominions. Montcalm occupied the strong position of Ticonderago,
made it still stronger by entrenchments, in constructing which he
worked with the common soldiers, and, at the head of about three
thousand six hundred men, awaited the attack of over fifteen
thousand. After a fierce battle, which lasted four hours (July 8,
1758), the British retreated in disorder. The personal bravery
which Montcalm had evinced, increased his popularity among his
soldiers ; and it is believed by many, that if he had received timely
reinforcements, he could have maintained the supremacy of the
French in North America, or held out for a much longer period ;
but the want of energy on the part of the home goverament, the
scarcity of food all over New France, and personal dissensions
between the governor and the military commander, forbade him to
look for much assistance ; and in the midst of victory he expressed
his conviction that in a few months the English would be masters
of the French colonies in America. Resolved, however, to struggle
to the last, and, as he himself said, " to find his grave under the
ruins of the colony," he actively prepared for the campaign of
1759. The English, on the other side, spared no exertions to
make their conquest sure ; troops were sent from Europe, the
colonial regiments were thoroughly re-organized, and a strong
fleet was to co-operate with the land forces. While Amherst and
Prideaux were manosuvering to dislodge the French from their
posts in the vicinity of Kingston, General Wolfe, at the head of
eight thousand chosen troops, supported by the fleet in the St.
Lawrence, presented himself before Quebec. The success of the
whole campaign, or more properly the conquest of Canada, depended
upon the taking of that city ; and to protect it, Montcalm had
concentrated his principal forces on the banks of the Montmorenci
river. Being attacked in front by Wolfe, on July 31, he repelled
him with considerable loss. Wolfe then changed his plans ; he
prudently landed his troops by night on the left bank of the St.
Lawrence, above Quebec, climbed the table land that overhangs the
city, and on the morning of 18th September, appeared with his
whole force on the heights of Abraham, in the rear of the French
army. Montcalm flew at once to oppose his advance ; and by ten
o'clock the two armies, nearly equal in numbers, each having fewer
than five thousand men, were drawn up in front of one another.
Montcalm led the attack in person, but his troops soon broke before
the deadly fire and unflinching front of the British ; and when
Wolfe, placing himself at the head of the 28th and the Louisbourg
Grenadiers, gave the order to charge with bayonets, the French
fled in every direction. The gallant British general fell in the
moment of triumph. Montcalm, having received one musket ball

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 49
earlier in the action, was mortally wounded while attempting to
rally a body of fugitive Canadians, a few moments after Wolfe
was borne from the field. On being told that his death was near :
" So much the better," he said, " I shall not live to see the sur
render of Quebec." He died next morning ; and his death was
followed by the loss of all Canada, " where his career," as Bancroft
observes, "had been a wonderful struggle against inexorable
destiny." He was buried in the Ursuline Convent, on Garden
street, Quebec.
A public monument to the memory of both Wolfe and Montcalm
was erected at Quebec in 1827, chiefly through the influence of the
Earl of Dalhousie, then governor-general of Canada.
The following inscription and epitaph which we give, was written
by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres of Paris in
1761, and was inscribed on a monument which that body had
designed to erect in Quebec, but which never reached that city,
the vessel on which it had been embarked having been lost at sea :
Here Lieth
In either hemisphere to live forever,
LEWIS JOSEPH DE MONTCALM GOZON,
Marquis of St. Veran, Baron of Gabriac,
Commander of the order of St. Lewis,
Lieutenant General of the French army ;
not less an excellent citizen than soldier,
who knew no desire but that of
true glory;
Happy in a natural Genius, improved by literature ;
Having gone through the several steps of military honors
with an uninterrupted lustre ;
skilled in all the arts of war,
the juncture of the times, and the crisis of danger ;
In Italy, in Bohemia, in Germany,
an indefatigable general :
He so discharged his important trusts,
that he seemed always equal to still greater
At length, grown bright with perils,
sent to secure the province of Canada
With a handful of men,
he more than once repulsed the enemy's forces,
and made himself master of their forts
replete with troops and ammunition.
Inured to cold, hunger, watching and labours,
unmindful of himself,
he had no sensation but for his soldiers :
An enemy with the fiercest impetuosity;
a victor with the tendereSt humanity,
Adverse fortune he compensated with valour ;
7

50 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the want of strength with skill and activity
and, with his counsel and support,
for four years protracted the impending
fate of the colony.
Having, with various artifices,
long baffled a great army,
headed by an expert and intrepid commander,
and a fleet furnished with all warlike stores,
compelled at length to an engagement,
he fell— in the first rank — in the first onset,
warm with those hopes of religion
which he had always cherished ;
to the inexpressible loss of his own army,
and not without the regret of the enemy's,
XIV September, A.D. MDCCLIX.
Of his age, XLVIII.
His weeping countrymen
Deposited the remains of their excellent General in a grave
which a fallen bomb in bursting had excavated for him,
recommending them to the generous faith of their enemies.

LORD AMHERST.
Jeffrey, Lord Amherst, the commander-in-chief of an army
in America at the conquest of Canada, and one of the bravest and
most experienced officers that ever the nation had the good fortune
to possess, was born in Kent, England, January 29, 1717. Having
early discovered a predilection for the military life, he received hia
first commission in the army in 1731, and was aid-de-camp to
General Ligonier in 1741, in which character he was present at
the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Rocoux. He was afterwards
aid-de-camp to His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, at
the battle of Laffeldt. In 1758, he received orders to return to
England, being appointed for the American service. He sailed
from Portsmouth, 16th March, as major-general, having command
of the troops destined for the siege of Louisbourg. On the 26th
of July following, he captured that place, and without further
difficulty took entire possession of the Island of Cape Breton.
After this event, he succeeded Abercrombie in the command of
the army of North America. In 1759, the vast design of an entire
conquest of Canada was formed. Three armies were to attack at

And persons connected \Vtts oanada. 5i
nearly the same time all the strongholds of the French in this
country. They were commanded by Wolfe, Amherst and Prideaux.
General Amherst, in the spring, transferred his head-quarters from
New York to Albany ; but it was not till the 22nd July that he
reached Ticonderago, against which place he was to act. On the
27th this place fell into his hands, the enemy having deserted it.
He next took Crown Point, and put his troops in winter quarters
about the last of October. In the year 1760, he advanced against
Canada, embarking on Lake Ontario, and proceeded down the St.
Lawrence. On the 8th of September, M. de Vaudreuil capitu
lated, surrendering Montreal and all other places within the govern
ment of Canada.
He continued in the command in America till the latter part of
1763, when he returned to England. The author of the letters of
Junius was his friend, and, September 1760, wrote in his favor.
In 1771, he was made governor of Guernsey, and in 1776, he
was created Baron Amherst of Holmsdale, in the county of Kent.
In 1778, he commanded the army in England. At this period
Lord Sackville, to whom the letters of Junius have been ascribed,
was one of the king's ministers, and he had been intimate with
Amherst from early life. In 1782, he received the gold stick from
the king ; but, on the change of the administration, the command
of the army and the lieutenant-generalship of the ordnance were
put into other hands. In 1787, he received another patent of
peerage, as Baron Amherst of Montreal. In January, 1793, he
was again appointed to the command of the army in Great Britain ;
but in 1795 this veteran and very deserving officer was superseded
by H. R. H. the Duke of York, the second son of the king, who
was only in the thirty-first year of his age, and had never seen any
actual service. The government on this occasion, with a view
to soothe the feelings of the old general, offered him an earldom
•and the rank of field-marshal, both of which he at that time
rejected. The office of field-marshal, however, he accepted in July,
1796. He died without children, at his seat in Kent, August 3,
1793. aged eighty years.

WOLFE.
If the hearts of the English people and of British Canadians
ever beat with feelings of gratitude, joy or emotion, it is at the
mention ofthe name of the gallant, brave, able and generous

62 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
young general, who was appointed to command the expedi
tion destined to wrest from French power one of the finest
countries on the globe. It has been appropriately called " the
brightest jewel in Britain's crown" — the most valuable and loyal
province among her Majesty's possessions. This renowned hero
braved all dangers to lead on his gallant army to victory, and died
the soldier's death— on the battle-field, the field of glory, the
classic ground known as the Plains of Abraham. Wolfe has
established for himself a name and an immortality of fame which
can never be tarnished while the British empire endures. He is
our hero; he won for us all that we possess; and Canadians
should ever gratefully regard the memory of him who first brought
their country under the sway of constitutional monarchy.
James Wolfe was born at Westerham, Kent, on the 15th of
January, 1726. His father, Edward Wolfe, was an officer in the
British army — some biographers call him lieutenant-general; his
son's monument at Greenwich styles him only colonel.
A commission was obtained for James at an early age. In 1747
he was present at the battle of Lafeldt, and had the good fortune
to distinguish himself by his presence of mind at a critical
juncture. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored peace to Europe
in the course of the next year ; but Wolfe found means to keep
alive the favorable impression which he had made on the minds of
his superior officers in action, by the skill and attention evinced by
him in the irksome routine duties of traiuing and preserving
discipline. The precision with which the six British battalions of
infantry performed their evolutions on the field of Minden (1759),
and the firmness with which they kept their ground, when exposed,
in consequence of Lord George Sackville's dilatoriness in bringing
up the cavalry, were in a great measure attributed to the exertions
of Wolfe. During the seven years of peace which succeeded
1748, he gradually rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Hostilities re-commenced between France and Great Britain in
1755 ; and, in 1757, Wolfe was appointed quartermaster-general
to the forces, under Sir John Mordaunt, intended to attack
Rochefort. While the military and naval commanders of that
mismanaged expedition were wasting time in idle controversy,
Wolfe landed, one night, and advanced two'miles into the country.
His report of the absence of any obstacles to a descent, and his
urgent recommendations that it should be made, were disregarded ;
but they became known to the great Pitt, and were the main
reason for his afterwards selecting Wolfe to command in Canada.
In 1758, Wolfe was sent, with the rank of brigadier-general,
on the expedition against Cape Breton, in which Boscawen
commanded the sea, and Amherst the land forces. The brunt of
the French fire in landing before Louisbourg was borne by the left
division under Wolfe, the attacks by the oentre and right divisions

And perbons connected with Canada. 63
being mere feints to distract the enemy. The subsequent opera
tions of the siege were also, in a great measure, conducted by
Wolfe ; and it was an honorable trait in the character of Amherst,
that, in his dispatches, he allowed his brigadier the full credit of
the action. The landing was effected on the 8th of June ; Louis
bourg surrendered on the 26th of July. Wolfe soon afterwards
returned to England.
In 1759, the memorable expedition which afterwards shed such
lustre on the British arms, was fitted out against Quebec by Pitt,
who had resolved to deprive the French crown of its most impor
tant settlements in America. The oommand of the sea forces was
entrusted to Saunders ; the command of the land forces (7,000
men including provincials), to Wolfe. The expedition arrived at
the Isle of Orleans on the 26th of June ; the fort of Niagara had
been surrendered to the English under Amherst the day before.
In August Wolfe issued a proclamation to the Canadian peasants,
informing them that the forces were masters of the river ; while a
powerful army, under General Amherst, threatened their country
from the interior ; calling upon them to observe a strict neutrality
during the struggle between the French and English crowns, and
promising to protect them in their possessions and in the exercise
of their religion. These promises he most faithfully kept.
Montcalm had concentrated all the forces he could raise in the
province of Quebec, and had completed his fortifications in a
masterly manner. The months of July and August were spent in
repeated unsuccessful attempts to drive the French from their
advantageous post at the Falls of Montmorenci; and here the
English suffered a repulse, on attempting to effect a landing in the
vicinity. On the night between the 12th and 13th of September, 1759,
Wolfe landed his troops immediately above Quebec, and, favored
by the night, ascended the steep acclivities to the Plains of
Abraham, which command that city from the west. Montcalm,
when he learned that the English were in possession of these
heights, saw at once that nothing but a battle could save the city ;
and he took his measures accordingly. The battle was strenuously
contested, but the French at length gave way. The carnage was
frightful; both sides suffered severely; but, from all ac
counts, we believe the French most ; this is attributed to some
negligence of the French officers, and to the feebleness of
their men, who had long suffered from want. Indeed, the French
goverment never took much pains to retain so valuable a depen
dency. They never knew how precious Canada really was, until
they lost it. But to return to the fight. Both Montcalm and
Wolfe fell in the action, and their seconds in command were both
dangerously wounded, and were obliged to leave the field before
the fate of the day was decided. Montcalm lingered for a day or

64 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
two ; but the young, gallant and intrepid Wolfe, expired almost
immediately. Tradition and history have it, that, while he lay
wounded on the field of battle, the cry, "They run !" arose along
the line. As he was raised from the ground he asked, " Who run 1"
" The French," was the reply. He seemed to feel satisfied ; he had
accomplished the purpose for which he had been sent. "The
French !" (then he added) "I die happy !" And falling down, he
instantly expired.
Five days after the action, Quebec capitulated, and Canada was
forever lost to France.
The feature of Wolfe's character most dwelt upon by his contem
poraries, was his ardent and fearless spirit of enterprise. His skill
as a disciplinarian, however, the pains he took to ascertain the real
state of affairs at Rochefort, and the arguments by which he
supported the proposal of a descent — and, above all, his letter
addressed to the prime minister from his head quarters at Mont
morenci, on the 2nd of September — show that this quality was
combined with an observant and deliberate mind. Enterprise was
with Wolfe the result of perfect and laboriously attained knowledge
of his position.
It is to be regretted that the correspondence of Wolfe, which is
known to exist, has not been given to the world. It would be
instructive to military men; for his character as a soldier was
almost perfect, though the field in which his talents were developed
was a narrow one. The task of writing his life was undertaken
by Southey, and afterwards by Gleig ; but relinguished by both
from unexplained difficulties which intervened. Michaud, jeune,
is in error when he says, in the " JBiographie Universette," that
the " Life and Correspondence of Wolfe" was published at
London in 1827 ; it was only announced. The author of the
article, " Wolfe, James," in the " Encyclopsedia Americana," has,
without acknowledgment, copied Michaud's sketch, and has
retained this mistake with others. The only correct materials for
the Life of Wolfe are contained in the first three volumes of the
" Annual Register," (edited by Burke), in a very shallow " Life
of General James Wolfe," — " attempted according to the rules of
eloquence," — by a writer who designates himself " J. P.," published
in 1760 ; and in a work published at Montreal a short time since,
by John Lovell, and written by Mr. Andrew Bell.
The death of Wolfe made a deep impression in England. The
most touching instance is mentioned by Burke. A little circum
stance was talked of that time, and it deserves to be recorded, as
it shows a fineness of sentiment and a justness of thinking in tlie
lower kind of people, which is rarely met with even amongst persons
of education. The mother of General Wolfe was an object marked
out for pity by great and peculiar distress; the public wound
pierced her mind with a peculiar affliction, for she had in him

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 55
experienced the dutiful son, the amiable domestic character ; whilst
the world admired the accomplished officer. Within a few months
she had lost her husband ; she now lost her son, her only child.
The populace of the village, where she lived, unanimously agreed
to admit of no illuminations or fireworks, or any other sign of
rejoicing whatever, near her house ; lest they should seem, by an
ill-timed triumph, to exult over her grief. There was a justness
in this; and whoever knows the people, knows that they made no
small sacrifice on this occasion. But in mostly all other parts of
the United Kingdom great rejoicings took place at the fall of
Quebec, saddened though they were by the death of the conqueror.
James Wolfe fell in his thirty-fourth year. His remains were
conveyed to England, and interred at Greenwich. A monument
was erected to his memory, in 1760, by the gentlemen of his native
parish ; a public monument in Westminster Abbey was voted by
the House of Commons, and opened to the public in 1759 ;* a
marble statue was voted by the Assembly of Massachusetts ; a
monument was erected by the Province of Lower Canada on the
spot where he fell on the Plains of Abraham ; and, on its decay,
another (still standing) was raised by Sir B. D'Urban, the then
commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada, and other mihtary
officers in the colony.

PONTIAC.
Pontiac, a celebrated chief of the Ottawa tribe of Indians,
who, removing from the valley of the great river of that name,
settled near Michilimackinac. An ally of the French, he resisted
*In this the major-general is represented as endeavoring to close, with his
hand, the wound made in his breast, while he is supported by a grenadier. An
angel is seen in the clouds, holding a wreath ready to crown the expiring hero.
On the pyramid is represented, in relief, the faithful Highland Serjeant who
attended him; and his sorrow at witnessing 'the agonies of his dying master
is so pathetically expressed, that a spectator can scarcely view the sculpture
unmoved. Iu the front, in alto-relief, is depicted the landing at Quebec, with a
view of the precipices which the troops had to ascend before the enemy could be
attacked. The inscription is as follows : — .
" To the memory of James Wolfe, Major-General and Commander-in-Chief of
the British Land Forces on an expedition against Quebec, who, after surmounting,
by abUity and valour, all obstacles of art and nature, was slain in the m«»iit
of victory, on the 13th of September, 1759, the King and the Parhament of
Great Britain dedicate this monument."

56 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the efforts of the English to gain possession of their forts, after
the fall of Quebec in 1759-60. In June, 1763, he matured a bold
and comprehensive plan for the extinction of English power, by
the simultaneous capture of the extensive chain of forts reaching
from lake Michigan to the Niagara. Nine forts were attacked on the
same day, and their garrisons either massacred or dispersed. De
troit was besieged by Pontiac himself; but the attack failed, an
Indian woman having discovered the plot and revealed it. The
siege was, nevertheless, maintained for nearly twelve months, until
the garrison was relieved by Colonel Bradstreet. Niagara was not
attacked, and Pittsburg was saved by Colonel Boquet. Pontiac
afterwards professed friendship for the English ; but an English
spy having discovered in a speech symptoms of treachery, stabbed
him to the heart and fled. His loss was greatly deplored, for he
was a man of singular sagacity, daring courage, and statesmanlike
views. The county of Pontiac in Lower Canada is called after
this renowned chief.

Admiral Sir CHARLES SAUNDERS, K.B.
This distinguished naval officer, whose name is allied with that
of the ever glorious Wolfe, in the memorable undertaking of the
siege of Quebec, as the commander of the squadron destined to
act in connection with that of the army, was descended from a
good Scottish family; and being destined both by nature and for- •
tune for the sea, he early entered into the navy of his country.
He fought his way onward nobly, mastering every difficulty, sur
mounting all obstacles, until he finally rose to the highest honors
in the service. He was one of the most gallant, intrepid and
brave officers in his Majesty's navy, a fact which is verified by
his being one of Lord Anson's lieutenants, and taking part with
that highly distinguished nobleman in many of his most daring and
distinguished actions. Sir Charles was celebrated for his great
bravery and for his gallant defence of the Yarmouth, while in
her command in 1747. This it was that gave him his well-earned
reputation, and ensured the command of the brilliant fleet destined
for the capture of Quebec in 1759. It was one of the finest
armaments ever fitted out in England, and well able to cope with
the dangerous service in which it was employed. It rendered the
greatest assistance to Wolfe in his undertaking, — bombarded the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 57
town and nearly shattered it to pieces. Every one must admire
the remarkable skill of the admiral as he combatted with the
numerous dangers which French ingenuity set forth, — particularly
when the fire-ships were dispatched to destroy his fleet. All must
award to him the merit of being one of the most devoted and
loyal servants of his king. Happily his services met with their
reward. His Majesty, in the following year, appointed him Lieu
tenant-General of Marines; in 1765, a Lord of the Admiralty,
and in 1766, First Lord of the Admiralty. He was also returned
to Parliament. His death occurred in December, 1775.

BOURLAMAQUE.
A Brigadier-General of Montcalm, and a most chivalrous
soldier. He came to Canada as colonel of engineers. He com
manded the left wing of the army at Carillen, (where he was
wounded), as well as at Montmorenci, the Plains of Abraham and
at St. Foy. He afterwards was elevated to the governorship of
Guadeloupe, where he died.

MAJOR-GENERAL BRADDOCK.
Edward Braddock, a brave and able, but unfortunate officer,
who was commander-in-chief of the British army in America in
1755. The disastrous event which has made his name memorable
in history, was owing to his contempt of the enemy, and his
neglect* to provide against surprise. Conducting in person the
expedition against Fort Du Quesne, he was attacked on the 8th
July, when about seven miles distant from the fort, by a con
cealed enemy, who fired upon him from the shelter of the tall
grass and the surrounding trees. The attempt to rally the troops
was fruitless. All his officers except, George Washington, fell.
He himself received a mortal wound, and expired a few days
after at Dunbar, forty miles distant from the field. The entire
loss of the British was seven hundred men.

58 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

JOSEPH FRANCIS LAPITAU.
A celebrated French ecclesiastic and missionary, who was a
native of Bourdeaux, and was employed as a missionary among
the savage Indian tribes in Canada and North America, during
the French occupation of this country. On his return to Europe,
he published a work entitled " Mceurs des Sauvages Amtricains
comparies aux Mceurs des premiers Temps ;" Paris, 1731 : 4 vols.
4to. He died in 1740. His brother, Peter, also a Jesuit, became
a celebrated man in his native country.

ADMIRAL CHARLES HOLMES,
A brave and experienced naval commander, who fought many
gallant battles, and served his country for a lengthened time
before he gained a flag. In 1758, he displayed great skill, tact,
shrewdness and courage, in forcing the French and Austrian gar
rison to abandon the city of Embden. For this he received many
marks of royal favor, and in the next year, in conjunction with
Sir Charles Saunders, was appointed to the command of the naval
squadron destined for the capture of the ancient city of Quebec,
in which he performed good service, and in 1760 was entrusted
with the command of the station at Jamaica, where he died in
1761.

BOUGAINVILLE.
Louis Antoine Bougainville, a French navigator, distin
guished for his maritime discoveries. He was born at Paris in
1729. He studied at the university with a view to practising at

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 59
the bar, and was admitted a counsellor of the Parliament of Paris.
He paid particular attention to the study of mathematics, and in
1752 he published " Trait6 du Calcid Integral, pour servir de suite
a T Analyse des Infiniments Petits ;" 2 vols. 4to. In 1753, he
entered as an adjutant in the provincial battalion of Picardy, and
he became aide-de-camp to General Chevert, who commanded the
camp of Sarre-Louis in 1754. He then went to London as Secre
tary of Embassy, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.
On his return he rejoined Chevert, and afterwards served in this
country under the Marquis de Montcalm. He was sent to France,
in 1756, to demand reinforcements for the defence of the colony,
and he returned to Canada in 1759, having received the rank of
colonel, and the decoration of Knight of St. Louis. At the cap
ture of Quebec he distinguished himself to a great extent, and
afterwards returned home, and in 1761 he was employed in Ger
many as aide-de-camp to M. de Choiseul Stainville. Peace taking
place, he engaged in the naval service. In 1763, he was employed
to make a settlement at the Malouine Islands, but this project was
frustrated in consequence of their being claimed by the Spaniards;
Bougainville was therefore charged with the duty of restoring
them to Spain, for which purpose he sailed with a small fleet from
St. Malo, November 15, 1766. Having executed his mission,
he sailed into the south seas, and visited the Society Islands, the
New Hebrides, New Guinea, and other places ; and he returned to
St. Malo, March 16, 1769, having enriched geography with a
great number of discoveries. His relation of his voyage round
the world was published in 1771. He commanded with distinc
tion ships of the line in the American war; in 1779, he was
made a commodore, and the following year he obtained further
promotion. He was employed to allay the disturbances at Brest
in 1690, but his services on that occasion were ineffectual. At
length he retired from professional employment, after having
served his country in the army and navy with great reputation,
during more than forty years. In 1796 he was elected a member of
the geographical section of the Institute, and afterwards a mem
ber of the Bureau des Longitudes. He was made a senator on
the creation of that body by the state. His death took place
August 31, 1811. Commersau, who accompanied him in his voy
age round the world as botanist, gave his name to a new genus of
plants, Buganvillsea, of the family of myctogenea, or night-blowing
flowers.

60 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir JAMES DOUGLAS, Bart.,
A celebrated naval commander, who took part in the first battle
of Quebec, was deputed to convey the news of the surrender of
that city to the king, and on that occasion his Majesty knighted
him for the welcome news. Douglas commanded the fleet afc the
Leeward Islands in 1761 ; had a broad pendant at the siege of
Martinico in 1762 ; was created a baronet for his eminent services
in June, 1786 ; and died in 1787,

MAJOR-GENERAL BRADSTREET.
John Bradstreet, a major-general in the British army, who
fought in this country and distinguished himself as a brave and
gallant officer in the first American war, was in 1746 Lieutenant-
Governor of St. John's, Newfoundland. He was afterwards
distinguished for his military services. It was thought of the
highest importance, in the year 1756, to keep open the communi
cation with Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. General Shirley
accordingly enlisted forty companies of boatmen, each consisting of
fifty men, for transporting stores to the fort from Schenectady, and
placed them under the command of Bradstreet, who was an active
and vigilant officer, and inured to the hardships to which the service
exposed him. In the beginning of the spring of this year, a small
stockaded post, with twenty-five men at the carrying place, was cut
off. It became necessary to pass through the country with large
squadrons of boats, as the enemy infested the passage through the
Onondaga river. On his return from Oswi'go, July 3, 1756,
Colonel Bradstreet, who was apprehensive of being ambushed,
ordered the several divisions to proceed as near each other
as possible. He was at the head of about three hundred boatmen
in the first division, when, at a distance of nine miles from the port,
the enemy rose from their ambuscade and attacked them. He
instantly landed upon a small island, and with but six men, main
tained his position until he was reinforced. A general engagement
ensued, in which Bradstreet with gallantry rushed upon a more

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 61
numerous enemy and entirely routed them, killing and wounding
about two hundred men ; his own loss was about thirty. In the
year 1758 he was entrusted with the command of three thousand
men, on an expedition against Fort Frontenac, which was planned
by himself. He embarked at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, and on the
evening of August 25th, landed within a mile of the fort. On the
27th it was surrendered to him. Forty pieces of cannon, and a vast
quantity of provisions and merchandise, with one hundred and ten
prisoners, fell into his hands. The fort and nine armed vessels,
and such stores as could not be removed, were destroyed. In
August, 1764, he advanced with a considerable force towards the
Indian country, and at Presque Isle compelled the Delawares,
Shawnese, and other Indians, to accept terms of peace. He was
appointed major-general May 26, 1772. After rendering important
services to this country, he died at New York, October 21, 1774.

MAJOR-GENERAL PRIDEAUX.
Most of our readers are no doubt aware that when the campaign
of 1759 was resolved on by the great statesman, Pitt, four general
officers were selected by him to attack the country at four separate
parts. Amherst was to have the general command, and assault
Montreal by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu ; Wolfe was
destined to enter by the broad St. Lawrence, and take Quebec ;
Stanwix to conquer the French posts between Pittsburg and Lake
Erie ; and to Prideaux was entrusted the important command to
reduce Fort Niagara, then one of the most formidable in the
country. In selecting these four officers, nearly all of a young
age, Pitt was actuated by no influence or feeling except his deep
sense ofthe fitness, ability and merit of each for the command and
service entrusted to them ; and he was not wrong in his calcula
tion, as history assures us : each proved himself well worthy of
the confidence that extraordinary man placed in them. But, sad to
relate, Wolfe, although having achieved a brilliant conquest, ex
pired in the moment of victory, and did not live to receive the
honors that would have been awarded him by a grateful king and
country, had he returned to England. Unhappily, such was also
the fate of the brave and gallant Prideaux, a young and distin
guished officer, having been born in the year 1718, and descended
from an old and time-honored family of the county of Devon,

62 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
England. His career was excessively brilliant. He early entered
the army, and served with the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards (now
Grenadier Guards), and was present at the battle of Dettingen.
His bravery, skill and ingenuity, were of such an elevating character
that he speedily attained the high rank he held at his death, and
was colonel of the 55th Regiment.
When the expedition to capture Canada was decided on, he had
risen for one so young to such eminence in his profession that Pitt
himself selected him as an officer to whom he could entrust the
command of one division of the army, for the purpose before
mentioned. The campaign was opened by General Prideaux's movement on
Niagara. This fortress, situated at the mouth of the river of that
name, as we mentioned before, was one of the strongest the French
possessed, and was commanded by M. Pouchet, who had a superior
force within, but not sufficient to meet those of Prideaux.
The British army effected a landing on the 7th July, notwith
standing the harassing fire of the enemy, and at once summoned
Pouchet to surrender, which he refused, having secretly sent for
reinforcements to Frontenac and Detroit previously. Nothing
remained for the young general but to compel him to do so by all
means in his power, and he opened a tremendous fire with his
artillery against the fort. On the 11th he defeated a sortie, and
on the 19th, when the aid arrived from Frontenac, compelled the
schooner which carried it to remain out on the lake, for fear of his
artillery. He had planned a form of operations, and was busily
carrying a portion of them out, on the evening of the 19th, in the
trenches, when he was killed by the bursting of a cohorn, — the
command falling on Sir William Johnson, the second in command,
who subsequently carried the fort, following out the operations
laid down by his predecessor.
By the death of this brave and distinguished officer, the king
lost one of his best subjects, and the country one of its ablest
soldiers and defenders. His premature loss inflicted a heavy
blow on those whom he left behind him ; as, independently of his
high military character, he was a person of eminent merit both in
his social as well as his professional life, and his family were
bereaved of a parent before his children could well appreciate the
severity of their loss.
He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Rolt, and sister
of Sir Edward Bayntum Rolt, Bart., R.N., by whom he had three
sons and one daughter.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 63

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL STANWIX.
John Stanwix, one of the general officers selected by Pitt to
accompany the expedition for the capture of Canada, in 1759.
He had entered the army in 1706, and served in it thirty-nine
years before he obtained the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He had
been deputy quartermaster-general ; and, just prior to his proceed
ing to America, had been made major-general. To him was
entrusted the conquest of the French posts from Pittsburg to Lake
Erie, in which he greatly distinguished himself; so much so,
indeed, that in 1761 he was appointed a lieutenant-general, and
became colonel of the king's regiment. He was also returned to
Parliament. He unfortunately lost his life in 1766, on his passage
from Ireland to England, and was deeply regretted by his many
friends in and out of the army.

LORD VISCOUNT HOWE.
In writing the present work on the lives of the celebrated men
who have at any time been connected with Canada, we would be
doing a grievous wrong and infringing the object and rules of the
work, were we to neglect to insert a notice of the above brave,
intrepid and distinguished officer, who gave up his life's blood to
conquerjthis colony, and preserve it to the king whom he served so
nobly and so constantly, and who, in point of youth and ability in
the expedition, was second only to the immortal Wolfe.
George Augustus Viscount Howe was the eldest son of Sir
E. Scrope, the second Viscount, and of Sophia Charlotte,
daughter of the Hanoverian Baron of Kielmansegge, and Mas
ter of the Horse to George I. He early entered into the military
service, and speedily rose to distinction. On the several expe
ditions sent out to America with the object of conquering Canada
from the French, Lord Howe was selectel to command one of the
divisions, and he accordingly accompanied them out, and for some
time, in 1757, commanded at Halifax ; but on Abercrombie being so
injudiciously appointed to the commandership-in-chief, Howe was
attached to his army in command of a party, and would, no doubt,

64 sketches of celebrated Canadians
speedily have risen to the highest honors which his king and his coun
try could have bestowed upon him (having already displayed great
courage, skill and efficiency in the dangerous service in which he
was employed), had not cruel fate ordained otherwise. On the 5th
July, 1758, the rash Abercrombie determined on assaulting and
taking Fort Ticondcrago — a post well armed, and with a superior
force within it ; but his ambition was roused, and not heeding the
wise counsels of his aids, persisted in his obstinate course. He
failed, and miserably so, and by his failure entailed a heavy loss in
his ranks; besides, the brave, intrepid and youthful Howe had
fallen, whilst doing his utmost to carry out the wishes of his com
manding officer. The grief of all for this young officer's loss was
inconsolable, and not a few of those whom he had commanded
shed bitter and sad tears over his early bier, to think if he had
lived what he would have been ; his talents were of such a high
character, and his services were held in such grateful remem
brance, that monuments were erected on the place where he had so
gallantly fallen, and in Westminster Abbey, by the State of
Massachusetts.

MARQUIS TOWNSHEND.
Field-Marshal, the Right Honorable the most noble,
the Marquis Townshend, was a distinguished nobleman, upon
whom fell the command of the army on the fall of Wolfe, was
the eldest son of the third Viscount Townshend, whom he suc
ceeded as fourth Viscount, in Blay, 1767. He was born on the
28th of February, 1724, and was godson to King George I
He entered the army at an early age, and served and fought
under George II. at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, Culloden,
and Laffeldt ; and when the expedition to Canada under Wolfe was
named, he was appointed to command a division. After the first
battle of Abraham's Plains and the death of Wolfe, he took com
mand of the army, and saw it safely within the walls of Quebeo, and
chiefly promoted the capitulation of De Ramsay. He then re
turned to England, and left the command in the able hands of
General Murray. Ho afterwards attained the rank of a field-
marshal and colonel of the second regiment of Dragoon Guards;
was also a privy councillor, high' steward of Tamworth, Yar
mouth and Norwich, governor of Jersey, and master-general of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 65
the Ordnance. He also administered the government of Ireland
as lord-lieutenant, in 1767.
His lordship married twice ; firstly in 1751, to Lady Charlotte
Compton, only surviving daughter of the Earl of Northampton.
Her ladyship died in 1770 ; secondly, in 1773, Anne, daughter and
co-heir of Sir William Montgomery, Baronet, by both of whom he
had a numerous family. His demise took place on the 14th of
September, 1807.

Hon. ROBERT MONCKTON.
Lieutenant-General the Honorable Robert Monokton,
a brave and distinguished general, who led one of the divi
sions, and was wounded at the battle of the Plains of Abraham
in 1759 ; upon him the command should have fallen when Gen
eral Townshend proceeded to England, had it not been for his
wound, and his having to go to New York to a more genial climate.
He was the second son of the first Viscount Galway, by Elizabeth,
daughter of John, second Duke of Rutland.
General Monckton did not return to Canada, but became gov
ernor and commander-in-chief of New York, and subsequently
governor of Berwick and Holy Island. His demise occurred on
the 3rd of May, 1782.

Hon. JAMES MURRAY.
Of all the men who have served and fought for Canada, no one
deserves more highly to be remembered, or is more entitled to our
esteem and gratitude than the brave and valorous general, whose
name graces the head of this notice. But for him and his judicious,
manly and exemplary conduct, Great Britain would not so easily
have obtained possession of Canada.
General Murray was a son of the fourth Lord Elibank. He
early entered into the service of his country, and served for some
9

66 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS.
time on the continent of Europe. On the expedition being fitted
out for the conquest of Canada, he was included in it, and led a
brigade at the battle of the Plains of Abraham, and the siege of
Quebec. In this high position he did much to contribute to the
brilliant victory which the British arms achieved. On the tak
ing of Quebec, Wolfe being dead, Monckton wounded, and the Mar
quis Townshend having to depart for England, the command of
the city and forces was judiciously intrusted to General Murray.
He accordingly assumed the charge, and at once did everything
which he possibly could for the defence of the city against the
anticipated attack of General De Le>is. Twelve redoubts and
outposts were erected around Quebec, and he laid in an ample
supply of provisions for the ensuing winter. These were all wise and
prudent measures, and were no mean proof of the skill and foresight
of the general. Indeed, it required all his vigilance to preserve the
city. The first days of spring brought De Levis and his army,
consisting of twelve thousand men, while that of Murray amounted
only to three thousand five hundred, two-thirds of whom had been
enfeebled with disease. Nevertheless, his gallant and chivalrous
spirit did not shrink from encountering such a superior force, and
on the 28th of April, he sallied bravely forth from the gates and
ancient battlements of Quebec to offer the enemy battle. De
Levis was encamped and taken by surprise, but he speedily formed
his men in column, and a general battle took place, now known as
the " Second Battle of Quebec." This contest was even more
fiercely maintained than the first, and the raking fire kept up by
the superior force of the French army under the able leadership
of De Levis, produced such telling effect, that Murray ordered a
retreat, carrying with him all his wounded, to the number of seven
hundred, but leaving his guns behind. He has been much con
demned for sacrificing his men, and attacking such a large and
superior force, and has therefore been designated "rash" and "hot
headed" ; but whoever surveys that record of our history calmly
and dispassionately, cannot but admire the man and his brave and
intrepid conduct. He did his duty, and performed it better
than could have been expected ; for he left eighteen hundred of
the enemy dead on the field, and only lost about three hundred of
his own men, his coolness and self-possession having much intimi
dated the French. Now, however, he had a greater care entrusted
to him, the number of wounded, and the defence of the city, with
a small and decreased force within the walls, and an overwhelming
one without, battering away at the devoted walls of the ancient
city to compel him to capitulate. Yet he lost not his self-possession,
but, as gallantly and devotedly as before, took all measures and
precautions to secure the city ; that was now his sole thought — that
his sole object ; and his efforts were crowned with success. Aid
arrived from England, and the French were compelled to beat a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. H7
precipitate retreat, while the gallant Murray still held Quebec.
On the 14th of June he left that city and proceeded to Montreal,
there to join Lord Amherst with the main army, and to force the
remnant of the French to capitulate, and thus sever the connection
of France with Canada forever. They succeeded, and the French
forces were allowed to march out with all the honors of war.
Shortly after Murray's return to Quebec, he was appointed the
first governor-general of the province, and he continued in this
high office till 1767. During his administration, the form of
government and the laws to be observed in the new colony were
promulgated ; the many evils that arose therefrom caused much
dissatisfaction among the French people, and Governor Murray did
all in his power to alleviate the discontented feeling, but with only
partial success. Nevertheless, he won the good wili and esteem of
the whole French race in Canada, and lost that of a part of his'
countrymen, because he would not conform to their prejudices
against the poor natives and those of French origin. He left for
England on leave of absence ; but when he arrived there he was
appointed to a much better field for his talents and abilities, and
he accordingly resigned his connection with Canada.
General Murray was subsequently distinguished for his gallant,
though unsuccessful defence of Minorca, in 1781, against the Due
de Crillon, at the head of a large Spanish and French force. De
Crillon, despairing of success, endeavored to corrupt the gallant
Scott, and offered him the sum of one million sterling for the
surrender of the fortress. Indignant at the attempt, General
Murray immediately addressed the following letter to the duke : —
" Fort St. Phillip, 16th October, 1781.
"When your brave ancestor was desired by his sovereign to
assassinate the Duke de Guise, he returned the answer which you
should have thought of when you attempted to assassinate the
character of a man whose birth is as illustrious as your own, or that
of the Duke de Guise. I can have no further communication with
you but in arms. If you have any humanity, pray send clothing
for your unfortunate prisoners in my possession ; leave it at a
distance to be taken up for them, because I will admit of no contact
for the. future, but such as is hostile to the most inveterate degree."
To this the Due replied : —
" Your letter restores each of us to our places ; it confirms in
me the high opinion which I have always had of you. I accept
your last proposal with pleasure."
In June, 1794, he ended a long and honorable career in the
service of his country, in which he had risen to much distinction ;
but perhaps not more than his services, high talents and abilities
deserved. As a soldier he stood foremost in the army, and had

68 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
won his way by his own merit and his own good sword, owing
nothing to influence. As a genuine Christian officer, he was
esteemed by all good men, and ever distinguished for his humanity
and readiness to relieve the oppressed.
A singular incident is related by Haydyn, in his " Book of
Dignities," concerning this good and honorable man. He says
that after his death, on his corpse being opened for the purpose of
being embalmed, many bullets, by which he had been wounded
both in Germany and America, were extracted. His remains were
privately interred in Westminister Abbey.

GENERAL THOMAS GAGE.
The last appointed Governor of Massachusetts by the king. He
accompanied General Braddock to America, and was present when
that officer was killed. In 1760 he was made Governor of Montreal,
and in 1763 was appointed commander-in-chief of the British
forces in North America, in succession to General Amherst. In
1774 he was appointed Governor of Massachusetts, in which office
he rendered himself very obnoxious to the people by his arbitrary
proceedings ; and in the following year the Provincial Congress
disqualified him from serving as governor. Soon after he returned
to England, where he died in 1787.

DUC DE LEVIS.
Marshal Due de Levis, although only " Chevalier de Levis "
during the time he fought under Montcalm in this country, held
the rank of second in command. He was a most brave and chival
rous general, whom Garneau declares superior in many respects
to Montcalm ; born in 1720, at the Chateau d'Anjac en Languedoc,
the same birthplace as Levy de Ventadour, who was Viceroy of
New France in 1625. He had early adopted the glorious profession,
to which he was an honor and a credit ; he energetically mastered

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 69
every difficulty that lay in his way, or obstructed the fulfilment of
his desire to become a perfect soldier ; and the result showed how
well he had accomplished the task which he had imposed on himself.
' He took part at the battle of Carillon, where he commanded the
right division ; as also at Montmorenci, where the French repulsed
Wolfe in his endeavor to gain the fortified camp that covered
Quebec. He was, however, absent at Montreal, when the first battle
of Quebec was fought ; and therefore, when Montcalm fell, could not
take the command. This was an unfortunate circumstance for the
French, as they had no one in whom they could place so much
confidence as in their recognized leader, De Levis ; the army,
consequently, fell into confusion, and the English gained the
victory. At the second battle of Quebec,* which took place near
St. Foy, and where he had gathered the remnant of the French
army with the ostensible purpose of wresting Quebec from Murray's
hands, he commanded, and achieved a victory over Murray ; but
this so-called victory was not so complete as to prevent the latter
from still holding the city. De Levis, elated by his success, still
kept near Quebec until spring, when, on reinforcements arriving
from England, he had to beat a hasty retreat to Montreal ; and
even there he would have held out against the English until the very
last, had not De Vaudreuil wisely capitulated. He returned to
France, and again sought active service. In 1762 we find him atthe
battle of Johannisbourg, where the Prince of Conde obtained a signal
victory over the forces of Prince Ferdinand. In 1783, the govern
ment of Artois, as a reward for his services, created him a French
Marshal, and in the next year, a Duke and Peer of France. He
died in 1787, whilst endeavoring to uphold the State of Arras

GENERAL SIMON FRASER,
Better known in Canada as Colonel Fraser of Fraser's High
landers, was the son of the celebrated thirteenth Lord Lovat,
who was beheaded at Tower Hill, in 1747, for his participation in
the Scotch rising of 1745. General Fraser, in his earlier days, had
been himself an adherent of Charles Edward ; but subsequently
obtaining a free pardon, and the seventy-eighth regiment, or Fraser's
Highlanders having been formed of the Scottish clans, he joined
*A very handsome monument has been erected at St. Foy, principally through
the efforts of Dr. P. M. Bardy, Quebec, to commemorate this battle.

70 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
them as their lieutenant-colonel, bringing with him into the
regiment seven hundred of his clan. They served at Louisbourg,
and at Montmorenci and the Plains, where their bravery and gal
lantry were conspicuous ; indeed, the victory achieved by England,
on the Plains of Abraham was not a little owing to the hardy High
land regiments led on by Colonel Fraser. In 1762 they were
engaged in the defence of Portugal, where they gained fresh
honors. In 1782 the General died, having attained the high rank
he held, and distinguished himself as a brave and gallant officer.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE GREGORY.
William Gregory was the first chief-justice of the province
of Quebec. Little or nothing is known of him ; whether he came
from the English colonies or England, we are unable to tell. His
commission bears date 24th August, 1764 ; and Smith, in his
History of Canada, says he was recalled during the year by order
of General Murray. There was a William Gregory in 1775, an
associate judge for the Superior Court in South Carolina, under
the royal government, and it is likely that he was the same
individual. He was succeeded here in the chief-justiceship by
William Hey, September 25th, 1766.

BARON MESERES.
This literary veteran was born in London, 15th December,
1731, of a family orginally French, but settled there on the revoca
tion of the Edict of Nantes. His grandfather was one of five
brothers, who were unequally divided, when the call was made on
them for an avowal of their religious principles, three of them ad
hering to the Protestant faith, the other two, the head of the fami
ly and the physician, quitting it for the doctrines established by
law : and what is remarkable, the three who thus distinguished
themselves were officers in the French king's service. The baron's

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH* CANADA. 71
grandfather was well received by William the Third, served
under him in Ireland, and was employed by him in important ser
vices in Portugal ; but he attained no higher rank than that of
colonel. His father was a physician in Broad-street, Soho, London,
which residence he quitted for one in Rathbone-place, occupied by his
widow after his decease, then by his son John, at whose death it
came into the possession of the baron, who out of term time used
to dine, though he never slept there. He received his education at
Kingston-upon-Thames, under the Rev. Mr. Wooddeson, after which
he became a member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he took his
degrees of B.A. in 1752, and M.A. 1755.
In 1752 he obtained the first classical medal at the first institu
tion by the Duke of Newcastle, then Chancellor of the University,
which he received from the Chancellor in person ; the second being
conferred on Porteus, then of Christ's, afterwards Esquire Bedell
of the University, and Bishop of London.
While fellow of his college in 1758, he published " A Disserta
tion on the Negative Sign in Algebra ; containing a Demonstration
of the Rules concerning it :" the design of which is, to remove
the difficulties that deter beginners in Algebra in the use of this
sign which is considered by the baron in no other light than as
the mark of the subtraction of a lesser number from a greater.
Hence he denied the propriety of such expressions as negative
roots, impossible roots, generation of equations, &c, &c, and would
never read those works in which they were introduced. The cele
brated Dr. Waring found him tenacious on this point ; for having
presented to him his " Miscellanea Analytica ;" and called on him
at a suitable time afterwards, he found that the baron had not got
to the second page of his work. The difficulty of understanding it
was stated as the excuse, and the doctor attempting to remove it,
was stopped by the simple remark, that in the first page an expres
sion occurred, implying that the greater number should be taken
from the less. This was assented to by the doctor, and the baron
not allowing that such a process could ever take place,|there was
an end to all further discussion. The first part of the work con
tains the Demonstrations of the several operations of Addition, &c.,
in the way of using the negative sign ; the second part, the doc
trine of quadratic and cubic equations.
From the University Mr. Maseres removed to the Temple, where,
in due course, he was called to the bar, and went the Western
Circuit with little success. His first appointment was that of At
torney-General of Quebec, where he distinguished himself by his
loyalty during the American contest, and his zeal forthe interests
of the province. On his return to England he was made Cursitor
Baron of the Exchequer, in August 1773, which office he filled
with great reputation till his death. He was also on his return
from Quebec, agent to the Protestant settlers there, in which ca-

72 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
pacity he wrote a letter to the Lord Mayor, expressing the sincere
and hearty thanks of the settlers for the city's mark of their fra
ternal regard, testified towards them by their address to the king
in their behalf, and requesting the Lord Mayor, &c, once more to
exert themselves, in order to recover the civil and religious rights
of a no inconsiderable number of honest and enterprising subjects
of the crown, &c.
In 1779 the Recorder of London appointed Mr. Maseres his
deputy, and in 1780 the Court of Common Council appointed him
senior judge of the Sheriff's Court in the city of London; which
office he resigned in 1822.
In 1784 he took an active part with Bishop Horsley and others
in the contest in the Royal Society, occasioned by displacing Dr.
Hutton. In 1800, the baron published tracts on the Resolution of Af
fected Algebraic Equations, by Dr. Halley, Mr. Raphson, and Sir
Isaac Newton. This volume also contains Col. Titu's arithmetical
problem ; and another solution, by Wm. Frend, M.A., Fellow of
Jesus College ; with the baron's observations on Mr. Raphson's
method of solving affected equations of all degrees by approxi
mation. It was to the liberal and enlightened patronage of Baron
Maseres that the public are indebted for the Rev. John Hellins'
valuable translation of Donna Agnesi's " Institutioni Analytiche."
It had been translated many years before by the then late Professor
Colson, the ingenious commentator on the Fluxions of Newton.
Baron Maseres, who in early life had known Colson, and had rea
son to infer from his coversation that he had written a treatise on
the higher geometry, which he had never published, was desirous
of discovering this MS., and of giving it to the world. In his
search he found, not the work he looked for, but Colson's transla
tion just mentioned; and after removing some pecuniary difficulties,
which without such generous assistance would probably have for
ever witheld it from the wOrld, he obtained a copy of it, and put it
into the hands of Mr. Hellins, who undertook to become its editor,
and under whose inspection it was published in 3 vols., 4to. 1802
Besides the publications of the baron, noticed above, he is either
the author or editor of the following :
" TJie Elements of Plane. Trigonometry, with a Dessertation on
the Nature and Use of Logarithms," 1760, Svo. " An Account
of the proceedings of the British and other Protestant Inhabitants
of the Province of Quebec, in order to obtain a House of Assem
bly," 1775, 8vo. — " The Canadian Freeholder, consisting of Dia
logues between an Englishman and a Frenchman settled in Cana
da," 1779, 3 vols., Svo. — "Montesquieu's View of the English
Constitution translated with notes," 1781, 8vo. — "The Principles of
the Doctrine of Life Annuities," 1783, 1 vol., 4to. — " The Moderate

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 73
Reformer ; or a proposal to correct some abuses in the present es
tablishment ofthe Church of England," 1791, 8vo. — " Enquiry into
the extent of Power of Juries, on trials for Criminal Writings," 1792,
8vo. — " Scriptores Logarithmici," 1791-1807, 6 vols. 4to. — " James
Bernoulli's Doctrine of Permutations and Combinations, with some
oiher useful Mathematical Tracts," 1795,8vo. — "Appendix to Frend's
Principles of Algebra, 1799, 8vo. — " Historise Anglicanse Monu-
menta," 4to. — " Occasional Essays on various subjects, chiefly His
torical and Political," 1809, 8vo. — " May's History of the. Parlia
ment of England which began 3rd Nov. 1640, a new edition with a
preface," 1813, 4to. — " Three Tracts published at Amsterdam in
1691, and two under the name of Letters of General Ludlow to
Edmund Seymour, and other persons, a new edition, with a pre
face," 1813, 4to. — " The Irish Rebellion ; or a History of the at
tempts of the Irish Papists to extirpate the Protestants, by Sir John
Temple, a new edition with a preface," 1813, 4to. — " The Curse of
Popery and Popish Pains to ihe Civil Government and Protestant
Church of England ;" reprinted in 8vo., 1807. In 1820 he pub
lished a new edition of Dr. James Welwood's " Memoirs of ihe
most material Transactions in England, for 100 years preceding
the Revolution in 1688," 8vo.
In 1815 he published a collection of " Select Tracts relating to
the Civil Wars in England, temp. Chas. I. and Cromwell's Usurpa
tion," 2 vols. 8vo.
The baron also wrote numerous articles in the'; " Philosophical
Transactions," and in vol. II. ofthe "Archseologio" ; "View ofthe
Ancient Constitution of the English Parliament" ; which produced
some observations from Charles Mellish, Esq., F.S.A., in the
same volume.
From the above list of publications will be seen the general
tenQr of the baron's studies, in which he was assiduously engaged
from the time that he left the University. His great work, the
" Scriptores Logarithmici," is of a nature from which no pecuni
ary advantage was to be expected, and his liberality in presenting
a copy of it to various public bodies, and to individuals, was such,
that he was very much out of pocket by the publication. But he
never regarded expense either as to his own works or those whieh
he patronised of others, and he was never wanting in assisting
authors whose works he deemed worthy of being submitted to the
press. In this case it was common with him to take upon himself
the whole expense of printing and paper, leaving the author to
repay him when it suited his convenience, or he gave him the
printing and paper. In one case he advanced about fifteen hundred
pounds, of whieh he did not receive a farthing in return for near
ly twenty years. But perhaps there never was a man so little
attentive to the accumulation of property, and yet at his death it
was much greater than he himself was aware of. His only guide
10

74 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
was his banker's books, and after defraying the expenses of his
chambers and his houses at Reigate and Rathbone-place, and the
generally heavy article of printing and paper for himself and
others, the surplus of his revenue was invested in the three per
cents., without regard to price, and he thought nothing more ofthe
matter. His manner of life was uniform ; a great part of the year was
spent in chambers, dining in the Temple hall in term time, at his
house in Rathbone-place out of term, and the remainder of the
year he passed at Reigate, where he spent a good deal of his time,
and generally had a friend or two with him. Some years anterior
to this remarkable man's death, he vested money in the three per
cents, in the names of the incumbents of four parishes adjoining
Reigate, in trust, to pay half a guinea to the clergyman who should
preach au afternoon sermon on Sundays, and if there was not a
sermon, the half guinea for that day was to be applied by the trustees
to the benefit of the poor of their own parishes. The occasion of his
benefaction was this : the late vicar of Reigate kept a curate, and
many inhabitants of that large parish wished to have a sermon on
Sundays in the afternoon, there being many farmers whose servants
could not attend church in the morning ; they raised a subscrip
tion for the curate, who accordingly preached an afternoon sermon.
The present vicar did not keep a curate, and claimed the benefit ofthe
subscription ; but the subscribers would not agree to his having it, and
the afternoon service was discontinued. The trustees have had several
opportunities of giving unclaimed half guineas to their poor. He
kept a very hospitable table, at which most of the eminent mathe
maticians who visited the metropolis were at one time or other to
be found. His great delight was to have three or four friends with
him, where every subject of science, literature and common topics
of the day was treated with the utmost freedom of discussion.
When his faculties were in full vigor, his conversation was re
plete with anecdote and information. No one was better acquaint
ed with the history of his country, from the invasion of Julius
Csesar to the present age ; and when this has been mentioned to
him, he used frequently to attribute it to the task he set upon himself
early in life, to read through with the utmost attention " Rapin's
History," and to make occasional use of the authorities referred to
in that work. The period between the years 1640 and 1660 was
particularly impressed on his memory, and when he began to
complain of its failure, by referring back to any distant event, the
power of it was seen in its fullest extent. In his latter days this
was remarkably observed ; for though passing events left no im
pression on his mind, so much so that in the evening he forgot
that he had had a party at dinner, yet by leading his mind properly
back to a distant period, it seemed to renew its pristine energy.
In his profession of the law the Baron did not make a great

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 75
figure, and he used to relate with great good humour his want of
success in the Western Circuit : but government was sensible of
his services as attorney-general in Canada — an office which he
filled with great dignity, and in a manner highly beneficial to
the province. He was rewarded by an appointment to the
office of Cursitor Baron, more honorary than profitable, but as it
made no great inroads on his time, and was occupied chiefly in a
routine of technical details, he was more at leisure to pursue his
favourite studies. Few, however, possessed in so high a degree a
knowledge of the laws of England, considered as a science ; and in
questions of great moment the members of both houses have fre
quently availed themselves of his judgment and his superior infor
mation. In politics he was a staunch Whig, bordering more on the Refor
mer than is supposed to be suited to the present principles of that
party. For the constitution as settled at the revolution, and the
principles which placed the present family on the throne, he was a
strenuous advocate. But every thing that led to the domination of
the mob, was his utmost abhorence ; and for this reason he looked
with horror on the extravagances committed by the French in their
revolutionary career. In all his views of reform, he respected the
rights of the present generation, conceiving that, what it derived
from its predecessors was not to be wantonly sacrificed for adven
turers, and imaginary good to successors, and too frequently for im
mediate gain to those who could be considered in no other light than
robbers and plunderers. The government by parliament, appeared
to him in the highest degree favorable to sound liberty, but the
innovation in the time of Henry VIII., in his estimation introducing
sessions by propagations was an injudicious measure. He would
have parliament meet on a fixed day, continuing to sit until all the
business brought before it was finished, or it was dissolved by the
Crown. And the elections for members of parliament were to be
also on one fixed day, to Joe concluded in a few hours in that day,
by the persons assembling for that purpose at. a convenient distance
from their habitations. The present confusion at elections seemed
disposed only to promote the interest of agents, and ale-house
keepers, and to destroy the morals of the electors and the elected.
So different were his feelings from those of the House of Commons
in the case of libel, that he considered the courts of law as the
only places in which it could be tried ; that a member was respon
sible to the house only for the language he used within it ; and he
commissioned a common friend to express to Sir Francis Burdett his
approbation of 'the pamphlet which occasioned his confinement in
the Tower, and his sorrow for the measures which it had produced.
His moderate reform shews him not to be inimical to a church
establishment, on which he was strenuous for one improvement,
namely, that no clergyman should have more then one cure of souls ;

76 SOETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and he could scarcely be brought to believe, that a bishop could
have placed a clergyman in possession of a living, to hold it till his
own son was of age to take it, as he considered the preferments
vested in them as sacred trusts to be administered with a view not
to their private interest, but the advancement of pious and learned
clergymen. With the most liberal views of toleration on religious opinions,
not excluding the deist or atheist from civil employments, the
baron was an anti-catholic, and this sentiment he used to jus
tify in few words. It is a tenet of the Roman Catholic religion to
burn heretics ; and they, who will not tolerate others, ought not to
be allowed to possess civil employments, which may gradually give
them an influence in the state. But his abhorrence of these intol-
lerant sentiments, which he attributed to them, did not extend to
the persons of the Romish persuasion : for his house was open to
the refugees from France, where were to be seen archbishops and
bishops, and numbers of distinguished clergymen, driven from their
homes by the atheistical bigotry of the times. His purse and his
house were open to them, and a member of the Parlement de Paris,
who had been banished by Louis the Fifteenth with his brethern,
for refusing to ratify the edict of that monarch, and who, notwith
standing, was one of the most zealous adherents to his successors,
was one of his most intimate" friends, and had the use at all times of
his country house for~himself and family.
His religious creed was contained in a very narrow compass,
and his surviving friends will never forget the solemn manner in
which he used very frequently to introduce it. " There are three
creeds," he would say, " that are generally acknowledged by the
Christian world, contradictory in several respects to each other,
and two of them composed by noboby knows whom, and nobody
knows where. My creed is derived from my Saviour, and
the time when, and the manner in which it was uttered, gives
it a title to pre-eminence. A few hours before his death, in
an address to his Father, Christ says, this is eternal life, to
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. This is my creed, and happy would it be for the Chris
tian world if it had been content with it, and never laid down
any other articles for a common faith. Hence, almost all the
disputes which set Christians at variance with each other, and
arise chiefly from scholastic terms, misunderstood and misapplied,
he would confine to the closet of the learned, convinced that the
Gospel was proclaimed to the poor originally, and was never in
tended for learned themes of discussion in the pulpit." Under the
influence of this creed he was animated with a sincere piety to
wards his Maker, when he served as a kind and benevolent father,
and with unfeigned charity for all his fellow creatures, whom he con
sidered as equal objects of the love and care of the great Supreme,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 77
The mathematical principles of Sir Isaac Newton were not to his
taste, and he thought them very improper for academical studies.
The positions of this great author, that quantities are some greater
and others less than nothing, and the ultimate equality of quantities,
which in no one period of their existence are equal, appeared to him
the acme of absurdity. To these he attributed the wildness that
now prevails in what may be called the French school, which aims
at generalizations, and, however advantageous it may sometimes be
to the mere artisan, is very unfit to lead the mind to true science
and philosophy. Huygens and Galileo were, in his opinion, better
models for imitation, the one for purity of demonstration, the other
for explaining philosophical subjects in a popular manner.
The classical studies of his early years continued to delight him
to the latest period of his intellectual career, and he might be said
to know Homer by heart ; next to him, Lucan was his favorite
author, and Horace was of course at his finger ends. Among
the moderns, Milton held the highest place, and from the three
poets, Homer, Lucan, and Milton, he to a very late period repeated
long passages occasionally with the utmost propriety and emphasis.
With the works of the philosopher of Malmesbury he was particu
larly conversant, and many of the reproaches on his memory he
considered entirely without foundation. French was the language
of his paternal roof, and he spoke it with the utmost fluency and
propriety, but it was the French of the age of Louis XIV., not of
modern times, and it was amusing to contrast his pronunciation
with that of the refugees. He himself used to mimic with great
success the Parisian dialect, which disfigures a language that in
itself is meagre, and made worse by modern corruptions.
But of the intellectual attainments of the baron sufficient proofs
are before the public ; his private excellencies were confined to a
much narrower circle, and the cheerfulness of his disposition, his
inflexible integrity, the equanimity of his temper, his sincere piety,
will long live in the memory of his surviving friends. Not a par
ticle of pride entered into his composition, and a dogmatising spirit
was his aversion. In this latter respect he was a complete contrast
to the celebrated Dr. Johnson. Their common printer brought
the two authors together to his house to spend the evening, when
the doctor fulminated one of his severities against Hume and Vol
taire, creating such a disgust in the baron's mind, that he declared
he would never willingly be again in that man's company, and they
never met afterwards. On the equanimity of his temper a celebra
ted chess-player used to say of the baron, who was very fond of
that game, that he was the only person of his acquaintance, from
whose coutenance it could not be discovered whether he had won
or lost the game.
In stature the baron was rather below the average height. His
dress was uniformly plain and neat, and he retained to the last the

78 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
three-cornered hat, tye-wig, and ruffles, and his manners were in
correspondence with those of a gentleman of the last age. • At his
table he always said grace with his hands clasped together, and a
voice and countenance denoting thankfulness for all the blessings
he received. The table-cloth was not removed, and on retiring to
coffee, he in the same manner returned thanks to the great Supreme,
of whom he never spoke but with the utmost reverence.
He died at his seat, Reigate, Surry, on the 19th of May, 1824.
Quanado ullum inveniam parem ?

COLONEL DES BARRES.
Joseph Frederic Wallet Des Barres, an English military
officer and hydrographer, who served and was connected with
America for a lengthened period. He was bojn in 1722,
and was the descendant of the Protestant branch of a noble
French family, which emigrated to England after the revocation of
the edict of Nantes. He received his education under the
Bernouillis, entered the royal military college at Woolwich, and
was offered the choice of a commission either in the royal artillery
or corps of engineers. Preferring immediate active service, he
embarked in March, 1756, as lieutenant in the 60th Regiment of
Foot, for America, where, having raised above three hundred
recruits in Pennsylvania and Maryland, he was ordered to form
and discipline them as a corps of field artillery, which he
commanded until the arrival of one of the battalions of the royal
train from England. In 1757, he commanded a detachment of
volunteers against the Indians who had committed depredations
in the neighborhood of Schenectady and other frontier towns,
surprised the chiefs, whom he made prisoners, and soon after gained
their confidence so completely, that they not only were restrained
from further acts of hostility, but became useful to the army, in
which a corps of them continued to be employed to the end of the
war. In 1758 he was engaged in the expedition against Louisbourg,
where he had the good fortune to effect a landing in a violent surf,
and to take from the enemy an entrenchment, by which the debarka
tion of the army was greatly facilitated. At this siege he was on
a critical occasion ordered to the duty of an engineer, and after the
capitulation he employed himself in drawing a chart on a large
scale, from papers and plans obtained there, which was found very

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 79
useful in the next spring, as the navigation of the river St. Lawrence
was then known only to a few Canadian pilots. At the siege of
Quebec he served under Wolfe as an aide-de-camp, and was making
his report when that great hero received his mortal wound, and fell
dying in his arms. By the sad havoc which was made in our army
in the campaign of 1759 and the ensuing winter, and in the
unsuccessful battle fought by General Murray, 28th April, 1760,
it was reduced to two thousand men fit for duty. The fortifications
of Quebec being in a dismantled state, the preservation of what had
been acquired, as well as the expectation of future conquests, seemed
to rest on the operations for its actual defence. The conducting
of these operations fell to Des Barres as directing engineer, and here,
and subsequently in the reduction of Fort Jacques Cartier and other
strong places which completed the conquest of Canada, his endeavors
proved highly successful. He afterwards proceeded to Nova Scotia
to assist General Bastile in making designs and estimates for forti
fying Halifax. In 1762, 'he served as directing engineer and
quarter-master-general in the expedition for retaking Newfound
land, and was honored with public thanks, as having essentially
contributed to the recovery . of that island. After making surveys
of some of its principal harbors, he was ordered to repair to New York,
to proceed on reconnoitering excursions, and report observations
on the expediency of establishing a chain of military posts through
out the British colonies. In 1763 Lord Colville was instructed to
employ him on the coast survey of Nova Scotia, a post in which
he continued until 1773 ; and on his return to England in 1774,
the king expressed his commendation of the manner in which his
work had been performed. Previous to this, many of the fine
harbors of Nova Scotia were known only to fishermen, and Sable
Island was a terror to all navigators. The want of correct charts ofthe
coast of North America, for the use of the fleet engaged in carrying
on the American revolutionary war, began at this time to be felt ;
and on Earl Howe representing the immediate necessity of their
being prepared, Des Barres was selected to adapt the surveys of
Holland, De Brahm, and others, to nautical purposes. These he
published in 1777, under the title of the " Atlantic Neptune," in
two large folio volumes. In 1784 he was constituted governor of
the Island of Cape Breton, with the military command of that and
Prince Edward's Island ; and soon after he commenced building the
town of Sydney, and opened and worked the valuable coal fields at
the entrance of the river. From his official position, he was
engaged in aiding and removing the royalists from the United
States after the war of the revolution. In 1804, he was appointed
lieutenant-governor and commander-in-chief of Prince Edward's
Island, being then in his eighty-second year. In person he was
short, and at the age of ninety-five lithe and active ; about which
time he talked of making the tour of the United Kingdom, to which

80 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he allotted two years ; this performed, he was to commence that of
Europe, which he calculated would take three years more ; after
which it was his intention to return to his native place, and there
spend the remainder of his days. He was Captain Cook's teacher
in navigation. His death occurred at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on
24th October, 1824, he being then in the one hundred and second
year of his age.

Mr. WILLIAM BROWN.
To exclude the name of this enterprising and industrious
individual who, in conjunction with Mr. Thomas Gilmore, started
the first printing press in Canada, would, to say the least
be a gross act of injustice to his memory and to the Canadian press.
Nothing is known concerning these two men, except that they
came from Philadelphia to Quebec in 1763, having formed the idea
of starting a newspaper in this country : that innumerable difficulties
beset them in their arduous undertaking, not the least of which
was that Mr. Crown had to proceed to England for the proper ma
terials — press, ink and paper ; but finally overcoming all obstacles,
they brought out the first number of the " Quebec Gazette*" on the
21st June, 1764, with one hundred and fifty subscribers, and thus
were the means of establishing " a new and potent element of civili
zation."

COLONEL PAULUS .EMILIUS IRVING

Who administered the government of Quebec after the depar
ture of Murray in 1765, and until the arrival of Carleton, was the
son of William Irving, Esquire, laird of Bonshaw, Dumfries, and
born there on the 23rd September, 1714. He married Judith,
*This paper still exists, being published at Quebeo by Messrs. Middleton and
Dawson.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 81
daughter of Captain William Westfield of Dover, who died 3rd May,
1793, and by whom he had issue Paulus iEmilius Irving, who joined
the army, rose to tho rank of general, greatly distinguished him
self, and was made a baronet of the United Kingdom ; and two
daughters, JEmelia Susannah, who married at St. George's, Hanover
Square, in October, 1796, Joseph Dacre Appleby Gilpin, M.D., who
was afterwards knighted; and Judith, who married Lieutenant-
Colonel John Irving of the first West India Regiment, whose
daughter, Julia Frances, married Sir William Ousely, the distin
guished Persian and oriental antiquarian.
Colonel P. 2E. Irving entered the army at an early period,
and in September, 1759, was at the siege of Quebec, under General
Wolfe, as major in command of the 15th Regiment of Foot, and
was wounded on the Plains of Abraham. On the 30th June,
1765, then being commander-in-chief, he assumed the duties of
president of the province of Quebec, in the absence of the Hon
orable James Murray ; subsequently, in 1771, he was appointed
lieutenant-governor of Guernsey, and afterwards governor of Upnor
Castle, Kent. He died 22nd April, 1796.

GENERAL LORD DORCHESTER, K.B.
If we owe to Wolfe a deep debt of gratitude for the brilliant
achievement whieh added new lustre and victory to our arms,
and planted the ensign of Great Britain on this glorious depen
dency of the empire, where he fought and bled and sacrificed
a life his country could ill spare ; we assuredly, also, owe much
to those brave and gaHant men who preserved this land when
conquered, through dint of hard toil, watchful vigilance and loss
of blood and life. Yes, we are confident the majority of our readers
will also coincide with our feebly expressed opinion that we are as
suredly, as true and loyal Canadians, under many and deep obligations
to them, and in the category which history brings under our observa
tion, we are sure none is more entitled to be fondly and deservedly
remembered than he whose name heads this brief and ill-writ
ten notice, and whose life we may say was spent in fighting for the
cause of his king in this country, and in anxious thought for the
welfare of this province.
Such being the case, the name of Dorchester deserves to be men
tioned with the greatest eulogy and praise, for the great services he
11

82 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
rendered Canada in the two capacities in which he served her
interests, as commander-in-chief, and as her governor and the
preserver of her high destinies.
Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester (the saviour of Quebec, as he is
called) was the descendant of an ancient and honored family, which
had lived in Cornwall, England, five centuries previous to the
Norman conquest. He was born about the year 1725, and being
destined for the army, entered its ranks after completing his studies,
and speedily made his way onward in the service. He accompanied
Wolfe's expedition to Canada, and was present at the first and
'second battles on Abraham's Plains, in both of which he displayed
such skill and precision in commanding the part of the army under
his command, as to leave no doubt on the minds of his superior offi
cers that he would rise to distinction in the profession he had chosen.
Being, we believe, specially mentioned in the dispatches of both
Townshend and Murray, and having continued under the command
of the latter, was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In
1767, General Murray having to proceed to England, the govern
ment of the Colony devolved on Carleton, who was much liked by
the French Canadians and the English (of whom there were then
few) generally. In 1770, he proceeded to England on leave of ab
sence, and whilst there, the celebrated Quebec Act passed the Houses
of Parliament, and some ascribe it in a great measure to represen
tations he made to the home government respecting Canada, it
being well known that he carried home a compiled form of
the French civil laws, or Cotumes de Paris, for the consideration of
the imperial authorities. In 1774, General Carleton returned to
Canada, and took prompt measures to carry out the provisions of his
new instructions relative to the act just passed. He had, however,
little time to think or act upon this matter, for the next year
the Americans, having declared their independence, entered Canada
in large forces, with the hostile intention of wresting it from the
hands of the English ; but they made a sad mistake in their esti
mate of the man they had to deal with ; brave and gallant, and of
chivalrous courage, and yet perfectly cool and self-possessed in the
greatest and most critical moments, Carleton, although with but 800
men at his disposal — all attempts to coax or coerce the natives to
assist him proving fruitless — at once took fmeasures to prevent
the meditated attack. On the 17th September, Montgomery with
his army, amounting to 2000, arrived at Isle-aux-Noix ; the fall
of Chambly and St. Johns followed, and Carleton, in his endeavor
to succour the latter, received a check from a part of the Americans,
near Longueuil, which compelled him to retreat to Montreal. Here,
anticipating the intention of Montgomery to take possession of the
town, he burnt and destroyed all the public and valuable stores, and
left the city one way, just as the American general was entering
at the other. During the night, he had a narrow escape from

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 83
the enemy, who was encamped at Sorel, and whose sentinels he
had to pass in an open boat ; this he accomplished with the aid of
muffled oars, and arrived at Quebec on the 19th November, to the
great joy ofthe people. He hastily made the most judicious arrange
ments in his power, for Arnold and Montgomery were advancing,
and expelled from the city all those he thought were disaffected,
who would not volunteer to defend it, and assist in strengthening
the works.
The united forces of Montgomery and Arnold succeeded in gain
ing the city on the 4th of December, and after concocting their plans,
divided their forces so as to attack the city in several places ; this
Carleton, nowise intimidated, became cognizant of, and on the
Americans raising the seige, took renewed measures for the safety
of the place. On the 31st, Montgomery was killed ; Arnold and
Morgan's forces were routed at first and captured afterwards, and the
remnant of the American army compelled to retreat to some distance
from the city. On being reinforced, however, during the winter
they made a stand for another attack on Quebec, but disease and
famine at last compelled them to retreat, being actually chased
towards Sorel by the gallant Carleton. In the spring, when
the reinforcements arrived from England, he possessed himself of
Crown Point, and launched a fine fleet on Lake Champlain, which
after several actions, completely annihilated that ofthe Americans.
In 1777, upon Burgoyne being appointed commander-in-chief in
America, Carleton, thinking that he had been slighted by the gov
ernment after his brilliant successes, at once demanded his recall,
and proceeded to England. His suspicions, although well-founded,
were, notwithstanding, unjust ; for on his proceeding to England, he
was well received by his sovereign, who conferred upon him the
honor of knighthood.
In the year 1782, he was appointed as the successor of Sir Henry
Clinton, commander-in-chief of all his Majesty's forces in Ame
rica. He arrived at New York with his commission, in the begin
ning of May. After the treaty of peace was signed, he delayed for
some time the evacuation of the city, from regard to the safety of
the loyalists ; but on Nov. 25, 1783, he embarked, and withdrew the
British ships from America. In 1786, on returning to England,
his grateful sovereign was pleased to raise him to the peerage as
Lord Dorchester, and Parliament voted him a pension of £1000
per annum during his own life, and the lives of his wife and two elder
sons ; and towards the latter end of the same year, he was again
appointed governor-general and captain-general of Quebec, and
commander-in-chief of the forces therein. His re-appearance in
Canada was hailed with delight by the majority of the people. He
continued to govern the province until 1796, and during that time
did much towards the welfare of the country, particularly in ame
liorating the laws.

84 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
On his final departure, the unfeigned regret that was expressed
was universal, and many were the addresses presented by the inhabi
tants to the good old general, conveying their heartfelt gratitude
for all that he had done, and prayers for his eternal welfare.
His lordship, although, it appeared, a very strict disciplinarian
in the execution of his duty, was as humane and kind of heart
as any man that ever breathed ; indeed, his kind treatment of the
French Canadians during his government, and of the American
prisoners during the American war, evinces that in the highest de
gree. He was, besides, a man of honor and a gentleman, a sincere
Christian, and a devoted soldier and servant of his country. He
married, in 1772, Lady Maria, daughter of the second Earl of
Effingham, by whom he had many children. His death occurred on
the 19th November, 1808, in the fine old age of eighty-three.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE HEY.
William Hey, Esquire, an English lawyer of some distinction,
and a member of the House of Commons, succeeded Chief-Justice
Gregory on his recall. His commission is dated the 25th of Sep
tember, 1766. He took part in all the great discussions of those
days relative to the government of the country and the establish
ment of its judiciary, and there is not a doubt that he assisted
very materially in the government of the province and in guiding
its destinies. Although General Murray had full power to convene
a local legislature, the Chief- Justice in conjunction with Messrs.
Carleton, Maseres and De Lotbiniere, advised him against it, re
presenting that the people were too illiterate, and not yet ripe to
so great and sudden a share of liberty and of legislative power. In
1773, he proceeded to England on public business in connection
with the bill " making more effectual provision for the government
of the province of Quebec in America," and on its passage in 1774
through the House of Commons, when such great efforts were made
to quash it, he was examined before the special committee appointed
on it, and the important evidence which he and M. De Lotbi
niere gave, may be ascribed its successful passage. Being still in
England, early in 1775, by command of the Earl of Dartmouth,
secretary of state for war. and the colonies, who had witnessed
with the whole English people, the dissatisfaction which the Que
bec act gave, desired him to prepare the draught of a provincial

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 85
ordinance, to be carried over to be submitted to the governor and
Legislative Council. By this draught the English laws relating to
habeas corpus, and to the trial by jury in civil cases, and likewise
the English laws relating to commercial matters, were to be re-es
tablished. Chief Justice Hey arrived at Quebec with it in June,
1775, and in the following month of September laid it before the
Council. This, we believe, was the last public act of his life in Ca
nada, and shortly after (war taking place with America) he left for
England, although not succeeded in his office until May, 1777.
He had, in 1774, been returned to parliament as member for
Sandwich in Kent, but vacated his seat in 1776, on being appoint
ed a commissioner of customs, an office which he continued to fill
till his death, which occurred in 1797.
He was a great favorite of the then Lord Chancellor, and was
dining with him when the great seal was stolen in 1785. He mar
ried, but had no issue.,

ADAM LYMBURNER, Esq.,
A merchant of Quebec, 1791, and a gentleman of rare endow
ments and high attainments, was principally known as the party
selected by the merchants and others of Canada, to proceed to
England and advocate their rights before the Imperial Government,
and for the admirable and lengthy speech which he made on behalf
of the Canadians at the bar of the House of Commons. This
speech has been considered as a splendid piece of argumentative
logic and rhetoric, and as taking a sound and excellent view of the
affairs of this country. Although Mr. Lymburner did not gain the
object of his mission, he at least had the satisfaction of knowing that
he had brought the position of Canada prominently before the
home government, and that much good would eventually result
from his efforts to benefit the country.
Mr. Lymburner returned to Quebec, lived, and, we believe, died
there. He was a respected and enterprising gentleman, and was
held in high esteem by the people.

86 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir WILLIAM GRANT.
Sir William Grant, another great man connected with Canada
during the time posterior to the conquest, and third attorney-
general of the province of Quebec, an eminent lawyer ; was
descended from the Grants of Beldornie, so long distinguished in
the history of Scotland. He was born in 1754, at Elchies, on the
banks of the Spey, in the county of Elgin, and was partly educated
in the grammar school of Elgin, from which he removed to the old
college of Aberdeen, where he completed his education, and then
repaired to London, and entered at Lincoln's-Inn, where he pursued
the study of the law. His whole mind was engrossed in the endeavor
to obtain a knowledge of his profession, and of the various business
of life ; and so successful were his efforts, that at the age of
twenty-five, he was considered competent to fill the situation of
attorney-general of this province, to which he was appointed, and
he quitted England without having been called to the bar. His com
mission bears date 10th May, 1776. On his return to England,
some time after, he engaged in practice in the courts of common
law, and joined the home circuit. Being naturally of a reserved
and retired turn, he travelled the circuit for several years without
obtaining a single brief; but happening to be retained in some
appeal from the Court of Session in Scotland to the House of Lords,
Lord-Chancellor Thurlow was much struck with his powers of
argument, and having learned his name, observed to a friend,
" Be not surprised if that young man should one day occupy this
seat." That this prophetic opinion was not exactly fulfilled, has
been attributed to his having refused that high office. He subse
quently left the common-law bar and practised solely in the Court
of Chancery. At the general election in 1790, Mr. Grant was
returned to Parliament for the borough of Shaftesbury, and soon
distinguished himself as a powerful coadjutor of Mr. Pitt. He
seldom spoke, and never but on questions with which he was fully
acquainted ; but his talents and intelligence were soon so generally
recognised as to render his assistance essentially valuable, and on
one occasion in particular, when the question for a new code
of laws for the province of Quebec, excited much discussion.
Mr. Grant's local information, and his great professional skill,
particularly in the civil law, powerfully strengthened his reasoning;
and it was then that the celebrated Mr. Fox, after warmly compli
menting him, saluted him as one of his most formidable antagonists.
It was in 1791 that he thus distinguished himself in the great debate
relating to the laws of Canada ; and in 1792 he made a most able

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 87
acute and argumentative speech in defence of the ministry on the
subject of the Russian armament. He was called within the bar
with a patent of precedence in 1793, and in the same year was appoint
ed a Welsh judge, when a new writ was ordered for Shaftesbury,
on the 20th of June, but he was not re-chosen ; however, a vacancy
for Windsor happening in the following January, he was selected for
that borough ; he was at that time solicitor-general to the Queen.
In 1796, he was chosen knight of the shire for the Scottish county
of Banff. In 1798, he' was appointed chief-justice of Chester. In
1799, he succeeded Lord Redesdale as solicitor-general, and, as is
usual, obtained the honor of knighthood on his promotion ; and
on the 20th May, 1801, in consequence of the elevation of Sir
Pepper Aiden to the chief-justiceship of the Common Pleas, he
was nominated Master of the Rolls. In 1802, Sir W. Grant made
a speech in Parliament in favor of the definitive treaty of peace with
France. In February, 1805, he supported the address to the crown in
defence of tbe war with Spain ; and in the course ofthe same year he
opposed Mr. Whitehead's proceedings against Lord Melville, and the
subsequent motion for the impeachment of that nobleman for his
conduct while treasurer of the navy. He opposed the American
intercourse bill in 1806, and received the thanks of a committee
of merchants of the city of London for his conduct on that
occasion. In 1807, he animadverted at some length on the bill
brought into the House of Commons by Sir Samuel Romilly, the
object of which was to alter the law as to the claims of creditors
on the landed property oftheir debtors. Sir W. Grant continued
to represent the shire of Banff till the dissolution of Parliament in
1812. During a period of more than sixteen years did he fill the
judicial chair in the Roll's Court, with undiminished ability and
reputation. At length he became anxious to retire while yet in
full possession of his faculties. This purpose he carried into effect
towards the close of 1817. During the last two years of his life
he lived chiefly at Barton House, Dawlish, the residence of his
sister, the widow of Admiral Schank ; and at that place he died,
May 25, 1832.
Sir W. Grant is spoken of in Mr. Charles Butler's "Reminiscences"
in the following terms : —
" The most perfect model of judicial eloquence which has come
under the observation of the reminiscent is that of Sir William
Grant. In hearing him it was impossible not to think of the
character given of Menelaus by Homer, or rather by Pope, that
' He spoke no more than just the thing he ought ;' but Sir William
did much more : in decompounding and analyzing an immense
mass of confused and contradictory matter, and forming clear and
unquestionable results, the insight of his mind was infinite. His
exposition of facts and of the consequences deducible from them,
his discussion of former decisions and shewing their legitimate

88 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
weight and authority, and their real bearing upon the point in
question, were above praise ; but the whole was done with such
admirable ease and simplicity, that while real, judges felt its
supreme excellence, the herd of learners believed that they should
have done the same. Never was the merit of Dr. Johnson's
definition of a perfect style, < proper words in proper places,' more
sensibly felt than it was by those who listened to Sir William
Grant. The charm of it was indescribable; its effect on the
hearers was that which Milton describes when he paints Adam
listening to the angel after the angel had ceased to speak ; often
and often has the reminiscent beheld the bar listening, at the close
of a judgment given by Sir William, with the same feeling of
admiration at what they had heard, and the same regret that it
was heard no more."

GENERAL BURGOYNE.
John Burgoyne, an English general, officer and dramatist,
connected with this country in the former capacity, was the natural
son of Lord Bingley, and entered early into the army. In 1762,
he commanded a force sent into Portugal for the defence of that
kingdom against the Spaniards He also distinguished himself in
the first American war by the taking of Ticonderago ; but was at
last obliged to surrender with his army to General Gates at Saratoga.
For this act he was much censured and condemned by all the
English people. He was elected into the English Parliament for
Preston, in Lancashire ; but refusing to return to America pursuant
to his convention, was ignominiously dismissed the service. He
endeavored to exonerate himself, but without avail, in some
pamphlets he published in defence of his conduct. As an author
he is more distinguished for his three dramas of the " Maid ofthe
Oaks," "Bon Ton," and " The Heiress," all in the line of what is
usually called genteel comedy : they forming light and pleasing
specimens.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 89

GENERAL Sir WILLIAM JOHNSON, Bart.
This celebrated and distinguished military commander, who
rendered so much service to the British in the early wars of this
country, in subduing and civilizing the wild Indian tribes upon
the Mohawk, and in founding through his bravery and greatness,
the house of Johnson of Twickenham, England, was descended
from an anoient Irish family of Smithtown, in the county of
Meath, Ireland, where he was born in the year 1715. He was a near
relative of the celebrated naval hero, Sir Peter Warren, K.B., who
subsequently adopted him ; he went out with him to North
America, joined the army, and rose to the rank of colonel, and
subsequently o£ major-general in the militia of New York.
Sir Peter, having married a lady in New York, was induced to
purchase large tracts of land upon the Mohawk river, and the more
interior parts of the country, whence he sent for his nephew, to take
charge of his affairs. Young Johnson accordingly took up his
residence upon a certain tract on the Mohawk, about thirty miles
from Albany, and cultivated an acquaintance with the Indians.
He learned their language; he studied their manners, that he
might be able to conciliate their regard ; his situation upon the
river, between Albany and Oswego, presented a fine opportunity
for trade, and he carried on a large traffic with them, supplying
them with such goods as they needed ; and received in return,
beaver and other skins. At length he acquired an influence over
them, which no other man ever possessed. In 1755, he was intrusted
with the command of the provincial troops of New York, and
marched to invest Crown Point, while Shirley proceeded towards
Ontario, according to the plan of the campaign. General Johnson,
after the defeat of a detachment under Colonal Williams, which he
had sent out, was himself attacked in his camp on Lake George,
8th September, but as soon as his artillery began to play, the Cana
dian militia and Indians fled with precipitation to the swamps.
The French troops were repulsed, and Baron Dieskau, their general,
was taken prisoner. The advantage, however, which was thus
gained, was not pursued, and his conduct in not proceeding against
Crown Point has been the subject of reprehension. Even the suc
cess of the battle is to be attributed to the exertion of the brave
General Lyman. But Johnson, who was wounded in the engage
ment reaped the benefits of the repulse of Dieskan, which was
magnified into a splendid victory. About this time also, he was
appointed superintendant of Indian affairs in New York. In the year
1759, he commanded the provincial troops under Brigadier-General
12

90 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Prideaux, in the expedition against Niagara. While directing
the operations of the siege, Prideaux was killed by the bursting of
a cohorn, 20th July ; but Johnson prosecuted the plan which had
been formed with judgment and vigor. On the 24th of July, the
enemy made an attempt to raise the siege, which was defeated
through the excellent disposition and the courage of Johnson ;
next day, the fort was taken, and about six hundred men were
made prisoners of war. This event broke off the communication,
which the French intended to establish between Canada and
Louisiana. When Amherst embarked at Oswego in June, 1760,
to proceed on the expedition to Canada, Johnson brought to him
at that place, one thousand Indians of the Iroquois or five nations,
which was the largest number of Indians ever seen in arms at one
time in the cause of England. For his gallant and signal services
in the cause of the king, his Majesty, on the 27th November,
1755, was graciously pleased to raise him to the dignity and honor
of a baronet of the United Kingdom ; and, at the same time, con
ferred upon him a very large and handsome pension, we believe
about £5,000.
Sir William died at his seat at Johnson Hall, New York, about
twenty-four miles from Schenectady, on the Mohawk river, 11th
July, 1774
Allen says of him, " that he possessed considerable talents, as an
orator ; and his influence over the Indians was not a little owing to
the impression made upon them by means of elocution. It has
been represented that he was envious towards Shirley, and endea
vored to thwart him in his plans, by discouraging the Indians
from joining him, and that in his private conduct he paid little
respect to those laws, the observation of which only can insure
domestic peace and virtue. *******
" He was zealous in supporting the claims of Great Britain, which
excited such agitation in the colonies a few years before his death,
and he exerted himself to promote the interest of the Church of
England. He published a small work on the customs and languages
of the Indians."

MAJOR-GENERAL Sir JOHN JOHNSON,
The only son and heir of the celebrated Sir William, was also
well known as a military commander of some repute and a cele
brated negociator with the Indians. Having succeeded his father

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 91
in the title, he was also appointed to the rank which his father held,
namely, that of major-general.
At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, when only
13 years of age, he joined the army of his country as a volunteer, and
fought under her flag ; and he persuaded the Mohawks and the set
tlers on his large estates (the latter numbering 700) to come over
and settle in Canada, whence, under his leadership, the Indians
made awful ravages on the enemy in the State of New York. He
raised and commanded a regiment of two battalions in Canada. In
August, 1777, he invested Fort Stanix and defeated Hermiker.
But in October, 1780, he suffered a defeat at Fox's Mill, at the
hands of General Van Ransselaer.
He had been knighted by the king at St. James' Palace, Lon
don, on 22nd November, 1765. After the war he was appointed
superintendant-general of Indian affairs in British North America
as also colonel-in-chief of the six battalions of the militia of the
Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, and a member of the Legisla
tive Council, and resided at Montreal. He married in June, 1773,
Mary, daughter of John Watts, Esq., for some time president of the
Council, New York ; and by her he had issue one son, William, who
became colonel in the army, and was killed at Waterloo.
Sir John's death occurred at his seat, Mount Johnson, Blontreal,
on the 4th of January 1830, in the 60th year of his age.

REAR-ADMIRAL CHAMBERS,
Born in 1747, died at Rugby, in England, September 28, 1829.
He was the fifth son of the late Thomas Chambers, Esq., of Studley
in Warwickshire, at which place, and at Tanworth in the same
county, his family have resided on their own estates ever since the
reign of Edward the Third. He entered the naval service in 1758,
as a midshipman, on board the Shrewsbury, 74 guns, under the
auspices of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Sir Hugh Palliser, with
whom he served at the reduction of Quebec, in 1759, and until the
conclusion of the war, in 1763.
During the ensuing peace he served in the Preston of 50 guns,
commanded by Captain Allan Gardner, and bearing the flag of
Rear- Admiral Parry, Commander-in-Chief in the Jamaica station :
he subsequently joined Commodore Gambier in the Salisbury, and

92 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
by that officer was made a lieutenant into the Mermaid frigate, on
the coast of North America, in 1771.
At the commencement of the American war, he was appointed
second lieutenant of the Active frigate, one of the squadron under
Sir Peter Parker, destined to act against Charleston, in South
Carolina ; which ship had the honour of leading her consorts to
the attack made on Sullivan's Island, June 28, 1776. The Active
on that occasion had her first lieutenant (Pike) killed, and eight
men wounded. From the Active he was removed, as first lieu
tenant, into the Montreal frigate, Captain Douglas ; and in June,
1778, he was nominated to the command of the flotilla on lake
Champlain, where he continued till the peace in 1783, when he was
sent home with despatches from Sir Frederick Haldimand, the
military commander-in-chief; through whose recommendations he
was immediately promoted to the rank of commander; and a
statement of his meritorious conduct on many trying occassions
being subsequently laid before the king, he was rewarded with a
commission as post-captain, dated 15th August in the same year.
His superannuation as a rear-admiral took place November 21,
1805

F. A. VASSAL DE MONVLEL.
Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Vassal de Monviel, late adju
tant-general of the militia of Lower Canada, was one of the few
remaining individuals who figured in the most stirring and memor
able scenes ofthe history of this province. He was born in 1758,
the year before the conquest of Canada by the British arms, and
had for godfather the celebrated seaman and soldier, De Bougain
ville. His father, captain in the Royal Roussillon, was descended
from one of the old noble families of France, and fell whilst fighting
at the side of Montcalm on Abraham's Plains; his grandfather was
killed at the battle of Caprouge the ensuing year, and was buried.
at the General Hospital. During the American Revolution, Mr.
Vassal, the object of this notice, took arms in the army of Burgoyne,
and made this campaign under the immediate order of General St.
Leger, and was of the besieging party at Fort Stanix. From that
period, with the exception of a few years, he continued in the British
service, served in Holland, and was at the expedition of Plattsburg,
during the late war, under General Prevost, as adjutant-general,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 93
and as such attended the commander-in-chief during the campaign
in Upper and Lower Canada. He died at Quebec on the 25th of
October, 1843, atthe advanced age of 85 years, in the possession oi
an' irreproachable character for high minded honor, integrity, and
loyalty.

GENERAL Sir T. BLOOMFIELD, Bart.
He was born on the 16th of June, 1744, and was the eldest son
ofthe Rev. Thomas Bloomfield, M.A., rector of Hartly and Chalk
in Kent, and chaplain to the Duke of Dorset. His father origi
nally destined him for the naval profession, and sent him to sea
in the Cambridge, under the command of his intimate friend, Sir
Percy Brett ; but as he entertained a decided preference for the
army, in 1758 his father procured for him a cadetship in the
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. His abilities and conduct
there, very soon attracted the notice of the celebrated Muller, then
Professor of Artillery and Fortification, who ever^after distinguish
ed him by his particular friendship and regard. In the unusually
short period of eleven months, he obtained his commission, and
soon after at the early age of fifteen, he was appointed to the com
mand of a bomb vessel, at the bombardment of Havre de Grace, un
der Admiral Rodney, and subsequently in the same year joined the
fleet in Quiberon Bay, under Sir Edward Hawke, engaged in blocka
ding the French force under M. de Conflans.
In 1762 he went to the West Indies with Admiral Rodney, and
was present at the capture of Martinique and the Havannah, and
subsequently of Pensacola and Mobile. In 1771, he had the good
fortune of being introduced to the notice of General Conway, then
master-general of the Ordnance, who appointed him his aide-de-
camp, and received him into his family upon terms of parental
kindness. Upon Lord Townshend becoming the master-general,
he continued him in the same appointment till the yearl776, when
he joined his company, which was ordered to embark for Canada,
although the situation of aide-de-camp would, according to the
established usages of the army, have exempted him from the ne
cessity of leaving England.
Iu a letter written by him at that time, to a very near relative at
home, he says, " General Phillips took the earliest opportunity after
my arrival of appointing me major-of-brigade, a post exceedingly

94 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
eligible in my situation, as it puts it in my power to render myself
useful, though at the expense of my ease, which in my case I do
not in the least regret; for had that been my object, I might have
possibly remained at home. I am happily attached to a very
genteel, intelligent, active man, and as every detail of the service
passes through my inspection, and my duty is my first and sole ob
ject in coming over, I am "rather to be envied than not; for, how
ever captivating a town life may be to many, I declare I feel greater
pleasure in the bustle of a camp than in the dull round in which
I should have been involved ; and which nothing but the society
of those I esteem could give a relish to."
Upon his arrival in Canada, he was employed in the construction
of floating batteries upon the lakes, which he had planned before
he left England, and he continued at the same time, by his own
desire, to do his regimental duty' in the field, until upon the army
going into winter quarters, he returned to England.
The following letter was written at that time by General Phillips
to the master-general : —
" Camp at St. John's, 17th November, 1776.
" My Lord, — Captain Bloomfield, your Lordship's aide-de
camp, having served the campaign in Canada, returns to attend
your lordship's orders in England. I could not, in respect to your
lordship, do otherwise than mark attention to this officer, who
very gallantly as very properly urged his desire of serving with his
company ; and I requested of him to accept of being my major-of-
brigade for the campaign. I have been sufficiently repaid, not
only by much personal attention to me, but great advantage de
rived from his knowledge in his profession. I will be free to hope,
that you will, my lord, allow Captain Bloomfield to return to this
service in the spring. I think his own honor is concerned in his
doing so, but a still more material reason may be given, that the
king's service will suffer by his absence. I need say no more
on the occasion. Captain Bloomfield is charged with many
things relative to this service, which I hope will meet with atten
tion. I am, &c, " Wm Phillips."
Early in the following spring he again sailed to Canada,
taking out with him a gun and carriage, wliich he had constructed
in the interval, by the particular desire of Sir Guy Carleton and
General Burgoyne, calculated for the double purpose of land and
water service. He was actively engaged with the army under
General Burgoyne, during the whole of that campaign, until the
action which preceded the unfortunate convention of Saratoga,
when he received a most severe wound from a musket shot through
the front part of his head, and was for some time left on the field

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 95
of battle ; but his life was providentially spared, and in the spring
of 1779, he returned to England, and resumed his duties as aide-
de-camp to Lord Townshend, who in the following year appointed
him to the situation of inspector of artillery, which together with
the inspectorship of the Royal Foundry, he held until his death.
It may not be unimportant to remark, that previously to this
time, the construction of ordnance, more especially of that intend
ed for the naval service, together with the mode of its examina
tion and proof, had been in a very defective state. The bursting
of a gun, and the consequent loss of life among those who served
it, were events of too frequent occurrence ; and a system of con
cealing defects, even in cannon cast in the Royal Brass Foundry,
under the immediate eyes of the officers of government, had been
pursued to a great extent, and till then escaped detection. It was
therefore his first object, by visiting the various foundries in the
kingdom, to ascertain the comparative excellence of the metal used
in them, and the supply which they were capable of affording. His
attention was next directed to the construction of ingenious instru
ments which might apply the severest test to the strength and ac
curacy of the guns which were brought before him, and he estab
lished regulations for their reception into the service, to which he
ever after adhered with inflexible and persevering firmness.
The advantages resulting from this newly organised system were
soon so sensibly felt, that in the year 1783, a new department was
created by the king's warrant, and. the whole of its duties placed un
der his immediate direction as inspector of artillery, which had be
fore been performed at an immense expense to the country, with a
divided responsibility, and consequently in a very inefficient manner.
From these causes it may with truth be asserted, that the ordnance
of Great Britain has been brought to a state of perfection beyond
that of any other power in Europe. The substitution of iron instead
of brass ordnance, rendered practicable by successive improvements
has also led to a most important saving in expense, and the many
naval actions which occurred during the late wars, as well as the
sieges of Copenhagen and in the Peninsula, where the mode of
battering assumed a rapidity of firing unknown on former occasions,
abundantly testified the just confidence of his brother officers in
the weapons placed in their hands.
The last and most important millitary service in which he was
engaged, was the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, upon which occa
sion he commanded the British and German artillery, under the
Earl of Cathcart ; and whatever difference of opinion may exist res
pecting the policy of that expedition, it has never been doubted
that its objects were prosecuted with the utmost vigor, and crown
ed with the most complete success. He was rewarded for his ser
vices upon this occasion with the dignity of a baronet, and the
thanks of both Houses of Parliament ; and in his answer to a very

96 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
handsome letter from the master-general, he thus expresses him
self : — " I cannot find words to convey my sentiments of the most
respectful gratitude for the very distinguished honor his Majesty
has been pleased to announce his gracious intention of bestowing
upon me, so much above any merits I can claim, having done no
more than my duty, in the performance of which I was so ably as
sisted. The beneficial consequences derived from it to our coun
try at this eventful period, are alone the source ofthe highest
gratification, and I most fervently hope and trust, that with the
Divine assistance, our exertions will long secure the independence
ofthe most favored nation upon earth."
He died at Shooter's Hill, Kent, England, on the 24th August,
1822.

JOSEPH BRANT.
Joseph Brant, a celebrated Indian Chief, of pure Mohawk
blood, who was at the head of the Six Nations. About the
year 1756, he was sent by Sir William Johnson to Dr. Wheel
ing's Indian Charity School, in Connecticut. He there received
a good education, and was employed on public business. In 1762
he acted as interpreter to Smith, a missionary. He visited Eng
land in 1775, where his attainments in learning attracted attention.
In the war he acted on the British side, and destroyed the settle
ment of Minisink, in Orange County, on the 22nd July, 1779. In
the engagement that ensued, forty-four Americans fell beneath the
tomahawk of the Indian. The destruction of the settlement of
Wyoming has been ascribed to him by Campbell, as well as by
other writers, but proofs were presented to the poet, in 1822, by one
of the sons of Brant, proving that he was not concerned in that
dreadful massacre. He visited England after the peace. The
saddest event of his life was the death of a son, whom he killed in
self-defence, when .. making a drunken attempt to murder him.
He never recovered from the sorrow and remorse occasioned by
this act, and as an expression of penitence for a deed which was
perhaps unavoidable, he resigned his commission in the British
service, and surrendered himself to justice, but Lord Dorchester,
the governor of Canada, would not accept his resignation. He
translated the book of Common Prayer and the Gospel according
to St. Mark, into the Mohawk language, which was published in
London, 1787. He died in 1807, at the age of 65 years.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 97

COLONEL LE COMTE DUPRE.
This gentleman commanded the Canadian militia during the
siege of 1775-6. He had first received a commission from the
Marquis Duquesne, governor-general of Canada, as captain. In
June, 1755, he was appointed major, and in the following Novem
ber, lieutenant-colonel. In consequence of his behavior during
the siege, on the 4th March, 1778, he was appointed colonel-com
mandant for the city and district of Quebec, by General Sir Guy
Carleton. He continued in this extensive command for more
than twenty years, and his conduct deservedly obtained the friend
ship, confidence and gratitude of all the militiamen of the district.
Hawkins in his "Picture of Quebec" relates the following anec
dote of him, which occurred in November, 1775.
" The enemy was at the gates of the city, when three
sergeants of the Canadian militia formed a conspiracy to admit
the Americans through a small wicket near the powder magazine,
where one of them commanded a guard. Colonel Dupre' going
his rounds one night about eleven o'clock, became suspicious, and
soon discovered this plot, and communicated it to Lieutenant-
Governor Cramahe ? The sergeants were secured, and kept in
prison until the following May. They were then tried, and ad
mitted that the city had been saved by the sagacity of Colonel
Dupre. The Americans enraged at the discovery of the plot, did
all the damage they could to the colonel's property. Four
hundred were quartered at his house and land near Quebec, which
they ruined. At his seigniory they destroyed his flour, and broke
. in pieces his furniture. On being offered a grant of land as a
reward for his services, and as a compensation for his loss, he re
fused to accept it, saying, that he served out of regard to his
country and his king, and required no remuneration."

ADMIRAL SCHANK.
John Schank, a distinguished naval officer, born in Fifeshire,
Scotland, in 1740. He went to sea in the British service when
young, and in the first American war he was employed on the lakes
13

98 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of Canada, where he displayed great talents both as a seaman and
engineer, * Returning home on peace taking place, he obtained
the rank of post captain. He devoted his leisure to the improve
ment of naval architecture, and in 1793 he published a treatise on
a method which he had invented of navigating vessels in shallow
water by means of sliding keels. He contributed to the foundation
of the society for the encouragement; of naval architecture, and
in 1794 he was nominated agent of transports. He subsequently
was employed as an engineer in superintending the defence of the
eastern coast of England. On the establishment of the Transport
Board, he was made one of the commissioners; in 1805 he was
raised to the rank of admiral ; and in 1822 to that of admiral of
the blue. His death took place at Dawlish, in Devonshire, in
February, 1823. Admiral Schank distinguished himself by several
ingenious inventions, and he wrote some works on ship building.

Hon. PETER RUSSELL
Of this gentleman, upon whom devolved the government of
Canada West, on the resignation of Major General Simcoe, in 1796,
nothing is known except that he came to Canada with General
Simcoe as inspector-general, and became a member of the first
Parliament of that section of the province, and also of the Execu
tive Council; and subsequently as the senior member of that
body, took Governor Simcoe's place, the duties of which he fulfilled
until 1799, when General Hunter arrived as duly appointed suc
cessor. During his administration, several sound and healthy measures
for the province were passed in the Legislature; and among these
may be enumerated the act incorporating the legal profession,
and that for establishing trade with the United States.

*He built at Quebec, and commanded the Inflexible, 18 guns, and fought her
against the revolted colonies on Lake Champlain, October, 1 776. Many of her
upper timbers were quite new, having been growing in the forests only ten days
before the battle.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 99

Sir JOHN HAMILTON, Bart.
Another name which deserves to be honorably mentioned in
connection with the early history ofthe province, and whose owner
was raised to rank and affluence through such connection, is that of
Sir John Hamilton, an able naval commander, and who during the
defence of Quebec, in 1775-6, in command ofthe Lizard, displayed
such bravery, skill and energy in repelling the American invaders,
and in assisting Sir Guy Carleton in doing so, that the king in 1776
conferred upon him the honor of a baronetcy, which he long
enjoyed.

JOSEPH QUESNEL, Esq.,
A Canadian poet, dramatist and composer, &c, of some repute,
was born in France in 1750, and died at Montreal on the 3rd of
July, 1809. He obtained letters of naturalization from General
Haldimand. In 1788 he produced " Colas et Colinette, ou le
Bailli Dupe1," a comedy in three acts, printed at Quebec, and per
formed at Montreal in 1790 ; " Lucas et Cecile," a musical operatta ;
"Les Ripubhcains Francais" a comedy. In 1805 he wrote a
treatise on the dramatic art, for the Quebec amateurs ; and, at
different times, several musical compositions, all of more or less
merit. These pieces were extremely popular with, and widely
read by the French Canadian people.
His sons made some figure in the political history of the lower
province. The Hon. Jules Quesnel, who died in 1842, was one
of the chiefs of the opposition party before the union, and became
a member of the special committee ; while the Hon. F. A.
Quesnel, Q. C, was a talented pleader at the bar, and a member of
Parliament. He opposed the union in 1823, and, in 1848, was
appointed a member of the Legislative Council.

100 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir CHARLES DOUGLAS,
An eminent naval officer ; he was a native of Scotland and first
obtained employment in the maratime service of Holland. This
circumstance operated to his disadvantage on entering into the
English navy ; however, at the commencement ofthe American war,
he had the command of a squadron destined to act in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. His conduct on that station, in 1776, having
forced his way up that great river, in the spring of the year, when
nearly filled with drifting ice, to the relief of his countrymen in
Quebec, procured him honors and promotion. On the prospect of
a rupture with Spain, in 1787, he was raised to the rank of a
rear-admiral. He died in 1789. Independent of his merit in
the practice of the more immediate duties of his profession, he de
serves notice on account of his important improvement in the
mode of firing guns on board ships, by means of lock instead of
matches. It is said that he was acquainted with six European
languages, and could speak them correctly.
His grandson is the present General Sir Howard Douglas, G.C.B.

COLONEL DE PEYSTER.
Colonel Arent Schuyler De Peyster, a name well known in
Upper Canada, having been connected with that province in
its infancy, in various ways, but principally in his profession as a
military officer, was the grandson of the celebrated Colonel
Abraham De Peyster, and was born in New York, on 27th June,
1736. He entered the 8th or King's Regiment of Foot in 1755,
served in various parts of North America under his uncle, Colonel
Peter Schuyler, and commanded at Detroit, Michillimackinac, and
various places in Upper Canada, during the American revolution
ary war. The Indian tribes of the north-west were then decidedly
hostile to the British Government, but the judicious measures
adopted by Colonel De Peyster, tended to conciliate and finally to
detach them entirely from the American cause. To his influence
over the Indians, several American missionaries and their families

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA- 101
were, on one occasion, indebted for the preservation of their lives.
Having risen to the rank of colonel, and commanded his regiment
for many years, he retired to Dumfries, Scotland, the native town
of his wife, where he resided until his death. During the French
revolution, he was instrumental in embodying and training the 1st
Regiment of Dumfries Volunteers, of which Robert Burns was an
original member. He was on terms of friendship with Burns, who
addressed to him one of his fugitive pieces, and with whom he
once carried on a poetical controversy in the columns of the
Dumfries Journal. He died as full of honors as of years, hav
ing held the king's commission upwards of 77 years, and being
probably at the time the oldest officer in the service, in November,
1832.

Hon. H. T. CRAMAHE.
This gentleman administered the government from 1770 to the
latter part of 1774, during the absence of the governor, Sir Guy
Carleton. It was a most critical time, namely, the passing of the
" Quebec Act," and required great vigilance on the part of the
person in charge of the government to watch over its interests, —
what with the indignation of the English community and the
subtility of the English colonists settled in what is now the
United States.
Mr. Cramahe performed his high duties with great care and
judiciousness, and his conduct, on the occasion of the English
people demanding a legislature to be convened, deserves great
credit. We believe he was a French Swiss by birth, and a member
of the Executive Council.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE LIVIUS.
Mr. Livius, the occupant of this high office, during our early
history, was a foreigner, and was born abroad about the year 1727.
He resided for a considerable time previous to the independence

102 SKETCHES OE CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of the United States at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; was a
member of the Council under the Royal Government ; but was pro
scribed by the act, 1778. Of the members ofthe Council of New
Hampshire, in 1772, seven were relatives of the governor.
Having been left out of a commission as a justice ofthe Common
Pleas, on the division of the province into counties, when new
appointments were made, and dissenting from the views of the
Council as to the disposition of reserved lands in grants made by a
foreign governor, Livius went to England, and exhibited to the
Lords of Trade several and serious charges against the administra
tion of which he was a member. These charges were rigidly
investigated, but were finally dismissed. Livius appears, however,
to have gained much popularity among those in New Hampshire,
who were opposed to the governor, and who desired his removal;
and was appointed by their influence chief-justice of the province.
But as it was thought that the appointment, under the circum
stances, was likely to produce discord, he was transferred to that
of this province, then called Quebec. His commission bears date
May 31, 1777 ; and we believe he served until about 1786,
when he retired to England where he died in 1795. Sabine says
of him, "Livius would seem a gentleman of strong feelings." He
possessed a handsome fortune ; was educated abroad, but received
an honorary degree from Harvard University, in 1767.

Sir FREDERICK HALDIMAND, K.B.
Frederick Haldimand, lieutenant-general in the British
army, and once governor of Canada, a native of Yierdon, County
of Berne, Switzerland, was one of those heroes who owed their
elevated dignity solely to their marked superiority of talent.
Those who have had the advantage of serving under him and
sharing in his fatigues and perils, cannot have failed to have made
known his eminent qualities, and the preference of the Eng*
lish nation, who confided to him the government of such an impor
tant colony as Canada in the then trying and precarious times,
must justify for ever the high opinion entertained of him. He first
entered into the service of the king of Sardinia ; and, prompted by
a noble ambition to instruct himself in the school of the king
of Prussia, he joined his service, where after about three years

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 103
he was admitted as a lieutenant in the Guards, with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. In 1754 he finally entered the British army, together with his
friend Bouquet, both with the rank of colonel, to serve in the
Royal Americans, whieh had lately been raised.
The war of 1755, between France and England, offered divers
'occasions for distinguishing himself and developing his talents.
He distinguished himself most signally at the unfortunate at
tack made on the retrenchments of Ticondorago, defended by Lieu
tenant-General Montcalm, on the 8th July, 1758 ; but where he
achieved the greatest merit was in the defence of Oswego, on Lake
Ontario, and although little notice was then taken of his exploits,
nevertheless, it should not be lost sight of at the present moment,
no more than those of Captains Steiner, de Zurich, Marc, Provost,
de Geneve, Viulliamoy de Sausconne et Du Fez, de Meridon, all
experienced officers serving under Colonel Haldimand. The Bri
tish army, who was preparing to lay siege to Niagara in 1759, con
verted Oswego into a depot for provisions as well as of munitions
of war for the campaign, and was confided to Colonel Haldimand.
The governor-general of Canada, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, being
informed of this, sent an army of 4000 men under the orders of
Chevalier de la Corne, to attack that post, defended only by about
1000 men. The fate of the whole army depended upon maintain
ing this position, otherwise the army besieging Niagara would
not only have been in danger of being surprised by the Cheva
lier, who would have marched directly, but of finding itself
placed between cross fires, by another force of equal strength, who,
in concert with the first, would have met at the same time to com
bat the British. Even supposing that they could have resisted
this double shock, they would have remained without provisions,
exposed to hunger, and at a distance of 200 miles from any Eng
lish habitation.
The Chevalier de la Corne on appearing before Oswego found it
very well entrenched, Colonel Haldimand being aware of the im
portance of this post, took the necessary precautions, as an able and
intelligent officer ought to do, and this led to his safety, and that
of the British army at a distance of 60 miles.
The attack commenced by 600 Indians, who extended themselves
partly in front of the entrenchments. The chevalier attacked in
column with his whole force. He was repulsed several times, and
although he persisted, he was not more successful. The battle lasted
most part of the day, while an attack during the night was contem
plated by the French, who having passed the night under arms,
the chevalier ordered a retreat. The colonel persuaded, as well as
his officers, that death or glory must ensue, caused a second inside
entrenchment to be made during the night as a last resort. He
sustained his reputation during the remainder of the war, as may be

104 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
judged by his conduct at the siege of Montreal, as well as on the
expeditions which followed, between July and September, 1760,
when that city by its capitulation rendered the British masters of
all the Canadas.
Some writers on Canada contend, that without any knowledge of
the country, on account of his being a foreigner, (which was un
true), he was totally unfit to govern a country of this description,
no matter what his reputation was as a soldier. Nevertheless, he
held the post assigned him until 1785, and having very meagre
records of the time of his administration, we are not prepared to
say anything either to his credit or disadvantage. It is clear,
however, that he did nothing very outre' from what we can learn,
the time was occupied principally in settling the country with the
United Empire Loyalists, and the disbanded troops, and in making
provision for their sustenance, until they should be enabled to sup
port themselves.
Smith says of Haldimand : — " Various have been the opinions
respecting this gentleman's administration. If we are to give cre
dit to the assertions of some, his government was marked by severity;
and on the other hand, it has been represented as having been
conducted by a wholesome discipline, necessary at that time, to
preserve the public tranquillity. On the score of his being a fo
reigner, many excuses may be made for the errors of his adminis
tration. Several actions for damages for false imprisonment were
instituted against him in England ; the persons who had been im
prisoned, recovered judgments against him, which were paid by i
government." j
He was recalled, and succeeded by Henry Hamilton, Esquire.

DUCALVET.
Pierre Duoalvet, one who figures most considerably in the
political annals, acquired a large fortune in the fur trade under the
French domination, and remained in the country after the oon-
quest. Canada was administered according to the French law^
until the peace of Versailles, in 1763. The ensuing year, it was ad-i
ministered according to the English laws ; and the Canadians wert
removed from their offices by reason of their religion. Being i|
Huguenot, Ducalvet did not share in this, and was appointed i
justice of the peace and magistrate. His compatriots could noi

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 105
be admitted to practice at the bar ; to remedy this injustice he
tried, as did the Intendent Raudot in former times, to reconcile
the parties. The tribunal under his jurisdiction was the soul of
justice, and this was denied to the Canadians every where. But
it was mostly as mover of the constitution that Ducalvet became
so celebrated. He declared open war against the administrative
system, which reigned under the Legislative Council, and which
he thought was infected with despotic doctrines, as well as against
Sir Frederick Haldimand, the governor, personally ; he demand
ed for the Canadians the rights of British subjects as he under
stood them ; and drew up a plan of a constitution in every respect
like that which was granted in 1791, but without the university
and the regiment of two battalions clauses. He boldly prosecuted
Haldimand in England, who afterwards incarcerated him for treason,
merely upon documentary evidence; and at the same time reclaimed
of Benjamin Franklin, at Paris, the payment of what he had
furnished Congress. He published in London the "Letter to ihe
Canadians," and the "Appeal to the Justice ofthe State," addressed
to the king, the Prince of Wales, and the ministers and members
of Parliament. His writings are powerful, and possess a sharp
though unpolished eloquence. The ex-Jesuit of Quebec, (Rou-
baud) is believed to have assisted him in his labors. Ducalvet
went twice to England ; the first time in 1783, accompanied by his
only son, born in 1773, aged 10 years ; his wife, Louise Jusseaume
had died in 1774. He left his child in London. He remained in
Canada from 1785 to 1786, and returned to England in the month
of January, for the purpose of continuing his accusations against
Haldimand, but it appears that the ship in which he sailed foun
dered at sea. P. Ducalvet, the son, remaining in London, was
still living in 1796. It was ascertained that he had not been
thrown overboard, and his mother escaped from becoming distract
ed with such cruel terrors, as were imagined by M. Barthe. The
world will not pass judgment on Ducalvet in the same point of
view. Those, whose loyalty to government is established beyond
doubt, will be against him ; while those who do not admire the
British Constitution, or who deplore the results, which had been or
may be derived therefrom in Canada, may be little thankful to him ;
although they should remember that to demand it he allied himself
with the British of the colony and the loyal Americans'. Those,
on the other hand, who admire that form of government, may con
sider themselves as indebted to him ; they will remember that it
was to obtain this for them that he sacrificed his fortune, and that
he even perished in furtherance of his efforts in this political
struggle. " Small in stature, of good figure, noble appearance, and
of a warm heart, he partook of the character of the great men of
Rome and Sparta in their best times ;" so says one of his friends.
14

106 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

HENRY HAMILTON, Esq.
This gentleman became lieutenant-governor of Quebec, on the
recall of Sir Frederick Haldimand, in 1785. Previous to his con
nection with Canada, he had served in the British army, but had
retired from the service, on peace being concluded between Eng
land and the European powers
He administered only one year, but that year brought forth a good
deal that was beneficial to the province, such as the first entering
on the Statute Book of the law of Habeas Corpus, which gave gen
eral satisfaction, not only to the English, but also to the French
portion of the community.
Mr. Hamilton was succeeded by Sir Guy Carleton, who had been
raised to the peerage as Lord Dorchester, and came to govern Can
ada for the second time. He returned to England, but shortly af
terwards was appointed governor of Dominica, an office which he
filled with great ability and integrity. He died at Antigua in Sep
tember, 1776,

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE SMITH.
Hon. William Smith was born at New York on the 25th of
June, 1728. His father, a lawyer of eminence in that province, be
came a member of his Blajesty's council, and was afterwards ap
pointed judge of the court of King's Bench. Judge Smith left
many children, the eldest of whom is the subjectof this memoir.
Mr. Smith was thus descended from a respectable family in the pro
vince, and his father perceiving that he evinced considerable talent
in his youth, sent him early to a grammar school at New York. At
school he was an extraordinary proficient, and, when sufficiently in
structed, was sent to Yale College, rt New Haven, in Connecticut,
where he distinguished himself so much by his learning and assi
duity, that he obtained the degree of A.M. at a very early age. He
was well acquainted with the ancienc writers, particularly with the
Greek philosophers, whose history he read in their native language,
while he understood sufficient of the Hebrew to beoome familiar

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 107
with many things in the Rabbinical learning. He made the study
of divinity a chief pursuit, and those who read what he had writ
ten on this important subject, were astonished at his knowledge of
the scriptures, while to many it appeared incredible that one man
should have acquired in a few years such variety of knowledge in
matters unconnected with his immediate avocations.
He had great readiness in arithmetic, was an excellent mathema
tician, and in medicine was so well informed, that several eminent
physicians of his native state have declared that in answer to sev
eral questions propounded to him on this science, he had discovered
great judgment, as well as minute knowledge; indeed he under
stood almost as much of the general principles of the healing art
as speculation without practice could enable him.
He was a devout Christian, a sincere Protestant, and tolerant and
just to those from whom he differed most. He used constantly to
worship God in his family, performing its duties always himself.
Having spent several years at college, Mr. Smith repaired to his
native city, where he studied law, and after being called to the
bar, he entered it with a very extensive practice ; he was above the
mean appetite of loving money, for if he saw a cause was unjust, he
would state that it was so, and if the litigant parties persisted in their
respective views, he would desire them to seek another counsellor ;
if he found the cause doubtful, he always advised his client to com
promise. When differences were referred to him, which he settled,
he would receive no reward, though offered it by both parties, con
sidering himself in these cases as a judge ; observing that " a judge
ought to take no money." He was an eloquent speaker, remarkable
for the soundness of his law opinions, many of which are collected
and recorded in a book by Chalmers, entitled " Opinions of Emi
nent Lawyers." He was the intimate friend of Robertson the his
torian of America, and of many other literary characters of that day.
He was appointed a member of his Majesty's council as early as
the year 1769, where his attendance was regular, his integrity un
questioned, and his loyalty firm to his king ; and when the lower
ing clouds, caused by the Stamp Act, began to spread over the con
tinent, he saw the danger likely to result from the measure, and
drew up a plan of union of all his Majesty's colonies, which if it
had been then adopted, might have prevented the civil war that en
sued, and the dismemberment of the British Empire in America.
The direct tax that was devised by Parliament in 1764, was the
origin of the controversy ; both countries resorted to the constitu
tion for arguments iu support of tenets diametrically opposite to
each other ; on the part of America there was a claim set up to all
the rights of Englishmen, and it was inferred that no tax could be
laid upon them without the consent of their assemblies. Great Bri
tain on the other hand attempted to justify her measures by
admitting the principle, but denying the consequence; she con-

108 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
tended that America was virtually represented by the Commons of
Great Britain. Mr. Smith proposed a plan of union of all the colo
nies friendly to the great whole, and linking them and Great Bri
tain together by the most indissoluble ties ; all requisitions for aid
and supplies for general purposes, had been formerly addressed to
the several provincial assemblies ; it was now proposed this should
be made to the general government. It was not, however, intended
to emancipate the assemblies, but that there should be a lord-lieu
tenant as in Ireland, and a council of at least twenty -four members,
appointed by the Crown, or the House of Commons, 'consisting of
deputies chosen by their respective assemblies, to meet at the cen
tral province of New York, as the parliament of North America. To
this body it was proposed all the royal requisitions for aids were to
be made, and they were to have authority to grant for all, to settle
the quotas for each, leaving the ways and means to their separate
consideration, unless in case of default. The members ofthe coun
cil were to depend upon the royal pleasure, but, to preserve inde
pendency, they were to be men of fortune, and hold their places
for life, with some honorable distinction to their families, as a lure
to prevent the office falling into contempt.
The number of deputies was to be proportioned to the compara
tive weight and abilities of the colonies they represented. The two
Floridas, Rhode Island, Nova Scotia, and Georgia, to have five
each ; New Hampshire, Maryland, North Carolina, and Quebec, each
seven ; South Carolina and New Jersey, each eleven ; New YoTk,
Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, each twelve ; and Massachusetts
Bay and Virginia, each fifteen. The whole house would thus con
sist of one hundred and forty-one members, a small number when
the importance of the trust was considered, but to be increased
when the colonies became more populous and desired it. The
Crown to retain its ancient negative, and the British Parliament
its legislative supremacy in all cases relative to life, liberty, and
property, except in the matter of taxations for general aids, or for
immediate support of the American government. A dignified
government like this, it was supposed, would produce unspeakable
advantages by making the colonies better known, and that it would
correct the many disorders that had crept into some of the colo
nial constitutions, dangerous in some instances to the colonists
themselves, and their British creditors, and derogative of the first
rights and many of the prerogatives of the Crown, most friendly
to peace and good order.
The minister, G. Grenville, approved of the plan, but never
brought it forward in Parliament ; and thus things remained
until Great Britain, in 1775, determined to tax the colonies
without their consent. Mr. Smith deeply deplored the conten
tions that afterwards took place, and long before the civil war
broke out, exerted every means in his power to avert ic.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 109
General Tryon, the governor of New York, finding it no
longer safe to remain in the city, embarked on board the
Duchess of Gordon, signifying to the council that he would not
meet them again in public business ; leaving each member
to retire when he pleased. Mr. Smith then repaired to his
country seat at Haverstraw, about forty miles from New York. He
was not long there before he was summoned, 3rd June, 1777, to
attend the council of safety at Kingston, and being introduced be
fore them, he was asked whether he considered himself a subject of
the Independent States of America ? To which he replied, that he
did not conceive himself discharged from his oaths of fidelity to the
Crown of Great Britain ; upon which an order was immediately
made by the board, of the 7th of June, ordering him to be confin
ed within the manor of Livingston, where he remained until he
was sent into New York, by a flag, under the superintendence of
Colonel Burr, by order of General Washington.
Mr. Smith remained at New York till the evacuation of that
city by the king's troops, and went to England with Sir Guy Carle
ton, the then commander-in-chief. He there remained until he was
appointed chief-justice of Canada, in November, 1786, and con
tinued to hold that station until he died, on the 3rd November,
1793. He thus held his office as chief-justice for seven years,
managing the court and all proceedings in it, with singular justice.
It was observed by the whole country, how much he raised its re
putation ; and those who held places and offices in it, all declared,
the impartiality of his justice, his generosity, his vast dilligence,
and his great exactness in trials. It was customary before his time,
that all prisoners should be brought into court, in the custody of a
party of soldiers ; he disapproved of this, and established, for the
first time, the appointment of constables, ordering them to be pro
vided with their batons of office, which has been continued ever
since. He was taken with a shivering fit in court, and it was suc
ceeded by an ardent fever, which no medical skill could arrest or
destroy. A day before his death, he desired one of his children to
send round to the clergymen of each communion a declaration to be
read in the several churches, of his firm belief in the Divinity of
his Saviour.
As a Christian, he was one of the greatest patterns of the time
in which he lived ; and, in his public employments, either when at
the bar, or on the bench, was equally distinguished as a model of
Christian perfection.

10 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
This ingenious and energetic traveller and discoverer was origi
nally a Canadian merchant. The date of his birth is not known ; bat
he was a native of Inverness, and a traveller of considerable talent
and perseverance, connected with the North West Fur Company, in
the employ of Mr. Gregory. In 1789, he set out to explore the
country to the north, nearly midway between the Pacific Ocean and
Hudson's Bay, from a station at the head of the Athabaska Lake.
He discovered the great river, which bears his name, falling into
the Polar Sea. He undertook a second journey three years after
wards, to reach the Peace River ; he succeeded, and was the first
European who ever crossed from sea to sea, the whole breadth of
the vast American continent to the northward, which he completed
from Fort Chipiowyan in eleven months.

WILLIAM BERCZY, Esq.
William Berczy, a name well known in Upper Canada, was
born in Saxony, about the years 1747-8. While he was still quite
young, his father removed to Vienna with his family. We find by
the copy of a letter, in his own hand-writing, dated at Hanover,
13th February, 1792, that he was not of an"" indifferent" family,
well known in Germany; that his father was employed in the
diplomatic corps of the German Empire, and that others of his
relations were, at that time, and had been previously, members of
the supreme tribunal of the Empire, and that his uncle had been
for more than forty years minister of the house of Brunswick, at
the Imperial Court of Vienna. He studied at the universities of
Leipsic and Jeva, and was destined by his father to follow in his
path; but imbued by a feeling of independence, and the ideas
prevalent in those days, he preferred choosing a career for himself.
He left his home, travelled in Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and the
adjoining countries. From thence he went to Italy and Switzer
land, where he became acquainted with Miss Charlotte Allemand,
whom he married on the 15th of December, 1785. She was of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. Ill
respectable parentage in Switzerland, several of her paternal uncles
being men of letters, of some celebrity, one of them a professor of
the university of Leyden, and another a professor of a literary
institution at Lausanne, of whom favorable mention is made by
the celebrated historian, Gibbon, in his Memoirs. After his
marriage, he returned to Italy, from whence, in the year 1790, he
went to London, in England, when his son William was born, 6th
January, 1791. Here he was engaged as agent by an association,
of which Sir William Pultney (afterwards Earl of Bath,) was the
principal, who were owners of a large tract of land in Genesee
county, in the State of New York, in America, to procure people
from Germany, to settle on those lands. Having procured a num
ber of emigrants, in the year 1792, he set sail from Hamburg with
about sixty German families, and after a tedious passage, landed them
at Philadelphia. From thence he was to convey them to their place
of destination, on the Genesee lands ; butt as a great part of the
country he had to go through was still uninhabited, he opened a
waggon road by the aid of his people, of upwards of one hundred
miles in length, through the forests, and finally established them
on their lands in the autumn of that year. Differences having
arisen between Mr. Berczy and a Mr. Charles Williamson, the
chief agent of the association, he felt himself compelled, in the
year 1793, to institute an action of damages against that agent,
and the proprietors of the Genesee lands, which having resulted in
his favor, he determined to withdraw his people, and settle with
them in Upper Canada, where he had learned, through the pro
clamation of the governor of that province, published in 1792, as
well as from other sources, that advantageous offers were made to
leaders of families desirous of settling there. He, in consequence
formed an association with some gentlemen at New York, for the
purpose of bringing out emigrants from Germany, if favorable
arrangements could be effected with the Canadian government.
Immediately after he proceeded to Niagara, in Upper Canada, at
that time the head-quarters of the government, called on Governor'
Simcoe, to whom he proposed, not only to bring the people he had
already at the Genesee, but to introduce a much larger number
from Germany, if he could get lands for their settlement, on such
conditions as would indemnify the associations of which he was a
member for their outlay in carrying out their project Having
pitched upon the townships of Markham, in the rear of the town
of York, he brought his people from the Genesee, amounting to
sixty-four families. The town of York, now Toronto, at that
period, was scarcely inhabited, and the whole country back, was a
dense wilderness ; he therefore, had to find a way to convey his
people and their effects to their future residence, and at once set
to work in opening the road, as far as Gwillimbury, now known as
Yonge Street, and from then ^e to his township. As it may be

112 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
interesting to some persons at this time, to know who was the actual
projector of that road, we insert below, a letter from Mr. (after
ward Sir) David William Smith, then acting surveyor-general,
dated at York, 11th of October, 1794, in which he writes to Mr.
Berczy. "Dear Sir. — In order that you may be acquainted with the
method which has been taken in opening Dundas street, I enclose
to you Mr. Jones's letter on that subject, in hopes it may be of
assistance to you iu the opening of Yonge Street."
(Signed) " D. W. Smith,
Acting Surveyor-General."
The survey of the township of Markham having been completed
in May, 1795, Mr. Berczy applied for the government patents for
his land ; he was however put off at first by being told that his set
tlers being aliens, could not yet receive their deeds, and subsequently,
other reasons were alleged, until, in the year 1797, all grants of a
similar nature were recinded, on the plea that the grantees had not
complied with the conditions of settlement required by the govern
ment. Having, in vain, endeavored to obtain a reversal of this order,
which ought not to have applied to his particular case, as he had heen
the only one of the numerous grantees who had complied with the
conditions of settlement, he, as a last resort, in the year 1799, went
to England, to lay his case before the Imperial Government ; and
after a delav of nearly two years, at last brought his business to a
favorable termination ; but in this also, he was ultimately disap
pointed, for he never obtained the titles to the lands he had so
dearly bought by years of toil, and great outlay of money, not all
his own, it is true, but all that he did possess.
On his return from prosecuting his claim in England, in the
autumn of 1801, the vessel in which he sailed, was unfortunately
forced by stress of weather, to put into the Bay of Chaleurs, in
the province of New Brunswick, where he had to remain until the
middle of February, 1802, when, at the age of about fifty-five years,
he set out on snow shoes, a mode of travel he had never before
practiced, and crossed the wilderness, on his way to Quebec, which'
he reached on the 8th of March following.
His efforts to obtain the justice, to which he considered himself
entitled, after his return to Upper Canada, having failed, he finally
left that province, to reside at Montreal, in the year 1805.
The expenses caused by his unfortunate undertaking, having
principally fallen on him, as the only responsible person in this
country, he found himself, after settling with his creditors, left
without means of support ; he was consequently forced to avail
himself of his talent for painting, to earn by that means a living
for himself and his family.
In the spring of 1812; he left Montreal, on a. journey to New

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 113
York, in the hope of obtaining some indemnification from his
former associates, in the land business already mentioned, some of
whom were still living in that city, and also with the view of
publishing a statistical account of the provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada, which he had completed, during the leisure mo
ments allowed him, from his other almost incessant occupations.
When he left Montreal, he had just partially recovered from a
severe attack of illness, the seeds of which he carried with him
on his journey, and from the effects of which, in tlie winter of
1813, he died at New York, having been kindly cared for by some
of his old friends, during his last illness.
It does not appear that he realized the projects he had in view,
by going to New York, which probably failed, owing to his state of
ill health; nor did the family find among the papers they recovered,
after the termination of the war, between Great Britain and the
United States, his work on the Canadas, which possibly may have
been appropriated by some person unknown to them.
Thus ended the career of a gentleman, who had devoted many
years of his life, in the hope of benefiting his countrymen in
Germany, by removing them to America, where they might enjoy
freer institutions and greater liberty than in their native land,
while, at the same time, he had hoped to realize a competence for
himself; but who, through the jealousy and injustice of some of
his fellow creatures, had his life embittered by disappointment and
pecuniary difficulties.
His son was the late Charles Albert Berczy, born at Niagara,
C. W., 22nd August, 1794. He entered the commissariat during
the war of 1812, and rose to be acting deputy assistant-commis
sary-general. He afterwards became a justice of the peace and
postmaster of Toronto, where he died in June, 1858, after a life of
usefulness and honor. He was one of the first projectors ofthe
Northern Railway and a large stockholder. He married Miss
Anne Eliza Finch, daughter of the late Joseph Stace Finch, Esq.,
of Greenwich, England, an officer in the Field Train. She, with a
large family, survives him

Sir ALURED CLARKE, G.C.B.
This gallant soldier and gentleman, who administered the gov
ernment of the province of Quebec, as lieutenant-governor, from
1792 to 1793, during the absence of Lord Dorchester, was a
15

114 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
celebrated military commander, who afterwards rose to the highest
honors and distinction, in the service of his country. He was
probably of the family, one of whom was Alured Clarke, D.D.,
who died Dean of Exeter, in May 1742. His stay in Canada was
not a long one ; he opened and closed one session of parliament,
did some good public business, and that was all. Smith says of
him, that " his administration was a mild one, and his deportment
that of a gentleman."
Previous to his connexion with us, he had been governor of
Jamaica ; after he left Canada, he was intrusted with the command
ot an expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, which he reduced,
and was knighted by the king. In 1795 he proceeded to India,
and was appointed commander-in-chief of Madras. In 1797, he
gave up that command to take that of Bengal, as also the governor
ship, and commanded the army iu Lucknow, which deposed the
Nabob, Viser Ally, and placed Sandut Ally on the musnud of
Oude ; shortly afterwards in September, he was named to the high
and honorable post of governor-general of India, and only
resigned in April 1798, to Lord Mornington, when in May of the
same year, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in
India. This distinguished mark of honor he resigned in 1801, and
on returning to England in 1802, was raised to the rank of general.
In July, 1830, he was made a field marshal; and in September,
1832, closed a long and distinguished life, in the services of his
king and country, after having raised himself to one of the •
proudest positions in England.

Hon. JOHN HALE.
The subject of this brief notice, who died in December, 1838,
was a member of the Lower Canadian Legislative Council, and
receiver-general of that province.
Mr. Hale belonged to an ancient and distinguished family in the
north of England, and was allied by marriage, to the family of the
late Lord Amherst, commander-in-chief of the British forces in
America, who received the capitulation of Canada, at Montreal, in
1760. He was brother-in-law, we believe, of the late Earl Amherst,
late governor of India.
We do not know exactly when Mr. Hale came to Canada, but he
was here in 1794, with his late Royal Highness Prince Edward.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 115
After some absence from Canada, Mr. Hale returned as paymaster-
general of the forces, which office he held till it was merged in the
duties of the commissariat. He purchased from the De Lanaudiere
family, the seigniory of Ste. Anne de la Perade, and lived some
years at the domain, on the best of terms with the inhabitants,
amongst whom he introduced several improvements. In 1824, he
was appointed acting receiver-general, which office he held till
the time of his'death, the duties being discharged during the infir
mities of his last illness, by his son, Jeffrey Hale, Esquire.
Mr. Hale was of the old school, with the usual liberality and inde
pendence of an English gentleman ; he had some strong hereditary
feeling about the duties of a public officer, which, we apprehend, were
better securities than the strictest laws and superintendence in those
times when offices were frequently sought and obtained through in
trigue and popular favor. No one even doubted Mr. Hale's correct
discharge of the duties of his situation. He neither gave nor asked
for favors, ever prepared and punctual to do all that he was au
thorized to do, according to the regular course and the responsibili
ties of his office.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIMCOE.
Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe, the first go
vernor of Upper Canada, and the chief instrument in settling and
establishing that most flourishing and prosperous of her Majesty's
dependencies. He was born at the town of Cotterstock, North
amptonshire, England, in 1752, and was the son of Captain John
Simcoe, commander of H. M. S. Pembroke, who was killed at Que
bec, in the execution of his duty, in the year 1759, whilst assist
ing the ever glorious Wolfe in his siege of that city. He died at
the comparatively early age of 45, leaving a wife and two children to
mourn and lament the loss of " an indulgent husband, a tender pa
rent, and sincere friend." *
From a memoir prefixed to Colonel Simcoe's Military Journal,
Bartlett & Wilford, New York, 1844, we make a few extracts con
cerning the illustrious father of the suhject of this notice.
" Though bred in the navy, and highly esteemed as an excel
lent officer, Captain Simcoe was peculiarly partial to the military
service, and is said to have left behind him a valuable treatise
* Vide epitaph to Capt. Simcoe's memory in St. Andrew's Church, Cotterstock.

116 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS.
on tactics in that profession. The most striking occurrence of
his life, arose however, it is said from an accident, improved in a
manner peculiar to genius, and extensive professional knowledge.
The story is that he was taken prisoner by the French in Ameri
ca, and carried up the river St. Lawrence. As his character was
little known, he was watched only to prevent his escape ; but,
from his observations in the voyage to Quebec, and the little inci
dental information which he was able to obtain, he constructed
a chart of that river, and carried up General Wolfe to his famous
attack upon the Canadian capital. He was promoted to a cap
taincy, in 1743, at the age of twenty-nine. Upon the trial of
Admiral Byng, in 1756-7, he served as a member of the court-
martial convened for that purpose, and was then aged forty-two
years." Of the two children left by Captain Simcoe, as a legacy to the
wide world, John Graves, was the elder; and, as his brother was
drowned shortly afterwards, he became the only surviving son.
On young Simcoe first going to school at Exeter, (whither his
mother had removed,) at a comparatively early age, he attracted
considerable notice from all with whom he came in contact for his
proficiency in everything that the school taught ; and he was un
doubtedly the dux of the school. Outside as well as inside, he
was champion in all the manly games resorted to at an English
school. At the age of fourteen, he was removed to Eton. Here he
acquired new honors. He read history with avidity, and was
well versed in everything appertaining to the wars and battles of
his comJtry. We are told, that young as he was, he was bold and
daring in everything he took in hand, and was formed by nature to
be a soldier.
After remaining at Eton a short time, he was removed to Mere-
ton College, Oxford. From college, in his nineteenth year, he
entered the army, either he or his guardians having selected that
glorious profession for him. He was appointed to an ensigncy in the
35th regiment ofthe line ; and as hostilities had already commenced
with the United States of America, he was despatched to the seat
of war, to join his regiment. He arrived at Boston on the day of
the battle of Bunker Hill, and took an active part afterwards, as
may be seen, in the great American war, when the American colo
nists threw off their allegiance to Great Britain, and declared them
selves independent.
Ensign Simcoe, having served some time as adjutant to his own
regiment, purchased the command of a company in the 40th, with
which he fought at the battle of Brandywine, and where he dis
played (although very young,) his courage and professional attain
ments by the active part he took in the day's proceedings. Unfor
tunately he was severely wounded at this engagement.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 117
The command of a light corps, or, as it is termed the service of
a partizan, is generally esteemed the best mode of instruction for
those who aim at higher stations ; as it gives an opportunity of ex
emplifying professional acquisitions, fixes the h^,bit of self-depen
dence for resources, and obliges to that prompt decision which, in
the common rotation of duty, subordinate officers can seldom ex
hibit, yet without which, none can be qualified for any military
trust of importance. To attain this employment was therefore an
early object with Simcoe; nor could he be diverted from his
purpose by the shameful character of dishonesty, rapine, and false
hood, supposed to attend it, at least by those who formed their
judgment on the conversation of such officers, as had been witnesses
to the campaigns in Germany. He had fairer examples to profit
from ; for the page of military history scarcely details more spirited
exertions, in this kind of service, than what distinguishingly
marked the last civil commotions in England ; and Massey's well
known saying, " that he could not look upon the goods of any Eng
lishman, as those of an enemy," delineated the integrity of the citi
zen, and the honorable policy of the soldier.
His intimate connexion with that most upright and
zealous officer, the late Admiral Graves, who commanded at
Boston in the year 1775, and some services, with which he
was pleased to entrust him, made him acquainted with many of
the American loyalists ; from them he soon learned the practica
bility of raising troops in the country, whenever it should be opened
to the king's forces ; and the propriety of such a measure ap
peared to be self-evident. He, therefore, importuned Admiral
Graves to ask of General Gage, that he might enlist such negroes
as were in Boston. With these he put himself under the direction
of Sir James Wallace, who was then actively engaged at Rhode
Island, and to whom that colony had opposed negroes ; adding to
the admiral, who seemed surprised at his request, " that he enter
tained no doubt, that he should soon exchange them for whites."
General Gage, on the admiral's application, informed him, that
the negroes were not sufficiently numerous to be serviceable, and
that he had no other employment for those who were in Boston.
We make an extract from the memoir from which we have before
quoted : — " Captain Simcoe, was always a soldier in his heart, and
attentive to every part of his duty. He already saw that regularity
in the interior economy of a soldier's life, contributed to his
health, and he estimated the attention of the inferior officers by
the strength of a company, or a regiment in the field. This ambi
tion invariably led him to aspire to command ; and even, when the
army first landed at Staten Island, he went to New York to request
the command of the Queen's Rangers, (a provincial corps, then
newly raised,) though he did not obtain his desire, till after the
battle of Brandywine, in October, 1777. He knew that common

118 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
opinion had imprinted on the partizan the most dishonorable stain,
and associated the idea with that of dishonesty, rapine, and false
hood. " Yet, on the other hand, he also knew that the command of
a light corps, had been considered as the best source of instruc
tion, as a means of acquiring a habit of self-dependence for re
sources, and of prompt decision, so peculiarly requisite in trusts of
importance." The corps of Rangers claimed all the attention of the now
Major-Commandant Simcoe, and contributed greatly to lessen his
paternal fortune ; for, though warmly alive to the interests of others,
he was always inattentive to his own. We find in Rivington's
Royal Gazette, printed at New York during the presence of the
British army in the city, an advertisement for recruits, somewhat
significant of the care and expense bestowed upon the equipment
of this effective band of partizans. It is as follows : —
" All aspiring heroes have now an opportunity of distinguish
ing themselves by joining the Queen's Ranger Hussars, com
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe.
" Any spirited young man will receive every encouragement, he
immediately mounted on an elegant horse, and furnished with cloth
ing, accoutrements, &c, to the amount of Forty Guineas, by ap
plying to Cornet Spencer, at his quarters, No. 1033 Water Street,
or his rendezvous, Hewitt's Tavern, near the Coffee House, and the
defeat at Bran dywine, on Golden Hill.
" Whoever brings a recruit shall instantly "receive Two Guineas
— Vivant Rex et Regina."
" The Rangers were disciplined, not for parade but for active
service. They were never to march in slow time ; were directed
to fir» with precision and steadiness ; to wield the bayonet with
force and effect ; to disperse and rally with rapidity. In short, in
the instructions for the management of the corps, its commander
seems to have anticipated the more modern tactics of the French
army." The Queen's Rangers, under Colonel Simcoe, acquired new lau
rels, and were justly celebrated, as was their leader, for their seve
ral gallant deeds and exploits. During the rest of the American
war, or until their disbandment, they bore part in nearly every
engagement, which took place, and were invariably successful in
everything. As our task is necessarily restricted by brevity, we
cannot here enumerate the many gallant actions which they per
formed. General Simcoe's Journal supplies everything that we
have been compelled, through want of space, to omit.
But unfortunately being situated at Gloucester Point, opposite
York-town, when the latter place was besieged by the allied
French and American army, the Rangers, as well as the other
portion of the English army, under Lord Cornwallis's command,

AND PERSONS OONNECTEDWITH CANADA. 119
were surrendered by that nobleman to the victorious insurgents.
Their noble commander, " in ill health," as the Journal says,
" equally the result of excessive fatigue from his arduous services,
and of vexation at the inglorious fate of his cherished soldiers,"
was transmitted to New York in the Bonetta sloop, which the British,
in an article of the capitulation, reserved to themselves as a trans
port for their sick and wounded, to be exchanged as prisoners of war.
With the surrender of Gloucester Point, the glorious existence
of the Rangers terminated. The officers were afterwards put upon
half pay, and their provincial rank retained to them in the standing
British army. The war of independence virtually ceased, with the
capture of York-Town, and Colonel Simcoe returned to England,
greatly fatigued by his late arduous duties, and greatly impaired in
his constitution.
The king received him in a manner which truly showed how
grateful his Majesty was for the great services he had rendered ; and
all classes of society re.ceived him with the most affectionate regard,
and showed him every demonstration of their attachment.
Not long after his return, he entered into the marriage state
with Miss Guillim, a near relation to Admiral Graves, a distinguished
officer, engaged in the American war. Colonel Simcoe was also
elected to represent, in 1790, the borough of St. Maw's, Cornwall,
in the House of Commons, which place he continued to represent,
with equal honor to himself and his country until the passing of
the bill dividing the province of Quebec into two provinces, to be
called Upper and Lower Canada. Colonel Simcoe was judiciously
selected as the first governor of Upper Canada, whither he proceeded
in 1791, with his accomplished wife, and a young family.
Upper Canada was then in a comparative state of wilderness ;
few were the settlements, and few the settlers ; the population chief
ly consisted, with the exception of a few whites, of Indians.
We cannot picture to ourselves, a more dismal, or a more tho
roughly dejected plantation than was Upper Canada at the time of
which we speak. Governor Simcoe, therefore, had not much reason
to think himself ^honored by the appointment conferred upon him
by his grateful sovereign. Nevertheless, he entered upon his duty
with a resolute heart. Newark, now Niagara, was made the seat of
government : Firstly, — Consisting of a Legislative Assembly and
Council, the former contained sixteen members only ; and the
latter was still smaller, and a Parliament was convened so early as the
17th September of the same year. Secondly, he appointed an Exe
cutive Council, composed of gentlemen, who had accompanied him
out, and some who already resided in the province. He had the
whole country surveyed, and laid out into districts, and invited as
much immigration as possible, in order to swell the population.
For this purpose, those parties who so nobly adhered to the cause
of England in the revolted colonies (now the United States), and

120 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
which are chiefly known by the sobriquet of United Empirests,
removed to Canada, and received a certain portion of land, free.
Also discharged officers and soldiers of the line, received a certain
portion of land gratuitously, and all possible means were employed
to further the project of the governor. When we see the flourish
ing and prosperous cities, towns, and villages of Upper Canada,
may we not truly say that for these we are, in the first instance,
mainly indebted to that brave and gallant-hearted soldier, who left
no ends untried to fulfil his duty, and to make Upper Canada a
valuable and enviable dependency of the Britisn government. A
provincial corps was also raised by command of the king, and Col
onel Simcoe was appointed colonel of it. This corps, he also called
the " Queen's Rangers," after his old regiment.
In 1796, after remaining four years at Newark, the seat of go
vernment removed to York (now Toronto), which was, at that time,
a miserable collection of shanties ; and this place, Governor Simcoe
determined, should be the capital of the province. He accordingly,
with that intention, improved the site and vicinity of this projected
city to a great extent. Roads were constructed, so that a proper
communication should be kept up between town and country. A
schooner ran weekly, we believe, betweed Newark and York ; and
couriers were sent overland, monthly, to Lower Canada. Of course,
the population increased, and the young province began to consider
itself wealthy. Thus, it will be seen, in his propagations of the
country's benefit, how much the governor had at heart the pros
perity ofthe province; and he would, no doubt, have continued in
his good work, and have seen the province rise, as it were from
infancy to maturity, but it was decreed otherwise. In 1794 he
was promoted to the rank of major-general, and in 1796, appointed
to be commandant and governor of the important island of St.
Domingo, which had a few years previously been wrested from the
natives. Thither Simcoe with his family proceeded, and there he
held the local rank of lieutenant-general.
Here, though he remained only a few months, he greatly endeared
himself by his kind and considerate government of the island, not
only to all the residents, but to the natives themselves ; and a con
temporary justly remarks, that " short as was his stay, he did more
than any former general to conciliate the native inhabitants to the
British government."
In 1798, he was created a lieutenant-general ; and in 1801, when
an invasion of England was expected by the French, the command
of the town of Plymouth was entrusted to him. We do not hear
of him again until 1806, when the last scene in this great man's
life was to come to a close.
France had long been suspected of a design to invade Portugal,
and, the affair being apparent to England, public attention was called
to the critical situation of that country ; and as Portugal was the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 121
only surviving ally of England upon the continent, means must
necessarily be employed to assist her. In this critical juncture,
Lieutenant-General Simcoe, and the Earl of Rosselyn, with a
large staff, were immediately sent out to join the Earl of St. Vin
cent, who with his fleet was in the Tagus ; and they were instructed
to open, in concert with him, a communication with the court, so
that they would ascertain whether danger was very imminent,
and if so, employ means to guard against it.
But alas ! in such a glorious undertaking, which probably would
have crowned him with fame and honors, Simcoe was never des
tined to participate to any extent. On the voyage thither, he was
taken suddenly ill, and had to return to England, where he had
only landed, when his erratic and eventful life was brought to a
close. He breathed his last at Torbay, in Devonshire, at the com
paratively early age of fifty-four, after having honorably served his
country during many years, in a variety of occupations, regretted
by all, from the simple soldier, whom he had commanded, to the
friend of his heart, and his boon companion.
General Simcoe, previously to his death, had been appointed as
successor to Lord Lake, to the command of the troops in India;
and had his life been protracted, we would no doubt have heard his
name spoken of with the same warmth, the same affection, and the
same honor as a Clive, a Gough, or aClyde. Asit is, although he may
be forgotten, and his name may descend to obscurity in half of the
places where he may have served his king and country, the name
of Simcoe will be ever held in grateful remembrance, and regarded
as a household word, by the majority of the people of Upper Canada.
He is spoken of by Tarleton and Stedman, in their History of the
Indian War, and of the Queen's Rangers. A dispatch from Sir
Henry Clinton, to Lord George Germaine, 13th May, 1780, men
tions in high terms Simcoe and the Rangers, saying that "the
history of the corps under his command is a series of gallant, skilful
and successful enterprises against the enemy, without a single
reverse; the Queen's Rangers have killed or taken twice their own
numbers."

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHANK.
David Shank, a veteran officer in the British army, was ap
pointed lieutenant in the Loyalists, under the Earl of Dunmore,
in Virginia. He was present at the defence of Guyns Island, and

122 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
other skirmishes ; and served as a volunteer in the battle of Long
Island, August 27, 1776. In March, 1777, he received a lieutenancy
in the Queen's Rangers. He accompanied General Howe's army into
New Jersey ; and was engaged in the battle of Brandywine, Septem
ber 11, 1777, when out of twenty-one officers of that corps, fourteen
were killed and wounded. Lieutenant Shank commanded the picket
of the regiment at the battle of Germantown, near Philadelphia, on
the 4th October, and had the good fortune to check the column of
the enemy that attacked the right of the army, for which he re
ceived the thanks of Major Wemyss, who at that time commanded
the regiment. Lieutenant Shank continued with the army on its re
treat from Philadelphia, and was present at the battle of Mon
mouth. In October, 1778 he succeeded to a company. After the
siege of Charlestown he returned to New York with Sir Henry
Clinton, and was engaged in the skirmish at Springfield.
In August, 1779, Captain Shank was selected by Lieutenant-Col
onel Simcoe to command a troop of dragoons, and he afterwards
commanded the cavalry of the Queen's Rangers in the expedition
to Virginia, during which he was most actively employed, particu
larly in a severe action at Spencer's Ordinary.
At the close ofthe war Captain Shank returned home, and in Oc
tober, 1783, the corps being disbanded, he was placed on half pay, on
which he continued, till 1791. His friend, Colonel Simcoe, being
then appointed lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, with leave
to raise a small corps of four hundred rank and file, he was
appointed senior officer, and left under the patronage of the Mar
quis of Buckingham, to raise the men in England ; which being
accomplished, this corps had leave to take again the name of
the Queen's Rangers, were equipped as a light infantry corps, and
embarked for Canada in April, 1792. He received the brevet of
major, 1st March, 1794. Major-General Simcoe, on his return to
Europe, left Major Shank in command of the troops in Upper
Canada, in the summer of 1796. He received the rank of lieu
tenant-colonel, January, 1798, and in April the lieutenant-colonelcy
of his regiment. He returned to England in 1799.
From that time he continued at home, in the expectation of em
ployment under General Simcoe, until at the peace of Amiens, the
Queen's Rangers were reduced. On the 3rd September, 1803 he
was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Fencibles. He
received the rank of colonel in 1808, of major-general 1811, and
lieutenant-general 1821. He died at Glasgow, 16th October, 1831

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 123

Right Rev. JACOB MOUNTAIN, D.D.
The late Dr. Mountain, first Protestant bishop of Quebec, and
father of the present venerable and esteemed prelate, was born at
Thwaite Hall, Norfolk, in 1750.
The family was, originally, a French Protestant one, who took
refuge in England, upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes,
(the name having been originally Montaigne") ; and subsequently
became possessed of a moderate landed property in the county of
Norfolk. The father of his lordship, and grandfather of the
present bishop, at the time of Dr. Mountain's birth, resided upon
his estate at Thwaite Hall, in that county; and being much known
and noticed for his agreeable and social qualities, which introduced
him to a familiar intercourse with persons of a higher rank than
his own, in some degree, injured his property. He died about
one hundred and eight years ago, while he was yet a young man ;
and while Dr, Mountain, his younger son, was yet an infant ; leav
ing his widow and four children with a sufficient independence,
although far removed from wealth.
The bishop received the first part of his education at a good
grammar school at Wyndham ; and was afterwards removed to
Norwich, where his mother then resided. He was at first designed
for business ; and, at the age of about fifteen, was placed for a time,
with Mr. Paole, a merchant, then mayor of Norwich ; but, having
an utter disinclination to such pursuits, he abandoned the original
intention to resume the course of his education, which was continued
at Seaming under Mr. Potter, the translator of the Greek tragedies,
with whom he was a favorite pupil, till he went to Caius College, in
the University of Cambridge, of which he afterwards became afellow.
He was well known at the university; and, afterwards to the late
Mr. Pitt; and there can be no hesitation in saying, that he enjoyed
the high esteem of many distinguished characters, in the literary,
political, and religious world at that day. With many of these he
had the good fortune to be intimately acquainted, especially with
the late Lord Bishop of Winchester, whose unabated friendship he
preserved to the day of his death.
In 1781, he married Miss Eliza Kentish, co-heiress, with her
two sisters, of Little Bardfield Hall, in the county of Essex, and
by her had four sons, three of whom followed the profession of
their father; — the fourth was the late Colonel. Armine Mountain,
C.B., adjutant-general in India, and aid-de-camp to the Queen ;
he had also two daughters. He was settled at first, after his
marriage, in the living of St. Andrews, Norwich. At the time of his

124 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
being selected for the see of Quebec, he was examining-chaplain
to the Bishop of Lincoln, (afterwards of Winchester) and held the
livings of Buckden, in Huntingdonshire, and Holbeach in Lin
colnshire, having previously had a stall in Lincoln cathedral ; all
of which preferments were conferred upon him by his lordship.
He had also no very remote prospect of being advanced to further
dignity in the church.
It was in 1793, that, induced by the increase of Protestant popu
lation in Canada, and especially in that part of it which had been
recently constituted a separate province, under the name of Upper
Canada, (which has continued almost entirely a Protestant colony,)
his Majesty George III. was pleased to erect the Canadas into a
diocese, according to the establishment of the Church of England ;
provision having been made, by an act of the 31st of his said
Majesty, for the maintenance of the clergy, as partof the sameplan,
by means of a reservation of one-seventh of all the lands at the
disposal of the Crown.
Dr. Mpuntain, having been appointed to this new diocese,
arrived at Quebec on the 1st November, 1793. The charge upon
which he entered, did not present a very encouraging aspect.
There were but six clergymen in the whole of Lower Canada;
two were placed at Quebec, and two at Montreal ; and there were
only three in Upper Canada. Out of the nine, five were mission
aries of the Society for P. G. ; the- remaining four were paid by
government. At Quebec, there was no church, no episcopal
residence, no parsonage ; yet, with the blessing of God, the in
defatigable bishop overcame all these difficulties, and more of a
larger and more alarming character. For thirty-two years did he
preside over the Church of British North America, and raised it
from nothing, as it were, to the high standard which it had attained
at his death. No obstacles seemed too great for him to cope
with, and no dangers too formidable for him, not to peril for the
interests of the church. He was indeed the father and founder
of the church of British America; and all we enjoy from its
present efficient and forward state, must be, in a great measure,
ascribed to his diligence, energy, perseverance and care ; to him
our thanks are due, and he is eminently entitled to our gratitude.
To give a true and accurate conception of his qualities of heart,
and his services, we have copied an article from the Christian
Remembrancer of London, published a few months after his death,
which occurred on the 16th of June, 1825, at Marchmont, near
Quebec, the seat ofthe late General Sir John Harvey, Bart., deputy
adjutant-general of Canada, which sad event, called forth the
universal regret of the people of the province, of all shades of
parties :
" His relations and friends, indeed, will always remember him
with most reverential affection, and all who knew him, with respect.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 125
The poor will mourn him as a benefactor of no common generosity,
and 'the blessing of him that was ready to perish' will mix itself,
to embalm his memory, with the surviving attachments of depen
dents, and the thankful recollections of many whom he has soothed
in affliction, relieved in embarassment, advised in perplexity, with
held from imprudence, reconciled in estrangement from their
brethern, or led by the hand in the way of truth. Those who have
known him in public business of the province will acknowledge no
less his readiness and talent, than his firmness, his integrity, his.
droiture d'dme, his singleness of purpose, his consistency of con
duct ; and those with whom he acted in concert will own, that there
were times when others leaned upon him in difficulty, borrowed
strength from his example, and counted upon him to preserve
things in their proper course. His services upon some important
occasions as a member, ex officio, of both the executive and legis
lative councils of the province, have been most handsomely ac
knowledged by his Majesty's representatives. In the former
capacity he sat frequently in the Court of Appeals, and in whatever
he undertook, was a faithful and laborious servant of the public
and of the crown. He had latterly, however, retired from all but
professional occupation, and long before he wholly retired, had a
strong dislike to secular business. With regard to other points,
he was eminently a scholar, a gentleman, a companion, a domestic
guide and comforter ; and united, in a most remarkable manner,
qualities which commanded respect and even awe, with a cheerful
affability, and often a playfulness, which threw a charm about his
society. He had a delicate and cultivated taste, and excelled, in
early life, in many accomplishments, which he had discarded as
trifles when he became a Bishop in the Church of Christ. Never,
however, was a character more perfectly genuine : more absolutely
elevated above all artifice or pretension; more thoroughly averse
from all flourish or ostentation in religion, and for that reason,
perhaps, his character was not by all parties fully appreciated, in
the day in which his lot was cast. He was friendly, at the same
time, both from feeling and principle, to all exterior gravity and
decorum in sacred things ; and in his own public performance of
the functions proper to the episcopal office, the commanding
dignity of his person, the impressive seriousness of his manner,
and the felicitous propriety of his utterance, gave the utmost
effect and development to the beautiful services of the church.
In the pulpit, it is perhaps not too much to say, that the advan
tage of his fine and venerable aspect, the grace, the force, the
solemn fervor of his delivery, — the power and happy regulation
of his tones, — the chaste expressiveness and natural significance
of his action, combined with the strength and clearness of his
reasoning, the unstudied magnificence of his language, and that
piety, that rooted faith in his Redeemer, which was, and which

126 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
shewed itself to be, pregnant with the importance of its subjeet,
and intent upon conveying the same feeling to others, — made him
altogether a preacher, who has never, in modern times, been sur
passed."

Rev. JOHN STUART, D.D.
This celebrated learned, pious and zealous divine, who has been
justly recognized as the father and founder ofthe English Church
in Upper Canada, was a native of America, having been born on
the 24th of February, 1740, at Harrisburg, in the state of Pennsyl
vania. His father, Andrew Stuart, was a rigid Presbyterian, and
most tenacious in his opinions. The consequence was, that young
Stuart's determination to join the Church of England gave .him
much uneasiness and embarrassment consequent on the opinions of
his father, — a parent whom he had every reason to love and vene
rate, but who did not yield his consent to his son's solicitation,
until several years had elapsed, after his son's resolution had been
taken ; and even then, though he continued to adhere to that reso
lution, yet he would not follow it out, fearing to hurt his father's
feelings. Witnessing this self-sacrifice on his son's part, Mr. Stuart
gave his consent to his entering the ministry ofthe English Church.
Young Stuart accordingly overcame all the difficulties and inconve
niences of a sea voyage of that period, and proceeded to England
to be ordained, which he was, and returned to Philadelphia, in the
full orders of a priest in 1770. He entered at once on the duties
of his high and sacred office as a missionary in the Mohawk valley,
where he remained for upwards of seven years in the full execution
of the object of his being placed there, viz., the civilization of
the wild Indian tribes located on its banks, and the bringing them
within the foldof the church. That he didhis duty faithfully, man
fully and energetically no one can doubt; and numerous author
ities might be cited in support of our assertion. It was whilst he
was thus residing in this beautiful locality, that he performed the
onerous task of translating the New Testament into the Mohawk
language, for the benefit of his numerous Indian converts, and
others that he had hopes of making. On the breaking out of the
revolutionary war, he refused to swear allegiance to the revolted
colonies. He was, with great personal insult and ill usage received
from the American authorities, compelled to effect his escape into

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 127
Canada in 1781, where he was soon afterwards appointed to a chap
laincy in a provincial regiment ; but notwithstanding his refusal to
serve the States, his friends there wished him to return, offering
him a good living, which he indignantly refused.
From this time forth he remained in Canada ; and was in nearly
all parts of the upper province. There still remain some traces of
his connexion with it in prosecuting his high and important duties,
and in all places where he travelled, there was plenty of
work for his hands ; and the amount that he performed is so great,
that it can hardly be estimated, not only because it benefitted our
forefathers, but because it has an influence over ourselves and our
destinies. Indeed, but for the indefatigable energy of this zealous
prelate in laying the foundation of the church, .at that early date,
among the wild Indians and the still wilder white men, and in civil
izing and influencing their actions, what would the upper province
now be? At length, we believe in 1788, he settled down perma
nently at Kingston (formerly Cataraqui,) which was greatly bene
fitted by his presence, and where he continued to reside until the
time of his death, which took place on the 15th of August, 1811,
and where his body is interred.
Some time previous to his death he held the appointment of
Chaplain to the Legislative Council.
Sir J. B. Robinson in a letter to the author of the Annals of
the Colonial Church, dated August 5th, 1847, says : —
"There was something in Dr. Stuart's appearance that could not
fail to make a most favorable impression. He was about six feet
two inches in height — not corpulent and not thin, — but with fine
muscular features, expanded chest, erect figure, straight, well-
formed limbs, and a free manly carriage, improved by a fondness
in his youth for athletic exercises, particularly fencing.
" From my recollection of him at this moment, I should say that I
have seen no one who came so fully up to the idea one is led to
form of a fine old Roman, a man capable of enduring and defying
anything in a good cause; incapable — absolutely incapable of
stooping to anything in the least degree mean or unworthy.
" Any one, who can speak from memory of the early days of King
ston, will tell you how much and how sincerely Dr. Stuart was
loved and respected by every one ; how cheerful and instructive
his society was ; and how amusing, from the infinity of anecdotes
which his observation and his excellent memory had enabled him
to collect, and keep always in readiness, to illustrate his lessons,
and impress more strongly his good advice, and the cautions which
were often addressed to his young friends."

128 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

JUDGE THORPE.
This gentleman, who was a puisn6 judge of Upper Canada in
1805, and the shameful manner in which he was dismissed from
that office by Mr. Francis Gore, after only holding it a short time,
and for no cause whatever for which he should be ashamed — his
only object being to effect " the strict and upright discharge of his
duty, unawed by power, uninfluenced by land, and unbiassed by
party, or prejudice," as it is correctly stated in some of the histories of
Canada, was one "of the most upright and conscientious men that
ever breathed ; and had not Mr. Francis Gore and the " Family
Compact Party" taken such a dislike to him and worked his ruin, and
had he been allowed to pursue the even tenor of his way — he would
have been an honor and credit to the bench of Canada : such how
ever was not to be his destiny. A part ofthe people, the home district
honoring and respecting his character, which was most unlike that
of many of the subservient office holders of the lieutenant-gov
ernor, wished to return him as their representative to Parliament —
he accepted their invitation to be their candidate, and from that
day, his ruin was determined on by the government. All the most
powerful engines of the state were set against him to prevent his
return, and all the most unscrupulous practices were resorted to.
Governor Gore at last got the colonial office to recall Mr. Thorpe,
and that gentleman proceeded to England ; but it must have been
a subject of gratification and gladness to him afterwards, to see the
very man who had triumphed over him, and got him recalled
recalled himself ; and in a suit which he brought against Gore
for libel, he came off victorious.
Gourlay relates, that Mr. Thorpe was afterwards appointed
chief-justice to Sierra Leone, and remained there two years,
when he had to return to England for the benefit of his health.
Some inhabitants of the colony having requested him to bear home
a petition, complaining of certain abuses of power in that quarter,
he complied ; but what was the consequence ? For this simple act,
which could proceed only from a humane and obliging disposition,
he was deprived of his appointment by Lord Bathurst, and in age
and infirmity, and with a young family, consigned to poverty and
neglect. The truth is, Thorpe was too honest and upright in prin
ciple to be an office holder of that period.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 129

GENERAL ROBERT PRESCOTT.
General Robert Prescott was a native of England, where he
was born, in 1725. His family came from Lancashire, where in the
timeof James II. they had a landed estate, which they lost at the time
of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, and the subsequent revolution.
He served in the American war, as well as his elder brother, General
William Prescott. In October/1793, he was ordered to Barbadoes,
to take the command there, and in February, 1794, he sailed with
troops to Martinique, where he landed without opposition. Some
months were spent in effecting the complete reduction of the
island and forts, which capitulated on the 22nd March, after much
opposition, and where he underwent many personal dangers and
privations ; he was afterwards appointed civil governor of the
island, where his wise and judicious management prevented rebel
lion amongst the natives. The home government, under Sir C. Grey
and Sir J. Jervis, were most severe upon the natives ; and General
Prescott wrote a letter to his Majesty George IIL, through Lord
Amherst, expostulating on the measures they adopted, which was
well received ; and his honest and upright conduct caused his
character to be highly appreciated at home. From Martinique he
was sent to Guadaloupe, where he pursued the same system, and at
this time refused the government of St. Lucia, which was offered
him. Finding that it was impossible to effect much at Guadaloupe,
he drew off all the British troops there, and sent some to Antigua,
some to Dominica, and the rest to Martinique, whore he returned
himself. He suffered much at this time from the fatigue and anxiety
he had undergone, which affected his health. It proved how much
the French estimated his character, that — had they effected the
storming of Fort Mathilda, at Guadaloupe, in which he resided —
express orders were given out that particular care should be taken
to spare General Prescott's life, the rest of the garrison to take the
fate of war. At this time he had applied for leave to return home ;
and, having received permission to do so, on the 15th of January,
1795, he sailed for England under a salute of guns, and arrived at
Spithead, on the 10th February. On the 10th April, 1 796, he
received his orders and instructions to relieve Lord Dorchester at
Quebec, and take the command there ; and on the 12th he embarked
with his family at Portsmouth, and reached Quebec on the 18th of
June. Lord Dorchester did not know that he was to be recalled
until General Prescott arrived to supersede him. The former sailed
for England on 9th July. General Prescott immediately comr

130 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
menced his plan for strengthening the forts of Quebec. He received
his commission, as governor of Nova Scotia, 1797.
He remained in the government of Canada, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, until the year 1799, when he was recalled, and Lieu
tenant-Governor Milnes appointed in hi* p'ace. The general then
returned to England, and finally settled at Rose Green, near Battle,
in Sussex, where he died in December, 1815, in the 89th year of
his age. He was buried in the old church at Winchelsea.
During his administration, here nothing of great importance took
place, except perhaps the insane attempt of David McLean to
tamper with the loyalty of the people and endeavour to take Quebec,
in which chimerical undertaking he lost his head.
The governor was well liked, being a gentleman of pleasing
manners, much urbanity, and possessed of a kind disposition for all.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE OSGOODE.
William Osgoode was born in March 1754 ; and, at the early
age of fifteen, was admitted as a commoner of Christ College, Ox
ford ; where he proceeded to his degrees, and became M.A. in July,
1777. His inclination determined him to the study of the law;
for which purpose he became a student in the Inner Temple in
1773, having been before admitted at Lincoln's-Inn. Possessing
only a small paternal property, by no means adequate to his support,
Mr. Osgoode seriously engaged in the study of his profession, and
with such success, that in 1779, he published a learned and judicious
tract in 4to. entitled, " Remarks on ihe Laws of Descent, and the
Reasons assigned by Mr. Justice Blackstone for refecting, in his
Table of Descent, a point of Doctrine laid doion by Plowdon, Lord
Bacon, and Hale." When he had completed his terms, he was
called to the bar; but, being more studious of propriety than
volubility of speech, never became distinguished as a pleader.
He had, indeed, a sort of hesitation, not organic, but, if we may
so term it, mental ; which led him frequently to pause for expres
sions, when his thoughts were most stored with knowledge. But
the accuracy of his professional information, and the soundness of
his judgment, could not escape notice ; aud the new colony of
Upper Canada having been established in 1791, Mr. Osgoode was
appointed, in the following year, to go out as chief-justice of that
province ; for which he sailed in April 1792, iu the same ship 'with

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 13l
General Simcoe, the lieutenant-governor. It was owing probably
to the friendly regard of General Simcoe, that the name of Osgoode
has obtained a local establishment in Upper Canada, having been
conferred upon a township in Dundas county, near the river
Rideau, ard given to the seats of law at the capital, (Toronto,
Canada West.)
The conduct of Mr. Osgoode was so much approved, as chief-
justice of the new province, that in a very short time (we
believe in 1794,) he was advanced to the same office in the
province of Quebec, now Lower Canada. He there obtained
universal esteem and respect by the independent steadiness and
firmness of his conduct, as well as by ability and integrity in his
judicial office. But he became weary, after a time, of a situation
which banished him so far from the friendships and connections of
his early years ; and in 1801, he resigned his office, and retired to
England, on his official pension. This, together with his own
property, and what he had been able to lay past, made him now
completely independent ; and, being determined to enjoy the
advantages of that state without molestation, he neither sought to
be elected into Parliament, nor would accept of any public situa
tion. Having been disappointed, as it is supposed, in an attachment
which he formed at Quebec, he always remained unmarried ; and
after residing some time in the Temple, purchased a noble set of
apartments in Albany House, where he died, January 17, 1824.
He there lived, in the enjoyment of society, to the period above-
mentioned, universally esteemed, and never tempted from his
resolution of remaining free from office, except in the case of two
or three temporary commissions of a legal nature; which, from a
conviction of his qualifications and integrity, were in a manner
forced upon him. In these he was joined with Sir William Grant,
and other great ornaments of the law. The last of them, which
was for examining into the fees of office in the courts of law,
(in which he was united with the then accountant-general, and
lord chief baron,) was nearly brought to a conclusion at the time
of his death. His health had generally been good till within a few
years of this time, when he began to be an occasional sufferer from
fits of the stone. He did not, however, die of that complaint ; but
was probably removed from sufferings much more acute, by the
attack which carried him off, (inflamation of the lungs.)
His opinions were independent, but zealously loyal ; nor were
they ever concealed, or the defence of them abandoned, when
occasions called them forth. His conviction of the excellence of
the English Constitution sometimes made him severe in the reproof
of measures whicl1 he thought injurious to it; but his politeness
and good temper prevented any disagreement, even with those
whose sentiments were most opposed to his own. To estimate his

132 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
character rightly, it was, however, necessary to know him well ;
his first approaches being cold, amounting almost to dryness. But
no person admitted to his intimacy ever failed to conceive for him
that esteem which his conduct and conversation always tended to
augment. He died in affluent circumstances, the result of laudable
prudence, without the smallest taint of avarice, or illiberal parsimony.
On the contrary, he lived generously; and though he never wasted
his property, yet he never spared, either to himself or friends, any
reasonable indulgence ; nor was he ever backward in acts of charity
or benevolence. Such was the unbiassed testimony of a friend and
correspondent, attached to him for more than fifty years, and who
with many others, lamented the loss of his society

Hon. JUSTICE COCHRAN.
Thomas Cochran, one of the assistant judges of Upper Canada,
was a native of Halifax, N.S., and the eldest son of the late Hon.
Thomas Cochran, many years a member of his Majesty's council
in that province, and was born at Halifax in 1777. From a very
early age, he was distinguished by his good sense, amiable dis
position, manliness of character, and great attention to his studies.
He was always fond of associating with persons older than him
self, from whose knowledge and behavior he could derive im
provement ; and in consequence of this, before he was twelve years
old, his modest and well-formed manners were held up for the
imitation of all his young companions. He received most of his
education at the seminary at Windsor in that province, which was
endowed by George IIL, and established by a royal charter. He was
then under the care of the Rev. Dr. Cochran, who was not related
to him, but always particularly fond and justly proud of such a
pupil, whose excellent character, grateful affection towards his
tutor, and rising eminence, were sources of great pleasure
and honorable satisfaction to him. Early in 1794, he went
to Quebec, where he remained more than a year, when he
acquired a perfect knowledge of the French language, without
neglecting his otlier studies ; and recommended himself there,
as at every other place of his residence, to a numerous and
very respectable circle of acquaintance. In the following year
he returned to Halifax, and sailed for England ; and, being
intended for the bar, became a student at Lincoln's-Inn. He hadnot

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 133
reached his twentieth year, when he was left entirely his own mas
ter, amid the gaiety, the dissipation, and the powerful temptations of
London, and almost without control in his expenses. But it was
his peculiar happiness, at this critical period, to obtain, very deser
vedly, the good opinion of some eminently-virtuous and valuable
friends, in whose families he passed most of his leisure hours, and
from whose kind advice and excellent example he derived the
most important benefit. His respectful affection and heartfelt
gratitude to those persons would never have been diminished in
the latest hours of a long life ; and he has often declared that he
considered the paternal regard and steady valuable friendship of
two persons in particular, the late Sir Rupert George, and Mr.
Parke of Lincoln's-Inn, among the most distinguished blessings be
stowed upon him by a kind Providence. In 1801, he was called to
the bar, and joined the Chester circuit, to the members of which he
was so much endeared, that, when he was obliged to leave them, they
presented him with a very flattering and splendid memorial of their
affectionate regard, which he always valued very highly. In the
same year, in consequence of the most honorable testimonials of
his, character and qualifications, he was appointed chief-justice of
Prince Edward Island. Perhaps he was the youngest chief-jus
tice known in the history of England or its colonies ; but a more
judicious appointment was seldom made, as the event fully proved.
Great care had been taken that his religious principles might be
well and early formed ; and he was always regular and exemplary
in the performance of his religious duties. But this appointment
to a situation which he considered above his years, and the death
of his father, which happened very soon after, while he was on a
voyage to America, greatly increased the impression which religion
had already made upon his mind. At this time he became a
devout communicant, and continued to the hour of his death, an
humble, sincere, and fervent believer in Christ. He found the
island to which he was appointed, like most small governments,
divided by little parties ; but his uniformly kind and affectionate
demeanor, and his inflexible integrity as a judge and a legislator,
obtained for him the respect and esteem of all persons. His remo
val from them, after a little more than a year's acquaintance, when
he was appointed one of the assistant judges in Upper Canada,
occasioned great and universal regret, which was expressed with
much genuine feeling, in addresses which were presented to him
at his departure from the island. In Canada he was equally
respected and beloved. He was lost, in company with Mr. Gray,
the solicitor-general, by the wreck of the government schooner
Speedy, in Lake Ontario, on the 7th October, 1804, whilst on his
way to hold a court at Newcastle. In the province of Halifax he
was universally known, and as universally beloved by all classes of
people. Though this very remarkable young man was called away

134 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
in the flower of his age, before ae "iad completed his twenty-eighth
year, it is a great consolation to reflect that his short life was
eminently useful, exemplary, and brilliant.

Sir ROBERT SHORE MILNES, Bart.
This gentleman, who was appointed lieutenant-governor of the
province in 1799, administered its government during the absence
of General Prescott, who was then governor-general, was the eldest
son of John Milnes, Esq., of Wakefield, England, a magistrate
and deputy-lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire, by Mary,
daughter of Samuel Shore, of Sheffield, Esq., and was born in 1746.
In the early portion of his life he was an officer in the Royal Regi
ment of Horse Guards, blue. In 1795, he was appointed governor
of the Island of Martinique, and in 1799, lieutenant-governor of
Lower Canada. He was created a baronet, by patent, dated March
21, 1801, and died about the year 1836. He enjoyed two pensions
on the civil list of England.
He continued to hold office here until 1803, when he obtained
leave of absence to proceed to England. He did not return. His
government was marked by nothing extraordinary ; the country
was calm, the people contented. With the latter he was not a
popular governor.

Hon. THOMAS DUNN.
A most' enlightened, able-minded and impartial legislator,
who, on two occasions, as senior member of the Executive Council
of Lower Canada, became administrator of the government of that
province. In this high capacity, he displayed much wisdom and
prudence in his relations with the legislature and the people, and
conducted the affairs ofthe country with much judicious foresight.
He first assumed the administratorship on the departure of Sir R.
S. Milnes in 1805 ; and in February 1806, opened the legislature.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 135
The United States, assuming ahostile attitude towards us, he, on the
12th of August, issued a proclamation prohibiting the exportation of
munitions of war. On the 19th of the same month, in consequence
of the preparations for war making within the lines, he ordered a
lev 3 to be made of one-fifth of the militia from the ages of 18 to
50. This order was promptly responded to : and he had occasion
to bear testimony to the zeal and activity displayed by the people
for the defence of the country, unequal1 ed as it was in any of her
Majesty's dominions.
On the question of recognizing the Roman Catholic bishop, and
allowing him to take the oath, he took a determined stand against
Mr. Ryland, and supported Bishop Piessis, and deemed it but
common justice to do so. In the suit between M. Bertrand, the
curate, and the parishioner, Lavergne, wherein the crown officers,
Messrs. Sewell and Monk, endeavored to declare the ordinance of
1791 null, as contrary to a penal statute of Elizabeth, he again sup
ported the Roman Catholic Church.
He again became administrator on the departure of Governor
Craig ; and continued in office till the arrival of Sir George Prevost,
in 1811. During the time he held office he permitted Monseigneur
Panet to be elected to the coadjutorship. He was also a puisne
judge of the court of King's Bench, a member of the Legislative
Council, and a Lower Canadian seignior. He married in the country
a Miss Henrietta Guichaud.
He was immensely popular with the French Canadian people,
and the greater portion of the English population.
A son of his, (still living), Major General William Dunn, is a
distinguished military officer, and has risen to his present high
rank after having seen much hard service.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE HENRY ALCOCK.
Of the particulars of this gentleman's history, beyond his offi
cial connection with this country, we are not aware.
The first public situation he held in Canada was that of puisne'
judge of Upper Canada, in which section of the province he was
afterwards raised to the chief-justiceship ; and was subsequently
promoted to that of Lower Canada, at that time a far more impor
tant and remunerative office. He took a great interest in the pro
gress of the colony ; and, if we are to believe some authorities, he

136 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
did much, in his high position, to forward her best interests ; and
became, in consequence, very popular. In Lower Canada, as a
member of the Executive Council, he was not so successful; for
in that assembly, we understand, he was generally disliked. Indeed
it is difficult to account for the bitter invectives used against him
in history in every other respect.
On the bench, however, he was more highly esteemed ; as we
may gather from the following notice of him in the Quebec
Mercury, on recording his death : —
" In the exercise of his judicial duties, he evinced the advan
tages which attend the forming of a legal scholar at the English
bar ; and in all the various offices which he filled, he acquitted
himself an able judge, distinguished by the most eminent rectitude
and unwearied assiduity. His memory was retentive; his judg
ment clear and penetrating ; and so profound was his knowledge
of English law, that the energies of his mind cast a luminous ray
over the dark and abstruse code of provincial jurisprudence. His
language was classical and perspicuous ; nor can those, who have
heard his judgments, remember them without a mixture at once
of pleasure and regret. In the habitudes of private life, his man
ners were those, which are commonly said to be peculiar to a " plain
English man," affable, conciliating, unaffected. In a word, his pub
lic and private virtues will long live in the hearts of both the old
and the new subjects of this province ; and his death will be felt
with a general and unfeigned sorrow."
He died on the 22nd February, 1808.

Hon. HERMAN WITSIUS RYLAND.
To publish this volume without giving some notice of the above
distinguished man, would be doing a palpable wrong; nor can
his name in justice be left out of the range of " Canadian Celebri
ties," among whom he certainly figures to a considerable extent in
the history of the lower province, where he held office for a
lengthened period, and was connected in an official capacity with
many successive governments. Mr. Ryland was a native of North
ampton, England ; and was born in the year 1770. He entered
the public service at the early age of twenty-one, as assistant
paymaster-general to General Burgoyne, and Lord Cornwallis's
forces in the first American war, in whioh sanguinary struggle he

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WTTH CANADA. 137
took part until its close, on the evacuation of New York, (where he
rendered important service.) He accompanied to England, Sir
Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester), the commander-in-chief, and his
future friend and patron. When Lord Dorchester was appointed
to the government of British North America, in 1793, Mr. Ry
land was induced by the then prime minister of England, to ac
company him to Canada, as civil secretary, a post for which he was
eminently fitted and adapted ; and it may truly be said, that, dur
ing the time Lord Dorchester governed this country, Mr. Ryland
ruled its destinies, which is a fact too well known to be contradicted.
On Lord Dorchester returning home, Mr. Ryland was appointed to
the same office, which he had held under him, by his lordship's
immediate successor and several succeeding governors ; so popu
lar, so highly recomnended, and so efficient was he in his appoint
ment. He took part in everything that appertained to the gov
ernment and the country ; was appointed a legislative councillor,
and often in his seat in that body, (although holding a govern
ment appointment), he would openly censure the government if
they had done aught which he did not consider consistent with
the due performance of their duties.
He was appointed by the government to proceed to England, on
a public mission, — the ostensible object of which was to endeavor
to get the Imperial Government to amend or suspend the consti
tution — to render the government independent of the people, by
appropriating towards it the revenues accruing from the estates of
the St. Sulpicians of Montreal, and of the Order of Jesuits, and
to seize the patronage exercised by the Roman Catholic bishop of
Quebec, to the cures or church livings in his diocese. Although
the nation was deeply engaged in war, and much engaged other
wise, yet by his indefatigable energy, Mr. Ryland got the objects
of his mission taken into consideration ; and, but for the interven
tion of the lord chancellor, Eldon, he would have assuredly suc
ceeded in two of them. As it was, the whole affair proved a
failure; and he returned to Canada without gaining one single
point; he was, however, well received, and no one ascribed to him
the failure of the government scheme. He clearly showed how
eminently fitted he was for the post of a diplomatist. The corres
pondence, which, on this occasion, passed between him and the pub
lic functionaries, forms a pleasing and interesting portion of the
sixth volume of Christie's History of Canada. We may truly
say of him that, had he been cast in a different sphere, where his
talents and attainments would have been more properly appreci
ated and directed, he would have made his way onward, and kept
even pace with his illustrious patron.
He early assumed an antagonistic attitude against the French
Canadians and their clergy. As Christie says, " The darling pro*
iectof his heart, was to anglicize but by means compulsory and
18

138 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
distasteful to them, the French Canadian people ; who, having no
wish to be anglicized by any means, would not be so ' by compul
sion.' The consequence was that a bitter feeling arose, for a time,
between Mr. Ryland and the Canadians, and indeed against the
government, Mr. R. being regarded as the ' fountain head ' of
power. Another scheme of his was to endeavour to abrogate the
power of, and indeed to do away altogether with the French bishops,
contending that in reality there was no bishop, for he had never
been recognized. This was most unsound reasoning ; and in course,
everything that he did to further his views proved abortive. But
who is there that does not err sometimes, especially in reasoning
and argument 1"
On Sir George Prevost's accession to the government, Mr. Ry
land gave up his post as civil secretary, and retained only that of
clerk of the Executive Council, also an important appointment,
which he held until his decease, which occurred at his seat, Beau
port, near Quebec, on the 20th July, 1838, at the age of 68. Mr.
Ryland was a man of great literary attainments ; and, despite
what some people may say to the contrary, of good ability. In
politics, he was a conservative with enlarged views, and unmistak
able honesty of purpose ; and, as in private life, no man was ever
more beloved ; so, in public life, no man in Canada was ever more
respected by all classes of society, notwithstanding the frequent
contentions and heart-burnings of party warfare, which frequently
existed, but eventually passed away.
His son is the present registrar of Montreal.

D. McGREGOR ROGERS, Esq., M.P.
An enlightened legislator of Upper Canada. In 1799, when a
young man, and during his absence in New England, he was elected
a member of the second provincial Parliament of Upper Canada,
for the county of Prince Edward. In 1800 he was again elected in
the same county, and during the three succeeding parliaments, was
successively returned forthe county of Northumberland, to which
he had then removed In 1816 he declined being a candidate on
account of some unsatisfied claims for services performed during
the late war, being unwilling to trust himself as a representative of
the people, while dependent on government. In 1820, his claims
having been satisfied, he was again elected, as he was also in 1824,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 139
but he died on the day of his election, 18th July, at the age of 53.
Besides being a member of Parliament, he held several offices of
trust and emolument, the duties of whieh he discharged with credit
to himself, and to the satisfaction of all concerned. In his political
opinions, he was a warm admirer of the British Constitution ; yet
during the twenty-four years he was a member of Parliament, the
rights and interests ofthe people were by no one more carefully
watched or more zealously and faithfully defended than by him.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL PETER HUNTER
Lieutenant-General Hunter, who succeeded General Simcoe
in the government of Upper Canada in 1799, and at the same time
was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada, was a
member of a very talented Scotch family, and a brother of the cele
brated Doctors William and John Hunter of London, the eminent
writers of some invaluable works on medicine. He was born in the
year 1746, and like them, was entirely dependent upon his own
abilities and resources for his advancement. Having entered the
military service, he evinced considerable talent in the profession ;
saw some hard service, and rose to the high rank which he held at
his death. His administration of the government of Upper Canada
was marked with much benefit to that province ; and it would not
be going too far to say that to his enlightened polity and administra
tion of affairs, that portion of Canada is greatly indebted for many
benefits which it otherwise would never have known. He died at
Quebec on the 21st August, 1805, whilst on a tour of military
inspection. A monument has been erected to his memory in the
English cathedral of that city, of which we give the inscription :
Sacred to the memory of
Lieutenant-General Peter Hunter,
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and Commander-in-Chief
of bis Majesty's forces in both the Canadas,
who died at Quebec, on the 21st August, 1805,
aged 59 years.
His life was spent in the service of his king and country.
Of the various stations, both civil and military, which he filled,
He discharged the duties with spotless integrity,
unwearied zeal, and successful abilities.
This memorial to a beloved brother, whose
mortal part rests in the adjacent place of burial,
is erected by John Hunter, M.D., of London.

140 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE ELMSLEY.
John Elmsley was born in England, the year 1762 ; he died at
Montreal on the 29th April, 1805. He was a nephew of the cele
brated London bookseller of that name, and a great friend of the
then Duke of Portland, to whom he owed his appointment in this
country. He was speaker of the Legislative Council of Lower
Canada, and a member of the Executive Council, as well as chief-
justice, to which he was appointed October 13, 1802, previous to
which he had served as a puisne' judge in Upper Canada. He was a
gentleman of great professional talents and application, as well as of
the most amiable demeanor. The Quebec Mercury said at the pe
riod of his death : " His private virtues, not less than his public
talents, for both of which he was eminently distinguished, will long
be subjects of unfeigned regret."

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE FOUCHER.
Louis Charles Foucher, a puisne' judge of the court of
Queen's Bench, Lower Canada, was born in 1760, and died 26th
of December, 1829. He was admitted to the bar in 1784, and was
first returned to Parliament in 1796, as member for the city of
Montreal. Some time after, he was appointed solicitor-general,
an honor no doubt well merited by M. Foucher, else he could not
have attained it, as in those days it was seldom conferred upon a
French Canadian. Subsequently he became resident judge of Three
Rivers ; and in 1803, attained the position which he held at his
death. The House of Assembly of Lower Canada brought charges
against him for misdemeanor and delinquency in the exercise of
his functions, and prayed for his dismissal. The matter was left
to the adjudication of the Prince Regent, who decided in his favor,
and thus he retained the judgeship.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA- 141

LIEUT.-COLONEL JOSEPH BOUCHETTE.
One of the ablest topographers of the age. He «was born in
Canada in 1774, and was the son of Commodore Bouchette,* who
distinguished himself by an exploit which history has recorded,-}"
and which is well known to have prevented the threatened surren
der of the Canadas to the arms of America, as " the taking General
Carlton (Lord Dorchester), which appeared almost certain, would
have rendered their fate inevitable." Commodore Bouchette, how
ever, landed the commander-in-chief in safety at Quebec, after es
caping the most imminent danger that menaced them in their
descent of the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Quebec, the banks
of the river being occupied by the enemy, who were bivouacked
on the shores of its narrow passes.
As early as the year 1790, Lieutenant-Colonel Bouchette was em
ployed as a draftsman in the office of his late uncle, the Hon.
Major Holland, then surveyor-general of British North America,
and subsequently of Lower Canada, after the division of the pro
vince of Quebec. In 1791 he was tempted to follow the profession
of his father, and in consequence entered the provincial navy, and
sailed on the great Lakes in Upper Canada till 1796. In the
year 1794, at a very early period of his life, he succeeded, through
the most vigorous exertions, to raise and save his Majesty's war
vessel Anondaga (the commodore's ship), carrying 14 guns, which
had been cast away in York (now Toronto) harbour, and totally
abandoned as lost; and taking the command, he sailed with her to
Niagara, where he was received amidst the cheers of the garrison
and others assembled on the shores to greet the arrival of the rescued
vessel. This service elicited the unqualified approbation of Lord Dor
chester, and " Young Bouchette" was promoted on the 12th of
May, 1794, to the rank of second-lieutenant in the provincial navy.
He continued in the command of an armed vessel until 1796,
* " Captain Bouchette commands the naval force on Lake Ontario, and is at the
head of th e marine establishments, yet without the least power in money matters.
This gentleman possesses the confidence both of Lord Dorchester and Governor
Simcoe. He is a Canadian by birth, but entered the British service when Canada
fell into the power of England. While Arnold and Montgomery were besieging
Quebec, Lord Dorchester, disguised as a Canadian, stole on board his ship into
that city ; on which occasion he displayed much activity, intrepidity and courage.
It is not at all a matter of surprise that Lord Dorchester should bear in mind
this eminent service. By all accounts he is altogether incorruptible, and an offi
cer who treats his inferiors with great mildness and justice." — Travels of the Due
de la Jtochefoucault Liancourt in North America.
t Adolphus's History of the fieign of George UI.

142 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
during whieh period he made surveys of the most important har
bours on Lake Ontario, including the harbour of York, previous
to that place being established as a military post and town in 1793.
The provincial navy was partially reduced in 1796, and it was
Lieutenant Bouchette's lot, as a junior officer (then command
ing an armed vessel), to be included in the reduction. Owing,
however, to the illness of officers who remained in command,
he continued on duty for several months afterwards, successively
commanding the vessels of those officers who were victims to the
fever and ague then so generally prevalent. His activity meanwhile
had not been altogether unnoticed, for he immediately obtained
an unsolicited lieutenancy in the first battallion of Royal Canadian
Volunteers ; and having raised his quota of men, continued in that
provincial corps until its reduction in 1802.
Being known to possess some nautical knowledge, he was select
ed, in 1797, to command an armed row-galley, with a detachment
of thirty men of his regiment, and four artillerymen, to cruize be
tween Quebec and Montreal, in order to detect certain treasonable
practices which led to the execution of Colonel McLean, an
American, at the former place. This service afforded Colonel
Bouchette an opportunity of conveying much valuable in
formation to government, relative to the soundings, &c, of the
harbour of Montreal, and several other sections of the St. Lawrence.
In 1800 he was the officer chosen by order of his Royal High
ness the late Duke of Kent, then commander of his Majesty's
forces in North America, to repair to Halifax with a detachment
of his regiment, to acquire a more uniform system of military tac
tics, and subsequently conveying the same to his own regiment,
which he effected to the entire satisfaction of the commander-
in-chief in Canada, by whom he was appointed adjutant ofthe regi
ment. By this time Major Holland, the companion in arms of the im
mortal Wolfe, had become, through age and infirmity, in some
measure inadequate to the duties of his laborious office of sur
veyor-general, and Lieutenant Bouchette was in consequence at
tached to his department. After Major Holland's death in 1803,
he was appointed deputy surveyor-general, and in the following
year received his Majesty's commission of surveyor-general of
Lower Canada, and thus became the successor of his venerable uncle.
During the Amercan war in 1812, the defence of Canada seemed
to require additional strength, and Colonel Bouchette proposed to
levy a corps to be called the Quebec Volunteers ; and at the eve
of realizing his project, his corps (raised by beat of drum to the
number of 260 men, rank and file, in seven weeks, and then under
arms doing garrison duty,) was by a change of policy, drafted into
other provincial regiments requiring immediate reinforcements.
With the suppression of the Quebec Volunteers, however, his

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 143
military services did not terminate. He was actively employed
during the campaign of 1813, and even up to the 27th July, 1814,
in conveying important despatches from head- quarters to Major-
General Sir R. Sheaffe, commanding in Upper Canada, with
confidential instructions, to report on the general defensive state of
the frontier, whether possessing any interesting posts, and at the
same time to reconnoitre and ascertain the position and strength of
the enemy as he proceeded. For this service he received high
commendation ; and his views of the defenceless state of York,
now Toronto, and of the manner in which it would be taken by
the enemy, proved but too prophetic.
In November, 1813, at a very critical juncture, he was ordered
to repair to Lachine, whither it had been found expedient to as
semble a considerable force, and on the 9th that place became the
head-quarters. He accompanied the commander of the forces to
Coteau du Lac, where he received important reconnoitering in
structions. The American generals, Hampton and Wilkinson,
were at this period concerting a junction of their respective armies ;
the one marching into the province by the Chateauguay country,
whilst the other descended the St. Lawrence. Their project was
frustrated, and ended in a repulse and precipitate retreat within
the limits of their own territory. Colonel Bouchette had, however,
previously followed up closely his instructions, and did not return
to Lachine until he had ascertained the strength and position of
the enemy at the cross-roads, some miles above McMartin's mills,
on the Riviere aux Raisins, and, under cover of the night, proceeded
in a canoe with two Indians to the mouth of that river, crossed
over to the south side of Lake St. Francis, near the Salmon river,
to watch the movements of the enemy, then in full retreat ; being
uncertain, however, whether they meant to proceed farther down
the St. Lawrence (although about entering Salmon river), he
immediately went down the Beauharnois channel, ascertained the
condition and situation of the gun-boats, and having put the forces
on that linj of military communication on their guard, he repaired
to head-quarters to submit his report.
On the 17th July, 1814, the governor-in-chief directed that he
should proceed to the frontier, towards La Colle and Odel town, to
sketch the roads leading from thence into the province, and, at the
same time, to reconnoitre the enemy who were stationed at Cham
plain town. A detachment of forty men of the Voltigeurs and
thirty Indians, accompanied him on this service, which was char
acterized by General Heriot as having been performed by Colonel
Bouchette " with much credit to himself, and to the admiration or
the army."
In the month of August following, the project he had long con- '
ceived, of publishing a topographical and geographical exhibit
and description of Canada, being matured, notwithstanding the

144 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
various other objects of a military character he had been called
upon to attend to, he sailed from Canada for England, on board
the man-of-war Ajax, for the purpose of personally superintend
ing the publication of his work. The colonial patronage this work
received from the governor-in-chief and provincial legislature
paved the way to the distinguished countenance and auspices under
which it was afterwards produced to the world.
Colonel Bouchette, whilst in England, was nominated sur
veyor-general under the several articles ofthe treaty of Ghent,
for establishing the boundary between his Majesty's posses
sions in America and the United States. After his appoint
ment, he prepared, at the instance of the commissioners, and
the agent under that treaty, a project of operations for the
year 1817, which he submitted to the board at Boston. In the
spring of that year he commenced his field operations ; and after
erecting a monument, in conjunction with the American surveyor,
at the source ofthe river St. Croix, from whence the land boundary
departs, he proceeded in the establishment of the due north line
from that point, dividing New Brunswiek from the state of Maine,
to the highlands : continuing, however, the exploring line, to the
extent of one hundred miles, in the wilderness, making nu
merous exploring surveys of the various rivers intersected in his
progress, and sketching the face of the country, frequently from
the summit of the loftiest trees, to the imminent peril of his life.
By these arduous means he ascertained the position ofthe several
ridges of highlands stretching westward from the exploring line,
and was enabled to judge, from their continuity and elevation,
which ridge was most likely to become the boundary between both
territories, in virtue of the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent.
The result of his labors, during the summer of 1817, was con
veyed to the board of commissioners in extensive and explanatory
plans, sections, and reports, for which he received the commenda
tion of the board, and upon which the strongest arguments of his
Majesty's agent were chiefly grounded, in claiming the whole extent
of country north of Mars Hill ridge of highlands, which is that
pointed out by Colonel Bouchette as the legitimate boundary be
tween that part of the British possessions and the territory of the
United States. And although the Ashburton Treaty has since
yielded to the pretensions of the U. S., to a boundary much further
north, and coming within a few miles of the St. Lawrence, it is
now generally admitted that the line of boundary pointed out by
Colonel Bouchette, was that upon which the British negotiator
should have insisted.
The ensuing season, he was proceeding to the establishment of
the geographical boundary, on the 45th parallel of north latitude,
when he was taken dangerously ill, at Montreal, on his return
from Burlington, where he had met the Board, and received its

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 145
encomiums for his field services of 1817 ; and from the continuance
of his illness during part of the summer, the service was performed
by Mr. Tierks, as his Britannic Majesty's astronomer.
In 1827, with a view of ascertaining the statistics of Lower Ca
nada, he visited all parts of the province, and devoting himself to
long aud laborious researches, he deduced explanatory reports and
tabular statistical statements that met with the marked approba
tion of his Majesty's representative in the colony.
Availing himself of these several tours as a means of perfecting
his topographical work on Lower Canada, he solicited from the
seigneurs copies of the plans of their respective fiefs and seigneu-
ries, and was enabled to compile maps of the province still
more voluminous and correct than the former ; and desirous of ren
dering the information thus acquired as generally useful as
possible, not only to the government, but to the public in the
mother country and the colony, he repaired to England in
1830, under the formal sanction and support of the provincial
legislature, and the approbation of the executive government, to
superintend tbe publication of a new work on the topography,
geography, and statistics of Lower Canada, which grew out of the
materials studiously collected during the previous fifteen years with
a view to the accomplishment of that object.
Colonel Bouchette's public works were printed and published
in England, on a scale of magnificence which rendered them costly
to the author, and too expensive for very general circulation. His
first work appeared in 1816, under the special auspices of the Prince
Regent, afterwards George IV., who personally took a warm interest
in the work, and received it from the hands of the author in a pri
vate audience at Carleton Palace.
Colonel Bouchette's second work, " The British dominions in
North America," and the maps which accompanied it, published
in 1831, were by special permission dedicated to the late king,
William IV., to whom the author had the honor of presenting his
work in person.
Colonel Bouchette at the periods to which we refer, appears to
have been not only appreciated as an author of public works of
interest, but was received with favor and distinction at court, a
circumstance no doubt attributable to the late Duke of Kent, whose
generous influence and royal protection followed Colonel Bouchette
in every phase of his career in England.
Colonel Bouchette died at Montreal on the 9th April 1841, and
was buried in the church of Notre Dame in that city. We cannot
in concluding this memoir, do better than to quote the following
passage, taken from one of the many obituary notices of his death, .
which appeared in the public journals ofthe time.
" For sentiments of loyalty to his Sovereign, and he honestly and
faithfully served not less than four of them, for his veneration and
19

146 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
attachment to constitutional government, and for the perpetuation,
ofthe connection of his native Canada with Great Britain, the late
surveyor-general was also conspicuously distinguished. With such
qualities of both the head and heart — and we regret that we can
not, on the present occasion, do them greater justice — the memory
of colonel Bouchette will be long cherished by his surviving friends,
and his public labours reflect honor and credit upon his native
country."

Hon. ALEXANDER GRANT.
This gentleman, like Mr. Peter Russell, being the senior member
of the Executive Council, on General Hunter's death in 1805, as
sumed the reins of government, and ruled Upper Canada for one
year. We cannot obtain any information respecting him ; but we know
that during the short time he was president, some useful measures
passed through the legislature.

Hon. CHIEF-JUSTICE SEWELL, LL. D.
The Honorable Jonathan Sewell, whose name figures in the
history of Canada so considerably, was born at Cambridge, Massa
chusetts, about the year 1766, in the old family mansion, which is
still standing. He received his education at the grammar school
of Bristol, England, and migrated to New Brunswick in 1785, and
entered, in that province, on the profession ofthe law, in the office
of Mr., afterwards the celebrated Judge Chipman. In 1789, he
removed from New Brunswick to Canada, and took up his abode
ip the city of Quebec. He was admitted to the bar on the 30th
October, 1789, and speedily rose to distinction. We hear of him
again in 1793, as solicitor-general ; and, in 1795, advocate and
attorney-general, and judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty;

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 147
also as burgess in the Provincial Parliament for the royal
borough of William Henry, which he continued to represent for
three consecutive parliaments. He continued to mount " to the
summit of the ladder of fame," till we find him, in 1808, chief-
justice of the province of Lower Canada, and president of the Exe
cutive Council. The latter office he resigned in 1829, and the for
mer in 1838. He was also appointed, on the 9th January, 1809,
speaker of the Legislative Council, — an office which he continued
to hold until his death. His degree of LL. D. was bestowed on
him by Harvard University, without solicitation. This learned
and highly respected gentleman died in Quebec, on November
12, 1839, aged seventy-three years. The wealthy and distinguished
family of the Sewells in Quebec, of which the Reverend E. W.
Sewell, Sheriff W. Sewell, and Dr. James Sewell, his sons, are
members, must regard him as the founder of the clan.

BISHOP PLESSIS.
Joseph Octave Plessis, the greatest man who ever occupied
the Roman Catholic Episcopal seat at Quebec, since Francois de
Laval Montmorency. M. Plessis was the first Canadian pontiff
who ever visited Rome, and the first ever appointed by the crown
to be a member of the Legislative Council. He was born at Mont
real, on the 3rd of March, 1762, and was the son of a blacksmith,
according to Mr. Ryland. He was ordained a priest at Quebec, on
the 11th March, 1786. From time to time, he was employed as
professor of humanity, at the college of St. Raphael, also as
secretary to the bishop of Quebec and curate of the capital. On
the 6th September, 1797, he was created coadjutor to Bishop
Denault, and obtained the royal acceptance through General
Prescott; but the venerable Pontiff, Pius VI. having been drag
ged into captivity by the Sans-culottes, after his death, the church
remained for some time without a chief. The nomination of
Monseigneur Plessis, which had been long expected, became one
of the first acts of the Pontiff, Pius VII. exalted at Venice, by
reason of the victories obtained by Sauwarow, afterwards de Melas.
A bull, dated 26th April, 1800, appointed him bishop of Canatte
in Palestine, with the succession to the seat at Quebec. He pro
nounced an oration at Quebec in 1799, being then only elected an
allocution, on the occasion of the naval battle of Aboukir, He

148 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
was consecrated on the 25th January, 1801, and employed himself
during his coadj aiorship in founding the college at Nico'ei, (for
which he afterwards obtained a royal charter) as well as primary
school at Quebec, and discussed the royal prerogative as to patron
age, and oiher matters, with the crown officers. Mr. Ryland has pre
served a conference on the subject between this prelate and Chief-
Justice Sewell, published in the sixth volume of Christie's Canada.
He succeeded Monseigneur Denault, and took possession of his
seat on the 17th January, 1806. In him was to be seen a pontiff
altogether loyal, firm, of good policy, with an ability much needed
in his relations with certain rulers. The British government
hesitated to place in him that confidence which he afterwards
acquired. Sir James Craig, who endeavored to induce him to ac
cept honors and emoluments, provided he would recognize the
king's supremacy, with regard to benefices, believing him to be in
correspondence with the bishops of Ireland, and with the cele
brated Milner, bishop of Castabala ; wrote to the British ministry.
Under Prevost, Plessis began to reap the fruits of his services,
and triumphed, at least partially, in the opposition raised against
the provincial ordinance of 1791 ; since Sir George Prevost ac
knowledged his title of superintendent of the Roman Catholic
Church, and, at his request, that of Roman Cathohc bishop of
Quebec, based (says Mr. Christie,) on a despatch from Lord
Bathurst, wherein he appeared to recognize him as such. When
Pius VII. was delivered from captivity, and re-established the
Jesuits, Plessis wished to establish some at Quebec, and wrote to
Russia to procure a friar, fit to be an instructor to such Canadians
as might enter into that order ; but this design did not succeed.
He was called upon by the Crown to the Legislative Council in" 1818 ;
and in this honorable position, he proved himself to be a loyal and
patriotic senator. In 1821, when the majority of the Legislative
Council resolved not to concur in any bill from the Lower House,
relative to the civil list, in which special items would be contain
ed, this prelate, as well as Judge Olivier Perrault, dissented there
from, and declared that the said resolution was premature, too
general, and did not contain a precise specification of the objects
comprised under the head of the civil list. This indefatigable
pontiff meditated the erection of all the English colonies into one
ecclesiastical province, of which Quebec should be the metropolis.
He left for England and Rome in 1819.* In consideration of
eminent services which he had rendered to England, during the
French revolution, and during the war of 1812, as legislative

* "Although His Grace, (the Duke of Richmond) were to remain entirely
inactive, it is very certain that neither the gentleman of the seminary, nor the
Nuncio, who is now on his way to England, will continue so. The inordinate
ambition of the one, and the sseal and bigotry of both these parties, may assure
you ef this," H, \y, RYL1KD.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 149
councillor, he met with a kind and hearty reception from Lord
Bathurst, with whom he had several interviews, and was, we
believe, his guest at his country seat. Although he could not ob
tain his consent to the appointment of an archbishop at Quebec,
nor to that of bishops for Montreal and Kingston, he was allowed
district bishops at Kingston, Red River, and in the lower pro
vince; their bulls not. only denominated them auxiliaries, but
suffragans to the bishop of Quebec, and they were thus assimilated
to other metropolitan bishops of the first centuries of the church,
before the titfe of archbishop was known. With respect to Nova
Scotia, the sovereign pontiff had placed there a vicar-apostolic.
It was Monseigneur Edmund Burke, ex-grand vicaire to Plessis,
who consecrated him in 1818, prior to his departure for Europe.
During his sojourn in London, he became intimately acquainted
with the celebrated Doctor Poynter, and vicar-apostolic of that
capital, who wrote to him concerning the difficulties existing in the
ecclesiastical administration of Canada, which letter, the premier-
pastor got published and circulated. He returned to Quebec on
the 16th August, 1820, and was received with great demonstra
tions of respect and affection by the inhabitants of Quebec. He
was accompanied by the Abb6 Lartique, named suffragan and
auxiliary, for the district of Montreal, where Monseigneur Hubert
had already tried to have an episcopal see erected. He conse
crated him in the ancient parochial church in 1821, and sustained
him in his difficulties with the seminary. The mandate of installa
tion, issued by Monseigneur Plessis, accorded to the suffragan's
auxiliaries the same honors as to himself. The seminary of St.
Sulpice and the Abbe' Chaboyez exhibited some opposition ; the
grand-vicar, Cadieux with another, under the pseudonyme
d'Hospice Bedard, defended the Pope's letter as well as the
mandate, which were equally attacked. It is known that this
ecclesiastical quarrel was carried to a great length ; and that the
same would have been worthy of a Lutrin, when such eminent
men as Monseigneur Plessis, Monseigneur Lartique, the Superior
Roux and M. Le Saulnier were blamed. Joseph Octave Plessis
died at the General Hospital at Quebec, on the 4th December, 1825,
aged 62 years and 9 months. He was buried on the 7th, with all
the religious and civil honors; the troops of the garrison lining
the road of the funeral procession, and Lord Dalhousie following
with his staff and the principal men of rank in the province. His
coffin was placed in the sanctuary of the cathedral, under the spot
where grand mass is usually celebrated. His heart was deposited
in the wall of one of the chapels of the church of St. Roch, and a
monument of marble was erected near it. A marble tombstone
was also erected on the 2nd December, 1833, in the sanctuary of the
cathedral, above his tomb. The correspondence of this prelate,
which is most important, is preserved, and a series of Latin ser-

150 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
mons for the union of the clergy. Here follows the opinion of
the Canadian Review (an English journal,) of this prelate: —
"The death of the Protestant bishop did not long precede that
of Monseigneur Joseph Plessis, the Roman Catholic bishop of the
province, who, on the 4th of December, at Quebec, terminated his
mortal career. In the* decease of this prelate, the church has to
lament an able, temperate, yet zealous and indefatigable chief; his
flock a humane, benevolent and charitable pastor, ever alive to
their wants, and prompt to administer, — and the king, a
tried and loyal subject; there was, in short, among all classes and
persuasions but one sentiment of regret for the loss, and of respect
and veneration for the memory of this benevolent Christian, and
truly exemplary character. His remains were conveyed, with all
the civil and military honors from the General Hospital, where he
had closed his life, to the chapel of the Hotel Dieu; and from
thence, on the day of interment, to the parish church of the upper
town, where he was interred on the right of the altar, in presence
of the governor-in-chief, and heads of all the various departments,
and an immense concourse of inhabitants, who all wished to express
the high opinion they entertained of the zeal, charity and loyalty
for which he was not more conspicuous, than he was for the talents
which adorned the high and important office he had so ably dis
charged since 1806.

Hon. R. J. UNIACKE
Was born in 1753, and died on the 25th October 1830. He was
connected with the province of Lower Canada, by holding the office
of attorney-general, from 1809 until he was succeeded by Mr.
(afterwards Sir) J. Stuart, in 1825. He afterwards was appointed
to the attorney-generalship of Nova Scotia, an office which he held
at his death. The Royal Gazette of that province said of him :
" The death of this venerable and faithful servant of the public,
will be deeply regretted by the inhabitants of the province gene
rally ; in the exercise of his official duties, the prerogatives of the
crown, the rights of the subject, and the claims of humanity, were
steadily kept in view by him. In private life his oharacter was
truly amiable ; as husband, parent and master, he was ever kind
and affectionate ; in the social circle, few individuals exhibited
better feelings, or the impulses of a better heart. By his country-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 151
men particularly his loss will be severely felt ; he was uniformly
their friend and adviser. Indeed the province has sustained a loss
by his death not easily to be repaired." Other members of his
family have held important offices in that province.

VICOMTE DE LERY.
Vicomte De Lery, was a member of the family of that name
which have resided in Canada since the conquest ; born at Quebec
in 1754 ; died September 6, 1824, near Melun, in France. He
entered, early in life, the French engineer department. He was in
several expeditions on sea, during the American revolutionary war ;
was present at the battles of the 9th and 12th April, 1782, and
placed in a state of defence the islands of Guadaloupe and Tobago.
Lieutenant in the same corps in 1780, he reached the rank of
captain in 1788. The hostilities which commenced in 1792, and
which were of a long duration, offered frequent occasions for the
development of his talents, and for his making a rapid progress in
the difficult career he had determined to follow.
General De Lery allowed [none of the numerous campaigns in
which he was engaged to pass without associating his name with
the glories of Kleber, Jourdan, and Bernadotte ; it was he who,
under these distinguished officers, planned the works and agreed
to all th<; measures of attack and defence, which facilitated the
different passages of the Rhine, and secured the retreat of the
army. He established the entrenched camp at Dusseldorf, fortified
Mayence, conducted the siege of Phillipsburg, and obtained in
1795, by his activity and numerous services, promotion to the rank
of chef de batallion and colonel, and to that of general of brigade
in 1799.
He had been charged with the draught of an extensive plan of
fortification for the different places on the Rhine, the greater part
of which has been executed by his successors, or by the officers
of the powers who replaced the French in the possession of that
territory. In 1805, he was elevated to the rank of lieutenant-general,
and accompanied Marshal McDonald through the difficult campaigns
of the Grison ; he was also entrusted with the fortification of Palma
Nova, in Venetian Friuli, and was afterwards concerned in all the
great battles of Germany and Spain.

152 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
General De Lery, was one of the engineer officers who had most
thoroughly studied the connection between fortification and the
art of war; he had the rare power of making command agreeable;
he knew how to excite and direct the zeal of his officers ; gave
effect to their exertions, foresaw their wants, and could minister to
them so as to add the bonds of gratitude to those of duty. He
took a lively interest in the welfare of those subordinate to him,
and was above paying attention to his own. Endowed with great
generosity and an integrity which was proof against every trial, he
left no fortune. As a good husband, affectionate father, firm
friend, and disinterested citizen, none could equal him ; and he
left behind him a list of noble examples which will not be lost on
the worthy family which bears his name.

HENRY BLACKSTONE, Esq.
This gentleman was for many years his Majesty's coroner for
the district of Quebec, and died in that city on the 2nd February,
1825. He was a son of the late Sir William Blackstone, the
distinguished commentator on the laws of Eugland. The superior
talent and zeal of this gentleman, in the discharge of his functions,
have not been surpassed ; and the community was deprived by his
death of an accomplished individual.

CAPTAIN R. JULYAN, R.N.
Captain R. Julyan, for a lengthened period harbor-master
of the port of Quebec, and who died in that city in 1856, was a
naval officer who had seen great service. He succeeded the late Ad
miral Boxer in his situation as harbor-master. He was a midship
man before he was eleven years of age, and a lieutenant (3rd June,
1799,) before he had completed his sixteenth year. The following
account of his services we copy from the Navy List :— R. Julyan,
midshipman of the Digdom, at the occupation of Toulon, and in

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 153
Holham's actions in 1795, of the Moselle at the capture of the
Dutch Fleet at Saldanha Bay, and of the Glutton at Copenhagen
in 1801. While acting in command of the Richmond gun brig,
destroyed in her boats two French privateers from under a battery
near Malaga in 1811, and commanded the naval forces at the siege
of Tarifa.

D. McTAVISH, Esq.,
A native of Stratherick, Scotland, and one of the partners of
the North- West Company of Canada. He was upwards of twenty-
four years employed in the wilds of Upper Canada, and the interior
of the north western regions of America, and was very successful
in promoting the business of the company, and in securing the
good- will and alliance of the Indian nations, by whose chiefs he
was always treated with the greatest respect, and received on the
same footing as one of their own number. His enterprising
genius led him to project and attempt an expedition across the
continent of North America, for the purpose of establishing a con
nexion with China ; and, after having escaped innumerable perils,
he and six of his companions were lost near Cape Disappointment,
near the mouth of the river Columbia, in the Northern Pacific
Ocean, on the 22nd May, 1815.

PHILEMON WRIGHT, Esq.,
Appropriately called the " Father of the Ottawa." He was
a native of Woburn, state of Massachusetts, where he was born in
1760. Mr. Wright emigrated to this country in the year 1800,
and with a steady perseverance, he determined on ascending the
river Ottawa in quest of a tract of land suitable for an agricul
turist. With this view, he penetrated into the country at a great
expense of mental and bodily exertion, for sixty miles beyond any
previous settler, where, finding a spot adapted for his purpose, he
obtained, after many efforts, from government, permission to settle
20

154 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
upon and survey the township of Hull, where, at last, his toils
were rewarded, by seeing a thriving settlement growing up around
him. In furtherance of his agricultural pursuits, he, at a very
heavy cost, imported from Great Britain, some ofthe most approved
breeds of cattle, and thereby contributed in the most efficient man
ner to promote the interests of the settlers in that section of the
country. He was also the projector of some of the greatest im
provements on the Ottawa. He died at Hull, C. E., on 2nd June,
1839. He left a numerous offspring, to all of whom he was
endeared by the tenderest ties of affection and esteem. His epitaph
will be recorded in the beautiful and prosperous settlement of
Hull, or as it was sometimes called Wrightstown, which he com
menced and lived to see attain a degree of magnitude, where his
name will be long remembered with the highest respect.

COMMANDER ROACHE. R.N.
John Roache, long a resident of the Newcastle district, and a
commander in the royal navy; born in 1778; died at Peterborough,
C. W., 15th August, 1848. Few men had seen more service than
this gallant officer; having entered the navy early in the year
1798, he was actively employed during the whole of the Peninsular
war ; was engaged with the Dutch fleet at Camperdown ; at the
capture of the French fleet off the coast of Ireland ; at the capture
of Le Genereux, La Ville de Marseilles, and Guil/aume TeU, in
the Mediterranean ; at the taking of Egypt ; blockade of Calais,
Boulogne, and Dieppe ; and at the taking of the Cape of Good
Hope, where he was wounded. His family still reside in the
province-

COMMANDER STEELE, R.N.
This gallant officer, at present a resident of Orillia, C.W., was
formerly a member of the provincial legislature for the county
of Simcoe.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 155
Elmes Steele entered the navy, in March, 1798, as A.B., on
board the Triton, thirty-two guns. Captain John Gore, under whom,
after visiting the Mediterranean, he assisted, 18th October, 1799,
at the capture off Cape Finisterre, of the Santa Brigida, a Spanish
frigate of thirty-six guns, and three hundred men, laden with treasure
to an enormous amount. In the course of 1800, he became mid
shipman of the Cambridge, 74, flag-ship of Sir Thomas Pasley, at
Plymouth, and Atlas, 98, Captain Theophilus Jones, attached to
the Channel fle.et ; and in November, 1802, having left the Atlas
in the preceding May, he was nominated master's mate of the
Caroline, 36, Captain Benjamin William Page. During the pas
sage of that ship to the East Indies, he was placed on board a prize,
and sent home. On his arrival he joined the Castor, 32, Captain
Edward Brace, stationed in the Downs. He was nominated, early
in 1805, acting-lieutenant of the Amiable, 32, Captain William
Bolton ; was officially promoted 26th March, in that year ; and
between August following, and December, 1812, was employed on
the coast of North America, off Boulogne, and the north coast of
Spain, and in the North Sea and Mediterranean, in the Mercury,
28, Captain Charles Pelley ; Leopard, 50, Captain Salisbury Pryee
Humphreys; Glommen sloop, Captain Charles Pitchford; Arethusa,
38, Captain Robert Mends ; Horatio, 38, Captain John Charles
Woolcombe; Menelaus, 38, Captain Sir Peter Parker; and Barfleur,
98, Captain Sir Edward Berry. He was on board the Leopard, we
believe, when she compelled, 22nd June, 1807, the United States
frigate Chesapeake to surrender, after an engagement occasioned by
the refusal on the part of the latter to permit the British to search
her for deserters. On the 20th March, 1809, a party of seamen
under the orders of Lieutenant Steele, who was then serving in the
Arethusa, destroyed the guns at Baignio, a place on the coast of
France, and captured a vessel there laden with merino wool ; while
Lieutenant Fennel, ofthe royal marines, accompanied by Mr. Elliott,
the purser, and a boat's crew, ascended the mountain and destroyed
the signal posts. He accepted his present rank April 25, 1838 He
is also a colonel ofthe sedentary militia force for the county of Simcoe.

ADMIRAL BALDWIN, R.N.
Admiral Augustus Baldwin, of Toronto, is an Irishman by
birth, and a member of the same family as the distinguished states
man whose biography is to be found in this book.
He entered the navy in May, 1794, on board the Trompeuse
sloop, Captain John Erskine Douglas, with whom he continued

156 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
uninterruptedly and actively to serve on the Home and Halifax
stations, in the same vessel, and in the Garland, 28, and Boston,
32, of which latter frigate he was created a lieutenant, 28th June,
1800, until December, 1804. He then joined the Prince of Wales,
98, bearing the flags in succession, of Sir Robert Calder, Sir James
Saumarez, Sir Edward Thornborough, and Lord Gambier; and
while in that ship, was present in the action of 22nd July, 1805,
and also at the attack upon Copenhagen, in September, 1807. - Early
in January, 1808, he became first lieutenant of the Implacable, 74,
Captain Thomas Byam Martin, and on 26th August following, he
highly distinguished himself, and was officially reported as being a
most thoroughly deserving officer, for his conduct in a gallant
engagement of twenty minutes, with the Russian 74 gun ship,
Sewolod, which was completely silenced, and shortly afterwards,
with the assistance of the Centaur, 74, captured and burnt, in
sight of the whole Russian fleet, near Rogerswick ; on which occa
sion the enemy sustained a loss of three hundred and three men,
and the British in both ships, not more than sixty-two. Mr. Bald
win, whose behavior was rewarded with a commander's commission,
dated 19th September, in the same year, did not however succeed
in procuring further employment afloat until 7th February, 1812,
when he was appointed to the Tyrian brig, in which he served in
the channel until posted, 1st January, 1817. He accepted the
retirement 1st October, 1846.
Admiral Baldwin married Augusta Mary Melissa, daughter of
J. M. Jackson, Esq.

THOMAS CARY, Esq.
Mr. Thomas Cary founded and edited the Quebec Mercury news
paper in the year 1805. This paper originated from a desire to
express the sentiments, sympathies and predilections of the British
inhabitants of Quebec, who, at that time, formed a small but
wealthy and influential portion of the community. The object
was that that section of the people should have a non-official organ
of their opinions, and be enabled to protest against such acts of
power as they objected to, and to oppose the writings oftheir
adversaries in respect of politics and nationality with equal
freedom. Under Mr. Cary, the Mercury at once became what it
has ever since continued to be, the consistent and unswerving
advocate of high tory and episcopalian principles.
The subject of this brief memoir oonducted his press with the
most dauntless intrepidity. His style was at once classical, terse
and vigorous ; his mode of attack — and. fee was even readier with

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 157
the sword than with the shield, though master of both — was, in the
taste of his day, modelled after Junius. But, if in the manner he
followed the teachings of the great satirist, in the matter he was
essentially original ; and his boldness brought him several times
into collision with the House of Assembly. Stuart, Van Felson,
Papineau and Denis Benjamin Viger, while leaders of opposition,
were all subject to the lash of his sarcasm. One of his com
positions, — abounding in ironical compliments directed against the
late Sir James (then Mr.) Stuart, who at that time led the Legis
lative Assembly, while Mr. Cary was the literary defender of the
then Chief-Justice Sewell and the Legislative Council, — was
pronounced a libel and breach of privilege, by a nearly unanimous
vote of the Assembly. On another occasion, the speaker's warrant
having been issued for his apprehension, he remained concealed
till the close of the session in a secret apartment ingeniously con
structed in his residence in St. Lewis street, now occupied by the
Honorable Louis Panet, and from his hiding place poured forth
his philippics upon his political opponents, like a high tory and
amiable Marat — we say amiable, for he was a man of decided
benevolence of heart. Unterrified by the sergeant-at-arms, then
a much more formidable personage than now-a-days, the Mercury
egntinued its course ; and, with its principles, descended from
father to son, and from son to grandson,' of its first proprietor.
Mr. Cary died in 1823. He was born in 1751, near Bristol,
England. He had started in life in the service of the East India
Company, was subsequently tutor to several persons of distinc
tion, including Monseigneur Plessis, and was afterwards admitted
a member of the bar. Mr. Cary was a highly educated and very
scholarly gentleman of the old school, of varied attainments, in
cluding great social and convivial powers, and his natural abilities
were admitted even by his opponents.
Of his two sons, one, Thomas, conducted the Mercury for a
lengthened period ; the other, Joseph, became deputy inspector-
general, a position from which he retired only some few years ago.

Sir JAMES H. CRAIG, K.C.B.

The career of this remarkable man was assuredly a great and
arduous one ; for, holding as he did, the high post of governor-
general of the British North American provinces at a most critical
period in our history, his government deserves peculiar attention.
He was born in the year 1750, at Gibraltar, where his father held
the appointment of civil and military judge. The family is

158 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
highly respectable and of Scottish origin, being connected with the
Craigs of Dalnair and Costorton. Through his father's influence,
young Craig entered the military service in 1763, when only fifteen
years of age ; and although comparatively so young, he possessed
that strong determination and native energy of disposition requisite
to the formation of the character of a man who has his way to
make through the bustling and active scenes of life, without any
friend to assist him to rise. In 1770, he was appointed aide-de
camp to General Sir Robert Boyd, then governor of Gibraltar, and
obtained a company in the 47th Regiment, with which he went to
America in 1744, and was present at the battle of Bunker's Hill,
in which latter engagement he was severely wounded. In 1776,
he accompanied his regiment to Canada, commanding his company
in the action of Three Rivers ; and he afterwards commanded the
advanced guard of the army in the expulsion of the rebels from
this province. In 1777, he was engaged in the actions at Ticon-
derago and Hubertown, in the latter of which engagements he was
again severely wounded. Ever in a position of honorable danger,
he received a third wound in the action at Freeman's Farm. He
was engaged at the disastrous affair at Saratoga, and was distin
guished by General Burgoyne and the brave Fraser, (who fell in
that action) as a young officer who promised to attain to the very
height of the military profession. On this occasion he was selected
by General Burgoyne to carry home the despatches, and was imme
diately thereafter promoted to a majority in the new 82nd Regi
ment, which he accompanied to Nova Scotia in 1778 ; to Penobscot
in 1779, and to North Carolina in 1781 ; being engaged in continued
scenes of active service during the whole of those campaigns,
and generally commanding the light troops, with orders to act upon
his own discretion, on which his superiors in command relied with
implicit confidence. In a service or this kind, the accuracy of his
intelligence, the fertility of his resources, and the clearness of his
military judgment, were alike conspicuous, and drew on him the
attention of his sovereign, who noted him as an officer of the high
est promise. In 1794 he obtained the rank of major-general; and
in the beginning of the following year, he was sent on the expedi
tion to the Cape of Good Hope, where, in the reduction and con
quest of that most important settlement, with the co-operation of
Admiral Sir G. K. Elphinstone, and Major-General Clarke, he
attained to the highest pitch of military reputation, and performed
the signal service to his king and country, of whicli the memory
will be as lasting as the national annals. Nor were his merits less
conspicuous in the admirable plans of civil regulation, introduced
by him into that hostile quarter, while he was invested with the
chief authority, civil and military, as governor of the Cape. He
was succeeded in that situation by the Earl of Macartney, in 1707,
who, by a deputation from his Majesty, invested General Craig

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANAfcA. 159
with the red ribbon, as an honorable mark of his sovereign's just
sense of his distinguished services. Sir James Craig had scarcely
returned to England when it was his Majesty's pleasure to require
his services on the staff in India. On his arrival at Madras, he
was appointed to the command of an expedition against Manilla ;
but this not taking place, he proceeded to Bengal, and took the
field service. During five years in India, his attention and talents
were unremittingly exerted to the improvement ofthe discipline of
the Indian army, and to the promotion of that harmonious co
operation between its different constituent parts, on which not only
the military strength, but the civil arrangements of that portion of
the British empire so essentially depend. In January, 1801, Sir
James Craig was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and
returned to England, 1802 ; when he was appointed to the com
mand of the eastern district, and remained in England till 1805 ;
and then, notwithstanding that his constitution was much impaired
by a long train of most active and fatiguing service, he was selected
by his sovereign to take the command of the British troops in the
Mediterranean. He proceeded to Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malta; and
from thence to Naples, to act in co-operation with the Russian
army. But the object of these plans being frustrated by the event
of the battle of Austerlitz, Sir James withdrew the troops from
Naples to Messina, in Sicily. During the whole period of his
command in the Mediterranean, he suffered severely from that
malady which terminated his life, a dropsy which proceeded from
an organic affection of the liver ; and feeling his disease sensibly
gaining ground, he returned with his sovereign's permission to
England in 1806. A temporary abatement of his disorder flattered
him with a prospect of recovery, and being himself unable to recon
cile his mind to a situation of inactivity, he once more accepted an
active command from the choice of his sovereign. In 1807, on
the threatening appearance of hostilities with the United States of
America, he was sent out to Quebec, as governor-in-chief of British
America. Here he governed the province, and commanded the
forces in it, until his disease, which had made terrible inroads upon
his constitution, compelled him to solicit his recall, which was
granted; and he left this country on the 19th of June, 1811.
But in alluding to his administration ofthe government of Can
ada, we will only briefly touch on the most salient points of it,
leaving history, in which his name will hold a high and distin
guished rank, to speak of its general bearings. The whole time,
or nearly all of it, was occupied in the most bitter party bickerings ;
a legislature divided in nationality, religion and opinion, which,
although it now works in unison throughout the different depart
ments, and is supposed to approach perfection, was, at that day,
in a most alarming and refractory state, at least in its main points.
With this the governor could positively have done nothing,

160 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
although some of his own acts cannot but be viewed with repre
hension, particularly his seizure of Le Canadien newspaper, and
confining its proprietor and writers in the common gaol. Though
perhaps for the course which they pursued, and the malicious and
seditious articles which they promulgated, they deserved the treat
ment they received ; yet his measures were decidedly not British
in principle, and therefore he was so far wrong. Then again, his
refusal to transmit the resolutions of the assembly, in which they
prayed to be allowed in future to pay the civil list, was another
piece of false government, and decidedly wrong.
We however must not be too severe on the old veteran's memory,
and the course he pursued in this province. It doubtlessly cannot
but be ascribed to his desire to benefit the country ; and, by wise
and judicious measures, in his estimation, to do good unto Canada
and its people. Indeed, the honesty and purity of his intentions
are evinced in nearly every proclamation which he issued, and in
every one of his speeches to the Parliament, and in none more so
than in his beautiful proclamation (of which we give a part), to
the people, relative to the seditious writings then current in the
province. The following passage conveys to the reader the feelings
which actuated him in the performance of his duties. He said :
" For what purpose should I oppress you ? Is it to serve the
king ? Will that monarch, who during fifty years, has never issued
one order that had you for its object, that was not for your benefit
and happiness ; will he now, beloved, honored, adored by his sub
jects, covered with glory, descending into the vale of years, accom
panied with the prayers and blessings of a grateful people; will he,
contrary to the whole tenor of a life of honor and virtue, now give
orders to his servants to oppress his Canadian subjects? It is
impossible that you can for a moment believe it. You will spurn
from you, with just indignation, the miscreant who will suggest
such a thought to you.
" Is it for myself, then, that I should oppress you ? For what
should I oppress you ? Is it from ambition ? What can you give
me 1 Is it for power ? Alas ! my good friends ! with a life ebbing .
not slowly to its period, under the -pressure of disease acquired in
the service of my country, I look only to pass, what it may please
God to suffer to remain of it, in the comfort of retirement among
my friends. I remain among you only in obedience to the com
mands of my king. What power can I wish for ? Is it then for
wealth that I would oppress you ? Enquire of those who know me,
whether I regard wealth; I never did, when I could enjoy it; it is
now of no use to me; to the value of your country laid at my feet,
I would prefer the consciousness of having, in a single instance,
contributed to your happiness and prosperity."
Although a continual warfare was kept up between him and the
council, the assembly and people, yet the latter could not but

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 161
admire the firmness of purpose which characterised his every
action, and the judiciousness of some of his measures, particularly
that one, in which he endeavoured to place the province and its
people on their guard against the coming storm from the States
This was evinced by the numerous and spontaneous addresses for
his welfare, which poured into him from all quarters of the pro
vince, during his short sojourn in it, and more particularly on his
departure; and the feeling ofthe people on that occasion, when
the horses were taken from his carriage, and they themselves
drew him ' to the king's wharf, in the most affectionate and
hearty manner, displayed the light in which he was held. All
regretted his departure, more particularly when it was known he
was in such a fearful state of sickness ; for it was feared he would
not survive till the end of the voyage ; yet he did, and for
months afterwards, his death taking place in January, 1812.
Christie, in his History of Canada, thus describes him :
" He was of an agreeable countenance, and impressive presence,
stout and rather below the middle stature ; manly and dignified in
deportment, but social, polite and affable ; positive in his opinions,
and decisive in his measures. Although hasty in temper, he was,
like most men who are so, far from implacable ; and as we have
seen, easily reconciled to those who may have incurred his dis
pleasure. Hospitable and princely in his style of living, he was
also munificent in his donations to public institutions ; and to
charitable purposes, a generous patron; and lastly, we shall
mention, though not the least of his virtues, a friend to the poor
and destitute, none of whom applying at his threshold, ever went
away unrelieved."

M. LOUIS BOURDAGES.
Louis Bourdaoes was one of the most celebrated men the
lower province possessed. His name figures to a considerable
extent in the annals of the country, as a legislator, particularly
during the administration of Sir James Craig, to whom he was
opposed, conjointly with the opposition of that day. He was the
friend of Papineau and the others who were so bitter in their
denunciations of that gentleman's government. He was the
descendant of an old French family of Acadia, who had to
leave that country, consequent on the trouble that arose relative
21

1 62 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
to the "Allegiance Oath." He received his education at Quebec,
and for some time was engaged in maritime pursuits, and made
several voyages to the old country and elsewhere. After marry
ing, he settled on the river Chambly on a farm which he culti
vated, and soon, by honorable labor, accumulated a small fortune,
and thus became independent. Being given much to study, he
shortly afterwards passed the requisite examination, and became
a notary public.
,In 1804, through the influence of his wife's friends, he was'
returned to parliament for the county of Richelieu, and took an
active part in all that passed in the lower house, particularly the
measures of the late Judge Bedard, and those relating to the
exclusion of the judges from their seats in the legislature. He
was one of the most violent adversaries of the Craig administration.
Previous to the war of 1812, he had been appointed a colonel of
militia, and, in 1813, commanded his battalion on the frontier.
He showed much zeal in defending his country, and was a strict
disciplinarian, so much so, that he incurrred the dislike of his
officers, and lost his]election shortly afterwards. He was, however,
returned for the county of Buckingham, and shortly afterwards
became the leader of his party in the house, when all the impor
tant measures emanated from him. Among others, will be found
the first project for the election ofthe members of the Legislative
Council. When Mr. Papineau proceeded to England, to present
the petition of the Canadians, Mr. Bourdages was a candidate for
the speakership, but failed in being elected. Shortly afterwards,
he wasappointed superintendent postmaster of the province, and,
whilst in that office, displayed great activity, and placed the post
office in an ameliorated condition. His death occurred suddenly,
at St. De'nis, river Chambly, on the 20th January, 1835, at the
moment he was preparing to depart for Quebec, to attend to his
legislative duties.
He possessed a very loud and penetrating voice, was tall and
imposing in his figure, and consequently, invariably received atten
tion when he was addressing the house. He was a most devoted
citizen and legislator, and was zealous and consistent in his religion,
which was Roman Catholic. So assiduous and attentive was he
in the discharge of his duties, that on one occasion, whilst he was
engaged in a discussion in the house he received the news of
the death of his son, and was pressed to retire home to view his
remains and attend to his funeral, he said—" No ! I am a citizen
before a father !" and did not retire, so much had he the interests
of his country at heart. He mourned his son, but only after he
had done his duty as a citizen.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 163

Hon. JUSTICE PIERRE L. PANET.
A distinguished member of the bar of Lower Canada, who
rose to be member of the Executive Council of Lower Canada,
and to be elevated as one of the judges of the Court of King's
Bench for the district of Montreal. He died of an apopletic fit on
the 3rd December, 1812. A journal of the day, recording his de
mise, said : — " In him his associates on the bench will have to
lament a coadjutor second to none in ability, knowledge and in
tegrity ; his family, a parent and friend, whose character was their
honor, protection, and example ; and the community an individual,
whose virtue and services as a judge and member of the legisla
ture of this province, and whose humanity and benevolence in
every relation of life, have entitled him to their highest respect and
gratitude." '

Hon. JUSTICE DE BONNE.
The Honorable P. A. De Bonne, a celebrated legislator in
the beginning of this century, was a descendant of the Sieur De
Bonne Mizelle, a captain in the regiment De Conde, and a nephew
of the Marquis de la Jonquiere, one of the French governors;
was a member of the Executive Council in 1794, as also of the
Legislative Assembly, in which latter office, he opposed Mr.
Cuthbert's motion for the abolition of slavery. He eventually be
came the leader of the Canadian party in the house, and as such
displayed great ability as leader and debater ; so much so indeed,
that he lost his seat in the house (through the malignity of the
Craig administration) by a simple vote of its members. He was
the only member of the judiciary who held a seat in the house,
and was not re-elected at the general election which ensued.

164 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. GEORGE CROOKSHANK
Was, if we are not misinformed, the oldest resident of Toronto.
He was born in New York, in 1763, and was of Scottish parentage,
but at the conclusion of the American war of independence, his
family, with others of the United Empire Loyalists, emigrated to
St. John's, New Brunswick. General Simcoe, upon his appoint
ment to the governorship of Canada, desired to have near him some
of those who had served with him in the war, and among others
induced the Hon. Mr. Magill to take up his residence here. Mr.
Magill was a brother-in-law of Mr. Crookshank, and when he came to
Toronto in 1796, brought the latter with him. Mr. Magill was
appointed the receiver-general, and Mr. Crookshank received an
appointment in the commissariat. He rose to the post of deputy
commissary-general, which he held until the conclusion of the
war of 1812, when he retired upon half pay. He received, on set
tling in Toronto, three hundred acres of land, now owned by Messrs.
Strachan and Fitzgerald, but still known as the Crookshank estate.
He died, 21st July, 1859. He was possessed of large property
besides, and left a handsome fortune, to his only surviving child,
the wife of Mr. Stephen Heward, of Toronto. His only son died
some years ago. Mrs. Crookshank's name was Lambert. She
was of an American family, and has been dead many years. Mr.
Crookshank derived his title from the seat which he held in the
Legislative Council of Upper Canada Since the union, he took no
part in politics.

FRANgOIS BLANCHET, Esq., M.D., M.P.P.
Dr. Blanchet was a native of the parish of St. Pierre, Riviere
du Sud, where his father was a proprietor in good circumstances,
cultivating his own lands. He was educated at the Quebec semi
nary, and took his medical degree at New York, where he published
a book in French on the application of chemistry to medicine. He
finally settled at Quebec as a medical practitioner ; and some time
afterwards was elected by his native county to represent it in the
assembly. In contests arising between the colonial executives

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 165
and the assembly he warmly espoused the popular side, and was
one of the members imprisoned in 1810. During the late American
war, he was at the head of the medical staff in the province. He
was a sincere friend to the general education of the people, having
introduced the first bill for that purpose, in 1814. He was also
warmly attached to the improvement of the internal communica
tions, and generally throughout his long career as a member of the
assembly, he was animated by a strong attachment to his country,
its established constitution, and government. He died at Quebec,
on the 26th June, 1830, in the fifty-fourth year of his age.

Mr. CHARLES HURST.
Mr. Hurst was a native of Hampshire, England, and was
brought up to the printing business. He came to Canada in the 65th
Regiment, from which he obtained leave of absence, after it had
removed to Nova Scotia, to work at his business in Quebec. He
was afterwards transferred to the 7th Regiment, or Royal Fusileers,
in the Quebec garrison, then commanded by his late Royal High
ness Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. When a conspiracy was
entered into by some foreigners in the regiment against the life of
the prince, it accidentally came to his knowledge, and he gave the
information which led to the conviction of the criminals, who were,
however, pardoned at the place of execution, by the intercession of
his Royal Highness. Mr. Hurst was for some time afterwards a Ser
jeant in the regiment, and finally bought his discharge, which pre
cluded him by the rules of the service from the pension to which he
otherwise would have been entitled. Having become infirm, he went
to live with his son-in-law, Mr. Henry Patton, formerly of the
artillery, and captain of the militia, at Valcartier, Canada East,
and for many years Mr. Hurst was the only school master in the
settlement. He was possessed of that manly independence of mind
which prides itself in the discharge of the duties of the individual
in whatever rank or station he is placed. He died September,
1837. In the true spirit of an Englishman and a soldier, he was
devoted to his king and country, in good and bad fortune, and
although his life ended in poverty, he was respected and esteemed
by those among whom he lived, and died in the faith and consola
tions of a sincere Christian.

166 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

COMTE JOSEPH DE PUISAGE.
Few people are aware that this distinguished man once lived in
Canada, yet such is the fact. His history is worth reading ; he was
descended from a noble French family, and was born at Montagne,
about 1754. Being intended for the church, he was educated in
the seminary of St. Sulpice, but preferring the military profession,
at the age of eighteen he entered as a sub-lieutenant into the regi
ment of Conti, whence he removed as captain into a regiment of
dragoons. He subsequently purchased a commission in the Cent
Suisses of the Royal Household, obtaining the brevet of colonel,
and soon after the cross of St. Louis. In 1787 he was nominated
a deputy from the nobility of Perche to the States-General, when
he joined the tiers-^tat, after having signed the protestation ofthe
19th of June, and in the Constituent Assembly he always voted
with the partisans of political regeneration. In 1791 he was raised
to the rank of major-general, and he had afterwards the command
of the national guard of Foreux. In 1793, forces having been
collected in the northern departments in order to oppose the
tyranny of the Jacobins, the chief command was given to General
Wimpfen, and the second to Comte de Puisage. Being defeated, a
price was set on his head, and he was compelled to seek an asylum
in Brittany. There he reorganized the Chouans, formed a mili
tary council, and arrayed the whole district in arms against the con
vention. Aware of the necessity for obtaining foreign aid, the
count left his troops under the command of M. Cormatin, and went
to London, where he continued several months, and obtained the
promise of assistance from the British ministry. He was also invested
with unlimited powers by the Comte d'Artois; and though on his
return to France, he found that M. Cormartin had concluded a
treaty with the republicans, he triumphed over that difficulty, and
every preparation was made by the Bretons to join the EngUsh and
emigrate troops as soon as they should appear on the French coasts.
Owing to some intrigues which took place, the measures of the
Comte de Puisage were counteracted, and the expedition was di
verted to the coast of La Vendee. The disastrous expedition to
Quiberon followed, for the result of which the count, whether
justly or not, was generally blamed ; and finding that he had lost
his influence with the adherents of the exiled royal family, he re
signed his commission and came to Canada, with a number of
French loyalists, where they had obtained a grant of land from the
British government somewhere near Toronto, we believe, close
where Markham now stands. But the peace of Amiens being

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 167
concluded, and the count having received very bad treatment from
some of the influential settlers and inhabitants of Toronto, he re
turned to England; and with a view to remove the odium under
which he labored, he published Mimoires du Lieut.- Giniral le Comte
de Puisage, qui pourront servir a I'Histoire du Parti Royaliste
Frangais, London, 1803-6, 5 vols, 8vo. He continued to reside
in England till his death, which took place December 13, 1827,
in the neighborhood of Hammersmith, Middlesex.

JOSEPH WILLCOCKS, Esq., M.P.P.
The name of a man who figured conspicuously in the annals of
Upper Canada during a portion of the time of the reign of the
" Family Compact Party," of whom it may be said, that they perse
cuted this man to death.
Willcocks was an Irishman of respectable parentage, and had
emigrated to Canada in his younger days. He rose rapidly ; and
about 1803 had become sheriff of the Home District, but was de
prived of his office in 1806, for voting against the wishes of the
governor at Thorpe's election. He soon became popular with the
people, mostly through a suit brought against him bythe lieu
tenant-governor, Mr. Francis Gore, for libel, and in which he was
acquitted ; he was elected to serve in the assembly, which speedily
thrust him into the Toronto jail, then a miserable log hut, for
making too free with their affairs. Released from this, he became,
like Wilkes in England, still more popular ; and, for a while, was at
the head as leader of the majority in the assembly. In 1807, he
commenced publishing and editing the Upper Canada Guardian or
Freeman's Journal, then the second paper in the upper pro
vince, which he continued, until the breaking out of the war of 1812
forced him to give up his paper and lay down the pen for the musket,
and fight against the Americans at Queenston. Still government
treated him harshly ; and, at length, thoroughly disheartened and
disgusted, he deserted to the enemy, taking a body of Canadian
militia over with him. The Americans rewarded his treason by
making him a colonel; and his erratic and singularly strange
career was brought to a close at the siege of Fort Erie, where he
was killed, while planting a guard.

168 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

W. A. THOMPSON, Esq.
Assistant Commissary-General W. A. Thompson was
born at Quebec in 1786, and died at Dominica, 18th May, 1838.
Mr. Thompson entered the commissariat department in the year
1805, and was the whole time in actual service — served during the
American war of 1812, and arrived in the West Indies in October,
1801. He was a brother of assistant commissary general, James
Thompson, and twin brother ofthe Honorable Mr. Justice Thompson
of Gaspe.

COMTE DE DOUGLAS,
Born at Montreal in 1747; died at Paris in 1842. Louis
Archambault, Comte de Douglas, it appears, had obtained rank in
the peerage of France with that title. He had succeeded, in 1770,
his uncle, Charles Joseph de Douglas, Comte et Seignieur de
Montreal, in France, who, with one of his brothers, had accompanied
Charles Edward in his chivalrous attempt to recover the throne of
his ancestors, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Culloden.
Thus the French Canadian Comte de Douglas, is said to have
sprung from one of the most illustrious families in Europe ; and it
is stated that his maternal grandfather was governor of Montreal,
when Canada was a French colony.

GENERAL Sir GEORGE MURRAY,
Was a well known gallant British general and statesman ; and
had been governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
He was born at the family seat in Perthshire, in 1772 ; was educated
at the High School and University of Edinburgh ; and, having

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 169
entered the army in 1789, he gained great distinction in almost
every quarter of the globe for his military achievements, and more
especially for the skill and ability with which he discharged, on
several occasions, the difficult office of quarter-master-general. In
1812, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada,
hut, on hearing that Napoleon had escaped from Elba, he resigned
that important office, and joined the English army in France. On
his return to England, he was appointed governor of Edinburgh
Castle ; and, in 1819, governor of the Royal Military College.
In 1823, he became lieutenant-general of the Ordnance; and was
soon after elected M.P. for Perthshire. In 1828, he took office as
secretary of state for the colonies. In Sir Robert Peel's admini
stration of 1834-5, he filled the office of master-general of the
Ordnance, but lost his seat for Perthshire. At the Westminster
election, in 1837, he opposed and was defeated by Sir Lacy de
Evans and Mr. Leader. When the Whigs resigned in 1841, Sir
George again received the appointment of master-general of the
Ordnance. He appeared before the public as the editor of
Marlborough's Despatches, 5 vols. ; but it is not necessary to
speak of him in any other capacity than that of a gallant and suc
cessful soldier, and able minister. He died, July 28, 1846,
aged 74.

GENERAL Sir GEORGE PREVOST, Bart.
This distinguished man was born on the 19th of May, 1767.
By his own merits he attained a high rank in his profession, being
first brought into the notice of his sovereign as a lieutenant-oolonel
in a battalion of the 60th Regiment, serving in the West Indies ;
in which situation he distinguished himself at St. Vincent, where
he was severely wounded ; and for his conduct on that occasion,
as well as in the subsequent operations in the West Indies, he was
promoted to the rank of brigadier, and had afterwards the govern
ment of Dominica conferred upon him as a mark of his Majesty's
approbation for his gallant and successful defence of that island
against a very superior force of the enemy, as well as for his conspi
cuous conduct at St. Lucia; in 1803, he was created a baronet.
Shortly after his return to England from the West Indies in 1805,
he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Portsmouth, with command
of the troops in that district. In 1808 he was selected to fill the
22

170 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
important charge of lieutenant-governor and lieutenant-general,
commanding the forces in the province of Nova Scotia. In the
autumn of the same year he proceeded with a division of troops
from Halifax to the West Indies, and was second in command
upon the expedition at the capture of the Island of Martinique.
After that service had been completed, he returned to his gov
ernment in Nova Scotia ; and upon the resignation of General
Sir James Craig, he was called to fill the high and responsible
situation of governor-in-chief and commander of the forces in all
British North America. He returned to England early in 1814,
to answer certain charges preferred against him, the investigation
of which had been alone prevented, prior to his decease, by causes
altogether beyond his control. Sir George Prevost's successful
defence of the Canadas for nearly three years, against a numerous
and formidable enemy, and under circumstances of peculiar diffi
culty, together with his other important services in the West In
dies, will be long remembered, and a grateful country will not re
fuse to do justice to the memory of one, who, it may be truly
said, was a gallant spirit, a man with pure hands, and a most zeal
ous and devoted servant of his sovereign.* The disorder which
shortened the last days of this distinguished officer was dropsy, occa
sioned by a debilitated constitution, worn down by the fatigues and
anxieties attendant upon the arduous duties of his last command.
The first symptoms of the disease made their appearance during the
journey which he was obliged to undertake overland, at a most
inclement season, from Quebec to St. John, New Brunswick, in
order to embark for England ; to the exertions of which, it has
since appeared, he was wholly unequal ; and these symptoms
gradually increasing after his arrival in England, he was induced
to remove from his seat at Belmont, in Hampshire, to London,
for the benefit of the best medical advice ; but the rapid progress
*Respecting this important period of his life, we make an extract of a letter
from the Gentleman's Magazine for 1817: —
M&. Ukban, January, 8, 1817.
The enclosed Halifax newspaper contains some observations, which appear to
me to be so illustrative of the character and services of that inestimable man,
and very excellent, but muoh-injured officer, the late governor-general of Bri
tish North America, and so justly, though briefly, detail many of the civil and
military difficulties "which he had to encounter aud did surmount, that I trust
you will agree with me in thinking them highly deserving a place in your Mis
cellany. Now that the irritation and animosities of party-spirit have subsided and
been buried in the grave, I doubt not hut evory impartial man will allow the
preservation of Canada to the British empire to have been chiefly owing to the
judicious conduct of Sir Georgo Prevost, in tho arduous charge committed to
him by his sovereign.
It is oortainly »f groat importance that the fair fame and well-earned reputa
tion of military men should be cherished, aud proteoted from the blight of
flippant or unfounded aspersion ; and I am oonfident you will be ready to con
tribute to so desirable a purpose by handing down to posterity, in your widely
circulated publication, this just tribute of an unprejudiced Nova Sootian to the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 17l
of his complaint baffled the skill of his physicians. He expired
on 5th of January, 1816, and his remains were deposited on the
11th January, in the family vault at East Barnet, Hertz, attended
virtues and talents of his late governor, which I am certain will be perused by
many with as much satisfaction and interest as it has been hy your constant
reader. — An Old Soldier.

" We have copied from the London Gazette^ the posthumous honors bestow
ed upon Sir George Prevost, with a lively pleasure, in which we are sure the
great mass of our readers will participate. Some few indeed there are (and we
say it with pain) whom we remember pressing nearest to his person, and bowing
most profoundly at his levees here, who altered their tone prodigiously when the
great and good man was thought to be falling. Where this proceeded, as we
believe it mostly did, from a trifling levity of mind, veering like a silken vane,
with every wind, it can only be an object for our pity. But if there were any
one who could be enemies to so excellent a man, we wish them no greater pun
ishment than the ranklings of their own bad hearts, when t\ey read the judg
ment pronounced upon him by his Prince.
" For ourselves, as we profess not to flatter the living, so we wish to do justice
to the dead. We never had but one opinion of Sir George Prevost, which we
formed Tipon some knowledge of his character, and which we never saw reason
to change. We were pleased with the even cheerfulness of his temper, with his
simple unassuming manners, and his condescension to people of every rank.
We admired his vigorous, active, penetrating mind. But we peculiarly respected
him for his probity, his independence, his justice ; in short for principles of
morals and religion, such as we have but rarely met.
" Sir George Prevost, we believe, never had any patron but his services and
character. Recommended by these alone, he was selected to defend us at a time
when the people of the United States had full confidence that they would speed
ily be in possession of Halifax. And some time after, when Sir James Craig
had left Canada in a state df irritation little short of rebellion, ' the Prince
Regent (as the Secretary's letter expressed it) having had experience of his

f " WhitehaU, 3rd September. — His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, taking
into his Royal consideration the distinguished conduct and services of the late
Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, Bart., during a long period of constant
active employment in situations of great trust, both military and civil, in the
course of which his gallantry, zeal, and able conduct were particularly displayed
at the conquest of the Island of St. Lucia, in 1803, and of the Island of Martin
ique in 1809 ; as also in successfully opposing, with a small garrison, the attack
made in 1805, by a numerous Prench force, upon the Island of Dominica, then
under his government ; and while governor-general and commander-in-chief of
the British Provinces in North America, in the defence of Canada against the
repeated invasions perseveringly attempted by the American forces during the
late war ; and his Royal Highness being desirous of evincing in an especial
manner, the sense whieh his Royal Highness entertains of these services, by con
ferring on his family a lasting memorial of his Majesty's royal favor, hath
been pleased, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty to ordain, that the
supporters following may be borne and used by Dame Catherine Anne Prevost,
widow of the said late Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost, during her wi
dowhood, viz : — " On either side a grenadier of the 16th (or Bedfordshire) Regi
ment of Foot, each supporting a banner, that on the dexter side inscribed Wfst
Indies, and that on the sinister Canada ; and that the said supporters, to
gether with the motto, ' Servatum Cineri,' may also be borne by Sir George
Prevost, Bart., son and heir of the said late lieutenant-general, and by his successors
in the said dignity of a baronet ; provided the same be first duly exemplified
according to the laws of arms, and recorded in the Herald's OfHce. And his
Royal Highness hath been also pleased to command, that the said concession and
especial mark of the royal favor be registered in his Majesty's College of
Arms."

172 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
by his near relations, a few of his particular friends, _ and the
officers who composed his personal staff in Canada. Sir George
Prevost was the eldest son of Major-General Augustine Prevost,
talents, both for civil and military affairs,' ordered him to assume the adminis
tration of that most delicate and diflicult government.
" And certainly no man eould be better qualified to reconcile (if that were
possible) the two discordant parties, who with very unequal numbers, but equal
animosity, have so long divided, and still unhappily divide, that province.
But since even his good temper, impartiality, and address could effect nothing
like cordial union, he took the course whieh his duty plainly required — to be of
neither party ; to employ men who had talents and influence, without any dis
tinction whether they were of French or English origin, or whether they had
been obnoxious or otherwise to his predecessor.
" This equal holding of the balance was displeasing to the English party; but
it saved the country. It gained Sir George the entire confidence and affections
of the Canadians. They submitted to be severely trained to arms ; they took
his army bills as cash ; and when the enemy invaded the country, encouraged by
the supposed disaffection of the inhabitants, General Wilkinson testifies, that
they met nothing but the most determined hostility in the whole male popula
tion. And another general (Hampton) could testify that he and his army were
diseomfitted by the gallant De Salaberry, a. Canadian gentleman, at the head of
one or two companies of Canadian militia.
" In brief, when this war broke out, Sir George was informed that England
could neither send him men nor money. But, confident in the affections of the
people he governed, and in the resources of his own mind, he met the enemy at
every point where he attacked, along a frontier of eleven hundred miles ; and
at every point he repulsed him with loss and disgrace ; until the whole fleet on
Lake Erie being captured — and captured, beyond all controversy, for want of one
hundred seamen, whilst we had one hundred ships of war upon the station — the
loss of uppermost Canada inevitably followed.
" Another much more unaccountable disaster upon the water — the defeat of
an English fleet by that of the enemy on Lake Champlain — rendered it alto
gether impossible for Sir George to penetrate, as he had been instructed, into the
interior of the United States. Which being the case, and none can deny it, he
thought he could not answer for blood ' unprofitably shed ' by assaulting the works
at Plattsburg, which he assuredly must abandon, if he succeeded, in less than a
month. But here was a fine opportunity for wicked passions to work. It was
convenient for the beaten navy to devolve the blame upon the land service. It
was delightful to the domineering party at Quebec to be revenged of the man
who had trusted to French Canadians. They were able artful men, and high in
office. They had attempted long before to get Sir George recalled, by privately
representing to the Prince Regent that his conciliating system, as they called it,
would be ruinous to the authority of government. But now they thought no
terms need be kept. The brother of one of the highest civil officers — himself
a civil officer — was afterwards found to be the writer of the most virulent libels
upon Sir George that appeared in the Montreal Herald. That paper, and the
Acadian Recorder, teemed with calumnies and abuse against that good man,
which must ever be esteemed disgraceful to the countries in which they were
published ; and we believe that both countries now think so.
" We have not room in an article of this sort to enter largely into the subject.
We shall only say that we profess to think for ourselves, and not to follow the
momentary cry of a mob. We think that there is often more magnanimity dis
played in not fighting, than in fighting j and certainly muoh more in faoing oblo
quy than in faoing a cannon. The Heralds of Sedition, and Recorders of Cal
umnies, wero as busy in the days of Fabius as they have been in ours. They
called him Poedagogue, ooward, old woman, every thing ; because he would not
fight just when they thought he should. He bore with the infamy of the day,
and is illustrious to all posterity.
Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem .-
Ergo postque magisque viri muic gloria claret.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 173
who served under General Wolfe, and was severely wounded on the
Plains of Abraham, and who afterwards so eminently distinguished
himself in the first American war, by his defence of Savannah.
" Such also was Sir George Prevost. He knew very well what use his ene
mies would make of his retreat from Plattsburg. He might have assaulted and
carried the place (for we think it would have fallen) ; and, after burying one or two
thousand brave men in the ditch,returned with the applause ofthe multitude, bought
with the tears of widows and orphans, and without any one advantage to his
country. He followed the dictates of his conscience, and trusted to the deliberate
voice of his country for his fame. It has not disappointed him.
"But we hasten to the catastrophe. Sir George Prevost went home (with an
eagerness and by a route that exhausted nearly all the strength he had left) to
answer every charge his enemies might bring ; and when he arrived he could
scarcely find his accuser ; or whether he had any. He pressed for an investiga
tion, however, before a proper tribunal ; where he might vindicate his character
from the foul calumnies which he would not stoop to answer in the country
where he governed. This demand was evaded, and various successive reasons
found for deferring the trial for along and most distressing period to him.
" The government seemed to wish that no investigation should take place.
Indeed the feelings of the two great branches of the public service seemed to be
too much concerned in the case. That of the military might be implied from
the favorite and official organ of the commander-in-chief giving a dinner to
Sir George and his friends upon his arrival in London. Whilst that of the
navy was but too plainly marked by the court-martial on Captain Pring, who
thought proper not only to try their own officers, but to declare their censure also
of the governor-general of Canada.
" Hereupon Sir George reiterated his demand of a speedy trial ; and a day
was at last fixed, and Sir James Yeo obliged to give in his formal charges. It
is plain that the whole must have turned upon this — •' Was the fleet lost, or was it
not, by want of co-operation of the land forces !' On this point Sir George was
ready, long ready, to meet his accusers with superabundant evidence. We have
not a doubt but he would have been triumphantly acquitted, and sent back with
a peerage — a well-earned peerage, to his government. But alas ! the justice and
the reward were reserved for his ashes. His frame, exhausted by most faithful
and laborious services to his country; by a journey through the wilderness in
the midst of the winter, to meet his accusers ; and by the still more painful de
lays of justice, sunk at last ; and he went to a tribunal where he will find jus
tice. So fell a great and good man ; without anything to cheer him, but the
rectitude of his heart, and a conscience void of offence to God and man.
We are assured from good authority, that when his death was known at Quebec,
it drew tears from the eyes of those very persons who had opposed his adminis
tration as too indulgent to the French Canadians.
" We have only to add, that his lady, after a few days of bitter grief, presented a
spirited memorial to the minister ; demanding that the proposed court-martial
should proceed notwithstanding the decease of her husband; as she was ready
to meet it, and to vindicate his fame. After reference to the judge advocate ge
neral it was answered, that such a request eould not be complied with ; hut that
his Majesty's ministers never had any intention to throw a shade on the name of
Sir George Prevost ; but on the contrary would shew their high esteem of his
services by conferring honors on his family ; and a gentleman was sent from
the secretary's office, to settle with her ladyship at Belmont how this might be
done most agreeably to her feelings. The issue was what we have given from the
Gazette ; and nothing could be thought of more judicious. The Supporters, the
proper badges of nobility, give the honor of the peerage, without the rank, to
which the fortune left by Sir George was not equal, though his merits were.
The words displayed upon the banners will be a perpetual memorial of the great
and important services which Sir George in his lifetime rendered to his country.
" The facts which we have stated in this article we have from highly-respecta
ble correspondents, on whom we can fully rely ; and we conceived they would
be interesting to our readers." — Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1817.

174 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Of the two brothers of Sir George, the eldest was a post-captain
in the royal navy, and the other a major-general in the army. Sir
George Prevost married in the year 1789, Catherine, daughter of
Major-General Phipps. A son and two daughters are still living,
the former being now the Reverend Sir George Prevost.

MAJOR-GENERAL Sir ISAAC BROCK, K.B.
The renowned General Isaac Brock was the eighth son of John
Brock, Esq. He was born in the island of Guernsey on the 6th
October, 1769, the year which gave birth to Napoleon and Wel
lington. In his boyhood, he was like his brother, unusually tall,
robust and precocious, and remarkable chiefly for his extreme gen
tleness. In his eleventh year he was sent to school at Southamp
ton, and the following year finished his education at Rotterdam.
In his fifteenth year he succeeded, by purchase, to the ensigncy
of the 8th, the King's regiment, which had become vacant by the
promotion of his brother, John, to a lieutenancy in the same regi
ment. In 1790 he was promoted to a lieutenancy, and was
quartered in Guernsey and Jersey. At the close of that year he
obtained an independent company. Soon after he exchanged into
the 49th, which was quartered at Barbadoes, and he remained
there doing duty until 1793, when he returned to England on sick
leave. On the 26th of June he purchased his majority. On the com
pletion of his twenty-eight year, on the 27th of October, 1797, he
purchased the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 49th, and soon after be
came senior lieutenant-colonel. In 1799 his regiment embarked
on an expedition to Holland under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and on
its landing, an engagement took place in which the British lost
about 10,000 men. Lieutenant-Colonel Brock distinguished himself
very much during this campaign, and was wounded in the battle
of Egmont-of-Zee on the 2nd of October.
Early in 1801, the 49th was again embarked in the fleet des
tined for the Baltic, under Sir Hyde Parker, and Lieutenant-Colo
nel Brock was the second in command of the land forces at the re
markable attack of Copenhagen, by Lord Nelson on the 2nd April.
The regiment returned to England soon afterwards, and in the
spring of 1802, sailed for Canada.
Some eighteen months after his arrival in Canada, a serious
conspiracy was on the point of breaking out in Fort George,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 175
where part of the 49th was in garrison. By the promptitude of
Lieutenant-Colonel Brock, however, the ringleaders were secured,
tried by court martial and condemned to death. The sentence was
carried out in Quebec early in March, 1804, where the men — four
in all — were shot in the presence of the entire garrison. Lieuten
ant-Colonel Brock was now directed to assume the command of
Port George, and all complaint and desertion instantly ceased, and
the 49th became one of the best regiments of the line.
In 1805, our hero was made full colonel, and returned in the
fall of the year to England. While in England he laid before the
commander-in-chief the outlines of a plan for the formation of a
veteran battalion for Canada, which received the special thanks of
the Duke of York. In 1806, while on a visit to his friends in
Guernsey, the political feeling in the United States assumed a
threatening aspect, and the colonel returned to Canada.
In September, 1806, he succeeded to the command of. the troops
in the two provinces, and made Quebec his residence. On the 2nd
July, 1808, he was appointed to act as brigadier. In 1810 he pro
ceeded to the upper province, being replaced at Quebec by the
Baron de Rottenburg. On the 4th of June, 1811, he was promo
ted and appointed by the Prince Regent to serve as a major-gene
ral on the Staff of North America.
In this month Sir James Craig, who had been in chief com
mand of the North American provinces, embarked for England,
where he died some months after his arrival. He was succeeded
by Sir George Prevost, who arrived at Quebec in September, and
on the 9th of October, Major General Brock, in addition to the
command of the troops, was appointed president and administra
tor of the government in Upper Canada, in place of Lieutenant-
Governor Gore, who had returned to England on leave. " At the
close of the year," says Mr. Symons, of Toronto, in a pamphlet
lately published by him on the battle of Queenston Heights, " His
Royal Highness the Duke of York expressed at length every in
clination to gratify Major-General Brock's wishes for more active
employment in Europe, and Sir George Prevost was authorized to
replace him by another officer ; but when the permission reached
Canada early in 1812. a war with the United States was evidently
near at hand, and Major-General Brock, with such a prospect, was
retained both by honor and inclination in the country, and he em
ployed himself vigorously to the adoption of such* precautionary
measures as he deemed necessary to meet all future contingencies.
From the first moment of being placed at the head of the govern
ment, he appears to have been convinced that war was inevitable,
and in consequence used every exertion to place the province in as
respectable a state of defence as his 'very limited means would
admit. Immediately after war was declared, he made Fort
George his head-quarters, and superintended the various defences

176 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of the river. He then went to York (now Toronto), where the
legislature was assembled, and having dispatched the public busi
ness, set out for Amherstburg, on the 6th of August, with two
hundred and fifty militia, who cheerfully came forward to accom
pany him. The taking of Detroit soon followed, an achievement
which his energy and decision crowned with such unqualified suc
cess, that the government at home appointed him an extra knight
of the most honorable order of the Bath, and he was gazetted to
this mark of his country's approbation, so gratifying to the
feelings of a soldier, on the 10th of October, but he lived not long
enough to learn that he obtained so honorable a distinction, the
knowledge of which would have cheered him in his last moments.
On the 6th of October, when his despatches, accompanied by the
colors of the United States 4th Regiment reached London, the Park
and Tower guns fired a salute, and in one short week afterwards-
Brock died."
In a despatch from Earl Bathurst, secretary of state for the
colonies, to Sir George Prevost, the following tribute of respect is
paid by the British government to the memory of General Brock :
" His Royal Highness the Prince Regent is fully aware of the
severe loss which his Majesty's service has experienced in the
death of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. That would have been
sufficient to have clouded a victory of much greater importance.
His Majesty has lost in him, not only an able and meritorious
officer; but one who, in the exercise of his functions of provincial
lieutenant-governor of the province, displayed qualities admirably
adapted to dismay the disloyal, to reconcile the wavering, and to
animate the great mass of the inhabitants against successive at
tempts of the enemy to invade the province, in the last of which
he fell ; too prodigal of that life of which his eminent services had
taught us to understand the value."
We opine, that every one knows the circumstances of his glori
ous fall and death ; if not, the splendid monument on the sacred
heights of Queenston, reddened with the hero's blood, erected as
a spontaneous free-will offering to his memory, by the people of
Canada, and British America generally, can pathetically tell the
tale. It would be well, however, to append a brief sketch of the ¦
memorable battle which took place, and in which he sacrificed
himself for the good and honor of his country ; and a more length
ened account of the principal events of his life in this country and
the war of 1812. We feel we cannot perform that duty better,
than by giving the able speech of Sir Allan N. McNab, the worthy
baronet of Dundurn, delivered on the very spot to the remaining
survivors and heroes of the war of 1812, in presence of a numerous
and distinguished party, met to inaugurate the restored monument
in 1859 :
" My friends," said the gallant baronet, " we meet upon the

And persons Connected with cAnAda. 177
anniversary of a day freshly remembered by some now present, and
rendered deeply interesting to all the inhabitants of Canada, by
the event which will for ever associate the 13th October with
Queenston Heights. On that day, forty-seven years ago, was fought
upon these heights what is known in history and in your family tra
ditions as the " Battle of Queenston." It was, though crowned
with ultimate success, a day of vicissitudes, and not without alloy.
When hostilities suddenly commenced on this side ofthe Atlantic
in the year 1812, the gallant soldiers of the mother country were,
under the illustrious Wellington, engaged in the sanguinary opera
tions of the war in Europe ; and knowing the inability of the king
to succor us with reinforcements adequate to our defence, the
illustrious Brock, with implicit faith, at once placed his reliance
mainly upon the militia of the province, and our ever faithful
Indian allies, for the protection of this part of her Majesty's do
minions. Events proved that his confidence was not misplaced.
His first exploit was at the head of an expedition, which he
organized, composed of volunteers from the militia and Indian
warriors, and the few regular troops at his disposal. He led that
expedition from the seat of government to the capture of Detroit :
and such was his imposing advance, that the terrified garrison —
the fort — the guns — and munitions of war were all surrendered at
discretion. The clouds of war having been promptly dispersed in
that extremity of the province, soon gathered on the banks of the
Niagara, and then ensued a series of encounters, in three succes
sive years, which have rendered the Niagara frontier, already cele
brated for its mighty cataract, famous in the military annals of the
British empire.
" The first serious battle was upon these heights. In the early
part of that momentous day the enemy had gained possession of
the elevated ground, and the intrepid Brock, regardless of their
numbers and position, made a too daring attempt to dislodge them.
While valiantly charging up the abrupt ascent, at the head of a
far inferior force, he fell, mortally wounded. Brock fell — not as
Wolfe fell — in the arms of Victory — for Victory still hovered in
the distance. He fell, rather as Montcalm (a kindred spirit) fell
— in the moment of repulse ; and, like both Wolfe and Montcalm,
he met a soldier's death upon the battle-field. He fell in the arms
of his country, and they shall for ever embrace him. You all
know the sequel. Although the enemy prevailed in the outset,
and though the chivalrous Brock and his gallant aide-de-camp
and many other gallant men had fallen, and although discomfited
for a time, yet the survivors, not dismayed or cast down, but im
pelled by the thrilling example of their late leader, and burning
to avenge the fall of the hero and his comrades, soon rallied again
under ihe gallant Sir Roger Sheaffe, who succeeded to the com
mand, and gathering up their strength, they with renewed energy

178 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
returned to the combat and crowned the day, and crowned these
heights with a brilliant victory. It may, without exaggeration
(allowing for the difference in numbers) be almost said of the
final attack by the remnant of the regular soldiers, militia and
Indian warriors, at the close of that day, as has been beautifully
said, by the eloquent Napier, of the final advance, to retrieve
the day, of the renowned 7th and 23rd Fusileer Regiments at the
crisis of the battle upon the bloody field of Albuera — ( Nothing,'
says the historian of the Peninsular campaigns, ' could stop that
astonishing infantry : their measured tread shook the ground ;
their dreadful volleys swept away the head of every formation ;
their deafening shouts overpowered the dissonant cries that broke
from all parts of the tumultuous crowd as, with a horrid carnage,
it was pushed by the incessant vigor of the attack, to the farthest
edge of the heights. There the enemy's reserve, mixing with the
struggling multitude, endeavored to restore the fight, but only
augmented the irremediable disorder, and the mighty mass, giving
way, like a loosened cliff, went headlong down the steep, and
eighteen hundred unwounded men, the remnant of six thousand
unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphantly on the fatal hill.'
The loss of our beloved general, at that early stage of the war,
cannot be estimated, nor its effects described. He had established
himself in the confidence of all classes in the highest degree, and
had become a tower of strength in his single person.
" The deep hold which he had acquired in the affections of the
people, is manifested by the lively interest which, from the day of
his death to the present hour, has been universally taken in his
cherished memory and undying fame. This universal feeling of
respect prompted the legislature, soon after the peace, to erect a
monument on these heights, sacred to the memory of the illustrious
dead. It was done ; and his remains, with those of his steadfast
friend, McDonell, reposed beneath the lofty and imposing pile —
fit emblem of a people's admiration, reverence and gratitude. Of
its wanton and malicious spoliation you are well aware. Let the
corrupt heart that conceived the design, and the coward hand that
polluted a hero's unguarded shrine, under the cloak of midnight
darkness, remain in darkness to the end of time. We would not
give a further thought to the reprobate perpetrator, but leave Ami
to the contempt and scorn of all mankind. The flame of indigna
tion, which the dastardly act lit up throughout Canada, blazed con
spicuously upon tliese heights in the year 1840. We here saw a
mighty host assembled from all parts of the province, not only to
express their resentment of the foul offence, but to show forth to
the world their lasting veneration for the departed warriors whose
tomb had been thus desecrated. It was tliere amidst the vehement
acclamation of thousands, resolved to re-construct, by private sub
scription, another trophy, more towering than the first, in proof

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 179
that the feeling which animated the Legislature in 1815, and tho
men of that day had not waned, but still glowed in every breast,
and to testify that the lamented soldiers, though dead, did indeed
live in the hearts of their countrymen. The fruits of that day's
resolution now covering the bodies of Brock and McDonell appear
in the beautiful column which stands before us : — ' Esto perpetua !'
It may be proper for me to give here a brief outline of the pro
ceedings which have led to this result. It being rightly appre
hended that the former monument had been so much shaken that
it must soon fall in fragments, the necessity for taking steps to re
place it became urgent. The initiative was taken on the 4th of
June, 1840, by the men of Gore, whom I had the honour to com
mand. These gallant men, on the occasion of their annual parade,
passed a series of resolutions, expressing, in strong terms, their
solicitude on this subject. Those resolutions, having been, by me,
transmitted through the adjutant-general, Colonel Bullock, to the
lieutenant-governor, Sir George Arthur, were cordially responded
to by his Excellency. He, in compliance with the wishes ex
pressed by the men of Gore, and in furtherance of the desired
object, summoned the militia and other inhabitants of Upper
Canada to assemble on Queenston Heights on the thirtieth of July
of the same year. In obedience to the call, a meeting of many
thousands took place at the base of the shattered column, and there
resolutions were passed, which I need not detain you by repeating.
Suffice it to say, that all offerings were to be spontaneous, and that
the opportunity might, without inconvenience to the contributors,
be extended as widely as the inclination prevailed, the amount to
be subscribed by the officers and men of the militia was limited to
one day's pay of their respective ranks when on active service.
" Subscriptions were from time to time, received from thousands
who were thus appealed to, and additional sums were received from
other sources — among others, the officers and men of several regi
ments of the Loyal New Brunswick Militia presented their dona
tions, and expressed in warm terms their respect for the memory
of General Brock, and their sympathy with the object in contem
plation. Very handsome contributions were also made by the
brave Indian chiefs and warriors ; many of whom rendered such
good service on the memorable thirteenth of October and on many.
other occasions, some the most trying that occurred during the
war. The remittances of these brave and faithful warriors were
accompanied by addresses to the Queen's representative, expressive
of their indignation and disgust at the atrocious act of desecration
whieh had rendered their assistance necessary. These addresses
emanated from the chiefs of different tribes, scattered throughout
Upper Canada, and all breathed a similar feeling, expressed in the
native eloquence and beauty of language for which the warrior
chiefs of the ( red men of the forest,' are so justly celebrated.

180 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
In acknowledging their liberal gifts they were assured that their
names should be honorably associated with those of their white
brethren in this laudable undertaking, as their money would be
mingled with the common fund raised for the accomplishment of
a common object. And it has been done. It maybe proper here
after to publish the whole correspondence and proceedings which
ensued after the meeting ofthe 30th of July, 1840, including the
names of all the militiamen and others, through whose pecuniary
aid the committee was, after much unavoidable delay, enabled to
commence and eventually to finish the structure which we are
now assembled formally to inaugurate. But it would quite exceed
the limits of an address like this, which, I fear will prove un
reasonably long, although restricted to general observations, without
entering upon details. I will, therefore, merely add that donations
were received from gentlemen in England, including General
Brock's brother ; from Lord Aylmer, Lord Sydenham and Sir
John Harvey ; from militiamen of Lower Canada and New Bruns
wick ; but principally from the officers and men of the militia
and the Indian chiefs and warriors within the limits of Upper
Canada. The monies received amounted to $50,211, and the ex
penditure to $47,944, leaving a balance of $2,267 in hand. De
signs were called for, and the one submitted by the talented archi
tect, Mr. Thomas,* was selected. Under his superintendence the
whole has been satisfactorily completed by Mr. Worthington,* the
builder, in the style you see. You will agree with me, I hope,
that it reflects great credit on the taste and judgment of the archi
tect and the skill of the builder ; and, associated as they have be
come with the work, it cannot fail to constitute a conspicuous and
lasting proof of their professional abilities.
" My friends, this monument represents a free-will offering
flowing from emotions which reminiscences of the last war awaken.
It commemorates the feelings of the country, inspired by the death
of Brock and the brave men who fell with him on these heights,
enhanced by the subsequent achievements which, invigorated and
encouraged by their example, the loyal inhabitants of Canada proud
ly exult in. It points back to the scenes which were enacted in
former years. It points forward to the deeds which those scenes
inculcate. In those years the blood of our militia and of our
valiant Indian allies was freely shed, and mingled with the blood
of the regular soldiers with whom they fought and died side by
side in defence of Canada. Yes, with a spirit and endurance be
yond all praise, the three, supporting each other, maintained the
whole line of an extended frontier, and repelled attack at every
point. Though sometimes overpowered by superior numbers, and
not always able to at once dislodge the enemy, yet they steadily
resisted his incursions and circumscribed his foothold within the

*0f Toronto, Canada West.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 181
narrowest limits. I may mention, as instances, the lines of cir-
cumvallation — the cross-roads forming the centre, which hemmed
in the enemy in the town of Niagara in 1813, and the siege and
investment of Fort Erie in 1814. In the end, by indomitable
perseverance and unflinching courage, every invader was expelled,
so that when the welcome news of peace reached us, no part of
our soil, that I can remember, remained in possession of the
United States forces. We had conquered territory to restore by
the terms of the treaty — none to receive back. All that we boast
of could only have been accomplished by the devoted spirit of our
men — as instances of their prowess let Chateauguay, Chrysler's
Farm, Ogdensburgh, Stoney Creek, Fort Niagara, Queenston
Heights and Lundy's Lane testify. The details of these conflicts,
to which might be added many others, not less than fifty in all,
would, though full of interest, exceed the limits of this occasion ;
it is the task of the historian to narrate them. It may, however,
interest you to be told that, on this frontier the last shot was fired,
on Lyon's Creek at Cook's Mills, in the month of October, not on
the 13th but the 19th, in the year 1814. The echo of that shot
may still vibrate in the ears of some present. It was providentially
ordained that it should prove a farewell shot ; the preeursor of a
lasting peace with our high-spirited and gallant neighbours, of
whom it may be truly said that with characteristic impulse they
warmly espoused the cause of their country, and bravely sustained
it in many hot encounters. It is our mutual interest, and doubtless,
our mutual inclination and desire, to live in thefriendlv intercourse
and good fellowship which have since prevailed. Let no turbu
lence disturb the harmony. May no international strife ever again
place us in a hostile attitude. The sympathy manifested by that
people at the funeral of General Brock, when his remains were
first interred at Fort George, and in the steps afterwards taken to
do honor to his memory, evinced how justly they appreciate heroic
character, and accords well with the spirit of a nation emulous of
heroic deeds.
My Friends, when we extol the gallantry of our militia, we
do them but half justice, and do commend but a part only of the
merit which distinguished them. We should not overlook the
exposure and the privations whieh (thinly clad and ill provided as
many poor men were) all endured during three long years of trial.
There were the out-lying picket ; the frontier guard ; the senti
nel's vigilance ; the midnight patrol ; the morning watch ; — there
were the storms of the seasons, there were the sickness and death.
Add to this, wives and children — mothers and sisters — the aged
and infirm — houses and barns — the cattle and the grain — all but
deserted, at the imperative call to arms of their invaded country.
It required the highest moral courage to relinquish, as our militia
did, their peaceful homes when summoned away by the loud blasts

182 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of war. My friends, I indulge in no fiction or flights of imagina
tion in these allusions to harrowing recollections ; they are reali
ties vivid in living memory. There are, amongst us, those whose
hearts still bleed at the remembrance of those days so full of
anguish, glorious though they were. Let the historian, then,
when he narrates the valiant deeds of our militia, not omit to add
that they were performed in days full ot domestic anxiety, dis
quietude and care, in all parts of the province ; and especially on
this frontier, where every home was abandoned, almost every
house burnt down, and every farm laid waste, from the town of
Niagara, at one extremity, to Fort Erie at the other. Let him re
cord that the men, whose brilliant acts he lauds and holds up to
imitation, had to encounter not only the toils of the campaign and
the violence of the foe, but, in tearing themselves from their
families and homes, had to encounter the more severe and painful
trial of overcoming some of the profoundest and best affections of
their nature. It was in scenes such as then occurred that the
scourge of war was felt, and that the genuine heroism of a stout
hearted people was most touchingly displayed. It was the sublime
of patriotism. By obeying as they did the voice of duty, and
standing boldly forward in the foremost ranks, they protected their
country in the hour of need, they saved their dwellings from deso
lation, and shielded their families from impending dangers, and,
in the end, they triumphed ! They proved that, while our coun
try is -rue to itself, no foreign power can ever ride its destinies or
subjugate its people. Every drop of blood shed, every life lost
in that eventful struggle, did but cement more strongly attach
ment to the soil and fidelity to the Crown, and did but develop
more and more that loyal and martial spirit with which I am ever
proud to proclaim the militia of Upper Canada have been always
animated. The militia of that day acted as became them, and
were taught by the graphic teaching of example how it would be
come their posterity to act, should (which God avert) a call of
like urgency ever again invoke a like energy and devotion in the
military service of their country. When we reflect then, that
the militia were led to their earliest triumphs, and inspired with
confidence and self-reliance, by the encouraging example of Brock,
that the example and influence became, as it were, the foundation of
all that followed his untimely death, we can understand how it
is that all adore his memory.
" Friends, this fit emblem of a nation's gratitude is now inaugu
rated. We here dedicate it to the memory of Sir Isaac Brock,
and those who fell by his side upon this battle field, and, through
them, to the imperishable memory of all who fell in defence of
Canada. It is the becoming offering of an admiring and grateful
people to Sir Isaac Brock. It grandly illustrates the affection
steadfastly cherished for the heroic champion who, in the dark

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 183
hour of our adversity, laid down his life in our cause. It is a
splendid and imposing proof that half a century has not diminished
the public esteem for that noble man, nor dimmed the recollection
of his noble actions. It is a consummation in which all proudly
exult and warmly participate. It is a commemoration of this anniver
sary worthy of both the living and the dead. It perpetuates events
that shall never be obliterated. It shews forth the spirit of this
day, aud should future exigencies require it, a like spirit would be
aroused half a century to come — yea to the latest posterity — by a
people ever prepared to evince that there exists, to the memory of
Brock, a monument more durable than stone, in the patriot hearts
of successive generations. Well done, noble militia ! Well done,
people of Canada ! Let this spot be hallowed to the latest time,
honored to the remains of the heroic dead ! May they repose in
peace until the Judgment morning, when the sound of the last
trump shall rend this pillar — burst the tomb — and awaken the
sleepers to the resurrection, eternal life ! One word more. Would
that what I have said were better said, and more worthy ofthe occa
sion. Before we part, permit me, in the name of Canada, to thank
you for your voluntary presence here to-day, to pay these last ob
sequies at the shrine of Brock. I feel that I may also thank you,
in the name of his Excellency the Governor-General, who would,
I am sure, have joined us, had not a sad bereavement, which we all
deplore, prevented his attendance. We have also to regret the ab
sence of our much respected and old friends, Sir John Beverley
Robinson and Mr. Justice McLean, both of whom fought at .the
battle of Queenston, and the latter of whom was severely wounded ;
but I regret to say that their official duties, in holding the circuit
courts, deprives us of the honor of their presence, and them of
the gratification it would have afforded them to have attended on
this interesting occasion. I feel that I may thank you and all the
contributors to this pious work, in her Majesty's name, for this
gratifying manifestation of loyalty. In my own name, and in the
name of the committee, of which I have had the honor to be chair
man, I must heartily thank you, and all other contributors, towards a
consummation which has been near my heart for many years — an
event in which I glory, and which renders this to me one ofthe proud
est and happiest days of my life. And now, remarking that this
monumental pile was commenced, and has been finished, in the
reign of our most gracious and justly beloved queen, Victoria, I
shall close, by proposing to you, what is ever enthusiastically
received, and heartily responded to by the loyal militia of Canada :
Three cheers for the Queen — God bless her I"
The regret manifested at the death of the brave and high souled
general was not confined to Canada. In England it also found a
vent ; and the Imperial G overnment appropriated a large sum of
money, and erected a fitting monument to his memory in St. Paul's

184 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
cathedral. On the occasion of the late visit of the heir apparent
to the British throne, another touching incident took place, which
shewed that Brock was still remembered. An obelisk had been
erected where he fell ; and the Prince of Wales had the honor to
lay the corner stone thereof — thus paying another compliment to
the illustrious dead. It was a princely act, and will be long
remembered by all those present.

TECUMSEH.
This celebrated Indian chief was born in 1770, and died October
5, 1813. He was the son of a Shawanee warrior, and was born
on the Scioto river, Ohio. He was engaged in many incursions into
Kentucky, and intercepted many boats descending the Ohio. It
is supposed that about 1806, he and his brother, Elskwatawa, the
prophet, formed the project of uniting all the western Indians
in a war against the Americans. When General Harrison attacked
and defeated the prophet in the battle of Tippecanoe, November
7, 1811, Tecumseh was absent on a visit to the south. In the
war of 1812, he was an ally to the British, with the rank of
brigadier-general. At the siege of Fort Meigs, and at the second
assault in July, he was present, being at the head of two thousand
warriors. In the battle of Moravian town, on the Thames, at
which Proctor was the British general, the American general,
Harrison, had for his aids General Cass and Commodore Perry.
Colonel R. M. Johnson commanded on the left, and came into
personal conflict it is said with Tecumseh. His horse being killed
and himself wounded by three balls in his right thigh, and two
in his left arm, the savage chief rushed upon him with his
tomahawk ; but, drawing a pistol from his holster, Johnson laid
him dead at his feet. Iu this battle, Colonel Johnson's brother,
Lieutenant-Colonel James Johnson, was killed. The project of
uniting all the western Indians against the Americans, and the
efforts made to execute the project, display a savage energy and
perseverance rarely to be met with. The prophet as well as the
warrior being now deceased, such a combination will probably
never be made again. No one, however, can fully calculate the in
estimable value of these devoted " red men," led on by the brave
Tecumseh during the great struggle of 1812. But for them, it is
probable, that we should not now have a Canada ; and if we had, we
would not enjoy the liberty and privileges which we possess in so

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 185
eminent a degree. King Philip Pontiac, the Ottawa chief, who in
1763, captured Michilimackinac, and invested Detroit ; the Prophet
and Tecumseh may be regarded as the most remarkable of the
savage warriors of America. His life was written bv Dr. Daniel
Drake, 1841.

GENERAL Sir ROGER H. SHEAFFE, Bart.
From what we can learn of this celebrated man, we understand
he was born in Boston, United States, on the 15th July, 1763, and
was the third son of William Sheaffe, Esquire, deputy-collector of
her Majesty's customs at that port, by Susannah, eldest daughter
of Thomas Child, Esquire, of Boston. His father having died,
Earl Percy, who had his quarters at his mother's house, evinced an
interest in the lad's welfare, took him away with him, and gave him
a military education, also purchased a commission for him in the
army, and ever afterwards, while he lived, was his friend and patron.
This we take from the Honorable Lorenzo Sabines' History of ihe
American Loyalists; the following we obtain from Cannon's Histo
rical Records ofthe British Army.
Sir Roger Sheaffe commenced his military career as an ensign,
in the fifth Fusileers, his commission being dated 1st May, 1778,
in which regiment he rose to the rank of lieutenant, on the 27th
December, 1780. Lieutenant Sheaffe served in Ireland from
January, 1781, to May, 1787, and in Canada from July following
to September, 1797. In 1794, he was employed under the orders
of Lord Dorchester, and with instructions from Lieutenant-Gover
nor Simcoe, on a public mission to protest against certain settlements
made by the Americans, on the south shore of Lake Ontario. On
the 5th May, 1795, he was promoted to the rank of captain in the
fifth Fusileers, and on the 13th December, 1797, was promoted
major in the eighty-first regiment, and was advanced to the rank
of lieutenant-colonel of the forty-ninth regiment, on the 22nd
March, 1798.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sheaffe served in Holland, from August to
November, 1799 ; in the Baltic from March to July, 1801 ; and in
Canada from September, 1802, to October, 1811." On the 25th
April, 1808, he received the brevet rank of colonel, and on the
4th June, 1811, was advanced to the rank of major-general. He
again served in Canada, from the 29th July, 1812, to November,
24

186 SKETCHES OE CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
1813. The Americans having invaded Upper Canada, at Queens
ton, on the 13th October, 1812, and General Brock, commanding
in the province, having fallen in a gallant effort, with an inde
pendent force, to oppose them, Major-General Sheaffe, on whom the
command devolved, assembled some regular troops and militia,
with a few Indians, and the same day attacked them in a woody
height, which they occupied above the town, and completely de
feated them, though far exceeding his own followers in number,
their commander delivering his sword, and surrendering his
surviving troops on the field of battle.
In acknowledgment of this important service, Major-General
Sheaffe was created a baronet by patent, dated 16th January, 1813.
When the Americans attacked York (now Toronto) in April, 1813,
he concocted such measures for the defence of the town as he
thought expedient; but did not stay to assist the local militia, he
and his staff evacuating York, a short time prior to the attack of
the Americans ; for this he has been much condemned, but no
doubt certain more weighty matters demanded his attention in
another part of the province, more particularly as he was then ad
ministrator of the government, having been so constituted on
Brock's death.
He continued to command in Canada West, and to administer its
government, until June, 1813, when he was succeeded by General
De Rottenburg. On quitting the government, he received from
the resident members of the Executive Council, an address
expressing their sense of '' that display of candor, justice, and
impartiality, which had marked his administration, and the urbanity
and confidence of his official intercourse." They further acknow
ledge their conviction, that-they owed the salvation of the whole
province to his military talents on the memorable day when he
succeeded to the command. He was appointed to the staff of
Great Britain, on the 25th March, 1814 ; but the appointment
was recalled and deferred, in consequence of the change of affairs
in Europe.
Sir Roger was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, on
the 19th July, 1821, and on the 2lst December, 1829, was appointed
colonel of the thirty-sixth regiment. He was advanced to the
rank of general, on the 28th June, 1828. His death occurred at
Edinburgh, on the 17th July, 1851.
He married in 1810, Margaret, daughter of John Coffin, Esquire,
of Quebec, and cousin of the late Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart.,
of whom W. F. Coffin, Esquire, of Ottawa city, C. W., is a
descendant, and had issue two sons and four daughters, but they
all died before him, unmarried. Lady Sheaffe survived the gallant
general but a few years.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 187

BARON DE ROTTENBURG, K.C.H.
This distinguished officer was appointed major in Hompesch's
Hussars in 1795, and lieutenant-colonel in the following year ; and
was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 60th Foot at the close
of 1797. He served in Ireland during the rebellion in 1798. In
•the same year he formed the 5th battalion of the 60th Regiment
into a rifle corps, and prepared the rules and regulations for the
exercise of riflemen and light infantry, and their conduct in the
field ; which, having been approved by his royal highness the com
mander-in-chief, were published by authority, and made general
for the army.
Baron De Rottenburg was at the taking of Surinam in 1799. In
1805 he received the rank of colonel. In 1808 he was appointed bri
gadier-general, and commanded for a time the exercise of four batta
lions of light infantry, at the camp of instruction on the Curragh of
Kildare, under Sir David Baird ; but was, in the same year, trans
ferred from the Irish to the English staff, and stationed at Ashford
in Kent, on similar duty. In 1809 he commanded the light troops
in the Walcheren expedition, and afterwards returned to the staff
in Kent. In May, 1810, he was transferred to the staff in Canada,
and took the command of the garrison at Quebec ; in the same
year he was promoted to the rank of major-general. In 1812, on
the breaking out of the American war, he was appointed to the
command of the Montreal district; and in 1813 he took the com
mand of the troops in the upper province, and was sworn in presi
dent of Upper Canada. In 1812, he was promoted to the colonelcy
of De Rolls regiment. In 1814 and 1815, he commanded the left
division of the army in Canada, and returned to England in Sep
tember of the latter year. He attained the rank of lieutenant-
general in 1819, and died at Portsmouth, England, on the 24th
April, 1832. His son is the present Baron De Rottenburg, a
notice of whom appears in this work.

LIEUT.-GENERAL PROCTOR.
Henry A. Proctor, one of the most brave and distinguished
British officers in the war of 1812, was the descendant of an ancient
family in Wales. He was born in the year 1787 ; and, selecting

188 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the army as his profession, early joined its ranks, in which he
saw much service.
On the breaking out of the last American war with Great Britain,
he proceeded to this country in command of the 41st Regiment, and
was one of the first officers engaged with the Americans. He was
despatched to Amherstburg by General Brock to prevent the land
ing of Hull, whose forces he repulsed from that place, and defeated
at Brownston ; an exploit which contributed much to the fall of
Detroit and the capitulation of Hull and the American army.
He also opened the campaign of 1813, by achieving a brilliant
victory over a superior force, under Winchester, on the river Raisin,
for which he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In
the same year he did some damage to the enemy's works at San
dusky, and only retired when their fire was so fierce and terrific
as to endanger the safety of the entire expedition.
His after conduct at Moravian town, on the Thames, when,
hemmed in by Harrison, with a large and effective army, is well
worthy of indulgent consideration ; but following the defeat of Bar
clay, he was wanted is a victim, and fell accordingly. He was
tried by court-martial ; the court found that he had not retreated
with judgment, and had not judiciously disposed of his force,
considering the extraordinary difficulties of his situation; but it
further found that his personal conduct was neither defective nor
reproachable. He was, however, sentenced to be suspended from
rank and pay for six months. He commanded again during the war.
General Proctor was much admired by the people of Canada, and
the sentence passed upon him was viewed by them as altogether
arbitrary and unmerited. He was afterwards promoted to the rank
of lieutenant-general, and died at his seat in Wales, at the latter
end of 1859.

LIEUT.-COLONEL PLENDERLEATH.
An estimable and courageous officer, who took part in the Ame
rican war of 1812. He had served in Canada for some time pre
vious to that event, during which period he had contracted the
friendship and esteem of all. At the engagement at Stoney Creek,
under Sir John Harvey, his gallantry was conspicuous. He was also
engaged at Queenston with a portion of his (49th) regiment, and dis
played much courage on that memorable occasion, and in many other

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 189
important undertakings during his stay in Canada. He survived
the war many years ; but suffered severely from numerous wounds
which he had received during the struggle. He died, we believe,
at Clifton near Bristol, England.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN MURRAY.
The subject of the present sketch was a native of Jamaica, a
younger son of Walter Murray, Esq., of St. James's, in that island.
He entered the service in his Majesty's 37th Regiment in 1792.
On the breaking out of the war in the following year, the 37th was
amongst the first of the British army sent over to Ostend, and very
shortly after their landing went into action. In one of the early
sorties Ensign Murray was wounded by a ball in the face, which
remained in his head for more than a fortnight, and then fell
through the roof of his mouth. He obtained his lieutenancy in
the same regiment, and was afterwards taken prisoner, with nearly
half of his corps, on the banks of the Waal in Holland, in conse
quence of mistaking from their dress a division of the French
cavalry for the British. Being detained a prisoner for a length of
time, on his release he was promoted in the same regiment to the
rank of captain, accompanying it to Gibraltar and the West Indies.
He obtained his majority in the 4th Regiment ; and after the peace
of 1802, was appointed to the 39th.
When the 100th Regiment was raised previous to 1812, he joined
as lieutenant-colonel, and was sent with them to British North
America. He then became inspecting field-officer of the Canadian
militia, and in that capacity had the command of the army in ad
vance, and intended to check the proceedings of a very superior force
of the United States army, whose object was to render the position
of the British untenable, by laying waste the whole of the frontier
of Upper Canada. Colonel Murray marched with his comparatively
small body of troops to meet the enemy, obliging them to abandon
the enterprise ; and, taking Fort George, drove them out of the pro
vince. The subsequent assault and capture of the Fort of Niagara
is thus mentioned in " General Orders," dated Quebec, December
29, 1813:
"The fort of Niagara was most gallantly carried by assault at
the point of the bayonet, at daybreak, on the morning of the 19th
instant, by a detachment consisting ofthe grenadiers of the Royals,

190 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the flank companies of the 41st, the 100th Regiment, and a small
party of the royal artillery, under the command of Colonel Murray.
The enemy suffered severely in killed and wounded. Captain
Leonard, the commandant, several officers, and the greater part
of the garrison were made prisoners. This gallant enterprise
was achieved with the loss on our part of very few of our brave
men ; but his Excellency has to regret the fall of Lieutenant
Nolan of the 100th Regiment, and that Colonel Murray has been
wounded. All the ordnance mounted in the fort, together with
three thousand stand of arms, clothing, and military stores of every
description, to a considerable amount, have fallen into our hands.
His Excellency is in hourly expectation of receiving the official
details of this brilliant affair, which reflects the highest honor
upon Colonel Murray, and the small detachment under his
command." When, by the peace, Colonel Murray's services were no longer
required in Canada, thinking his health might benefit by a resi
dence in a milder climate, he passed some time in France ; but,
having there the misfortune to lose his wife, whose early death was
the source of deep affliction to him, he returned in broken health
and spirits to England ; and after a long and painful illness, borne
with his characteristic patience and fortitude, he died at Brighton,
on the 21st of February, leaving an only daughter.

Sir THOMAS BLIGH ST. GEORGE, C.B., K.C.H.
This brave and distinguished officer was an ensign in the 27th
Foot, and removed from that regiment to the 11th in 1783, and in
1790 he obtained a lieutenancy in the same. During that period '
he served at Gibraltar, with the exception of eighteen months'
leave of absence. In April, 1793, he embarked with the troops for
Toulpn, and was present in all the actions that occurred, until the
evacuation of that place in December following. He served in
1794 at the reduction of St. Fiorenza, Bastia, and Calvi, in Cor
sica ; and in 1795 on the ooast of France. In November, 1794, he
was appointed to a company in the 90th Foot. He served on the
staff in Portugal from the latter end of 1796 to 1798 ; from 1799
to 1802 in the Mediterranean ; and from 1802 to 1805 on the staff
in England and Ireland. In 1804 he was appointed major in the
90th Foot ; and in 1805 lieutenant-colonel in the 63rd Foot.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 191
In March 1809 he embarked for this province, having been ap
pointed an inspecting field-officer of militia in the western section
of the country, where he continued to serve for some years. He
commanded at Amherstburg, in the upper province, when invaded
and attacked by General Hull; and he likewise commanded the
militia at the taking of Detroit, in August, 1812, (for which he
received a medal), and at the river Raisin in the Michigan terri
tory, when General Winchester was defeated. In this service he
received six severe wounds.
He was advanced to the brevet of colonel in 1813, and to that
of major-general in 1819. He was nominated a companion of the
Bath on the 4th of June, 1815 ; a knight commander of the
Guelphic order in January 1835 ; and received the honor of knight
hood at St. James's Palace, on the 18th February following. He
died in London on the 6th November, 1837.

COLONEL JAMES FITZGIBBON.
Colonel FitZgibbon was in the 19th and 61st Regiments, and
retired as a captain of the Glengarry Fencibles, in 1816. Since
that time he has been a lieutenant-colonel and colonel ofthe 1st
Regiment of Toronto militia, and assistant adjutant-general to the
militia of Upper Canada. He served in the action near the Hel-
der, and elsewhere in Holland, and was taken prisoner at Egmont-
op-Zee. At the battle of Copenhagen he was in the Monarch, 74,
which had 210 men killed and wounded, and was afterwards, until
1801, in Lord Nelson's ship the Elephant — the 49th Regiment in
these services acting as marines. Subsequently, in the American
war of 1812-13-14, he was in the actions of Stoney Creek, Fort
George, and several others, including the siege of Fort Erie. At
the Beaver Dams, aided by a body of Indian warriors, with only
forty-eight of the 49th Regiment, he captured a force of four hun
dred and fifty infantry, fifty cavalry, and two guns. In 1837, when
endangered by the disaffected, through his foresight and precaution
ary measures, he saved the city of Toronto, and received an award
for doing so of five thousand acres of land, which, although thrice
passed in the Council, was eventually disallowed — a present of a
valuable sword, with the thanks of the Canadian Parliament
— thanks which were also tendered to this gallant and meritorious
veteran officer for his efficient service as its chief clerk during an

192 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
interval of nineteen years in his military and naval service. In
1850, her Majesty the Queen, in grateful recognition of his ser
vices, created him a military knight of Windsor, since which time
he has resided in England.
We extract from the London Review of July, 1860, an autobio
graphical letter, written by the gallant old hero and gentleman, as
every Canadian justly considers him :
"the history of a life.
" [We make no apology for inserting, just as we received it, the
following interesting autobiographical sketch by " An Old Soldier,"
whose name is well known to us. We commend his narrative to
the careful perusal of the young and friendless, that they may
learn how much a true and good man can do for himself if he
will behave honestly — and persevere.]
" On the morning of the 12th of July, 1860, at six o'clock, I
rise from my bed to commit to paper, briefly and rapidly as I can,
some of the thoughts which agitate my mind, I can truly say, with
the deepest anxiety.
" I am in the eightieth year of my age, feeble in body, but with
mind still active, and ever looking intently on passing events,
whether religious, political, or social.
"Present appearances fill my mind with anxiety, and even alarm.
Although living in retirement, and wholly unconnected with busi
ness or duties of any kind, I cannot refrain from 'daily and hourly
reflecting on all I see passing around me. I sometimes reproach
myself for letting my mind run thus on matters over which I can
not exercise the least control. But this morning, while yet in bed,
it occurred to me that such a letter as I could write, might make
a favorable impression on che minds of the Lords Derby, Palmer
ston, and Russell, and Mr. Bright, if I conveyed a copy to each,
privately and anonymously.
" The speeches delivered everywhere, both in and out of Parlia
ment, are, generally, too exciting and provocative ; aggravating
the passions of all excitable men on the great questions of religion,
politics, and morals. With the humbler classes hope should be
cultivated above all things. Encouragement should be the great
lever to lift them upwards. It is a gigantic error, in any way or
by any means, to degrade them. If they were encouraged and
affectionately cared for by all those who exercise the chief control
over them, they would almost every one of them, be not only duly
obedient, but affectionately grateful. Of the truth of this I am
entirely convinced, after seventy years incessant observation.
" Few, I fear, can readily imagine that I could at the age often
begin to observe and consider such questions; yet so it was. Even
at that age I had read much, and although the books were intended

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 193
for children only, I read them with untiring eagerness, and I soon
became, as a reader, remarkable among the peasantry — for I was
the son of an humble farmer. At that age some one told me that
the gentry and the clergy did not desire to have the people read
much. I asked " Why ?" " Because it makes them disobedient
children and rebellious subjects." Filled with intense indignation,
I exclaimed, "What! is it because I am the son of a poor man that
I must be kept as ignorant as the cow that feeds in my father's
field?" Such were the precise words then uttered by me; and
ever since I have closely watched this great question, and my
opportunities have been countless, and my positions in life most
favorable for such observations ; for, at the age of seventeen, I
enlisted as a private soldier, and was on the same day, the 25th of
October, 1798, promoted to the rank of sergeant. At the age of
twenty-one I was appointed sergeant-major, over the heads of forty
older sergeants, after having seen many battles on shore, during
the year 1799, in Holland, and one in the Monarch, before Copen
hagen, on the 2nd of April, 1801. In 1803 I was appointed to act
as adjutant, in the absence of the adjutant ; and in February, 1806,
I was promoted to an ensigncy, and in December to the adjutancy,
the adjutant having resigned. In 1809, I succeeded to a lieuten
ancy, and in 1813, being in the field before an enemy, I obtained
leave to resign the adjutancy, that I might be eligible to be em
ployed in advance of the army, in command of a small detachment.
An ensign and fifty men were placed under my command, with
leave to employ them entirely at my own discretion. I advanced
on the 12th of June, and on the 24th I achieved a service for
which I was immediately promoted to a company in another regi
ment. In 1816, the war being ended, I was placed on half pay, in
a distant colony.* I was immediately employed in the militia of
that colony; was soon appointed a justice of the peace, and subse
quently became chief clerk of the Commons House of Assembly, and
served as such for thirteen years, and afterwards in the Upper
House of Parliament for six .years, when I retired on a pension, on
which I now subsist. As chairman, I frequently presided in the
court of quarter sessions, in which service, and as clerk of parlia
ment for nineteen years, my experience of civil life was extensive.
During the period of this civil service, I availed myself of a
threatened danger to the public peace, which others in authority
above me either would not, or could not forsee, and, in resistance
to much opposition from them, I performed a service which, in all
probability, saved this nation thousands of lives and millions of
money; for it most likely prevented a war with a neighboring
nation. For this last service the Provincial Parliament voted me
thanks and a grant of money.
^Canada. 25

194 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" Why do I write so much of self ? That I may show the extent
and nature of my experience, and the variety and value of the
opportunities I havehad during a leng and laborious life, of acquiring
practical and real knowledge of the world ; and to give some idea of
the many schools, and the schooling which are daily becoming more
and more accessible to every reflecting individual of the working-

" Further details of my own schooling and experience would
be most instructive, but I cannot write so much as to describe all ;
and even if I did, I fear few would read it. Yet I will state a few
more facts.
" I was taken from a very humble school, at eleven years of age,
to work on the farm with my father and eldest brother. When I
enlisted I did not know the difference between a verb and a noun.
But having read much, I could write pretty accurately. The first
evidence I had of my own deficiency was obtained in this way.
My colonel,* when walking up and down the orderly room, set me
to write from his dictation. On writing the last word of each
sentence dictated by him, I pronounced that word, that he might
proceed. The word ' ascertain ' was one of those which I pro
nounced as if written 'ascertin,' when he turned round and said,
' " Ascertain," young man !' I was startled, and felt ashamed ;
and on being at leisure, I went immediately to a bookseller's, and
purchased a spelling-book, a dictionary, and a grammar — the two
latter of which I had not before ever even seen. On looking over
them, I was amazed at my own great ignorance, and from that hour I
made every effort to educate myself; and with what success my
subsequent career gives some evidence.
" One item of my experience iu the improvement of the human
mind was the chief foundation of my great success in teaching
officers and soldiers, and the management of men generally. One
morning, at early drill, everything went amiss with me. I became
angry, scolded, and even used my cane, which was then allowed,
and, in fact was too much used. At length I let the men stand at
ease,' and walked about in front, thinking what could be the
cause of the want of my usual success ; when, fortunately, it oc
curred to me that it must be owing to my own impatient and angry
temper. "At once I began to speak gently to the men, and promised to
shorten the time of drill by half an hour, if they exerted them
selves ; after which all went well. Often, afterwards, have I pre
tended to be angry, and scolded the men, when, invariably, things
went amiss. After some time," an idea occurred to me that I should
treat the men as a lady would her piano — that is, put them in
tune (good humor) before I played upon them; and thus I soon

•Tho lamented Major-General Sir Isaac Brock.

And persons connected With caNada. 195
ascertained that I could readily lead nine men where I could not
drive one.
" Would that every man and woman having power or authority
over his or her brother or sister, be his station in life what it may,
clerical ox lay, in the school or in the field, in the nursery or in the
kitchen, would treat all under them as if they were brothers and
sisters. " Until pride, passion, and prejudice be rooted out from the mind
of man, — or rather, and far better, those passions be prevented
from entering it at all, by early training, even in early infancy, the
improvement of mankind will continue to be slow, as it hitherto
has been.
" The cheap press is now, however, exercising a mighty increase
of influence, which calls aloud for the benevolent exertions of every
lover of order and happiness, to guide it wisely. The efforts that
many make to prevent or delay the increase of knowledge among
the masses are producing, and will more and more produce, the
most unhappy results. Let all rather wisely strive to guide the
teaching of this press. Let the upper classes be not so much
afraid of enlarging the minds of the masses. The doctrine of the
depravity of mankind is a most pernicious one. I never found any
man so incorrigible as not to be more or less improved by my kind
treatment of him. I have tried many hundreds of experiments
upon refractory and ill-behaved men, and I have never once
entirely failed. But the kindness must not be feigned. If it be
not sincere and earnest, the perspicacity of even the most simple
will soon, more or less accurately, appreciate its real character.
Let the upper classes, including all who exercise any eontrol or
authority over their fellow-men, act thus over those under their
influence, and they may confidently reckon on success to a very
great extent.
" Would to God that all parents, teachers, and persons having
power, command, or authority over others, would treat those others
with patient and untiring kindness and gentleness, and great would
be their reward in the lively gratitude and affectionate obedience
they would surely receive in return for such treatment.
" I emphatically declare that I have no doubt that the working-
men have much more sound sense and good feeling than is gener
ally ascribed to them. Let those qualities be seriously and bene
volently cultivated, and the cultivators may as confidently reckon
upon good results, as the cultivators of the soil may reckon for a
good harvest after the application of good husbandry.
" I fear, however, that many who may read this paper will think
its teaching quite Utopian ; but if those who have the power will
act as here suggested, I have neither fear nor doubt of very happy
results. " In the course of a long and most active and varied life, I have

196 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
always been saddened by religious controversies and animosities.
In early youth I endeavoured to select for myself that kind of
religion which would best satisfy my own convictions. I read the
question put to the Saviour, 'What shall I do to be saved?' and
the answer — ' Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your mind, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as
yourself; upon these two hang all the Law and the Prophets.'
'Then,' I exclaimed, 'this shall be my religion,' — and to this I
have hitherto endeavored to adhere, and hope I shall ever here
after adhere ; but I know no so efficient mode of cultivating love
to God as by the honest cultivation of love to my neighbor.
Without this honest cultivation I know not how I could have hap
piness here, or hope for any hereafter. — An Old Soldier."

GENERAL VINCENT.
This brave and experienced officer, one of the most skilful em
ployed in Canada during the last American war, was born in the
year 1765, and was descended from a good English family. He
entered the army as ensign, in July, 1781 ; became lieutenant in
August, 1782; captain in October, 1786 ; major, May, 1795 ; lieut
enant-colonel, January, 1800; colonel, July, 1810; major-general,
June, 1813; lieutenant-general, May, 1825; general, November,
1841; was appointed colonel ofthe 69th, January 2, 1836. He served
in the West Indies, and was at the taking of St. Domingo ; was in
the expedition to the Helder, and subsequently in that to Copen
hagen, under Sir Hyde Parker. He died at his residence in Pall
Mall, London, on the 21st June, 1848.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 197

COLONEL C. M. DE SALABERRY, C.B.
The family of De Salaberry is descended from a noble family
ofthe Pays des Basques (Navarre.) The father of the subject of
this notice was a legislative councillor, and devotedly attached to
his sovereign, so much so indeed, that he placed his four sons in
the army. The one here noticed, rose to great distinction, as
will be seen ; one of the others was killed at Badajos, and the
other two died in the East Indies, employed in active warfare.
The Honorable Charles Michel d'lrumberry de Salaberry, C.B.,
Seigneur de Chambly et de Beaulac, member of the Legislative
Council, surnamed the Canadian Leonidas, was born at the Manor
House of Beauport, November 19, 1778. He married Demoiselle
Hertel de Rouville, and continued, as is before stated, to serve in
the army, as well as his brothers. He served also, during the space
of eleven years, in the West Indies, under General Prescott. At
the seige of fort Matilda, under Prescott, and at the evacuation
thereof, he commanded the grenadier company of the 4th battalion
60th Regiment, which covered the retreat with credit to them
selves. In 1795, he served at the conquest of Martinique;
became aid-de-camp to Major-General de Rottenburg and accom
panied him in the Walcheren expedition. Circumstances recalled
him to his country, where he, in a very short time, formed the Volti-
geurs, the organization of which reflected great honor upon him ;
lieutenant-colonel commanding and superintendent of this fine
corps, he was also selected as one of the chiefs of the staff of the
militia. Attacked at Lacolle, at the end of 1812, together with M.
D'Eschambault's advance guard, by one thousand four hundred
Americans of General Dearborn's army, he fought them until
night; in attempting to surround him, they fired against each
other, which soon terminated in their retreat ; thus resulted the
first victory of De Salaberry and the Voltigeurs. Part of this
corps participated in the defeat, no less humiliating to the Ameri
can army, at Chrysler's Farm. Dearborn and Wilkinson thus
baffled in their project of invasion, there only remained General
Hampton to contend with. De Salaberry, in proceeding to dis
cover his whereabouts, obstructed the road from Odeltown to
L' Acadia, by cutting down a great many trees. After several
skirmishes, the Americans, not daring to hazard a general action
in the woods, retired to a place called Four Corners. His ad
versary made an incursion into his camp, at the head of two
hundred Voltigeurs and 150 Indian warriors of the tribes of
Lower Canada, and threw the enemy into disorder, without any
loss on his own side. Hampton being repulsed on the Odel-

198 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
town route, resolved wisely to effect a junction with his chief
general, in taking the route leading to Chateauguay, which
he was approaching, believing the road to be open; but access
thereto, was every where prevented by being blockaded by field
works. De Salaberry was too sagacious not to discover that this
strategic point was the road which Hampton would be sure to
take in order to join Dearborn. The former, in the meantime,
swept away the English pickets; and Major Henry, with difficulty,
resisted them ; when De Salaberry ably shifted his position, and
threw himself on the route to face that general. The Canadian
hero, who had the advantage of being acquainted with the whole
of the country above Chateauguay, during an excursion on the
American frontier some weeks before, then ascended to the left
ofthe bank ofthe river Chateauguay, to reach the other extremity
of a wood, where he knew there was an excellent position in a
swamp, intercepted by deep rivulets. On four of these he estab
lished lines of defence in succession. The fourth was about half
a mile in the rear, and commanded a ford on the right shore,
which was a very important point of defence, with a view to the
protection of the left bank. He caused to be erected on each of
these lines a sort of breastwork, which was extended to some dis
tance in the woods, to protect his right. The breastwork on his
first line formed an obtuse angle on the right of the road. The
whole of the day was taken up with fortifying this position, so as
to force the enemy, in case he should feel disposed to make an
attack to cross a large space of settled country, and removing him
self to a great distance from his supplies ; whereas, on the contrary,
the Voltigeurs had everything at hand, and were well supplied;
more especially, as on the second line after the Voltigeurs and
Indians, came the Watteville regiment. Sir George Prevost was
on the third line, at Caughnawaga, with some troops and militia,
from the Montreal district, having brought them down with him
from Kin gston, to oppose the junction ofthe American army. De
Salaberry did not confine himself to the foregoing arrangements. He
ordered a party of thirty axemen of the division of Beauharn ois to
proceed in front of the first line of defence, for the purpose of destroy
ing the bridges and obstructing the roads. All the bridges within
a league and a half were destroyed ; and a formidable obstruction
was formed on the road to the extent of a mile in advance of the
first line of defence, which extended to the edge ofthe river, and
continued to a distance of three or four acres through the woods,
joined by a swamp on the right, almost impassible. The four lines
of defence were thus completely sheltered, even from the fire of
artillery. To this fortified position so well selected, and to the
heroism displayed, is mainly due the victory which succeeded.
The talents and abilities of a commander are distinguished, no
doubt, as well in the selection of a position, as in leading an army

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 199
into and out of the field of battle. Major-General de Watteville,
who visited De Salaberry's camp, approved of all his arrangements.
There was some skirmishing, which led to the retreat of the
workmen and their escort to the camp, at about two leagues above
the confluence of the waters, between a little river belonging to
the British, and that of Chateauguay, supported on the left by the
river Chateauguay, and, in front and on the right, by abattis,
and a species of chevaux de frise. On the 24th October, having
made a large opening on the road through the woods and swamps,
within a distance of five miles of the Canadian encampment, in
which De Salaberry was at the head of three hundred Voltigeurs,
Fencibles and Indian warriors, who had justreceived reinforcements
in a few companies of sedentary militia ; the American general
advanced at the head of seven thousand infantry and four hundred
horse, with twelve pieces of artillery, sending during the night,
Colonel Purdy to take possession of the ford, but this officer
lost his way in the woods. The next day, Hampton made an
advance in person towards the abattis, with three thousand five
hundred men, and placed Purdy at the head of one thousand five
hundred men, to attempt again to turn the Canadians, leaving in
reserve the remainder of his troops. De Salaberry, warned of
this movement, by the fire directed on his advanced pickets, now
seeing before him an enemy, whom he had on two former occa
sions brought to the charge, advanced in front ; and, giving the
signal, placed himself in the centre of the first line of defence,
leaving the second in charge of Lieutenant-Colonel' McDonell, the
same who had taken Ogdensburg. The firing commenced smartly
on both sides, but badly directed by the Americans. They fired
better afterwards ; meanwhile, the circumstance of hearing inces
santly the report from the corps at different intervals, led them to
believe that the Canadians were advancing in great numbers, and
their ardor began to weaken. Purdy's column arrived at the ford
during the engagement, but was repulsed and thrown into disorder
by De Salaberry, who had directed his attention to that particular
spot. Seeing his plan disconcerted by the defeat of that division,
the American commander ordered a retreat, which he effected
with considerable loss. De Salaberry slept on the field of battle,
and, on the following day, at daybreak, he was joined by Cap
tain de Rouville, his brother-in-law, with his company of Vol
tigeurs, the Watteville grenadiers, together with a few of the
native warriors. On the 28th, he sent Captain Ducharme,
the hero of Beaver Dam, together with one hundred and fifty
warriors, to reconnoitre, and they assured him that the Ameri
can army had abandoned their camp on Piper's road, and had
returned to Plattsburg. Wilkinson, who was at Cornwall, hearing
of the defeat of his colleague, retired to Salmon river, and fortified
himself. The victory at Chateauguay permitted the Baron

200 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
de Rottenburg, and afterwards Sir Gordon Drummond, his succes
sor in command, to resume the offensive in Upper Canada. Great
Britain commemorated the victory by causing a gold medal to be
struck ; the Voltigeurs were presented with colors, ornamented
with devices ; and De Salaberry, besides the gold medal, had the
order of the Bath conferred upon him, transmitted with an auto
graph letter from his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. The
two houses of the provincial legislature passed a vote of thanks to
him. The Voltigeurs took part in the second victory, obtained at
Lacolle, in March, 1814. De Salaberry laid down the sword for the
pen. He became a senator; being called to the Legislative Coun
cil in 1818, at the same time as Monseigneur Plessis. He died
at Chambly, on the 26th February, 1829, aged 51 years; and
was buried in the new church of that place, which was erected
in the room ol the one destroyed by fire in 1806. The late com
mander, Viger, possessed his likeness, painted by Dickinson, and en
graved by Durand. De Salaberry is represented attired in the uni
form worn bythe Voltigeurs, decorated with the Chateauguay medal,
and the cross of the Bath, with his sword under his arm. His family
crest is also seen. The escutcheon of our compatriot bears the
motto becoming to the par fait chevalier : "Force a superbe ; mercy
a faible." A medallion representing a battle in the woods. On
the trunk of a tree, reversed is written : " Chateauguay, 26th
October, 1813." A serpent biting his tail, symbol of immortality,
encircles the medal. With respect to the English medal of
Chateauguay, Britannia is seen bearing a palm in hand, crowning
a lion lying at her feet. On the reverse is engraved Chateauguay.
De Salaberry would have become a great officer of light troops, and
even against the armies of Bonaparte would certainly have
attained the first rank.
His son is deputy adjutant-general of militia for Lower Canada.

MAJOR-GENERAL BAYNES.
This veteran officer entered the army in May, 1783. After
serving at Gibraltar and in the West Indies, he became aide-de
camp, in 1 794, to the late Sir James Craig, and was at the taking
of the Cape of Good Hope in 1795, and also at the capture of a
Dutch force in Saldanha bay, in September of the following year.
He subsequently served as aide-de-camp to Sir James, in the East

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 201
Indies; but having obtained a majority in the 76 th, he joined that
corps at Cawnpore. In 1803 he returned to England. In 1804 he
was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Foot, and in 1805 joined
the expedition at Portsmouth, under Sir James Craig ; who again
desiring his services as his first aide-de-camp, he was placed on
half pay, and was with Sir James at Gibraltar, Malta, Naples and
Sicily, until May, 1806, when he returned to England. In August,
1807, he joined the Glengarry Fencibles, and was appointed adju
tant-general to the forces in North America, which appointment he
held during the whole of the American war of 1812, and many
years afterwards. He died at Sidmouth, England, in March, 1829.

COLONEL NICHOL, M.P.P.
A notice of this gallant officer, whose unfortunate death took
place on the road between Stamford and Queenston, in the night of
the 6th May, 1824, in a violent storm, when, missing his way as it is
supposed, he drove over the cliff, and was precipitated to the shore
of the river, where his body was found almost literally dashed to
pieces, may not be inappropriate. The colonel distinguished him
self during the last war with the United States ; his gallantry was
on all occasions conspicuous, and his intelligence and local inform
ation rendered his services highly valuable to the general officers
under whose command he served, and by whom, as well as by the
army he was universally esteemed ; he was honored with a gold
medal for his conduct, at the capture of Detroit, when under the
command of the late Sir Isaac Brock, whose penetration early dis
covered, and duly appreciated his genius and intrepidity, which
procured for him, at the close of the war, a well earned pension,
equal to a lieutenant-colonel's half pay. In the House of Assembly
his talents were not less remarkable, and though frequently in op
position to the measures of government, he never forfeited the es
teem and respect of his Majesty's representative. He was indeed
a man of rare endowments, and, in private life, as amiable as his
public character was brilliant.

26

202 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS

CAPTAIN F. ROLETTE.
An officer who greatly distinguished himself on the lakes during
the war of 1812-13, and received as a testimonial of his eminent
services a splendid sword, which was voted to him by the legislature
of Lower Canada.

COLONEL SCOTT, 103rd Regt.
Colonel Hercules Scott, of Brotherton, Scotland, was one
of" the heroes of 1812, and was killed on the 15th of August,
in the same year, by receiving a musket ball in his breast,
after leading the 103rd Regiment in the most gallant manner
to the attack of Fort Erie, (having carried the, out-works
by assault, and the fort by escalade.) In him the service lost
a most valuable, active, and zealous officer. He had the good for
tune to acquire the respect and esteem of the militia, and of the
inhabitants generally of both provinces, having been ofthe utmost
service in bringing them forward, placing the greatest confidence
in them, and instructing them how to be useful in the defence of
their country against its invaders. His remains were interred the
same evening in the presence of the survivors of his regiment, at
tended by the only three officers who came out of the fort unhurt,
the regiment having retreated after the fall of their leader, in con
sequence of the Americans having blown up a platform, by which
two hundred brave fellows were killed or wounded.

CAPTAIN BULGER.
Captain Bulger was a native of Newfoundland, and came to
this province with his regiment at the breaking out of the Ame
rican war. He received his appointment in the Royal Newfound

and persons Connected with canada. 203
land regiment of foot as ensign, on the 26th October, 1804, —
promoted to the rank of lieutenant, 30th July, 1806, to that of
captain, 23rd February, 1815. Captain Bulger served seven or
eight years with his regiment in the North American provinces,
previous to the American war in 1812, when he embarked for
Canada. At that period the British forces amounted to only a
thousand men, with a frontier of almost as many miles to guard.
He was present with a detachment of his regiment at the first shot
against the etfemy. He was afterwards detached to the western
frontier of Canada when invaded by the enemy, at which time the
British troops did not exceed 300 of the 41st and Royal Newfound
land regiments, with about 600 of the Upper Canadian militia, and
500 Indians under their celebrated chief, Tecumseh. He was
present at the final defeat and surrender of the invading force, as
well as the capture of the enemy's fort, with 33 pieces of cannon,
at Detroit, on the 16th August, 1812, for which action he received
the silver war medal. Upon the dispersion ofthe enemy's force
in the west, a portion of the British troops were transferred to the
vicinity of Lake Ontario ; he proceeded thither also, and during
the remainder of the fall of 1812 he was constantly employed in
command of detachments, and at times in armed vessels acting
against the enemy. He was present at an engagement under Bri
gadier-General Vincent at Fort George, on the Niagar afrontier, in
December, 1812, where the enemy were completely routed; their
numbers being 10,000 men, while that of the British force did not
amount to one-third.
He served under Sir James L. Yeo, the naval commander on
the lakes, for a considerable time, and was the senior military
officer appointed to the squadron. He was present with Captain
Mulcaster, R.N., when that officer went in pursuit of the enemy,
then descending the St. Lawrence to attack Montreal. He was
present with him when he overtook and routed them. He was
present and took part at the battle of Chrysler's Farm, when the
enemy were defeated by 800 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Mor
rison, aided and supported by Captain Mulcaster, with the flotilla
of gun-boats. For this engagement he (Captain Bulger) received
a clasp. He was chosen one ofthe officers destined for the relief
of Michilimackinac in 1814; was present and took an able partin
the capture of the enemy's schooners, which blockaded that island.
He commanded the military portion, and Lieutenant Worsley,
R.N., the naval portion of the squadron, which attacked and gal
lantly captured, by boarding, the two armed schooners Tigris .and
Scorpion, on the 3rd and 6th September, 1814. In this action he
was severely wounded, and for this exploit he received the naval
war medal and clasp. Immediately after the dispersion of the
enemy at Michilimackinac, he proceeded to Fort McKay on the Mis
sissippi, nearly 500 miles distant, in an open boat, suffering from an

204 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
unhealed breast-wound, which place the enemy were making great
efforts to retake, but were prevented by his active and judicious
management. His exertions in the management of the Indi ins
amidst privations and hardships, and in allaying their discontents ;
in organizing them to encounter the enemy, and in removing from
their minds at the peace, prejudices which might have proved de
trimental to the British interest in a future war, fully indicate that
he had been a very zealous officer, and skilled in the discharge of his
duties. In 1822, he held the commission of governor'of Red River,
and during his administration the settlement progressed consider
ably. For upwards of thirty years he held the appointment of
chief examiner of accounts in the office of the commander of the
forces in this command. He was a faithful and conscientious friend
in every station in life. His decease took place at Montreal, in
March, 1858.

GENERAL Sir G. DRUMMOND, G.C.B.
The subject of the following brief biographical notice, was the
youngest child of Colin Drummond, Esquire, of Megginch, who
at the time of his son's birth at Quebec, in the year 1771, held
the appointment of paymaster-general to the forces, in the province
of Lower Canada. This meritorious servant of the crown, a
descendant of the ancient family of Drummonds, of Concraig in
Perthshire, had a numerous offspring, several of whom died in their
infancy. John, his eldest son, who inherited Megginch castle, from
his uncle, Adam Drummond, married Lady Susan Fane, daughter
of John, tenth earl of Westmoreland. His son Adam, a vice-
admiral and knight commander of the Hanoverian Order of Guelph,
married Lady Charlotte Menzies, eldest daughter of John, fourth
duke of Athol, and relict of Sir John Menzies, of Castle Menzies
in Perthshire. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife of
John, Lord Hervey, eldest son of the Right Honorable and Right
Reverend Frederick Augustus, fourth earl of Bristol, and bishop
of Derry. Lord Harvey died at Florence, in 1796.
The youngest born of Mr. Drummond's family, Gordon, entered
the army as an ensign, in the first (royal) regiment of foot, on the
21st September, 1789; and, after serving for some time on the staff
of the Earl of Westmoreland, who was at that period lord-lieutenant
of Ireland, he rose rapidly to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 205
1794, and the same year was appointed to the command of the
eighth (king's) regiment. In the command of this gallant corps,
he served in Holland, under His Royal Highness, the Duke of
York, where on all occasions he became distinguished, not only for
cool determination, but for judgment also. At the siege of
Mineguen especially, and more particularly at the sortie on the
27th October, 1795, his conduct was most conspicuous.
In the year 1800, after returning to England, along with the
troops from the Netherlands, Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond pro
ceeded in the command of his regiment to Minorca, in which
island he was stationed until the autumn of 1800, when he accom
panied the expedition to Egypt, under' Lieutenant-General Sir
Ralph Abercrombie, when he was present at the landing of the
army on the 8th March, 1801, as well as at the subsequent engage
ments of the 13th, the 21st, (when Sir Ralph fell mortally wounded)
and at the battle of Rhamania, and finally at the surrender of
. Grand Cairo and Alexandria to the British army.
The ever memorable campaign in Egypt being gloriously termi
nated, in the events of which Colonel Drummond continued to sus
tain his high character as an officer, the 8th Regiment received or
ders to proceed to Gibraltar, and here commenced a friendship be
tween his Royal Highness^ the late Duke of Kent and Colonel Drum
mond, which continued to the latest period of the duke's life. In
the year 1805, the government contemplated sending out an expe
dition against some of the West India Islands, which still remained
in possession of France, and Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote was
selected to take the command of this force. Major-General Gor
don Drummond being appointed second in command of the expe
dition, the troops composing which assembled at Cork, the original
plan of operations, however, being abandoned, the various regi
ments were dispersed to different destinations, and Sir Eyre Coote
proceeded to Jamaica, as governor and commander of the forces,
Major-General Drummond being still appointed his second in com
mand, as a general officer on the staff. He remained in that island
until 1808, when he again returned to England, where, shortly af
terwards, he married Margaret, second daughter of William Russell,
Esq., of Brancipith Castle, in the County of Durham, and not long
after he was appointed to the staff in Canada, where he served until
1811, in which year he once more revisited England, but did not
remain long unemployed, as in the early part of 1812, he was
selected to command the south-east district in Ireland, where
his unremitting zeal and activity were found eminently useful in
that disturbed country.
In August 1813, still retaining his post on the staff in Ireland,
(having attained the rank of lieutenant-general in 1811), he received
a communication from his Royal Highness the Duke of York, to
acquaint him that the government were desirous he should proceed to

206 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Canada, as second in command to Lieutenant-General Sir George
Prevost, he accordingly, on the 1st of September, 1813, embarked,
with his staff on board his Majesty's ship Ethalion, Captain Heywood,
for Quebec, where he landed, on the 3rd of November following.
Without delay he proceeded to take command ofthe troops in Upper
Canada; and the winter campaign of 1 813-14 was characterized by
his wonted promptitude and activity. On the 19th December, he
ordered over a force to attack Fort Niagara, opposite Fort GeOrge.
This strong fortress was situated at the mouth of the river Niagara,
as it flows into Lake Ontario ; and its possession was deemed* of
much importance by Lieutenant-General Drummond. The place
was stormed, and fell into the hands of the British troops, along
with an immense accumulation of stores, both naval and military,
which had been laid up there for security by the enemy.
The next operation undertaken by Lieutenant-General Drummond
was attended with an equally successful result. He entrusted a
body of troops to the command of Major-General Reall, who crossed
over the river Niagara, two miles lower down than Fort Erie,
during the night of the 30th December, with a force scarcely
exceeding one thousand men, and accompanied by five hundred
Indian warriors. At daybreak on the 31st, the town of Black Rock
was stormed, the garrison put to flight, and the position of the
village of Buffalo subsequently carried.
In the early part of the month of May 1814, a combined opera
tion was executed by a military force under the immediate command
of Lieutenant-General Drummond, and the squadron, commanded
by Commodore Sir James Yeo, on lake Ontario, the object of which
was to destroy the works, barracks, &c, at Oswego, as well as to
cripple the naval operations by capturing or destroying a large
magazine of ship stores belonging to the American flotilla on the
lake. The success of this judiciously planned expedition was com
plete, the American troops being routed, the town, batteries, and
stores captured, and the damage to the enemy most extensive.
The next occasion on which Lieutenant-General Drummond's
active mind was engaged, took place in the summer of 1814, when
towards the latter end of July he crossed over from Kingston, where
his head quarters had been for two months established, to the
Niagara frontier. On the morning of his landing at Fort George,
he advanced towards the Falls of Niagara, where, at a position
about a mile from the cataract called " Lundy's Lane," he en
countered the American forces commanded by General Brown,
and greatly superior in number to the British. The action com
menced at six o'clock in the evening of the 25th, and was maintained
with great obstinacy throughout the entire night, until daybreak,
when it was discovered that the enemy had decamped, and taken
up apposition behind the river Chippawa, leaving ou the field their
dead, and a considerable number of their wounded. During the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 207
action about midnight, General Drummond received a severe wound
from a bullet which passed quite through his neck, and lodged at the
opposite side; he did not, however, dismount from his horse, which,
about twenty minutes afterwards, was killed under him. The Ameri
can generals, Brown and Scott,* were both severely wounded.
The severely fought action of Lundy's Lane was, perhaps, the best
contested, as it was the most sanguinary conflict which took place
during the war with the United States.
On the 13th of August following, Lieutenant-General Drummond,
still suffering severely from the wound received at Lundy's Lane,
moved the troops towards Fort Erie, strongly situated on the left
bank of the Niagara. This important post had been somewhat dis
creditably surrendered to the enemy two months previously, and
he was resolved to recapture it if possible. Accordingly an assault
was made on the entire position, with the usual impetuosity of
British soldiers; the works were carried, and the guns of the fort
actually turned upon the enemy, when a magazine of powder caught
fire, and an awful explosion took place which destroyed nearly four
hundred men of the assailing columns, in possession, as they were, or
the works and cannon. The enemy rallied, and availing themselves
of the panic into which our remaining soldiers were thrown, retook
all the defences, with much loss certainly to themselves, but with a
great sacrifice of life to the British troops. As may well be imagined,
General Drummond was greatly distressed at this unexpected fail
ure of his well organized plans of operation ; he withdrew the army
from before Fort Erie, and distributed the various regiments in
cantonments for the remainder of the autumn, when, towards the
latter end of the year, Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost received
instructions from home to return to England ; and Lieutenant-
General Drummond was ordered down to Quebec, to succeed him as
commander ofthe forces, and also as administrator-in-chief of the go
vernment of the Canadas. In the execution of these important trusts
he continued to exercise the same judgment and ability which had
characterized his conduct through life ; his unremitting zeal and
integrity of purpose were displayed to the solid advantage of the
colony until the spring of 1816, when, at his own request, and
with great reluctance on the part of the home government, he
was relieved from his onerous duties by the temporary appointment
of Major-General Wilson, and subsequently, more permanently by
Lieutenant-General Sir John Sherbrooke, to succeed him. The
regret at his departure evinced by all classes of the community in
Canada was universally expressed in the numerous addresses pre
sented to him on his embarkation ; and he landed at Portsmouth in
June, 1816, after *-,n absence from his relatives and friends of nearly
three years.

*The late commander- ia -chief of the United States Army.

208 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
It may be here stated that on the occasion of the extension of
the order of the Bath in 1815, Lieutenant-General Drummond was
gazetted as a knight commander of that most honorable order
and in 1817, his services were further graciously recognized by his
Royal Highness the Prince Regent conferring upon him the grand
cross of that order.
The public life of this truly estimable man may be said to have
closed with his resignation of the government of Canada. During
the remainder of his long career, he resided in the enjoyment of
domestic happiness, among his family and friends. He was blessed
with an amiable wife, two sons, and a daughter, the present
Countess of Effingham. His sons, alas! are both dead, as is also
Lady Drummond. His younger son, Russell, was unfortunately
killed, while a lieutenant on board her Majesty's ship Satellite,
serving in the Pacific Ocean, during an insurrection at Callao, in
the year 1835. Sir Gordon's elder son, Gordon, a colonel in the
Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, died in November, 1856, his
health having been seriously impaired by the fatigues entailed upon
him in the execution of his duties while serving in the Crimea, where
during a part of the campaign, including the final assault of Sebas-
topol, he commanded the brigade of Guards.
Sir Gordon Drummond's death took place in London, where he
had resided during the latter years of his life, on the 10th of
October, 1854, in the eighty-fourth year of his age
The various dates of Sir Gordon Drummond's commissions in
the army, were as follows: — Ensign, 21st September, 1789; lieu
tenant, 31st March, 1791; captain, 31st January, 1792; major,
28th February, 1794 ; lieutenant-colonel, 1st March, 1794 ; colo
nel, 1st January, 1798; major-general, 1st January, 1805; lieu
tenant-general, 4th June, 1811 ; general, 27th May, 1825.

COLONEL MORRISON, C.B., 44th Regt.
Among the many British officers, who distinguished themselves
in the war of 1812, in Canada, the name of Colonel Joseph Wan
ton Morrison, of the 89th Regiment, stands pre-eminent and next
to that of the gallant and immortal Brock, for the glory of his
achievement at Chrysler's Farm, on the 11th of November, 1813.
We do not believe military history records a greater victory over
such unequal odds as that which Colonel Morrison gained over the
forces of General Boyd, U. S. A., on that occasion ; and we have

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 209
great pleasure in presenting our readers with the story of his
erratic and memorable career. Colonel Morrison was born at New
York, May 4, 1783, and was the only son of John Morrison, Esq.,
at that time deputy-commissary-general in America. He entered
the army in' 1793, as an ensign in the 83rd Regiment, and was
promoted to a lieutenancy in the 84th Regiment in 1794. He did
not join either of the above corps, being removed to an independ
ent company, and placed on half-pay. In 1799 he was appointed
to the 17th Regiment, and served with the second battalion
during the campaign in Holland of that year, and was severely
wounded at the close of the action of the 2nd October. In 1800
he obtained a company in the same regiment, with which he
served in the Mediterranean till the peace of 1802, when having
purchased a majority, he was placed on half-pay. In 1804 he was
appointed an inspecting field officer of Yeomanry on the staff in
Ireland ; and in 1805 exchanged to the 89th Regiment, and served
with the second battalion till 1809, when he was promoted to a
lieutenant-colonelcy in the 1st West India Regiment, which he im
mediately joined at Trinidad. In 1811 he was removed to his
former regiment, the 89th, and the following year embarked with
the second battalion for Halifax. In the spring of 1813 the batta
lion proceeded to Upper Canada; and in November of that year
Colonel Morrison was entrusted with the command of a corps of
observation to follow the movements of the American army under
Major-General Wilkinson, descending the river St. Lawrence, and
which having landed on the Canadian territory, below Fort Welling
ton, a division of that force under Brigadier-General Boyd, amount
ing to between three and four thousand men, was on the 11th,
defeated by the corps of observation* at Chrysler's Farm, Wil
liamsburgh; and after the action the Americans retired to their
own shores. The details of this most gallant affair are given in
the Royal Military Calendar, vol. iv. pp. 273. etseq. On this occa
sion Colonel Morrison was honored with a medal. He likewise
received a vote of thanks from the House of Assembly of Lower
Canada, and was presented with a sword by the merchants of
Liverpool. In July, 1814, during the engagement at Lundy's Lane, near
the Falls of Niagara, he was so severely wounded, that in 1815 he
returned with his battalion to England ; and being unable, from
the state of his wounds in 1816, to join the first battalion of the
regiment, then in India, he was once more placed on half-pay. On
the 12th August, 1819, he received the brevet of colonel.
It was not until the beginning of the year 1821 that his wounds

* This corps consisted, according to the official dispatch of Sir George Prevost,
ofthe remains of the 49th Regiment, the second battalion ofthe 89fh, and three
companies of Voltigeurs (comprising in the whole not more than eight hundred
rank and file), with a division of gun-boats,
27

210 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
were sufficiently healed to permit his return to the duties of active
service, when he was immediately appointed lieutenant-colonel of
the 44th Regiment, at that time quartered in Ireland. In June
1822, he embarked with his regiment for India, and arrived at
Calcutta in November following. In July, 1823, the regiment
was sent up the country to Dinapore, from whence it returned to
Calcutta in 1824; and in July of that year Colonel Morrison was
appointed to the command of the south-eastern division ofthe
army, with the local rank of brigadier-general. To an ardent and de
voted attachment to his profession, were united great military
talent and prudence, cool determined courage, anxious attention to
the troops under his command, and firm religious principle, the
best stimulus to the discharge of the duties of the soldier, the sure
consolation in times of difficulty, peril, and sickness. Thus he was
eminently qualified for the arduous and inrportant trust which had
been confided to him ; and the following order, which he issued to
the troops previous to the commencement of the campaign against
the Burmese, will afford the best exemplification of the feelings
and temper with which he conducted the army through a country
beset with natural obstacles and dangers, harrassed by a cruel and
relentless foe : —
" The brigadier-general, in promulgating the first arrangements
for offensive operations, takes the opportunity to express his un
bounded confidence, that every honorable achievement which zeal,
discipline, and valor can effect, will be accomplished ; and he
humbly hopes that the Giver of all Victory will bless the united
efforts of the division, to the glory of the British name, and the
character of the Indian army. He at the same time begs the
troops, when flushed with success, to remember that a vanquished
foe ceases to be an enemy, and that mercy shewn, though in some
instances it maybe abused (particularly by a half-barbarous people),
yet can never fail of the best reward ; while the example set must
be productive of ultimate good."
The difficulties which the army had to encounter on its march
towards Arracan commenced soon after quitting Chittagong, and
were of a nature only to be surmounted by the consummate skill of
the commander, the steadiness, bravery, and patience ofthe troops
under hardships and privations. On one occasion, when the officers
were directed to disencumber themselves of all unnecessary bag
gage, and to leave tlieir horses behind them, a young subaltern
wrote to his friends — " You may imagine how severe this order
appeared to be in a country like this, where, in addition to the
oppressive heat of the climate, we have to scramble our way over
trackless rocks, and through thick and almost impenetrable jungles;
but when the general condescerded to explain to us his reasons,
and the neeessity of the measure, we were all so delighted with
him that not a murmur was heard, and there is not amongst us one

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 21 1
who would not go with him to the world's end." This anecdote
will shew the estimation in which this amiable man was held by
those serving under him.
It would extend this notice to too great length to enter into the
details of the operations of this division of the army ; they are
recorded in the official despatches published in the London Gazette.
Suffice to notice, that the country through which it passed was
sometimes mountainous and rocky, only to be penetrated by pas
sages formed by great labor and perseverance, at an advance of a
few short miles per day ; at others, through deep swamps, amidst
noxious and pestilential exhalations. At length, after having under
gone severe and almost incessant fatigue for several months, an
opportunity occurred to bring the Burmese to action, and after
three days continued fighting, the British army entered victorious
into Arracan. No sooner, however, was this conquest achieved,
than the rainy season set in ; and it was necessary- to make imme
diate provision for the cantonment of the troops. This was no
easy task ; for the city being situate in a marsh, surrounded on
three sides with stupendous hills, was of all others a most unhealthy
spot for Europeans. Thus, in a short time, General Morrison had
the distress to see his gallant followers drooping with malignant
sickness, and the arm of death spreading desolation around him ;
his own health, too, injured by continual anxiety and exertion.
Nevertheless, in the midst of this heart-rending scene, not inaptly
termed " The Walcheren of India," it was his constant practice to
visit the hospitals, to cheer the languishing sufferer, and to admi
nister religious consolation to those whose hope of continuance in
this world was gone. Thus did he at the same moment shew him
self the victorious general, the kind commander, and the Christian
friend ; but neither his anxious care, or the best medical skill,
could stay the pestilence, and Arracan was destined to be the grave
of a large portion of the flower of the British army. After long
contending against the influence of the climate, General Morrison
found his constitution so much impaired, that he was compelled to
resign his command, and return to Calcutta, where he soon after
embarked for England, in the hope that the sea voyage might con
tribute to the restoration of his health. This hope, alas! was
ordained soon to be destroyed ; but his faith in the consolations of
religion never forsook him ; and in humble confidence in the media
tion and atonement of his Saviour, he peacefully resigned his soul
unto Him who gave it, soothed by the affectionate and endearing
attention of a wife and a sister, to whom he had ever been most
tenderly and inviolably attached. He died at sea, on board the
Cara Brea Castle, on the 15th February, 1826.
Such is a sketch ofthe character and actions of this brave soldier,
this most amiable man. Should it be perused by those who follow
his profession, it may serve to prove to them that religion and vir-

212 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
tue are not incompatible with the duties of the warrior, and that
the laurel-wreath of victory best adorns the brow of him who,
whilst fighting the battles of his country, reposes his trust and his
reliance in the God of Armies.
We cannot better conclude this memoir than in the words of the
Right Honorable the Governor-General Lord Amherst, who in ad
dressing Colonel Morrison previous to his departure from India, was
pleased thus to express himself : "It is a melancholy satisfaction
to me to assure you, that I know not whether most to approve of
and admire the successful operations by which you wrested Arracan
from the possession of the enemy, or the fortitude with which you
supported the destruction of our future hopes, by a dispensation
beyond our control."
Colonel Morrison was married on the 25th April 1809, to Eliza
beth Hester, daughter of the late Randolph Marriott, Esq., of the
College Green, Worcester, by whom he left no issue.

CAPTAIN R. H. BARCLAY, R.N.
The name of this naval hero, must not be allowed to pass
unnoticed in this work, though there is no fear of its passing into
oblivion, while the history of America records the gallantry of his
exploits, during the war of 1812.
It is exceedingly strange that so important a name as Barclay's
is not to be found mentioned in any of the naval dictionaries,
previous to his death, while the services of innumerable minor and
not so celebrated men are published to the world. Of Barclay we
hardly know anything, except that he had served with Nelson,
and lost an arm, we believe at Trafalgar, and was a Scotchman by
birth, and assumed the command of the British naval forces on
lake Erie, in May, 1813. He fitted out the naval armament, which
he afterwards commanded, aud displayed great energy and activity
against the enemy, (commanded by Perry.)
McMullen, bpeaking of this portion of the war of 1812, says :—
" His greatest difficulty, however, was to man his fleet, as
Commodore Yeo could only spare him fifty seamen. The rest of
his crews had to be made up of two hundred and fifteen soldiers,
of Proctor's army, and eighty Canadians ; while, on the other
hand, an idle commercial marine, enabled the enemy to man their
fleet with picked seamen, to the number of nearly six hundred.
The Americans, too, although their guns were fewer, had greatly

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 213
the advantage in weight of metal, besides having two vessels more
than the British. But in sailors their great superiority rested.
For these, the wretched mixture of six landsmen to one seaman on
board of Barclay's fleet, even were they equal in point of numbers,
would be no match whatever.*
" Proctor, at this period, found himself seriously embarrassed
for want of food, and other supplies ; and it was evident, that if
the enemy obtained command of the lake, not only Michigan, but
Western Canada must be abandoned. Barclay, under these cir
cumstances, determined to do his best to succor the army ; and,
with his feeble force blockaded Perry in Erie harbor, which he
could do in safety, as the sand-bar in front must compel the enemy
to take his guns out to cross it. Towards the end of August,
however, he was obliged to proceed to Long Point for supplies,
and the American commodore at once seized this opportunity to
put to sea. The British commander was now blockaded in turn in
Amherstburg, and endeavored to improve his leisure to advantage,
by training the soldiers to work the guns, and the Canadians to
handle the ropes. But his provisions soon failed ; he must either
fight or starve ; no other alternative presented itself. He accord
ingly put to sea on the 10th September, and soon met the enemy,
when a most obstinate battle ensued. For a while, the British had
the advantage, and Perry's own ship, the Lawrence, was compelled
to haul down its colors, amid the cheers of the British squadron.
But Barclay had not even a boat to take possession of his prize, so
defective was his equipment. The firing now ceased for a few
minutes, but a breeze springing up behind the American fleet,
Perry, who had meanwhile shifted his flag to another vessel,
skilfully gained the weather-guage of the principal British ships,
while they, from the unskilfulness of their crews, were unable to
extricate themselves from their dangerous condition. The result
was, that after a desparate engagement of three hours, during which
the carnage was fearful, the entire British fleet was taken. Still,
it did not surrender, till the vessels had become wholly unmanage
able, nor till all the officers were killed or wounded, and a third of
their crews had shared the same melancholy fate.f The American
loss, was twenty-seven killed, and ninety-six wounded. "|
We do not know whether Barclay served in Canada after this ;
certain it was, however, that he was tried by court-martial for his
loss, and honorably acquitted.
This gallant officer died at Edinburgh, on the 8th of May 1837.
Comparative strength of the fleets : — Americans. , British.
Weight of metal, lbs  928 459
Compliment of men  580 345
tAilson's History of Europe, New York, Vol. 4, p. 467. Barclay's despatch to
Yeo, 22nd September, 1813.
JPerry's despatch to the Honorable W. Jones, American naval secretary.

214 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir WILLIAM WILLIAMS, K.C.B., K.T.S.
This distinguished officer was appointed ensign in the 40th
Foot, 1794 ; lieutenant 1795 ; captain 1799 ; major in the army
1802, in the 81st Foot, 1804 ; lieutenant^colonel in the 60th Foot
1809, and in the 13th, 1812. He served in Spain and Portugal;
was present at the battles of Corunna and Fuentes d'Onor, the
sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, and at the battle of Sala
manca ; for which services he had the honor of wearing a cross and
one clasp.
In 1814, he served in Canada, when he commanded at St. John's
at the posts in advance on the Richelieu river ; and Sir George
Prevost, in his general orders, expressed " his most entire appro
bation of the judgment, zeal, and assiduity displayed by Lieu
tenant-Colonel Williams in his arrangement for the defence of the
important posts placed under his immediate command."
Sir William Williams had license to accept the Order of the
Tower and Sword, conferred on him for his services in the Penin
sula, March 11, 1.813 ; he was appointed a knight commander of
the Bath, on the enlargement of the order, January 5, 1815, and
was invested 6th August, 1830. He attained the rank of colonel
in 1819, and of major-general in 1830. He died at Bath, on 17th
June, 1832.

GENERAL Sir PHINEAS RIALL, K.C.H.
Sir P. Riall entered the army as an ensign in the 92nd Regiment
in January, 1794, became lieutenant in March, captain in May, and
major of the 28th Foot in December of the same year. In 1797 he
was reduced, and he remained on half-pay for seven years. In April,
1804, he was appointed major in the 15th Foot ; and on the 1st
January 1806, lieutenant-colonel by brevet. He commanded a bri
gade iu the expedition against Martinique, and in that against the
Saintes in 1809, and in the attack and capture of Guadaloupe in
January and February, 1810. For these services he received a
medal and clasp.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 215
On the 25th July, 1810, he attained the rank of colonel ; and on
the 27th December following was appointed to a lieutenant-colonelcy
in the 69th Foot. On the 4th June, 1813, he became major-
general, and was thereupon placed on the staff in Great Britain. In
September following he was ordered to Canada, to take part in the
great struggle between England and America; and here his ser
vices, particularly on the Niagara frontier, and at the battle of
Chippawa, were no doubt great, although he made many blunders.
On the 18th February, 1816, he was appointed governor of the
Island of Grenada and its dependencies, where he remained for
some years.
He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1825. In
1831 he was nominated a knight commander of the Hanoverian
Guelphic order, and in 1833 he was knighted at home. In 1835
he was appointed to the command of the 75th Regiment, from which
he was removed to the 15th, in 1846. He attained the full rank of
general in 1841, and died at Paris on the 10th of November, 1851.

LIEUT .-COLONEL BRUYERES, R.E.
Ralph Henry Bruyeres, Esquire, lieutenant-colonel of royal
engineers, born 1765. Died at Quebec 1814. This meritorious
officer fell a victim to professional zeal. He had returned-from Upper
Canada, in 1813, with the remains of a disease acquired there ; and
before his entire recovery, on learning the capture of Fort Niagara,
he immediately set out from Quebec, notwithstanding the inclemency
of the season, to examine the condition, and if necessary to improve
the works of that place. He accomplished the object of his journey ;
but the disease returned rapidly upon him, and terminated his life.
However much such zeal must command our admiration, it was in
this case, by such a consequence, accompanied with the deepest
regret. Colonel Bruylres had attained great eminence in his pro
fession. He had served honorably in Flanders and Holland ; and
had been materially engaged in completing the fortifications at
Dover. He had projected, and directed the execution of almost all
the fixed defences in both of these provinces; and his remains are
immediately surrounded by many lasting monuments of his skill and
indefatigable labors. To his merits as a soldier, a long residence in
Canada enabled him to add the title of a good, citizen. He died
universally regretted; and left as a consolation to an afflicted

216 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
family, the recollection of a life marked throughout by fidelity in
every trust; by the exercise of all the private virtues ; and in a
concluding scene of extraordinary suffering, by an example of for
titude rarely witnessed.
He was interred with the military honors due to his rank.

MAJOR-GENERAL R. McDOUALL, C.B.,
Another hero of the last American war. This gallant officer
entered the army 31st August, 1796 ; became lieutenant, 1st No
vember, 1797; captain, 24th October, 1804; major, 24th June,
1813 ; lieutenant-colonel, 29th July, 1813 ; colonel, 22nd July,
1830 ; and major-general, 23rd November, 1841. When in com
mand of Fort Michilimackinac, he successfully defended it when
attacked by a very superior force, August 4, 1814, which he drove
off with considerable loss. He died at Stranraer, on the 15th No
vember, 1848.

CAPTAIN STEPHEN POPHAM, R.N.
Captain Popham, one of the British naval heroes of 1812, was
brother to the late Brigadier-General George Munro Popham, C.B. ,
ofthe Indian army, and was born in 178 J.
He entered the navy as midshipman on board the Formidable of
98 guns, March 12, 1795. He subsequently served in the Trusty,
50, Oiseau frigate, Victorious, 74, and Sceptre, 64; from which
last ship he was providentially absent, either on duty or leave,
when she was wrecked in Table Bay, November 5, 1789.
On the 5th of April, 1801, Mr. Popham, then belonging to the
Zealous, 74, was upset in a boat off North Yarmouth, and not
picked up until he had been nearly two hours in the water. Being
then placed too near a large fire, his right leg was so dreadfully
scorched that he could not leave his bed for upwards of six months.
He obtained the rank of lieutenant October 7, 1801.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 217
We next find Mr. Popham in the Glory, 98, successively bearing
the flags of Sir John Orde and Rear- Admiral Charles Stirling ;
from which ship he was removed to the Orion, 74, commanded by
Captain Archibald Dickson, which formed part of the fleet under
Admiral Gambier, in the expedition against Copenhagen, whence
Lieutenant Popham brought home the Rota, a Danish frigate of
the largest class. During the summer of 1808 he was frequently
employed in the Orion's boats, protecting convoys through the
Sound, and engaged with the enemy's flotilla. In 1809 he accom
panied Sir Richard J. Strachan to Walcheren, and there acted as
aide-de-camp to the naval commander-in-chief.
In November 1810, La Jeune Louise, a very fine French pri
vateer schooner, of 14 guns and thirty-five men, was most gallantly
attacked and carried in the Vlia Stroom, by a party of volunteers,
in three boats from the Quebec, under the command of the first
lieutenant, Stephen Popham, seconded by Lieutenant R. A. Yates.
Lieutenant Popham was made commander, 1st August, 1811 ;
and was sent out to Canada during the war, where he rendered
great service, on the 6th May, 1814 ; when in the Montreal, of 21
guns, formerly the Royal George, 23, he assisted at the capture of
Oswego, situated on the St Lawrence, near its confluence with Lake
Ontario. On that occasion, he anchored his ship in the most gallant
style, sustaining the whole fire of the American fort, until the
storming party gained the shore. In this battle, the Montreal was
Bet on fire three times by red-hot shot; nor could it be wholly extin
guished for nearly three hours after the cannonading had ceased ;
her masts, sails and rigging, were much cut, and Captain Popham
was severely wounded in his right hand. He was in conse
quence promoted to post rank, by commission dated September 29,
1814. He died at Rhudlan, St. Asaph, England, February 25, 1842.

Sis JOHN HARVEY, K.C.B., K.C.H.
The greater part of the following brief outline of the military
services of the distinguished officer, whose name stands at the
head of this notice, was originally compiled with the view of being
embodied in a memoir of the war, with the United States, in 1812,
28

218 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and the subsequent years, in which Lieutenant-General (then Lieu
tenant-Colonel) Harvey bore a conspicuous share. His services were
principally with the division of the army on the Niagara, when, as
deputy adjutant-general, he was at the head of the department in
Upper Canada, and filled that post— one of the highest importance
and confidence — on the staff of the several general officers, who,
after the death of the gallant and lamented Brock, passed in rapid
succession through the command of that division of the army in
the British North American provinces. The original plan for the
defence of Upper Canada, was, as will hereafter be shown, origin
ally traced out by the deputy adjutant-general, and approved by
the commander of the forces.
The several circumstances connected with the military career of
Sir John Harvey, which we proceed to note, were gleaned from
papers and memoranda which have fallen under the notice of the
writer of this imperfect sketch, who has also availed himself of
printed despatches and accounts of operations in Canada, published
in the provincial prints at the time, and for the accuracy of dates,
of the assistance of that useful " tell tale" publication, the Annual
Army List. From the latter it appears that the major-general was
longer in the army than any officer then serving in British North
America, the commander of the forces, the late Sir R. D. Jackson,
alone excepted, and it may be added that, with the exception of
a very short period, Sir John Harvey was constantly on foreign
and active service.
Sir John Harvey was born in 1778, and entered the army as an
ensign in the 80th Regiment, raised and commanded by Lord
Paget, (afterwards the Marquis of Anglesea, whose natural son
according to general belief he was) in September, 1794, and
was present carrying the regimental colors, and received the
expression of the marked approbation of his commanding officer,
in a general action, with the French army in December of that
year ; he served during the winter campaign of 1794, under his
Royal Highness the Duke of York, in Holland ; under Major
General Welbore Ellis Doyle, on the coast of France, in 1795 ;
at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1796, where he was present at the
capture of the Dutch fleet in Saldanha Bay ; from 1797 to 1800,
in Ceylon, the climate of which island was at that period very
unhealthy ; in 1800 and 1801, in Egypt as brigade-major, under
Sir David Baird ; in 1803, rcgimentally with the Madras Grand
Army, at the commencement of the Mahratta war ; 1804-5 and 6,
as aide-de-camp to Major General Dowdcswell, of .the Guards, with
the Bengal Grand Army, under the personal command of General
Lord Lake ; and in 1807 he returned to England with an impaired
constitution, having been unremittingly engaged in service for
fourteen years, twelve of which were in tropical climates. In
1808, we find him on the staff in England, as assistant quarter-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 219
master-general, under Lieutenant-General Lord Chatham, at Col
chester ; and from 1809, to 1812, in the command of a regiment,
and on the staff of the adjutant-general's department in Ireland.
In June, of the last mentioned year, Major Harvey was appointed
deputy-adjutant-general to the army in Canada, with the rank
of lieutenant- colonel. He lost no time in coming out to enter on
the duties of his situation ; but opportunities of passage to Canada
were not at that time frequent, and he accordingly embarked for
Halifax, where he arrived late in the season, and travelled through
the then almost unfrequented route from Fredericton to Quebec.
Of Sir John Harvey's distinguished services in the defence of
these provinces, we shall introduce the notice by stating some
circumstances which may not be generally known, but which cannot
fail in being deeply interesting to our Canadian, and indeed to Sir
our readers on this side of the Atlantic. It is well known to all
John Harvey's friends, that having been introduced to Sir George
Prevost, (by command of his Royal Highness the Duke of York,
we believe,) as an officer who had served with distinction in various
parts of the world. His Excellency received him with great
satisfaction, having very few officers then under his command
(1812) who had the advantage of having seen much actual service.
Being about to visit Upper Canada for the first time, with a view
to examine and make the necessary arrangements for the protec
tion of the whole line of frontier, Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey
was invited to accompany the commander of the forces on the
journey from Quebec to Fort Erie. At the latter place, having
shown him the immense extent of exposed frontier to be guarded,
with the extreme inadequate force then at his Excellency's dis
posal, Sir George required from Colonel Harvey his opinion and
advice, as to the best mode of defence ; the answer was brief and
prompt: — "First, by the accurate intelligence of the designs and
movements of the enemy, to be procured at any price. And,
secondly, by a series of bold, active, offensive operations, by
which the enemy, however superior in numbers, would himself be
thrown upon the defensive."
This advice was partially and in every case (except Sackett's
Harbor,) most successfully adopted, and whoever will look back
to the events of the campaign, of 1813, and 1814, in Upper
Canada, will now see a clear exposition of the principle upon which
that province was so successfully defended — the various operations
from Stony Creek to Chrysler's Farm, concluding (in 1813,)
with the assault and capture of the American Fort Niagara, the
capture of Oswego, the action of Lundy's Lane, and the subsequent
advance to Fort Erie, in 1814, including the action at Cook's Mills,
on the Chippawa, the various enterprizes against Fort Schlosser,
Black Creek, Buffalo, &c, &c.,'will then stand out in bold relief,
and the principle which directed all these operations will become

220 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANSr
clearly intelligible — for these successes we are mainly indebted to
the military talents of this distinguished officer.
In connexion with the first important operation in 1813, we
cannot present our readers with' a more interesting document than
the following extract of a report addressed by the late Sir James
Carmichael Smyth, of the royal engineers, to the Duke of Wel
lington, then master-general of the ordnance, by whom he was
sent out to Canada, in 1825, to obtain information connected with
the defence of the Canadas.
After giving as clear and luminous a pricis of the military
operations of the campaigns of 1812-13-14, as could be expected
from any officer not having had access to the confidential papers
connected therewith, Sir 0. Smyth says, in speaking of Stony
Creek : — " The preservation of the Niagara district, and of Kings
ton, may, with the strictest justice be fairly attributed to the attack
upon the enemy at Stony Creek. The nature of the war seems
to have changed. after that most manly and energetic affair, and the
campaign on that frontier terminated in the capture of the American
stronghold (Fort Niagara,) and the destruction of all their towns
and villages, together with the stores, provisions, and ordnance,
which they had collected in that part of the country, for the further
prosecution of the war."
In another place he says : — " The situation of General Vincent's
small force, was unquestionably very critical — in his front a very
superior enemy — no support in his rear, on which he could retire —
no provisions, supplies, or reinforcements to be expected from York,
(Toronto) which the Americans had so lately possession of — the
Americans apparently masters of the lake (Ontario.) Under
these ciscumstances Colonel Sir John Harvey proposed a night
attack, with the bayonet, upon the enemy's troops in their front,
and who had advanced as far as Stony Creek, within a few miles
of the British position." [The enemy's force was three thousand
five hundred men, the attacking column under Sir John Harvey,
seven hundred and twenty bayonets.] " The attack took place on
the night of the 5th of June, (1813,) and was completely successful,
the two American brigadiers, Winters and Chandler, one hundred
and twenty-three officers and men, and four pieces of artillery were
taken. The American troops fell back to the Forty Mile Creek,
and continued their retreat to Fort George, calling in all their
detachments, from the Chippawa, Fort Erie, &c, &c. The
American troops seem to have lost all spirit of enterprize during
the remainder o" tl e campaign, after the affair of Stony Creek,
and suffered themselves to be almost literally blockaded, and
hemmed in at Fori George by very inferior numbers."
For some years previous to 1841, he filled the post of governor
of New Brunswick. In the latter year he became governor and
commander-in-chief at Newfoundland. His next appointment

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 221
was that of governor of Nova Scotia, in June, 1846, which he held
up to the period of his decease, March 22, 1852. He received the
colonelcy of the 59th Foot, on the 3rd December, 1844.
Sir John Harvey was nominated a knight commander of the
Hanoverian Guelphie order in 1824, and a knight commander of
the order of the Bath in 1838.
He married in 1806, the Honorable Elizabeth Lake, daughter
of Gerard, first Viscount Lake, K.B. She died in 1851.

Sir JAMES LUCAS YEO, R.N., K.C.B.
Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo, who distinguished himself as
the commander of our fleet on the lakes, during the American war
of 1812, was the son of James Yeo, Esq., formerly agent victualler
at Minorca, who died in 1825. He was born at Southampton, in
1782 ; was educated at the Rev. Mr. Walters' academy, at Bishop's
Waltham, in Hampshire ; whence he embarked, at a very early
age, on board the Windsor Castle, under the late Admiral
Cosby. At the age of fifteen, he was promoted by the late Sir
John Duckworth to the rank of lieutenant. It was whilst
holding this rank he commenced his more public and gallant
career : being fortunately placed under that most excellent officer,
Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, in La Loire, he was despatched
by him to capture the enemy's vessels in the port of El Muros ;
he stormed the fort in the most undaunted and gallant style, and
afterwards succeeded in bringing out every vessel, armed and
unarmed, lying in the port. He was immediately promoted to
the rank of commander, and appointed to the Confiance, one of
the vessels he had so gallantly taken. He was the person who
brought the first intelligence to England of the rising of the
Spaniards against their Gallic invaders, and the consequent surren
der of a part, of the French army — an event that gave a new
impulse to the people of Spain in all quarters, and at length, by
the assistaLce of the British troops and their allies, finally drove
the oppressive intruders out of the kingdom. His subsequent
conquest of Cayenne, (for which he was promoted to the rank of
post captain, and the Prince regent of Portugal, as a peculiar mark
of his favor and high estimation, conferred upon him a knight's
commandery of St. Benito d'Avis, the only Protestant ever so
highly honored), and the more gallant exploits and able services

222 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
on the lakes of this province, previous to his death, are events yet
in lively rememberance, and rank among the most splendid of
those deeds of heroism performed by our gallant navy during the
war with America. The mind of Sir James was distinguished
for bold and vigorous enterprise, and never-ceasing zeal for the
honor and prosperity of his country.
For one so young, he was exceedingly talented and experienced
in his arduous profession, and well deserved the high honors con
ferred upon him. His services in Canada were great and gener
ally successful, and he is equally with the band of heroes who so
nobly defended this province from the aggressors, and to whom we
owe, perhaps, our existence as a dependency of Great Britain,
entitled to a fair share of praise for the gallantry and bravery of
his exploits in our behalf, for these, not a little, tended to intimi
date the enemy and bring about an honorable peace.
He died about the year 1819, while on a voyage from th« coast
of Africa. Sir James was not in a good state of health when he
went there, and the most serious apprehensions for his life had
been for some time entertained by his friends and relatives. The
disease which closed his mortal existence in the 36th year of his
age (atrophy, or general debility) was produced by arduous and
anxious service. He bore his affliction and the approach of death,
with the destruction of all the hopes and expectations his ardent
mind had formed, with the highest degree of fortitude; and in a
body kept alive alone by artificial means for four or five days, he
retained his mental faculties nearly to his final dissolution. His
remains were brought to England in the Semiramis frigate, and
interred in the ground of the Royal Garrison Chapel, Portsmouth.
with military honors due to his rank. All the officers off duty,
belonging to regiments and corps in Portsmouth, Gosport, and
Hilsea, attended the interment.

COMMODORE DOWNIE, R.N.
This brave hero was the son of a respectable clergyman in the
county of Ross, Ireland. At an early period of his youth he entered
the navy as a midshipman, and served on board the Circe frigate in
the memorable battle of Camperdown. He acted in the same capa
city, for some time, in the Melampus; and afterwards in the Apollo
frigate, in the West Indies, for several years. In this station, his

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 223
uniform good conduct and strict attention to his duty, received the
most flattering approbation of his superiors, and recommended him
to the particular notice of Admiral Montague, the commander ofthe
Jamaica station, who promoted him to the rank of lieutenant. On
his return to England, for the recovery of his health, which had
been much impaired, his promotion was confirmed by the admi
ralty; and in 1804, he was appointed by Earl St. Vincent to the
Sea-horse frigate, 36 guns, then commanded by Honorable Captain
Boyle. After seeing a good deal of service, he was promoted to the
rank of commodore, and placed in command of the fleet on the
lakes of Canada in 1812. As such he was the commanding officer
at the battle of lake Champlain in 1814, where he was unfortu
nately killed, whilst gallantly fighting the enemy's fleet under Com
modore McDonough. It is a notorious fact, that the carpenters
were still at work on board the Confiance, his flag-ship, when he
advanced to meet the enemy, who had a force greatly superior. His
vessels were also poorly manned, and he maintained the fight for a
long time, totally unsupported by either the operations ofthe other
water or land forces, fie fell when the ship and part of his crew
were crippled, after doing the enemy great damage. Altogether
the annals of the wars of our country do not present a more daring
and gallant spirit than poor Downie.

LIEUT .-COLONEL DRUMMOND.
Another of the " heroes of 1812," and one of the most gallant
and chivalrous soldiers, that his country ever possessed. Res
pecting him, the Gentleman's Magazine, at the period of his death,
said : — " It is some consolation to the surviving relatives, as well as
common justice to the memory of an honorable man, who, in the
strenuous exertion in his military profession, has fallen in defence
of his king and country, that a faithful narrative of his services
should be transmitted to posterity. Upon this laudable princi
ple, we are gratified in recording, that the late Lieutenant-Colonel
William Drummond, of his Majesty's 104th Regiment, and quarter
master-general, who was killed by the explosion of a mine at Fort
Erie, in America, after having gloriously led the central column of
the forces to the attack on the 15th August, 1814, was an officer
whose life had been uniformly marked by brilliant actions. At St.
Vincent, when a lieutenant in the 2nd West India Regiment, he

224 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
received the most flattering testimonials from Lieutenant-General
Hunter, under whom he then served. At the capture of Surinam,
he was aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Green, com
mander of the forces, and was distinguished in his public despatches
as an officer of the greatest promise. In the year 1804, the commit
tee at Lloyd's voted him a sword of one hundred guineas' value, for
their just appreciation of his talents and intrepidity, in animating
by his example the crew of the merchant-ship Fortitude, on board
of which he was a passenger, to a determined and valorous resistance
against the united attacks of two French privateers off the Island
of Barbadoes, thereby successfully maintaining the lustre of the
British flag. At the attack on Sackett's Harbor he was severely
wounded ; and his zealous and meritorious conduct was marked in
the public despatches as entitling him to the highest approbation.
At Chippawa, and subsequently in every engagement, he invari
ably exhibited the most eminent qualities ofthe soldier; and, in
private life, his benevolence and urbanity were equally conspicu
ous. He was the fifth son of the late John Drummond, Esquire,
of Keltie, in the county of Perth, Scotland.

COMMODORE PRING.
Daniel Pring entered the naval service at an early age, and,
when very young, was a midshipman on the Jamaica station. In
1801 he served on board the RusseU at Copenhagen. In 1807 he
received his lieutenant's commission ; and, on the breaking out of
the American war, he was in command of the schooner Paz, on
the Halifax station. When Sir George Prevost required naval
officers to take charge of the provincial navy on^ the lakes, Lieu
tenant Pring was selected, among others, by Sir J. B. Warren, for
those duties. In 1813, he was promoted to the rank of com
mander ; and, in the following year, he was removed by Commodore
Sir James Lucas Yeo from lake Ontario, to serve with Captain
Downie on lake Champlain. Here he was appointed to the com
mand of the Linnet, a brig of sixteen guns and about one hundred
men. In this brig, under the command of Captain Downie, in the
Confiance, and in company with two ten-gun sloops, and a flotilla
of gun-boats, Captain Pring took part in the celebrated battle of
Plattsburg Bay ; in whioh engagemeut, disastrous as it was to the
British arms, he signally distinguished himself. During the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 225
greater part ofthe contest, the Linnet was engaged with the Eagle,
an American brig of much superior force, mounting twenty heavy
guns and one hundred and fifty men, which vessel he completely
beat out of the line. Cooper, in his " History of the American
Navy," little as he seems inclined to allow credit to the British,
virtually admits this fact. He says, " the Linnet had got a very
commanding position, and she was admirably fought. Eventually,
the Linnet was compelled to strike, but not until the other vessels
of the squadron had hauled down their colors. Captain Downie,
who commanded the British squadron, was killed ; and Commander
Pring was the senior surviving officer of the squadron at the court-
martial subsequently held at Portsmouth, at which he was most
honorably acquitted. For his services, he was, in 1815, promoted
to the rank of post captain ; and, on the 26th June, 1816, was
appointed to a command on lake Erie. He was nominated to the
West India station, on the 16th September, 1844, and early in
1846, he hoisted his broad pendant as a commodore of the second
class on board her Majesty's ship Imaum, at Port Royal, Jamaica,
where he succeeded in making himself highly esteemed and
respected, and where he unfortunately died of yellow fever, Novem
ber 29, 1847. His remains were conveyed to Halfway Tree,
where they were interred, in the presence of a numerous and dis
tinguished company of public officers and private inhabitants.

LIEUT.-COLONEL CECIL BISSHOPP.
The name of a young, brave, and successful British officer,
in the war of 1812, who sacrificed his life in the service of his coun
try. Colonel Bisshopp was the son of Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bart., after
wards Baron de la Zouche, of Parham, Sussex, England, and the
descendent of an ancient and honored family of England. He was
born in Spring Gardens, London, on the 25th June, 1783 ; and at
the early age of sixteen, entered the military service in the 1st
Foot Guards. He represented Newport, in the Isle of Wight, for
some time in Parliament, and was attached to the embassy of Ad
miral Sir John Borlace Warren to Russia, and spent a year at St.
Petersburg, from whence he was sent home with despatches in 1803.
Having served with distinction in Flanders, (where he was aide-de
camp to General Grosvenor de Walchen,) and in Spain and Portu-
29

226 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
gal, he proceeded to Canada in 1812, and had the satisfaction ot at
once being placed on active service on the Niagara frontier, in which
he displayed much gallantry on several occasions, and early in July,
1813, set out in command of an expedition to reduce Black Rock;
in this he was perfectly successful, all the enemy's stores, block
houses, barracks and dock-yards were burned to the ground, and
an immense quantity of stores captured ; but the gallant Bisshopp
was not destined to reap the benefit of this undertaking ; an attack
was made by the Americans on his forces, while they were exam
ining the stores; and, although the enemy was beaten -off, it was
at the sacrifice of their brave young commander, who fell
mortally wounded on the field, and soon after expired. His death
was lamented by all, for he was universally loved and esteemed.
He was buried at the village of Stanford, near Niagara Falls,
where a monument is placed over his remains by his sorrowing
relations, with these lines written by the Right Honorable Sir R.
Wilmot Horton, Bart : —
" Stranger whose fearful steps e'er now have stood,
Beneath Niagara's stupendous flood,
Whose mind with awful ecstasy elate,
Heard, in the mighty rush, the voice of fate.
Pause o'er this shrine, where sleeps the young, and brave,
And shed one gen'rous tear o'er Cecil's grave.
On the tablet to his memory at the family burial place, Parham,
are placed these lines, written by Sir James Macdonald : —
" His pillow not of sturdy oak,
His shroud, a soldier's simple cloak,
His dirge, will sound till time 's no more,
Niagara's loud and solemn roar.
There Cecil lies — say where the grave,
More worthy of a Briton brave."

Sir W. H. MULCASTER, R.N., K.C.H.
Another name well known in the annals of our last war with
the United States is that of Sir William Howe Mulcaster, C.B.,
K.C.H., K.T.S., who afterwards attained great honors, became
a post captain in the royal navy, and naval aide-de-camp to the
king. He was born in 1785, and died at Dover on the 2nd
March, 1837.
Sir William was a son of the late Major-General Mulcaster, of the
Royal Engineers. He was made a lieutenant early in 1800. In

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 227
June, 1806, when first lieutenant of the Minerva, he had the
command of two boats, which, after carrying a fort of eight guns
commanding Finisterre bay, captured five Spanish luggers and
chasse-marees ; this was characterized by Earl St. Vincent as a
very neat exploit, conducted by an officer whom he " felt great
pride in acknowledging as an eleve of his own." In the follow
ing month his lordship had also the satisfaction of reporting
" another instance of the enterprising spirit of Lieutenant Mulcas
ter," which was in a similar service, when a Spanish lugger and
privateer were captured.
In January, 1809, Lieutenant Mulcaster served at the capture of
Cayenne, as first of the Confiance, 22, when his captain, the late Sir
J. L. Yeo, acknowledged that " to my first lieutenant, Mr. W. H.
Mulcaster, I feel myself principally indebted for the very able
support I have received from him throughout; though it was no
more than I expected from an officer of his known merit in the
service." The Prince Regent of Portugal distributed presents to
all the officers engaged ; to Lieutenant Mulcaster his Royal High
ness gave a gold sword, with a suitable inscription ; and on the 30th
September, 1825, Sir William received his Majesty's permission to
wear the insignia of the Tower and Sword, which had been pre
sented to him for his services on this occasion.
He was made commander May 13, 1809 ; and appointed to the
Emulous sloop, on the Halifax station, about October, 1810. He
captured I'Adile letter of marque, August 26, 1811, and the
Gossamer, American privateer, July 30, 1812 ; but on the 3rd of
August following the Emulous was wrecked on Sable island.
In March, 1813, Captain Mulcaster was appointed to the Princess
Charlotte, 42, then building on lake Ontario. He was promoted
to post rank December 29 following. On the 6th May, 1814, only
twenty- two days after the launching of the Princess Charlotte,
he received a dangerous wound, when storming Fort Oswego, from
the effects of which he never recovered. He wasr.ssigned in com
pensation a pension of £300, and was nominated a C. B. in June,
1815. He married October 13, 1814, Sophia Sawyer, youngest daughter
of the late Colonel Van Cortlandt.

228 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

CAPTAIN JENKINS,
A young and brave officer, a native of New Brunswick, and a
captain in the Glengarry Fencibles. He distinguished himself at
the taking of Ogdensburg on the 21st February, 1813, by his
gallant and intrepid conduct in leading 150 men against Fort La
Presentation, which they attempted to carry, and finally succeeded
in doing ; — not, however, before the chivalrous Jenkins had lost
both his arms by grape shot, and sank exhausted from loss of
blood on the field. He survived the war several years. He was
a man of a remarkably fine appearance, full of spirit and of great
bravery. He did honor to the loyal province of New Brunswick.

LLEUT.-COLONEL R. B. HANDCOCK, 13th Regt.,
Was one of the most gallant of our defenders in 1812 ; he was
born in 1780, and died at Pisa, on the 4th May, 1854. He was
the son of the late Matthew Handcock, Esq., deputy muster-master-
general of the forces in Ireland, descended from the Venerable
Matthew Handcock, archdeacon of Kilmore, the son of William
Handcock, Esq., M. P. for Westmeath, a common ancestor of the
Lords Castlemaine. Having graduated in the university of Dublin,
with distinguished honors, he joined his regiment in 1798, at the
age of eighteen. His first campaign was under Sir Ralph A.ber-
crombie at the memorable landing in Egypt in 1801, when he was
severely wounded. He was afterwards on active service in various
parts of the world for upwards of twenty years; and, during that
time, served in Canada in 1812-13-14, where he greatly distin
guished himself in command of Lacolle Mill, situated a few miles
near Rouse's Point, and where on the 30th March, 1814, and with
a small force of not five hundred men, and those not of the best,
and a scarcity of ammunition, he successfully and with the greatest
spirit held out against the attack ofthe American General Wilkin
son, with a force of more than five thousand ! History does not
furnish a brighter victory, for such it may be termed, than that
which he achieved with a comparatively small loss, against a well

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 229
organized army, composed of infantry, cavalry and artillery. They
kept up an incessant fire on the mill during the whole day ; and
at length were compelled to abandon an enterprise, from which
they only escaped with a great loss, sustained by the well effected
fire of Handcock's small force.

LIEUT.-COLONEL LEONARD.
Richard Leonard entered the army as an ensign in the 54th
Foot, in December, 1796, and became lieutenant in the February
following. After serving in Ireland during the rebellion of 1798,
he embarked from Southampton, and joined Sir Ralph Abercrombie
in the Mediterranean. He served the campaign of 1801 in Egypt,
and was assistant-engineer during the siege of Alexandria. In
1803 he was appointed town-major of New Brunswick ; and in 1805
he obtained a company in the New Brunswick regiment, afterwards
the 104th Foot, and continued to hold both these appointments until
1813, when he resigned the former, on his regiment being ordered
to Canada. In April he was appointed deputy-assistant-adjutant-
general ; and in that situation obtained permission to head his com
pany in the attack made on Sackett's Harbor, on the 29th of May,
in which his company suffered severely, until he was himself
wounded. In the campaign of 1814 he was again actively employed. He
bore a part in the action of the 25th of July at Lundy's Lane, and
was honorably mentioned in Sir Gordon Drummond's despatches
of that action. In the assault on Fort Erie, on the 15th of August,
he was severely wounded, and disabled from further service in the
campaign. He succeeded to the majority vacated by the death of
Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, who was killed at Fort Erie, and
served with the 104th in Lower Canada until it was disbanded in
1817. He subsequently retired to a small property he had pur
chased, partof the ground on which the action of Lundy's Lane was
fought, and there closed his honorable career, on the 31st October,
1833, universally regretted by the people of that portion of the
country, and a large circle of friends in the province.

230 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS

COLONEL CHEWETT.
William Chewett, Esquire, was born in London, on the 21st
December 1752 ; and, when about 18 years of age, passed his exa
mination as a surveyor and draughtsman for the East Indiaservice ;
but after receiving his appointment, he was attacked with small
pox, so that the ship in which he should have gone out sailed with
out him. On his recovery he decided upon going to America, and
arrived at Quebec in 1771. On the 20th of May, 1774, he received
an appointment in the surveyor-general's office for the province of
Quebec. During the American revolution he served in the Quebec
militia; and in the course ofthe siege, when off duty, he assisted in
the engineer department. After the defeat of the Americans, he
was appointed acting-paymaster of works to the engineer's, quarter
master's, and naval departments, for the ports of St. John, Isle-aux-
Noix, and the dependencies on lake Champlain, in which office he
remained till 1785. In 1786 he took charge of the district of
Luneburgh (now called the eastern district of Upper Canada), and
there surveyed lands and located the disbanded troops and loyalists.
In 1792 he was employed under Governor Simcoe, at Kingston, in
reconstructing the map of this province by dividing it into Upper
and Lower Canada. In 1802, upon the retirement of Mr. Surveyor-
General Smith, he was appointed deputy-surveyor-general, conjointly
with Mr. Ridout, who afterwards received an appointment of sur
veyor-general, which office he held till 1832, when he was allowed
to retire on full pay, after having served in varions departments for
upwards of fifty-eight years. Mr. Chewett held the appointment of
colonel of militia during the last American war, and commanded the
Canadian troops at the attack on Toronto, on which occasion he was
severely injured by the blowing up of the powder magazine. He
was taken prisoner by the Americans, and allowed to depart on his
parole. For a long time previous to and since his retirement from
public service, until his death, which occurred 24th September,
1849, Mr. Chewett resided at Toronto. Colonel Chewett was a
gentleman of well-known kindness, politeness and affability, and
was much esteemed by all who knew him.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 231

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE FLETCHER.
The Honorable J©hn Fletcher, provincial judge of the
district of St. Francis, Lower Canada, one of the justices of the
Court of Queen's Bench, for that district, and also of the Provincial
Court of Appeals, was born at Rochester, in the county of Kent,
England, in the year 1787, and was the son of the rector of
Dedham, in Essex. At an early age, the subject of this short
notice, was sent as a pupil to St. Paul's school, London, where
•he received his education. Having embraced the law as his
profession, he, after receiving a most liberal education, prosecuted
the study of that learned profession, and soon enjoyed an extensive
practice in London. Before migrating to Canada, Mr. Fletcher
had become distinguished as an eminent man of science in the great
world of London, where he contributed many valuable papers to
the leading scientific journals of that city; he was also well known
as a most able and successful lecturer. He arrived in Canada in
the year 1810, and was immediately admitted to the bar of that
country, and was for many years one of the leading members of
the profession, where his great forensic powers are well remem
bered. During the conte'st between the two great rival fur com
panies in the north-west territory, he was appointed one of the
commissioners for the settlement of the difficulties between them,
and had the military rank of major conferred upon him. The next
public position which he held, was that of chairman of Quarter
Sessions ; which he resigned upon his appointment to the judge
ship of the district of St. Francis, on the erection of the eastern
townships into a separate district, in the year 1823. In the estab
lishment of a system of judicature, in a newly settled country, he
had many and great obstacles to contend with, which his great
firmness and high sense of duty enabled him to overcome. By the
changes in the judicature, his duties were greatly increased,
and we regret to learn that his decease was in some measure
hastened by his anxiety to perform them, and more particularly by
his having presided in court within a few days of his death, con
trary to the advice of his medical attendant. This earnest desire
was strikingly manifested in his unremitting attention to the
discharge of his duties, as one of the members of the Court ot
Appeals in July 1844, when those who had known him many years,
and were aware of his advanced age, saw with pleasure that his
gigantic intellect and faculties were still unimpaired. He was
brought up in the faith of the Church of England, of which his

232 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
father and grandfather were ministers, and he lived a sincere
member of that church, and a devoted advocate of its doctrine and
institutions. He died at Sherbrooke, 11th November, 1844,
aged 77.

Hon. WILLIAM SMITH,
Author, we believe, of the first English history of Canada.
He was a son of the Chief-Justice Smith, and was born in June,
1770. He went to England from New York ; was educated at a
grammar school, at Kensington, near London, and came to Canada
with his father, in 1786. He was soon appointed clerk of the
Provincial Parliament, subsequently a master in chancery, and, in
1814, was appointed by the Earl Bathurst, then secretary-of-state
for the colonies, a member of the Executive Council. He married
Susan, daughter of Admiral Charles Webber, of Hampshire, Eng
land, by whom he had five children.

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE KERR.
Mr. Kerr was a native of Leith, the son of a highly respectable
merchant there ; and having received his early education at the
excellent old grammar school of Leith, and completed it at the
University of Glasgow, he went to London about 1785, and entering
at the Inner Temple, where he was admitted to the English bar.
While studying there, and after his admission, he made the
acquaintance, and, by his mental acquirements and gentlemanly
manner and character, secured the friendship of several men who
afterwards distinguished themselves in the legal profession ; among
these were Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger, and Best, afterwards
Lord Wynford, and Baron McLelland of the Irish bench.
In 1794, Mr. Kerr haviug married, came to try his fortune at
the Quebec bar, and returning to England in 1796, to bring out
his family, he was captured by a French cruiser, and taken to

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 233
France, but speedily exchanged ; and coming back to Quebec in
1797, received in the same year the appointment of judge of the
Vice- Admiralty.* Continuing to practice at the bar, he was in
1807 appointed ajudge of the King's Bench ; — 1812, was called
by Sir George Prevost, to the Executive Council, and by the Earl
of Dalhousie, in 1821, to the Legislative Council. During the
absence of Chief-Justice Sewell in England, in 1814, 1815 and
1816, and again in 1826-7, Mr. Kerr presided as senior judge in
the Court of King's Bench, and during the latter period as Speaker
of the Legislative Council.
In 1833, he proceeded to England to meet various frivolous and
malignant accusations brought against him by the Assembly, to
which the then secretary of state, Lord Stanley, assured him that
he did not think it necessary to require him to make an answer,
but on the change of ministry in 1834, the persons who then
came into office, not unwilling to make another sacrifice to the
prevailing party in the Assembly, removed him in October, 1834,
by an official manoeuvre, first from his situation as judge of the
Vice- Admiralty, thenTrom his seat in the King's Bench, on the plea
of a matter which had for years been a subject of correspondence
between him and the government at home, and which involved a
claim to emoluments which those authorities partly entertained, but
neither admitted or refused to him.
Returning to Quebec, in 1835, at the age of seventy, ruined in
fortune, and broken in health by a paralytic affection, brought on
by the injustice he had suffered, he lived in retirement until his
death, 5th May, 1846.
Mr, Kerr filled the various public situations in which he was
placed with strict integrity, with dignity and credit. His written
judicial decisions, especially in the admiralty, and his other public
compositions, were marked by considerable elegance and vigor of
style. His manners both in public and private life, were those of
a thorough gentleman of the old school ; and any occasional
infirmity of temper, the inheritance of our flesh, was soon forgotten,
by all except cankered minds, in the general courteousness of his
manners and goodness of his disposition. He was a devout believer
in the truths of Christianity, and an attached member of the
Church of England; and -his daily consolation, for some hours of
every day, for many years had been found in reading the scriptures, .
His paralytic affection prevented him from joining in general
conversation, though not from enjoying it among intimate friends;
and his chief recreation was in reading works of general literature.
He retained his faculties in a great degree, though diminished by
disease and natural decay, to within a few hours of his death. In
*His Commission as judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec was dated
I9th August, 1797.

234 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
his case the kindlier doom of our nature was reversed, which calls
away the aged before the younger, and only just four months before
his death, he had to deplore the loss of his son, in the vigor of
mature age, one of the most stirring, active and enterprising men in
Quebec. But the good old man was not long behind : " in the
extremest boundary of human life, without the throbs of agony, or
any but the slow gradations of dissolution and decay, and supported
and sustained by female filial piety (that blessed bounden duty)
he came as a shock of corn to the ground in his season."

COLONEL C. BARKER TURNER, K.H.
Colonel Turner was one of the veterans of Waterloo. He
came to Canada in 1838, on particular service, and was afterwards
appointed to the command of the eastern district in Upper Canada.
He remained there until 1843, when he went to England ; but, in
1845, he sold out of the army and returned to Canada as a per
manent resident. He died at Toronto, C. W., in 1853. One of
his daughters married the Honorable P. M. Vankoughnet, the
present commissioner of crown lands.

HENRY LEMESURIER, Esq.
Mr. Lemesurier, the son of the late Commissary-General
Haviland Lemesurier, was born in Guernsey, in the year 1791, his
family having been possessed of the neighboring island of Alderney
for some generations past, under royal patent. Following the
pursuits of his father, he entered the army in the year 1811, and
proceeded to Spain, where he served under the Duke of Welling
ton in the Peninsular campaign. He was present at the battle of
Salamanca, and, when carrying the colors of her Majesty's 48th
Regiment, in that engagement, was struck by a spent musket ball in
the abdomen, and whilst extending his right arm to retake the colors,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 235
it was carried away by a round shot. Being, in consequence of
this injury, disabled from following actively his regimental duties,
and yet averse to abandon the military profession, he joined, in
the year 1813, the commissariat department, and in that capacity
served in Canada during the war of 1812 with the United States ;
and having, in 181 8, upon the proclamation of peace, married into
one of the old French Canadian families, he retired during that year
on Jialf-pay, and fixed his future residence and interests in Canada.
He carried on, for many years, a very extensive mercantile
business in the city of Quebec; and for a considerable period of
time held the office of deputy-master of the Trinity House, and
upon the resignation ofthe late Honorable John Stewart, succeeded
that gentleman as master of the Trinity House ; an office which
he held at the time of his death. He also held the rank of lieu
tenant-colonel in the militia of the province, and in his capacity of
senior magistrate ofthe district of Quebec, had the honor to present
and read to the Prince of Wales, on the occasion of the visit of
His Royal Highness to Quebec, in August, 1860, the address of
the magistracy, being also actively engaged at the time, in the
successful demonstrations of loyalty and zeal with which his Royal
Highness was received in Quebec.
The Quebec Chronicle, in recording his death, which took place
on the 24th of May, 1861, said :—
" To chronicle the loss to Quebec of one of the oldest, most use
ful, and highly esteemed and respected of its citizens, is the
melancholy duty which has devolved upon us this day, as public
journalists. Mr. Henry Lemesurier is dead. A long life spent in
service of his Queen and country, in promoting the success of this
city, and in upholding the public interests and the welfare of his
fellow citizens, has been closed ; and whilst there thus passed away
from the very midst of us, and with a sudden transition from a
strong and hale old age to the quiet tomb, one so highly honored,
there yet rests to his friends the memory of his well spent life on
earth, and, we may trust, the consolatory hope of his eternal
happiness. *|E S|C -j* ?p 3fC Jf* ^JC 7|C
" Thus has passed away a loyal and devoted subject of the
Queen, an energetic citizen, and the affectionate head of a family,
who, whilst lamenting his loss, have the firm consolation of know
ing that whilst eagerly considerate of his public position, and the
duties attached to it, he deeply felt the higher responsibilities of -
a Christian career, and at all times humbly sought to prepare him
self for that moment which has now come, and removed him from
the scene of his earthly labors."

236 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir FREDERICK P. ROBINSON, G.C.B.
Sir F. P. Robinson who served in Canada towards the termi
nation of the war of 1812, and was afterwards lieutenant-governor
of Upper Canada was a son of Colonel Beverley Robinson, of New
York, and a U. E. Loyalist, a relative of Sir J. B. Robinson, Bart.,
chief-justice of Upper Canada, and a brave and distinguished Brit
ish officer.
He first entered the military service in February 1777, as ensign
in the Loyal American regiment, with which he served in North
America; in 1778 he removed to the 17th Regiment, and in 1799
to the 60th, and was a prisoner of war in America several months
during his connexion with this regiment, and made himself conspi
cuous in several engagements. In 1780 he joined the 38th, and
was promoted to the rank of captain in 1794. He served at the
capture of the West India Islands, under General Sir Charles
Grey, in that year including the siege of Fort Bourbon in the Is
land of Martinique. In. September, 1794, he gained his majority
in the 127th Regiment, and in 1795 returned home from the West
Indies. In May, 1796, he was appointed officer of the recruiting
service at Bedford, England, and some years afterwards filled the
same situation in the London district. While thus employed he
effected some valuable improvements in the recruiting service. In
1800 he was appointed to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel, and
in 1812 we find him serving as brigadier-general on t"he staff in
the Peninsula. In 1813, he was appointed major-general, aud
continued from that time on the staff in Spain, until 24th of May,
1814. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Vittoria ; at the siege of
Sebastian where he was wounded ; and at the actions connected with
the passage ofthe Nive, for which he received a medal and two clasps.
After the termination ofthe Peninsular war, he proceeded to Canada
as commander-in-chief of the forces in the upper province, and on
the 1st July, 1815, the government of Upper Canada devolved upon
him. This he held until 1816, when Mr. Francis Gore returned
from England. He shortly after removed to the West Indies, where
he took command ofthe troops. On the 2nd January, 1815, he was
nominated a knight commander of the order of the Bath. He
continued in command of the troops in the Leeward Islands until
July, 1821.
In 1825 he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-general.
In 1827 he became colonel of the 59th Regiment, and in 1838 was

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 237
nominated a knight grand cross of the order of the Bath. In
1840 he was made colonel of the 39th Regiment, and in 1841 was
promoted to the rank of general. His decease occurred at Brighton
on the 1st January, 1852.

Sir DAVID WILLIAM SMITH, Bart.
He was born on the 4th September 1764, and was the only child
of John Smith, Esquire, sometime of Salisbury, lieutenant-colonel of
the fifth Foot, who died commandant of the fortress of Niagara,
Canada West, in 1795, by Anne, daughter of William Waylen,
Esquire, of Rowde Hill and Devises, county Wiltshire. At an early
age he was appointed an ensign in his father's regiment, in which
he subsequently attained the rank of captain. Afterwards, he was
called to the bar in Upper Canada, with precedence as deputy-
judge-advocate ; and was appointed surveyor-general of lands, also
one of the trustees for the Six Nations, and one of the Executive
Council, and of the committee for administering the government
in the governor's absence; a member of the three first Canadian
Parliaments, and Speaker of the House of Assembly in two of
them. For these public services he was created a baronet by
patent, dated August 30, 1821.
The consummate ability with which he for a long period ad
ministered the affairs of the Duke of Northumberland in the
county of Northumberland, is well-known ; the kindness and warm
hearted generosity of his character, united with the manners of a
high-minded English gentleman, endeared him to all who had the
honor of his acquaintance, and will cause him to be long remem
bered with deep regret both in Upper Canada and in the neighbor
hood of Alnwick, where he last resided in England, where his
death whieh took place on the 9th of May, 1837, caused a blank
not readily filled.
Sir David Smith was twice married; first, on the 3rd November,
1788, to Anne, daughter of John O'Reilly, of Ballykilchrist,
couflty Longford, Esquire, and by that lady, who died in 1798, he
had issue eight children, three of whom died young; one son
David William, of H. M.'s frigate Spartan, was killed at Quiberon
in 1811 ; and three daughters survive, Mary Elizabeth, married in
1814 to Charles Tyler, Esq., and Sarah and Ann. Sir David married
secondly, in 1803, Mary, youngest daughter of John Tyler, Esq., of
Devises, banker, by whom he had one daughter, Hannah.

238 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Rev. PIERRE GIBERT.
This pious prelate, who was curate of St. Michel d'Yamaska,
was no ordinary man. He was a native of Normandy, and had
been obliged to expatriate himself in the early period ofthe French
revolution, when almost all his brethren of the clergy were
expelled from France. He had been, for about thirty years pre
viously to his decease, which took place at St. Michel d'Yamaska
on the 31st July, 1824, an inhabitant of Canada, where he was
held in estimation, not merely by those who had the happiness of
belonging to his own church, but the amenity and cheerfulness of
his manners, the kindness of his disposition, and his freedom from
illiberal prejudice, was esteemed and respected by persons of every
religious persuasion.
At his death he bequeathed a large sum of money to the various
charitable institutions of the lower province.

Hon. Sir W. CAMPBELL.
Mr. Chief-Justice Campbell, whom the present honored
chief-justice of Upper Canada succeeded in 1829, was a gentle
man of very great attainments and capacity. He originally had
served in the army in a subordinate capacity, and had fought
during the American revolutionary war. Having obtained his
discharge, he went, after the peace of 1783, to reside in Nova
Scotia; and although (we believe) he never studied, yet there he
was called to the bar. Subsequently he resided in Cape Breton
(which island then possessed a government of its own), and here
he was appointed attorney-general, and was also a member of the
Assembly. We do not know when he went to Upper Canada ; but
in 1811, he was appointed a puisne' judge there ; and in 1825, on
the retirement of Mr. Chief-Justice Powell, he was elevated to the
chief-justiceship, a post which he held until July, 1829, when he
resigned on account of his advanced years and the infirm state of
his health, and received the honor of knighthood, an honor which
he survived only a few years.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 239

Sir JOHN COPE SHERBROOKE, G.C.B.
General Sherbrooke, who succeeded General Sir Gordon
Drummond in the government of Canada, in 1816, was a military
commander of some repute, and had seen some service. He was
the youngest brother of W. Sherbrooke, Esq., of Oxton, and of
Colonel Cope, of Sherwood Lodge, Notts. He distinguished
himself in the taking of Seringapatam, in the East Indies, in
1797. He afterwards served on the Peninsula in the early cam
paign of the Duke of Wellington. Previously to his connection
with Canada, he administered the government of Nova Scotia, as
history tells us, " with "much tact and dexterity."
He assumed the reins of government at a most critical period
of the country, — namely, that in which the farmers of Lower
Canada suffered the total loss of their wheat crop. The wise and
prudent course adopted by Sir John in this instance, secured for
him the love and esteem of all. He took the responsibility of
advancing to the relief of the farmers the sum of £14,216 to
secure them from destitution, and to assist them in laying
down another crop. On the meeting of Parliament, it not only
released him from the responsibility which he had taken on him
self, but voted an additional sum of £35,500 for the same purpose,
and to loan to industrious and deserving farmers.
He took a bold and determined stand in the matter of Judges
Sewell and Monk; and, when advised by the home government
to support thpse gentlemen, plainly replied that it would be
hopeless, and strongly advised the impeachment to be tried before
the Privy Council. To his resolute, manly and open conduct in
this instance must be ascribed the result.
During his administration, he also effected the entrance of the
Speaker of the Assembly ex-officio to a seat in the Executive
Council ; and the concurrence of the Imperial Government was
announced, that it accepted the Canadian government's offer to
defray the expenses of the Civil List.
Sir John governed the province from 1816 to 1818 ; and on
account of ill health, but principally from dislike of the station,
he requested his recall. Accordingly, he left the country on the
12th August, carrying with him the best wishes and regards of
the majority of the people of Lower Canada. Prior to his depar
ture, numerous addresses were presented to him from different
sections of the country, all breathing alike the warmest sentiments
of good will and prayers for his future welfare.

240 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
He returned home, but did not leave the military service, as, in
May, 1825, we perceive he was raised to the high rank of general.
His death occurred on the 14th of February, 1830, at Claverton,
Nottinghamshire.

Hon. SAMUEL SMITH.
We now present to our readers, a brief notice of the memorable
life of the Honorable Samuel Smith, administrator of the govern
ment of Upper Canada, one of the distinguished United Empire
loyalists, an early pioneer of the vast and beautiful country of
Upper Canada, which owes much of its present position to the
energy and zeal displayed by Mr. Smith. This gentleman himself,
without the assistance of any member of the " Family Compact," or
any other party, from a quiet citizen of York, the then capital,
was raised to a seat in the Council; and from that to the highest
position in the country. He was administrator of the government
of the upper province, a post which he held with distinguished
ability, from 1817 to 1818, and again in 1820, on the respective
resignations of Francis Gore, Esquire, and Sir Peregrine Maitland,
the lieutenant-governors. In his high office he displayed more
than ordinary wisdom and efficiency.
His decease took place at his residence, Toronto, on 20th October,
1826. He was universally regretted, as he had been esteemed by
the whole population of the western capital, and by numerous
friends in the upper province.
Mr. Smith had a large family of seven daughters and two sons,
most of whom are still living. We give an extract from an Upper
Canada paper, published soon after Mr. Smith's death. Believing
that it cannot but prove interesting to his many friends, and
admirers, we reproduce it : —
" The late Honorable Samuel Smith was one of that patriotic
band who, having preserved their allegiance to tlieir sovereign
inviolate during the revolt of the American colonies, at the close
of the contest sought an asylum in this province, under the protec
tion of that gracious king, in whose cause they sacrificed their
all. The example of such men deserves an honorable record, and
we have no doubt that it will be satisfactory to his associates in
arms, throughout the province, if we attempt to give a summary
of an eulogy on the character of Mr. Smith, in a sermon delivered-
on Sunday last, at York, by the Reverend Doctor Phillips, the

and persons Connected witS cAnadA: 24i
substance of which, we think we are correct in quoting as fol
lows : —
" ' It affords us much pleasure, to recapitulate his virtues as a
soldier, a senator, a father, and a friend. His youthful blood was
shed in our country's cause, and he nobly withstood the mad career
of rebellion, to maintain the standard of British glory. His
conduct in the high and distinguished office of administrator of
the government of this province was marked with undeviating
rectitude, evincing on all occasions, a firm attachment to the best
interests of this happy and flourishing colony. He was a zealous
supporter of the laws and constitution of the British empire, and
a bright ornament of our protestant church. Paternal affection
and solicitude, were conspicuous in his domestic relations, and as a
friend, the individual feelings of those who knew him from his
youth, many of whom are here present, who were his fellow
associates in the arduous cause, in which he was engaged, will bear
testimony to his extreme kindness and amiable disposition. As a
Christian, the sincerity of his faith, and pious resolutions, were
manifested by his walking humbly with his God.' "

DUKE OP RICHMOND, K.G.
Charles Gordon Lennox, fourth Duke of Richmond, Earl of
March, and Baron of Sittrington in the peerage of England ; Duke
of Lennox, Earl of Darnley and Baron Methuen in the peerage of
Scotland, and Duke d' Aubigny in France, was the only son of
Lieutenant-General Lord George Henry Lennox, by Louisa,
daughter of the fourth Marquis of Lothian, having been born in
1764. His grace succeeded General Sherbrooke in the govern
ment of Canada, on the 29th of July, 1819. He had previously
held the high and distinguished office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
in which he had given much satisfaction to the people of that dis
tracted country.
His administration of the government here was not of a pro
longed nature ; but during the short time he held the reins of power,
he did much to shew the determined and energetic nature of his
character ; more particularly on the occasion when the legislature,
having refused to grant any supplies to defray the civil list, he
drew on the receiver-general on his own responsibility. Death cut
short the career of this great man, on the 27th of August, 1820,
31

242 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
during a tour of inspection in Upper Canada, singularly enough
through the bite of a tame fox, not suspected to be in a rabid state,
with which he was amusing himself. His demise occurred at a
village on the Ottawa, called after himself; his remains were con
veyed to Quebec, and buried in the English cathedral of that
ancient city.
His grace had married in 1789, Charlotte, daughter ofthe fourth
Duke of Gordon, by whom he had a large progeny.
The original letter, which we produce, describing the manner of
his death, was written by a member of his staff, and may be inter
esting to our readers : —
" Quebec, September 6. — You will learn from the Quebec papers
the melancholy event of the death of his Grace the Duke of Rich
mond ; but nothwithstanding what you will observe in them, it is
affirmed a case of hydrophobia was the cause of this sad catastrophe,
and it is asserted to have originated from the bite of a fox on the
28th of June. His grace having left this place about the 24th of
June on an extensive tour through the Canadas, after his arrival
at William Henry, one hundred and thirty-five miles up the river,
whilst walking about the village with his little dog Blucher, met a
fox about the place, with which the dog appeared sociable, and
they entered into play together. His grace seemed much pleased,
and expressed sometliing like a wish that the fox should be pur
chased. Accordingly, the hint was attended to by a servant
belonging to the suite, who purchased the fox the same night.
Next morning Sir C. Saxton, seeing the fox tied to a tent pitched
for the accommodation of the servants, and apparently much irri
tated from his restrained situation under a scorching sun, desired
that the animal might be removed somewhere into the shade.
He was then fixed to a wicket-gate in front of the house. His
grace, on coming out in the morning, observing the fox, which he
knew to be the same he had seen the day before, went up to him,
saying, ' Is this you, my little fellow ?' and on offering to put out
his hand to caress the fox, Sir Charles Saxton touched the duke on
the shoulder to prevent it, apprising his grace at the same time of
the irritation of the fox, and that he might bite. ' No, no,' said
his grace, ' the little fellow will not bite me !' and putting out his
hand, the fox snapped and made three scratches on the back of his
hand, which drew blood. His grace, quickly drawing it back,
said, ' Indeed, my friend, you bite very hard.' The next morning,
his grace found an uneasy sensation in his shoulder ; but nothing
further occurred till near returning from his tour ; when at the
new back settlement of Perth, on the 22nd or 23rd of August, after
having returned from walking, his grace desired his servant to
make two glasses of wine and water for himself and Major Bowles.
As soon as the duke took the wine and water, he observed to the
major that he felt a strange sensation on drinking it. On the way

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 243
from Perth towards the Ottawa river, some of the attendants
observed his irritability, and extreme aversion to water on crossing
the smallest streamlets in the woods ; and they could scarcely get
him along. On his approaching a small hut on the Ottawa river,
rather than go into a house close to the river, he turned short and
ran into a barn ; at another time he ran from them into the woods,
as if to shun the sight of water. His disorder was now rapidly
increasing ; but on his arrival within six miles this side of the new-
named place Richmond, after suffering most excruciating torments,
he died, at eight o'clock on Saturday morning, the 28th of August."
The following is an extract from the Montreal Herald of that
day :—
" In public life he was steady, firm, and decisive in his measures,
He was accessible to all who chose to prefer their complaints to
him; and when he was compelled to refuse their prayers, he
anxiously studied to convey that refusal in terms the least unpleas
ing to the feelings of the applicant. In private life his affable
condescension was gratifying to all around him ; and although he
could descend to the social intercourse of the domestic circle, he
never lost sight of that native dignity whieh repelled improper
liberties, and checked the forward. In early life, devoted from
choice to the profession of arms, he evinced that most valuable of
all qualities in an officer, the power of securing the attachment of
those under him. And when he afterwards came to be employed
in the more difficult and complex duties of a ruler, he performed
the office so as to secure him the esteem and confidence of his
sovereign, and the ardent attachment of those people over whom
he was placed. A striking instance of this was evinced in his
appointment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. At a time when con
tending parties, and discontented individuals distracted the public
mind in that couutry, his grace's behavior soon produced the
happiest result. His affable condescension pleased all parties; his
confidence gained their esteem ; and they soon discovered that the
chief aim of his administration was to relieve their distresses, and
promote their happiness. At the present time, though twelve
years have elapsed since his appointment to that office, the anni
versary of the arrival of the Duke of Richmond in Ireland, still
continues to be celebrated in that country with the warmest
enthusiasm and most gratifying recollection of the event. And
this we consider a higher tribute to his memory than ' storied urn
or monumental epitaph ' can ever perpetuate."
It was resolved by the magistrates at Montreal, in consequence
of the death of this lamented nobleman, that the public should be
requested to wear mourning thirty days.

244 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir PEREGRINE MAITLAND, G.C.B.
Sir Peregrine Maitland was born at Longparish House,
in Hampshire, in 1777. He was the son of Thomas Maitland,
Esq., of Shrubs Hall, in the New Forest, by Miss Dewar, daughter
of George Dewar, Esq., and niece to Brownlow, last Duke of
Ancaster. He entered the army June 25, 1792, as ensign in the 1st GuardB,
and was promoted to lieutenant and captain, April 30, 1794. He
served the campaigns in Flanders, and was present in the several
actions ; and also at Ostend in 1798. He succeeded to a company,
June 25, 1803, with the rank of lieutenant>colonel. In 1808 and
1809 he was employed in Spain, where he was engaged in the
action of Lugo, and at Corunna, for which he received the silver
war medal. He was ahio in the expedition of the latter year to
the Scheldt. He attained the brevet rank of colonel, January 1,
1812. At the battle of the Nive he commanded the first brigade
of Guards, for which he received the gold medal. He became a
major-general, June 4, 1814 ; and at Waterloo commanded the
first British brigade of the first division, consisting of the second
and third battalions of the 1st Foot Guards. On the 22nd June,
1815, he was nominated a knight commander of the Bath; and
for his services at Waterloo he also received the fourth class of
the Russian order of Wladimir, and the third class of the order
of Wilhelm of the Netherlands.
On the 3rd of January, 1818, Sir Peregrine Maitland was ap
pointed lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada,
and accompanied his father-in-law, the late Duke of Richmond, to
Canada. On the death of that nobleman, he administered the
government of Lower Canada until the arrival of the Earl of
Dalhousie, the governor-general ; nothing extraordinary marked
his administration of affairs. He was afterwards lieutenant-governor
of Nova Scotia.
On the 22nd July, 1830, he was promoted to the rank of
lieutenant-general ; and on the 19th July, 1834, appointed to the
command of the 76th Foot.
He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Madras army on
the 17th April, 1836 ; and was succeeded by Sir Jasper Nicolls
in December, 1838 ; and from December 1843 to September, 1846,
he was governor and commander-in-ohief at the Cape of Good
Hope. He was removed from the command of the 76th to that of the
17th Foot on the 2nd January, 1843.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 245
In November, 1846, he attained the full rank of general ; and
in 1852 he was nominated a knight grand cross of the Bath.
He died in London on the 30th May, 1854.
Sir Peregrine Maitland was twice married : first, in 1803, to the '
Honorable Louisa Crofton, third daughter of Anne, Baroness
Crofton, and Sir Edward Crofton, Baronet, M.P. for the County
Roscommon. She died in 1805. He married, secondly, October
9, 1815, Lady Sarah Lennox, second daughter of Charles, fourth
Duke of Richmond and Lennox.

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE PIERRE BEDARD.
This celebrated Canadian politician, was born at Quebec, in
1763. He followed the profession of the law, and was one of the first
native Canadians admitted to the bar of Canada, as also one of the
first members of its Legislative Assembly, wherein he became
leader of the opposition party during the administration of Sir
James Craig He was one of the founders of Le Canadien news
paper, and was incarcerated by the government for admitting into
its pages some violent political articles reflecting on the conduct
of the governor-general and the executive. He remained in
confinement, and demanded a trial, so as to exonerate himself from
the charges preferred against him, although at perfect liberty to
leave his imprisonment ; he, however, tarnished his patriotism,
by accepting, as the gift of the government which had persecuted
him, the post of a district judgeship; and, in consequence, became
extremely unpopular with his party. He, however, filled his
appointment long and ably, and with much advantage to the public.
His death occurred in 1827. He preserved down to his last ill
ness an ardent love of knowledge, which, united to his warm and dis
interested patriotism, and the peculiar simplicity of manners, so often
found combined with genius, formed the basis of a character, whose
public and private worth is rarely surpassed.

246 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

ROBERT GOURLAY, Esq.
We extract from McMullen this brief account of this remarkable
man's career, (more particularly in this country,) which forms one
of the vilest pages in our history, and is an indelible stain on the
memory of the then lieutenant-governor, Mr. Francis Gore.
"While tbe incipient seeds of discontent and agitation were thus
(referring to some violent act on the part of the government in 1817)
being firmly planted in the community, Robert Gourlay, destined to
figure somewhat prominently in the affairs of this country for a
short time, came out in the month of July. Attracted hither by
Brockville, he was sued for another libel in the same petition, but was
again honorably acquitted ; and, having now twice defeated the gov
ernment, was, apparently, in a fair way of becoming quite a popular
personage. But his elevation had been too rapid to be lasting.
" On the 12th of October, the Legislature was opened by the
lieutenant-governor, with a short speech, one paragraph of whieh
was levelled at Mr. Gourlay. ' In the course of your investiga
tion,' said Sir Peregrine, 'you will, I doubt not, feel a just
indignation at the attempts which have been made to excite dis
content, and to organize sedition. Should it appear to you, that
a convention of delegates cannot exist, without danger to the
constitution, in framing a law of prevention, your dispassionate
wisdom will be careful that it shall not unwarily trespass on the
sacred right of the subject to seek a redress of his grievances by
petition.' " The Assembly were as thoroughly alarmed by the convention
as the government, and regarded the movement as an infringement
on the rights of parliamentary representation, and a censure on
their body. The term convention, too, was an American phrase,
which smacked of republicanism, and of itself alarmed the mem
bers. ' We remember,' said they, in an address to the governor,
on the 19th of October, ' That this favored land was assigned to our
fathers as a retreat for suffering loyalty, and not as a sanctuary for
sedition. We lament that the designs of one factious individual
(Gourlay), should have succeeded in drawing into the support of
his vile machinations, so many honest men and loyal subjects of
his Majesty.' Not a word was breathed about grievances, or the
condition of the province ; the convention had all that business to
itself. The Assembly were now prepared to pass any measure the
executive might recommend, and to put their ban, if necessary,
upon the unluoky Gourlay. On the 28th of October, Jonas Jones,
of Brockville, introduced a bill to prevent the future assemblage

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 247
of conventions, under the head of ' An act for preventing certain
meetings within this province,' which was duly passed into law,
twelve out of a house of thirteen voting.for it.*
" The extreme position taken by the Legislature, and the efforts
of the ' Family Compact/ produced a re-action against Mr. Gourlay,
in several parts of the country, and many persons were led to
believe that he was really a seditious and disloyal person ; still,
considering himself perfectly safe, and not a little elated at the
sudden importance he had acquired as the Canadian Cobbett, he
resolved to settle permanently in the province as a land-agent.
But the executive determined they should not be so easily foiled.
An assembly man, of the name of Isaac Swaize, was found base
enough to swear, that Mr. Gourlay had not been a resident" of the
province for six months, and was a seditious person. He thus
came under the ban of a statute, passed in 1804, levelled against
foreigners, and was served with an order, on the 21st of December,
to quit the country before the new year. He disobeyed this order;
was arrested, and incarcerated in Niagara jail, to the great indig
nation of his friends, still very numerous. By a writ of habeas
corpus, he was brought before Chief-Justice Powell, at Toronto,
in February ; but the latter refused to give him his liberty by
bail, and remanded him to prison.
" In June, the Legislature again assembled. In his opening
speech, the governor stated he had received instructions from the
Crown, to grant lands to the militia; but that he would take the
responsibility on himself of refusing them to the members of the
recent convention. It was anxiously expected that the Assembly
would evince its disapprobation of this part of the address. After
a long debate it was endorsed by the casting vote of the Speaker,
and the Upper House concurred in language the most direct and
submissive. " This conduct afforded afresh grievance-text to Mr. Gourlay, and
he hurled anathemas from his cell against the executive, through
the columns of the Niagara Spectator. This led to his being
refused every indulgence, for some time, till his health completely
failed. His long confinement, tliere being only one gaol delivery
in the year, had almost rendered him insane ; and, when brought
to trial at the Niagara Court of Queen's Bench, he was nearly
unconscious ofthe entire proceedings. He was indicted for merely
refusing to obey the order to quit the province, which the act
already alluded to made a misdemeanor, and not for sedition ; was
found guilty, as a matter of course, and compelled to retire imme
diately into the United States, whence he shortly afterwards
proceeded to England.f
*This law was repealed two years afterwards, Chief-Justice Robinson alone
voted against its repeal.
f Mr. Gourlay published his work on Canada in 1822. It contains a large

248 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" Such was the termination of Mr. Gourlay's connection with
Canada. Whatever may have been his faults or his follies, he
meant well at all events ; and, at the present day, there can be
only one opinion of the treatment he met with ; to wit, that it
was most unj ust, unconstitutional, and despotic, and reflects indeli
ble disgrace on the public men who gave it the sanction of their
authority. The people of Canada have reason to thank Providence
such an occurrence cannot again disgrace their country, and, that
the sway of the oligarchy, who permitted it, has long since passed
away, never to return."
Mr. Gourlay married, only a few years since, (about 1858), a
lady belonging to Woodstock, C. W., where he was then residing,
he being then some seventy odd years of age. He lives now, in
Edinburgh, Scotland.

EARL OF DALHOUSIE, G.C.B.
General George, Earl of Dalhousie, one of the gover
nor generals of Canada, was the ninth earl of that ancient and
time honored house; he was born in 1770, and succeeded to the title
and estate on the death of his father in November, 1787. In the
month of July, of the same year, he entered the army, having pur
chased a cornetcy in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, from which he was
promoted to the rank of captain by raising, as was not uncommon
at that day, an independent company, commanded by himself. In
1791, his lordship was appointed to a company in the 2nd battalion
Royals, and immediately joined the corps, then doing duty at
Gibraltar; his promotion to the rank of major quickly followed,
and in 1792 was obtained, by purchase, in the 2nd Foot, with
which he proceeded in command to Martinique ; and in August,
1794, succeeded to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the regiment.
In the following year he returned to England, having been
severely wounded in one of the numerous sanguinary affairs which
amount of very useful matter touching this province ; hut the bad arrangement
renders it less valuable than it should be. In 1822, he became temporarily
insane. Mr. Gourlay was in Canada a few years since, but returned back again
to Scotland. While in prison in Canada, he proposed a tax on wild land, as a
check to speculators — a plan soon after oarried into effect, and advocated tho
improvement of the navigation of the St. Lawrence. Vide Niagara Spectator,
24th June, 1819.
In England, he was subsequently imprisoned, on the ground of insanity, for
striking Lord Brougham in the lobby of the Houes of Commons.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WPTH CANADA. 249
took place between the British forces and the French republican
troops and brigands in that island. In 1798, his lordship served
in Ireland, then in a state of rebellion ; and in 1799, embarked on
the expedition to the Helder, and was present in all the actions of
that campaign. His lordship received the brevet of colonel in
January, 1800, his services during that year were first under Gen
eral Maitland before Belleisle, whence he joined the force under
Sir Ralph Abercrombie, at Minorca, and proceeded with that army
to Egypt, where he participated in the actions of the 8th and 21st
March. On this expedition his lordship commanded the detach
ment sent against the forts of Aboukir and Rosetta, whence he
advanced to Cairo. In 1802, the Earl of Dalhousie was again in gar
rison at Gibraltar, and in the following year was appointed briga
dier-general on the staff in Scotland. He remained in this situa
tion till April, 1805, when he was included in the promotion that
took place on the 25th of that month, as major-general.
His lordship now remained at home for some time, and in this
year he married Christian, only daughter, and sole heiress of Charles
Brown, Esquire, of Coalston, Mid-Lothian. During this interval
of repose from his professional labors, Lord Dalhousie attended to
the superintendence of his family estate, which by judicious man
agement he greatly improved ; for though he entered the army at
an early age, and was, as has been shown, almost constantly en
gaged in active service, he had not neglected to study more peace
ful arts, and was esteemed a scientific and successful agriculturist
amongst the best of farmers. His fondness, indeed, for agricul
tural pursuits never forsook him, and it was familiarly said that
his lordship was most judicious in his view of ground whether he
looked at it as a farmer or a general.
In 1809, he was appointed to the staff in England, where he
remained for a short period, when he accompanied the expedition
to the Scheldt ; was first with the reserve under Sir John Hope,
and afterwards in command at Flushing. On the termination of that
ill-fated expedition, in which as fine and well appointed an army
as ever left England, was almost annihilated by the unhealthiness
of the climate, Lord Dalhousie was appointed to the staff of the
army on the Peninsula, where he greatly distinguished himself in
several of the most important actions ; and was mentioned with
honor by the Duke of Wellington, particularly for his conduct at
Vittoria, and in the battles of the Pyrenees. He received also the
repeated thanks of both houses of Parliament for his distinguished
services, particularly at Waterloo, and obtained a medal and a
clasp for these battles. At Toulouse, Lord Dalhousie again rendered
conspicuous services, and near St. Andrew de Cuhzac, drove the
French general, L'Huillier, so hard, that upwards of three hundred
prisoners fell into the hands of the seventh division commanded by
his lordship. 32

250 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
This brief record of some of the military services rendered to
his country by the noble and gallant earl, is principally drawn
from the Royal Military Calendar.
When the army entered France, Lord Dalhousie commanded at
Bourdeaux, where the strict discipline he maintained amongst the
troops, flushed as they were by hard won victories, and the protec
tion he afforded to the inhabitants, rendered him justly popular.
The authorities of that city, touched by his noble conduct, presented
his lordship with a handsome gold-mounted sword, having on the
guard a suitable inscription, in token of their gratitude for his
generous conduct towards them.
On the 18th July, his lordship was created an English baron ; he
had before sat in the Lords as one of the representative peers of
Scotland. In 1816, he was appointed lieutenant-general command
ing in Nova Scotia, whence, on the unfortunate death of Charles, Duke
of Richmond, his lordship was preferred to the rank of governor-
in-chief, and commander of the forces of British North America,
but did not arrive in Canada and assume the government until
1820. He retained this high station — with the exception of an
interval of about fifteen months, during which his lordship was
absent on leave, in England — till 1828.
Of the political events of his government, or the correctness of
his views, it is not here necessary to speak — they forming such a
conspicuous part of the history of Canada. It is sufficient to
observe that the concessionary and conciliatory policy pursued by
the successors of this noble and venerated peer, far from produc
ing the harmony which it was fondly but inconsiderately hoped
would arise from the indulgence shown by the mother country
towards the dissatisfied in the colony of Lower Canada, led to
a crisis which would, in all human probability, have been avoided
had his successors in office been instructed to pursue the manly
and energetic steps of this honest and high-minded governor.
On his return from Canada after a short interval, Lord Dalhousie
was appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies, in which
important command, the highest in rank of all military commands
in the colonies, he rendered himsellf generally beloved and respected.
Unhappily his health was much impaired, and he returned to
his native land, not to enjoy repose after his long and varied ser
vices, but to wear out the remainder of a life, whose best days had
been devoted to his country, with a shattered constitution and
frequent and severe suffering, from which at length, it pleased the
Almighty to release him in the sixty-eighth year of his age, after
a noble, honorable and useful career, worthy his high rank and
illustrious ancestry. His death took place at his seat, Dalhousie
Castle, Scotland, on the 21st March, 1838.
In his politics, the Earl of Dalhousie was through life a staunch
conservative, but was not- so bigoted in his political opinions as to

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 251
allow them to interfere with his1 private friendships ; he remained
on terms of intimacy with those who took a prominent part with
the party to which his lordship was constantly and conscientiously
opposed. In private life the lamented earl was a warm friend and
a kind patron, and though his fortune was by,no means large, yet
by a system of liberal economy he was always enabled to indulge
his beneficent propensities in donations and subscriptions to works
of public improvement — to institutions for the relief of his suffering
fellow creatures, and in acts of private charity; to these his lordship
was always found a cheerful contributor.
The Earl of Dalhousie was a general in the army, and colonel of
the 26th Regiment of Foot. He was also captain-general of the
Royal Company of Archers or Queen's Body Guard of Scotland,
and was governor of the Royal Bank of that kingdom, in which no
nobleman enjoyed a higher degree of estimation amongst his coun
trymen of all classes. He was succeeded in his title and estates
by James, Lord Ramsay, who was his lordship's youngest son, and
who died in 1860. His elder brother, George Lord Ramsay, died
after his return from India, where he had served in the 26th
Regiment, and on the staff of his noble father, of a disease contracted
in that climate. The second son, Charles, died at an early age.

M. ABBE LOUIS J. DESJARDINS.
M. Desjardins, a native of Beaugency in France, and brother
of the late Abbe" Desjardins, the archdeacon of Ste. Genevieve of
Paris, was one of the numerous victims who were forced by the
French revolution to seek an asylum on foreign shores. He and
his companions narrowly escaped the blow of the republican axe :
the instrument destined to perform his execution, being sharpened
under his eyes.
Wearied of awaiting in England the termination of the storms
which afflicted his country, M. Desjardins determined to come to
Canada, where he arrived in 1794, and where the last fifty-four
years of his life glided away; first as vicar to the curacy of Quebec ;
afterwards as missionary at Carleton, in Chaleurs Bay, and among
the Micmac Indians of Ristigouche, whose language he acquired.
He then removed to Quebec, where he supplied the place of his
Grace the late Bishop Plessis, in the chities of his curacy; and
in the capacity of chaplain to the ladies of the Hotel Dieu, till
the year 1836.

252 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
By reason of his constantly increasing infirmities, M. Desjardins
was forced at this period to renounce his employment. His retire
ment, sanctified by the meditation of eternal years, shed new lustre
on the virtues of this excellent ecclesiastic ; especially his noble
devotion in the sufferings which accompanied him to the tomb.
He died in 1848.
M. l'Abbe' Desjardins always knew how to honor the sacred
functions of the ministry, by imposing gravity, great regularity of
life, and a zeal which the frosts of age could not cool. He knew
too, in the different stations of life, how to conquer by the good
ness of his heart, and the suavity of his manners, the esteem and
benevolence of ail classes of society.
A calm death, because without remorse — the death of the just —
crowned a long life and an honorable career.

Hon. CHRISTOPHER WIDMER, M.D., M.L.C.
This gentleman was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons,
and formerly staff surgeon attached to the Fourteenth Light
Dragoons. He served through nearly the whole of the Peninsular
campaign, and held the medal with five clasps : — viz., for Vittoria,
Salamanca, Fuentes d'Onoro, Busaco, and Talavera. He came to
Canada during the late American war, and resided here from that
time until his death, which occurred on the 2nd May, 1858.
As a member of the Legislative Council, Dr. Widmer secured
the esteem of his fellow-legislators, by a quiet and gentlemanly
performance of the duties appertaining to his position. He was
appointed a member of the Council on the 15th of August, 1843,
under a writ of summons from the crown. Although he never
prominently came forward as the advocate of great measures, he
was always regarded in the council chamber with unfeigned
respect, and by the public with a degree of confidence warranted
by his integrity. A feeling tribute to his worth was paid by the
Honorable John Ross, in the Council, on the day that his death was
announced, and thatbody adjourned as a mark of respect to their
deceased colleague.
Dr. Widmer was one of the oldest inhabitants of the city of
Toronto, and was always prominent in the advocacy of measures
calculated to ensure a just administration of its local affairs. He
died within a few days of his 78th year, and was in the full exercise

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 253
of his faculties up to the night preceding his death. As a
medical man, few men have been more ardently devoted to the
profession he adorned. His general affability and friendly dis
position secured for him the sincere regard of the younger
members of the profession ; whilst his long tried skill secured
him the highest position in the estimation of all classes of the
community.

Hon. Mr. CHIEF-JUSTICE REID.
The Honorable James Reid filled the judicial office of one
of the judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, Lower Canada, for
a period of thirty-three years ; fifteen of which, he presided as
chief-justice, and his administration of its functions during that
long period shed a lusire alike upon the tribunal and the judge.
Mr. Reid was admitted to the bar in the year 1794, after a pro
fessional career marked by untiring industry and honorable con
duct; he was, in May, 1807, raised to the bench, as one of the
puisne" judges, the duties of which he performed with unsullied
dignity, as an upright, impartial, and laborious judge.
In the year, 1823, he was elevated to the office of chief-justice,
and presided as such on the bench, until the year 1838, when the
weight of declining years warned him to seek that repose which
befitted his advanced age, and to enjoy the leisure to which by a
long and laborious life, he had become honorably entitled, and he
resigned his office. In the discharge of his judicial labors, he
was admired for his integrity, firmness, and unconquerable indus
try. After relinquishing office, Mr. Reid and his family visited
Europe, and while in England, the honor of knighthood was offer
ed to him as a mark of the royal approbation of his long and valu
able services ; but a long life of public service, and a conscientious
and faithful discharge of public duty, had secured to him the es
teem of his fellow-citizens, and conferred upon him a rank beyond
the records of the Herald's office, or the fugitive honors of a title,
and he declined accepting it.
As a judge, no man ever possessed more general respect and
public confidence during his judicial career, and well did he de
serve it ; for no man ever devoted himself more conscientiously,
with more scrupulous fidelity and zeal to the discharge of public
duties. His judgments were admirable for perspicuity of state-

254 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
ment, conciseness and clearness* without being eloquent, in man
ner they had the full effect of the best eloquence. He possessed
a patience which no prolixity could exhaust, an equanimity which
nothing could distract. He had much moderation, united with
great firmness. His integrity was inflexible ; his principles un
compromising. His professional learning was extensive. It was the judicial ac
cumulation of fifty years steady devotion to the science, as well as
practice of jurisprudence. Mr. Reid always entertained the
loftiest notions of the dignity and utility of the profession, and
(while sitting on the bench) endeavored on all occasions, to diffuse
among the members of the bar, a deep sense of its importance and
responsibility. His public life was marked by a most consistent and uniform
course. Amidst the frenzy of party spirit and political contro
versies, which unhappily often agitated the public mind during his
official life, he always stood with a steady inflexibility. To no
court did he ever truckle ; to no party did he ever bend. In pri
vate life he was benevolent, charitable, kind, and hospitable. His
virtue was stern and inflexible, adjusted, indeed, rather to the
vigorous standard of ancient morality, than the less elevated max
ims of the modern code. Full of years and honors, he left
behind him an example which many of his profession may endea
vor to imitate, but very few can hope to excel.

LIEUT.-COLONEL BY, R.E.
Some notice of this celebrated officer, with whose name is con
nected, some of the greatest engineering works in the province,
and the founding of what is now known as the flourishing city of
Ottawa, soon to be the capital of Canada, may prove" interesting to
a majority of our readers.
From the meagre materials at our disposal, we learn that Colonel
By was born about the year 1780. His father held a subordinate
capacity in the household of George III. ; and it was through his
influence, that his son was appointed to the honorable corps, in
which he afterwards so distinguished himself. He first came to
Canada in the year 1800, when a lieutenant, under the command
of Captain, subsequently General Nicoll, R.E. ; and shortly after

*See the oaso of Joseph Fisher, in the American Jurist, p. 297.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 255
his arrival, was entrusted with the construction of the boat canal,
at the Cascades above Montreal, which he successfully accomplished.
On his completing this undertaking, he returned to Quebec, and
superintended the building of the four martello towers outside
the walls of Quebec ; and at this time he also got up the celebrated
model of that city, which was conveyed to England, and submitted
to the Duke of Wellington for inspection.
In 1811, Colonel By proceeded to England, soon after the
departure of the governor, Sir James Craig ; and again returned
in 1826, for the express purpose of constructing the Rideau
canal ; a work, which the imperial government was resolved to carry
out, so that in the event of another war with the Americans, there
might be another route, besides the St. Lawrence, for the convey
ance of stores and troops to Kingston, as this enterprise in 1812
was a work of no little difficulty and danger. From the " Records
of the Royal Engineers," London, we find that, excepting a partial
survey made of the line of operations, by Captain Jebb, in 1815,
the whole work entirely owes its origination and completion to the
ingenuity and skill of By, who, overcoming all obstacles and
difficulties, at last fairly accomplished what had been entrusted to
him ; and had the satisfaction of seeing one of the greatest works
in the. province fully carried out and set in operation. It was
during the time that the Rideau was building, that the first huts
were raised by him on the present site of what is now Ottawa
city, which even unto this day is known as Bytown.
But some irregularities or mismanagement in the pecuniary
affairs of the canal having arisen, and being attributed to him, in
August 1832, he proceeded to England to vindicate his conduct ;
but there, instead of meeting with the reception which he merited,
he received nothing but reproaches ; and this treatment acting on
a naturally weak constitution, finally caused his death. Many
affirm that he really died of a broken heart, having looked forward
to receiving some royal mark of favor or honor for his successful
exertions in carrying out the great work which alone is a mighty
evidence of his professional skill and assiduity.
He had married twice ; his second wife was a lady of high
connections, and one of his daughters married, we believe, Lord
Ashburnham. All have now passed away, and the name of By is
all that is left of one of whom it may be said, that he did his
duty faithfully, and sacrificed himself to his zeal in the service of
his sovereign.

256 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. and Right Rev. CHAS. J. STEWART.
The name of this truly excellent and devoted servant of Christ
in Canada, who succeeded the first Bishop Mountain in the see of
Quebec, deserves the highest place that can be accorded to it in
the annals of the Church of England, and in the hearts of the
English people of this province.
Often as we witness the wonderful efforts made by the ministry
of the Church in its behalf and in the behalf of its people, we
rarely, if ever, heard of a character of such self-sacrificing,
devout, pious and holy principles, as those held by the late
lamented Bishop of Quebec.
Bred as the son of the Earl of Galloway, in all the wealth and
luxury that appertain to a scion of a noble house, brought up
amidst all the temptations and hazards which beset the path of
the young and noble, in their progress through college and the
university, (and he might have aspired to the highest places in
the many worldly employments held forth to the sons of the aris
tocratic families of England), he passed through the two first ordeals
unscathed ; and pure and spotless in character, through no worldly
motives except to do good to his fellow creatures, he entered the
ministry as a meek servant and instrument of God. With
such purposes in view he came to this country, and endured direst
privations as a missionary, passing from one place to another in
the depth of winter, without perhaps, (in those days, many years
ago), a prospect of a shelter for his head, or a bed for his wearied
body; and, even when raised to the high and important office as
head of the church of this province, when age and sickness had
crept upon him, he continued in the good work, going from one
place to another, never wearied, never heedful of his own health,
but all intent on the welfare of his flock and people ; until finally,
a not very strong constitution was undermined, and death closed
his earthly labors. Beyond doubt he has met with his reward, for
seldom did mortal ever strive, work, suffer and endure more to
the service of his Divine Master than did the zealous and upright
Bishop Stewart.
Bishop Stewart was the fifth son of the Earl of Galloway, and
was born on the 13th of April, 1775. He was educated at Gallo
way House, in Wigtonshire, Scotland, by a private tutor, until he
was old enough to enter Oxford, and here he graduated as M.A.,
in 1799, and was afterwards ordained to the holy ministry. His
first charge was that of Orton LonguevUle and Botolph Bridge,
near Peterborough, where he remained for eight years; and shortly

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 257
afterwards, having offered himself to the Society for the Propaga
tion of the Gospel, he was appointed to the mission of St. Armand,
in the Eastern Townships. Here there was not the semblance of a
church ; and the first service which he held, was performed in a room
in the village inn. But he soon built a church at his own expense;
and it might not be out of place here to mention that during the time
he was in Canada, he spent the whole of his private fortune in the
service of the church and in assisting the poor and distressed. He
remained in the Eastern Townships until 1819, when he was
appointed visiting missionary in the diocese of Quebec. During
the time he remained in the Eastern Townships, he did much good
tothe cause he served; and promoted the erection of many churches
in different parts of the country. In his new position, a wider
field and a larger scope was opened for his exertions. The diocese
then included the whole of Canada ; and this extensive space of
country had to be traversed by the valiant missionary in days
when there did not exist any ofthe comforts and conveniences which
characterize modern Canada. In 1817, he was honored with the
degree of Doctor of Divinity, from Oxford.
He continued in his office of visiting missionary until the year
1825, when Bishop Mountain died, and Doctor Stewart was nomi
nated to the vacant see. He accordingly proceeded to England ;
and, on 1st January, 1826, was consecrated Bishop of Quebec, in
Lambeth Palace, by Archbishop Sutton, assisted by numerous
high dignitaries of the church. In the following May, Bishop
Stewart returned to Canada, and was installed in the Cathedral of
Quebec. It were almost superfluous to proceed further in detail
ing his history ; his course continued much the same all through
his life. He was a most zealous servant and soldier of Christ, a
noble disinterested being, endowed with rich qualities of heart and
mind, and a mouth that spoke no guile. His death occurred on
the 13th of July, 1837, at London, in England, whither he had
proceeded through extreme ill-health; and he was buried in the
family vault at Kensal Green. His decease occasioned deep and
universal regret in Canada. We may say he spent the greater
part of his lifetime in this country, and devoted it entirely to
the service in which he was engaged. He made several visits to
England, which were always destined for some good object in con
nexion with the church. To his indefatigable efforts in its behalf
may be truly ascribed, to a considerable extent, its present high and
important standing.

33

258 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE WILLIS.
John Walpole Willis, the subject of this brief notice,
who, to the shame of the " Family Compact" party of Upper
Canada, received such base and unprincipled treatment at their
hands, for no reason but because he did his duty well, was an Eng
lish lawyer of great legal ability and knowledge ; and also a gen
tleman of much goodness and amiability of character. In Octo
ber, 1827, he ha4 been raised from the English bar to the bench
of Upper Canada^ as one of the puisne' judges. In this high
office he displayed great judgment, and an accurate acquaintance
with his official duties, and was considered an honor to the bench
(heretofore not in v?ry high repute) not only for his talents and
merits as a lawyer, bu'jfor his extremely excellent disposition, and
for tbe manner in which he maintained the dignity and impartiality
of the court, by refusing to take any part in the politics of the day,
and by refusing to join himself to any party whatever. Such a
man was not in favor with the omnipotent power that ruled the
upper province ; and a strong dislike was taken against him. To
such a length was this mean inveteracy carried by the lieutenant-
governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, that on the first occasion he
could get a plausible charge against him, he dismissed him from the
bench. The alleged reason of this dismissal was, that Judge Willis,
in the absence of his superior, and the other puisne judge, had
refused to go on with the business of the court by himself at term
time; a reason of so strong a nature that, on his appealing to the
home government against Sir Peregrine Maitland's abitrary and
self-willed act, he was sustained in what he had done, and
appointed to a judgeship at Demerara. We believe he died in
England.

Rev. JAMES MAGRATH, M.A.
This celebrated divine was born in Ireland, in 1766. He
graduated at Trinity college, Dublin, and was for many years
rector of the township of Toronto, previously reotor of Shankill,
diocese of Leighlin, and formerly of Castlerea, Roscommon. Dur-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 259
ing the Irish Rebellion, in 1798, he was curate of Killenvey,
county of Roscommon, and in consequence of his exertions in dis
covering what was called the shocking conspiracy, the then sec-
retary-of-state for Ireland authorised him to offer any reward he
thought necessary, in order to procure further information regard
ing that treasonable design. As an acknowledgment of his well-
timed and loyal services, Mr. Magrath was presented by the then
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Marquis Cornwallis, with the living of
St. Kill, county of Kilkenny. He held commissions of the peace
for seven counties, and was deputy-governor of the county of Ros
common. In May, 1827, Mr. Magrath arrived in Canada, and in
the same year was preferred to the rectory of the Credit, which
he held till the period of his decease, which took place on the 14th
of June, 1851. In addition to the duties of St. Peter's church,
he for many years officiated at Hurontario church, on the Centre
Road. Mr. Magrath was the senior missionary, and the oldest
clergyman in the diocese of Toronto. His family still remain in
the province.

LORD SEATON, G.C.B., G.C.H., G.C.M.G.
It must assuredly be a subject of pride and gratification to
Canadians, that this great and illustrious man was for a lengthened
period connected with this province, and governed its destinies
in the most critical years of its existence ; and we may confidently
rely that a grateful and affectionate remembrance is retained of the
brave old hero and conqueror, who encountered and overcame many
dangers to preserve this valuable dependency to his royal mistress,
and to the British nation. To Lord Seaton essentially belongs the
credit, pride and honour of overcoming the rebellion of 1837-8.
The biography of Sir John Colborne, a name by which he was best
known here, seeing that it was while he possessed that plain desig
nation, that he fought in our cause, and won the honors which he
now so gallantly wears ; the biography of this great man might be
written in letters of gold.
The noble lord, we understand, is an Englishman by birth, and
received his education at Winchester college. Being destined for
the British army, as early as 1794, he entered the service as an
ensign, but we are unable to learn in what corps. Those were
the days of fierce and bloody warfare ; and young Colborne had hard-

260 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS
ly been in his regiment five years, before his ardent, brave and vi
gorous spirit for action was fully gratified. He was sent out to
north Holland in the campaign of 1799, served in Egypt in 1801,
and with the British and Russian troops employed on the Neapoli
tan frontier in 1805; also in Sicily and Calabria, in the campaign of
1806, and was present at the battle of Maida. Having obtained
promotion for these services, he became, in the same year, military
secretary to General Fox, commander of the forces in Sicily and
the Mediterranean, and to the celebrated Sir John Moore, in
Sicily, Sweden and Portugal ; and in Spain in the campaign of
1808-9, aud was present at the battle of Corunna. Constantly
occupied, he joined the army of Lord Wellington in 1809 in
Spain, at Jaracejo ; and was sent to La Mancha to report on the
operations of the Spanish armies, and was present at the battle of
Ocana. He had now received the command 'of a regiment,
being appointed to a lieutenant-colonelcy ; and he commanded a
brigade in Sir Rowland Hill's division in the campains of
1810-11, and was detached in command of the brigade to
Castel Branco, to observe the movements of General Reynier's
corps d'arm^e on the frontier of Portugal. At the battle of Bus-
aco he commanded a brigade ; and, also on the retreat to the
Lines of Torres Vedras. With this brigade he occupied outside
the Lines, the town of Alhandra, and the advanced posts near
Villa-Franca, during the time the army was in this position, and
afterwards when Massena retired from the front of the Lines. He
crossed the Tagus, and had charge of the posts on that river oppo
site the French corps at the confluence of the Zezere, till the
evacuation of Portugal by Massena. He commanded the advanced
guard of infantry and cavalry, at the combat of Campo Mayor
in Portugal ; and was detached in command of a brigade and force
of artillery and cavalry, with orders to drive back the French out
posts during the siege of Badajos, in 1811. He also commanded
a brigade at the battle of Albuhera. In 1812, on the investment
of Ciudad Rodrigo, he commanded the force of the light division
which stormed the redoubt of San Francisco, on the greater Teson,
and the 52nd Light Infantry on the assault on the fortress and
town; in this action he was seriously wounded. In 1813 he com
manded the 2nd brigade of the light division, at the attack on
the French position, and entrenched camp on the heights of Vera,
at the battles of the Nivelle and the Nive, and during the opera
tions of the campaign in the Basque Pyrenees. He led the attack
of the 52nd Light Infantry, on Marshal Soult's position, at the
battle of Orthes in 1814 ; also in the same year he commanded the
2nd brigade of the light division at the combats of Vic Bigorre
and Tarbes, and the 52nd at the battle of Toulouse. After those
gallant exploits, he was appointed colonel and Prince Regent's aide-
de-camp, and military secretary to the Prinoe of Orange,commander-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 261
in-chief of the British forces in the Netherlands. In 1815, he
was present at the memorable battle of Waterloo, in command of
his old regiment the 52nd, and commanded a brigade on the march
to Paris. This, we believe, was his last action on the continent of
Europe. His course had been a brilliant one, and he was decked
with the honors of a knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal,
of Maria Theresa of Austria, and of St. George of Russia.
He subsequently beeame lieutenant-governor of Guernsey ; in
1825, he was appointed a major-general ; and in 1829, he first came
to Canada as lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada ; which portion
of his eventful life most concerns us ; and therefore we will be
more explicit in speaking of it, than of the other portions of his
career. Sir John entered into the gubernatorial functions at an ex
tremely distracted period, having succeeded Sir Peregrine Mait
land, who was glad to leave the country and the discontents in it.
The reform party was strong, and so was Mackenzie, who already
had given evident signs of what ultimately he projected — a rebel
lion ; nevertheless, Sir John viewed all these things with a calm
and steady attention, and supported the " Family Compact Party,"
a portion of whom composed his ministry. He feared not the talk
of the oppositionists — he had often faced worse music than that.
The course of action, which he deemed it his duty to pursue, pro
duced among the reform ranks great discontent, which his refusal
to liberate the libeller Collins heightened. Having overcome these
difficulties, the general made a tour through Canada, and was
the recipient of many warm and affectionate addresses from the
inhabitants on his way. He continued to govern the upper pro
vince until 1835, when he solicited his recall, which was acceded
to. During his administration were passed numerous measures of
reform, &c. This epoch was also marked by the opening of the
Welland and Rideau canals, the former the only direct route to the
western lakes and states ; by the passing of the act which made the
judges independent of the Crown ; by the origination of what is now
called the great conservative party ; and by the entrance into the
political arena of Robert Baldwin. Sir John Colborne's successor,
Sir Francis Bond Head, arrived in January, 1826 ; and Sir John
was at New York, and about to sail for Europe, when he received
a dispatch appointing him commander-in-chief of the forces in
Canada. He consequently returned, and took up his quarters at
Quebec, the capital of • the lower province ; and adopted such
prompt measures for the defence of the country as the exigencies
of the times demanded. On the breaking out of the rebellion he
was fully prepared. Although not immediately successful in sub
duing Woifred Nelson, he made ample amends by his heroic and
judicious conduct in extinguishing the flame in all parts of the
country, taking the field himself in person in several engagements,
and marching on the rebels. In this wise Papineau was com-

262 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
pelled to retreat, as also was Wolfred Nelson a nd all others ; and
when Robert, his brother presented himself, he was totally routed
by the able regular and militia forces under Colborne's command.
On the recall of Lord Gosford, he was appointed temporarily gov
ernor-general of British North America, which high office he va
cated on Lord Durham's arrival, and was appointed to it again on
that nobleman's departure in 1838. Yet, notwithstanding these
high official and arduous state duties, he contrived to do all the
work appertaining to both offices, and was always successful in
what he did. No one can too highly estimate his great services to
this country. He has been condemned by some for executing the
twelve rebels in Montreal ; but we feel confident, that were such
persons acquainted with the facts of the case, they would not blame
the old veteran. Leniency had been too often extended to the
fanatics who fancied they could conquer this fair province ; they
were condemned by a court martial, and there was no alternative,
but for Sir John Colborne to carry its decision into effect. It
was his duty, and like the great " Iron Duke" he never flinched
from that. Sir John continued to administer the govern
ment until 1839, when he earnestly solicited his recall, so as
to be enabled to repose from his great labors. The Honorable
Charles Poulett Thompson was appointed his successor, and arrived
at Quebec to relieve him of the cares and anxieties of govern
ment. On the 23rd October, Sir John sailed for England ; but,
previous to his departure, he received the most flattering addresses
from the inhabitants, all of whom expressed a heartfelt regret at
his leaving the country. On his arrival in England, new honors
awaited him from a grateful sovereign and nation. In recognition
of his eminent and distinguished services, he was created a baron
of the United Kingdom as Lord Seaton ; received the grand
cross of the Bath, of Hanover, of St. Michael and of St. George ;
was created a privy councillor, and a pension of £2,000 per annum
was conferred upon him, and his two immediate successors, by act
of parliament. In 1838, he was appointed lieutenant-general,
and in 1854, general, as also colonel of the 2nd Life Guards. In
1860, he was raised to the highest rank and honor in the British
service, that of a field-marshal.
Since his connection with Canada, Lord Seaton held the high
and important office of lord high commissioner of the Ionian
Islands, and has been commander of the forces in Ireland, a post
which he vacated some time since.
Lord Seaton married in 1814, the eldest daughter of James
Yonge, Esq., of Puslinch, Devon, by whom he has a large family.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 263

Hon. HENRY JOHN BOULTON.
The family of Boulton is one of the best in Upper Canada.
According to Burke, it is descended from Henry Boulton, Esquire,
of Moulton, in the county of Lincoln, England.
The father of the subject of this notice (Honorable D'Arcy
Boulton) was solicitor and attorney-general, and afterwards one of
the justices of the King's Bench in Upper Canada. He married
Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Mr. Sergeant James Forster,
(sergeant-at-law) by Susannah his wife, daughter of Sir John
Strange, master of the rolls, and settled at Toronto, Canada West.
The Honorable Henry J. Boulton was the second son by that mar
riage, and was born in 1790, in Little Holland house, Kensington,
which his father rented of Lord Holland, and where his sister, Lady
Mary Fox, afterwards resided for many years. He studied his pro
fessional course in its various branches in Lincoln's-Inn and the Mid
dle Temple, of which latter society he is still a member, having been
there called to the bar. He commenced practice in Upper Canada
in Michaelmas term 1816, and was appointed solicitor-general about
eighteen months afterwards. In 1829 he became attorney-general,
and was elected to represent Niagara in the then ensuing parliament,
of which the journals will best indicate his parliamentary career,
which was always closely connected with the liberal school. When
elected, although filling that high office, he nobly told his constituents
from the hustings, that in his office he should steadfastly discharge
the important duties devolving upon him in his official character; but
in ihe house he should fearlessly represent their interest and those
of the people, as if he held no such office under the crown. In fol
lowing that course the then colonial secretary took offence at some
of Mr Boulton' s votes ; and the latter without being asked for any
explanation, was one morning in May 1833, arbitrarly removed
from office ; and another gentleman was sent out from England to
fill his place. We may be allowed to say that no opinion given by
Mr. Boulton officially to the government, either as attorney or
solicitor-general, was ever successfully impugned during a period
of about fifteen years.
In consequence of his removal, Mr. Boulton thought it right to
proceed to England to vindicate himself to the secretary of state,
who was so satisfied of the injustice which had been done him, and
although he could not restore him to the office he had disposed of,
as his successor had sailed from Liverpool for Canada, and he was
in no way answerable for the treatment which Mr. Boulton had
received, yet at his first interview he said he would give Mr.
Boulion anything then at his disposal.

264 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The chief-justiceship of Newfoundland became vacant, with a
salary of £1200 sterling per annum, and Mr. Boulton being offered
accepted it, and repaired thither in the autumn of 1833. He found
everything connected with the administration of justice there in
the utmost state of confusion. There was no regular system of
procedure, no definite practice in the Supreme Court, although it
possessed the powers of all the courts of law and equity in Eng
land, with admiralty jurisdiction as well. Having been well
grounded in his profession as a student in London, and in a very
successful practice in Canada, improved his knowledge of the law
to fit him for the highest judicial position, he found no difficulty
in correcting the abuses, which had prevailed in the island from
the earliest times, when captains in the navy began to exercise
jurisdiction there, which customs Mr. Boulton's immediate prede
cessor had failed to correct.
After having administered the law for five years in Newfound
land, to the highest satisfaction of all the intelligent portion of the
population, and even of the humblest suitor, he was again removed
through the influence of Daniel O'Connell with a weak government,
who required his support. It is true he was heard by a com
mittee of the Privy Council, who most honorably acquitted him of
every charge which had been brought against him, at the same
time recommending that he should not return to Newfoundland on
the ground of alleged indiscretion, but refusing to inform him of
any one fact or circumstance constituting such indiscretion ; and
he has no more knowledge than the reader of the cause of his
removal, except that O'Connell urged it at the instance of the
Roman Catholic bishop.
On Mr. Boulton's return to Canada in 1838, he again represented
Niagara, and subsequently the county of Norfolk in parliament,
and took a very active part in the proceedings ofthe house. Some
time since he retired altogether from public life, and now quietly
resides at Holland house, Toronto.

JOHN GALT, Esq.,
A British author of some distinction, the friend of Byron,
and other distinguished literary celebrities, and the father of the
Honorable A. T. Gait, the celebrated minister of finance of Canada.
He was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 2nd, May 1779, and

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 265
after spending some years in mercantile life, he began to study law
at Lincoln's-Inn, London, hut in 1809, set out on a tour of nearly
three years in Southern Europe, and the Mediterranean, publishing
the results of his observations on his return, in two books of
travels. He sailed from Gibraltar to Malta, with Lord Byron and
Mr. Hobhouse, and in the Levant, he strove to introduce British
goods into the continent, by way of Turkey, in defiance of the
Berlin and Milan decrees. He next produced a volume of dramatic
pieces, which was followed by lives of Benjamin West and Cardinal
Woolsey, a tragedy entitled the " Appeal" acted in Edinburgh,
for a few nights, and the " Earthquake" a novel in three volumes.
These works, written in the intervals of various commercial under
takings, made some impression upon the public; but his "Ayrshire
Legatees" which appeared in successive numbers of " Blackwood's
Magazine," in 1820-21, unexpectedly turned the whole popular
tide in his favor. Within the next three years appeared the
" Annals of ihe Parish," generally esteemed his best work, written
ten or twelve years before, but then rejected by the publishers ; the
" Provost," which he preferred ; the " Steamboat," " Sir Andrew
Wylie," the " Gathering of the West," the "Entail" "Ringham Gil-
haize, the " Spaewife," "Rothlan" and the "Last ofthe Lairds," all
novels of Scottish life, and all eminently successful. The character
of Leddy Grippyin in the "Enta.il" was a special favorite with Byron.
It was in 1826, that he came to Canada, as commissioner of the
Canada Land Company, an association in which he took great
interest, and used his best endeavors to advance ; and it may be
safely said, that to his indefatigable energy and ability, may be in
part ascribed the present high position the company enjoys.
Indeed we know of hardly any one who did so much for it as
Mr. Gait. During his stay in Canada, he took a great interest in
the upper province, and in colonizing and settling it ; and the
country is indebted to him for some of the best improvements
both on land and water it possesses. He founded the town of
Guelph, in the county of Wellington, Canada West; and the town
of Gait, is named after him. But differences having arisen
between him and the company, he resigned his position in its
service, and returned to England in 1829, where shortly afterwards
he took advantage of the insolvent debtors' act He returned to
his literary labors with renewed zest and energy, and during the
remainder of his life, produced a number of works, principally
novels and miscellanies, some of which range high in the estimation
of literary men, and belong to what is called the " standard"
series of English literature. The " Life of Lord Byron," and the
" Autobiography of John Gait," (two volumes) appeared in 1833, and
next year the "Literary Life and Miscellanies of John Gait," (three
volumes.) Among his novels, "Laurie Todd," which appeared in
1830, depicting and relating his experiences in the new world, is
34

266 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
one of the best. " The Southenan," " Bogle Corbet," "Stanley
Buxton," the "Member," the "Radical," "Eben Erskine," and
the " Lost Child," were received very favorably.
His decease occured at Greenock, Scotland, on the 11th Aprils
1839. He died after fourteen strokes of paralysis, having dictated
compositions long after loosing the use of every limb. The
facility with which he wrote is attested by the fact, that notwith
standing many years of his life were surrendered to business
pursuits, he published forty-four works, of which twenty-four were
novels, many in three volumes.
He was a most estimable gentleman, and liked by all that ever
came in contact with him ; his conversation rich, sparkling and
witty, made him generally admired, and a favorite in every circle.
His business capacities were great, and he had formed some of the
grandest schemes in matters of trade and commerce, appertaining
to England, that was ever known.

Right Hon. Sir JAMES KEMPT, G.C.B.
Sir James Kempt was born at Edinburgh, in 1765. He was
the son of Gavin Kempt, Esq., of that city, and of Botley Hill,
near Southampton, by a daughter of Alexander Walker, Esq., of
Edinburgh. He entered the army as ensign in the 101st Foot,
March 31, 1783 ; was promoted to lieutenant on the 18th August,
1784, and placed on half-pay at the reduction of the regiment in
the same year. On the 30th May, 1794, he was appointed cap
tain in the 113th Foot, which regiment he assisted in raising, and
served with it in Ireland ; and on the 18th September, in the same
year, he was promoted to be major of that corps. From June, 1796,
to February, 1 797, he served as inspecting field-officer ofthe recruit]
ing service in Scotland; and at the close of that period he was
appointed aide-de-camp to General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, then
commanding the forces in that country. In the same year he
accompanied Sir Ralph on the expedition to Holland, where he
was present in several actions, and returning with the despatches
announcing the victory at the Helder, he was promoted to the rank
of lieutenant-colonel August 28, 1799. In June, 1800, he accom
panied Sir Ralph to the Mediterranean, as military secretary, as
well as aide-de-camp, and he continued with him until his death
at Alexandria. He then served in the same situation with his

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 267
successor, Lord Hutchinson, and was present in all the battles in
Egypt, and at the capture of Cairo and Alexandria.
In April, 1803, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir David
Dundas ; on the 9th July following to a majority in the 66th ; and
on the 23rd of the same month, to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 8lst.
In 1805, he embarked with his regiment at Plymouth, and went
to the Mediterranean, under Sir James Craig. In the expedition
to Naples, he commanded a battalion of light infantry. In 1806
he went to Calabria, and commanded the light brigade at the bat
tle of Maida.
In November, 1807, he was appointed quarter-master-general of
the forces in North America.
On the 8th March, 1809, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the
king, with the rank of colonel.
On the 4th November, 1811, he received the local rank of major-
general in Spain and Portugal. Atthe siege of Badajoz, he com
manded the attack on Fort Picurina, and the brigade which led
the attack and carried the castle of Badajoz by escalade, when he
was severely wounded. He commanded a brigade in the light
division at Vittoria, the attack on the heights of Vera, at Nivelle,
Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, and in several other minor engagements.
He attained the rank of major-general in the army, January 1,
1812. On the 4th November, 1813, he was appointed colonel
commandant in the 60th foot. He subsequently served on the
staff in America, and in Flanders, where he commanded the 8th
British brigade in the 5th division, consisting of the 28th, 32nd,
79th, and 95th regiments. At the enlargement of the order of
the Bath, in January, 1815, he was nominated a knight commander ;
and after the battle of Waterloo, in which he was severely
wounded, he was promoted to be a grand cross, in the place of Sir
Thomas Picton, who was killed on the same glorious field. His
services were also acknowledged by the allied sovereigns of Austria,
Russia, and the Netherlands, by their respective orders of Maria
Theresa, St. George of the third class, and Wilhelm ofthe third
class. He was nominated a grand cross of the Hanoverian Guel
phie order in 1816.
Sir James Kempt was next appointed lieutenant-governor of
Fort William; from which he was removed to act in the like capa
city at Portsmouth, on the 12th August, 1819. On the 12th July
in the same year he was moved to the command of the 81st Foot.
In 1820 he succeeded the Earl of Dalhousie as governor of Nova
Scotia ; and on the 10th July, 1828, he followed the same noble
man in the government, of Canada, which he held for more than
two years. When he arrived at Quebec, he found the country
in a state bordering on rebellion. The legislature and executive
being in direct opposition to each other ; but after he had held the
government for two months, these feuds subsided, and he left it in

268 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
perfect tranquillity, and to the regret of all. On his departure he
was presented with complimentary addresses by all the public
bodies. Immediately on his return to England from Canada, Sir James
Kempt was appointed master-general of the ordnance, on the 30th
November, 1830 ; the office of lieutenant-general of the ordnance
being thereupon abolished. On this occasion he was sworn in a
privy councillor ; and he continued master-general until December,
1834. Sir James Kempt attained the rank of lieutenant-general in the
army on the 27th May, 1825 ; and the full rank of general on the
23rd November, 1841. He was removed to the colonelcy ofthe
40th Foot on the 8th January, 1829; to that of the 2nd Foot on the
23rd December, 1834 ; and to that of the 1st Royals on the 7th
August, 1846.
He died at London, England, on the 20th December, 1 855.

Hon. J. H. DUNN.
Mr. Dunn came to this country in 1820, having been appointed
receiver-general and a member of the Executive and Legislative
Councils of Upper Canada, which offices he held until the union of
the provinces. He died in London, England, on the 21st April,
1854.

Hon. and Rev. ALEX. McDONELL, D.D

The subject of our present memoir was born at Glen Urquhart,
on the borders of Lochness, Scotland, in the 1769. He was ofthe
family of Glengarry, and manifested, from his earliest years, that
deep and abiding attachment to his countrymen for whichhe was,
through life proverbial. The heroic highlanders, who had left
the States during the revolutionary war, and who fought their way
to the banks of the St. Lawrence — enduring every conceivable

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 269
horror from hunger, thirst, weather, want of sleep, and fatigue —
settled in various parts of the frontier of Upper Canada, then a
dense and unthreaded forest. They took up their abode on the
Niagara frontier, on the Bay of Quinte, on the banks of the St.
Lawrence, called the John-town District, and in the Eastern Dis
trict, in the counties of Glengarry and Stormont. These virtuous
royalists, having succeeded in their formidable undertaking, wrote
to their suffering kindred at home ; and many voluntarily joined
them, on account of the statements which they were receiving from
time to time. Between the years 1780 and 1790, consolidation of
the small farms took place in the Highlands of Scotland to a great
extent, causing incredible distress to the dispossessed tenants.
Owing to the restrictions then existing to emigration, the virtuous
bishop obtained occupation for these men, to the number of nearly
a thousand, in the manufactories at Glasgow, accompanying them
himself as their chaplain and guide. Not long after this, from the
depressed state of trade, these men were thrown out of employ
ment, and the bishop then gave proof of that innate and intense
loyalty which he so often exerted in after-life. He obtained per
mission from the king to raise a Catholic regiment, to which he was
appointed chaplain, and which was the first raised in the British
dominions since the period of the reformation. In 1798, this
regiment performed most efficient service in Ireland in the suppres
sion of the rebellion : on the one hand, firmly maintaining the
rights of the Crown ; on the other, restraining the excesses of a
fanatic yeomanry. By their combined loyalty, good feeling, and
prudence, they succeeded in inducing the terrified inhabitants to
return to their habitations and occupations ; restoring harmony,
tranquillity, and peace. During the short peace of Amiens, in 1802,
this regiment was bisbanded, and again were these intrepid high-
landers once more reduced to want. It then occurred to the bishop
how desirable it would be to obtain land for their settlement in
Canada, where so many of their brethren had already secured their
independence ; accordingly, he made a representation to the premier,
Lord Sidmouth, then Mr. Addington, who, feeling great admiration
of these noble but suffering men, offered the most tempting condi
tions to induce them to go to Trinidad, just then ceded by Spain
to the British Crown. The objection Mr. Addington had to their
settlement in Canada, was the apprehension that the British govern
ment held that colony by a slender tie. Disregarding equally the
apprehensions of Mr. Addington, as to the maintenance of the
British sway in Canada, and the splendid offer of land, and slaves,
&c, &c, in Trinidad, the bishop at once declined taking them to a
colony with a climate so unsuited to the highlanders as that of
Trinidad. Again and again did he urge the measure of emigra
tion to Canada ; and at length succeeded, in 1803, in obtaining
for every one of the late Glengarry regiment who chose to go to

270 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Canada, a grant of 200 acres of land. Difficulties, discouragements,
and impediments met him at every step ; at length, during the
years 1803 and 1804, he succeeded in his object, and planted on
that soil a population who have become independent, and who-have
defended the British power against inward assault and outward
aggression. The bishop by his perseverance succeeded in obtaining
for his settlers patent deeds for 160,000 acres of land. When the
United States declared war againt Great Britain in 1811 — although
the British government were fully occupied in Europe — and
the Americans vainly imagined that the conquest of Canada was
most easy of execution ; when, Dr. Eustis, the secretary of
war of the United States, said : " We can take the Canadas
without soldiers; we have only to send officers into the pro
vinces, and the people, (two-thirds of them American settlers,)
disaffected towards their own government, will rally round
our standard ;" — and when Mr. Henry Clay said, " It is quite
absurd to suppose that we shall not succeed in our enterprise
against the enemy's provinces. We have the Canadas as much
under our command as Great Britain has the ocean; acd the way
to conquer her on the ocean, is to drive her from the land. I am
not for stopping at Quebec, or any where else; but I would take the
whole continent from them, and ask them no favors. Her fleets
cannot rendezvous at Halifax as now; and having no place of
resort in the north, cannot infest our coast as they have lately
done. It is as easy to conquer them on land, as their whole navy
would conquer ours on the ocean. We must take the continent
from them : I wish never to see a peace till we do. God has given
us the power and the means — we are criminal if we do not use them.
If we get the continent, she must allow us the freedom of the sea."
Entertaining these principles, and acting on these convictions,
Canada was invaded ; the bishop, then Mr. McDonell, formed a
Glengarry fencible regiment, which, with the two militia regiments
raised in the eastern district, consisting principally of Scdtchmen,
were inspirited by the presence and counsel ofthe venerable subject
of our memoir, who accompanied them to the field of action, and
who, not only defended their own shores, but carried war into the
enemy's country, and succeeded, after a desperate battle, in taking
the important post of Ogdensburgh, with a quantity of artillery,
ammunition and other stores. For these, and other eminent
services, rendered to the government, Earl Bathurst, secretary of
state to the colonies, suggested that Mr. McDonell, who was to be
consecrated bishop, should be a diocesan bishop, and consented that
his title should be that of Kingston, to which was also added a
salary of £400, afterwards augmented to £600 per annum.
Thus was this virtuous ecclesiastio rewarded ; first made the first
Catholic chaplain since the reformation ; secondly, received the
thanks of the Prince Regent for his efficient services ; and thirdly,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 271
consecrated first diocesan Catholic bishop in the British dominions
since the reformation. His consecration took place at Montreal, in
1826. By virtue of authority vested in him, he established a
Highland Society in Upper Canada, and was elected president of
it. Seeing the indispensable necessity of encouraging a large and
systematic emigration from the Highlands, as a measure of relief
to his suffering fellow-countrymen in Scotland, and, as a security
and benefit to his fellow-countrymen in Canada; and, being also desi
rous of establishing a college for the domestic education of the
priesthood in that province, and having some arrangements to make
respecting the future government of his diocese, he went to Eng
land in 1839, with his nephew; having secured the assistance
and co-operation of his friend and companion, Dr. Rolph of
Ancaster, in the promotion of a scheme of emigration. He arriv
ed at Liverpool on the 1st of August, and having proceeded to
London, where he remained on business a few weeks, he visited
the romantic glens of his nativity and childhood ; was present at
the great northern meeting and cattle-show at Inverness, in Octo
ber, and then crossed over to Ireland. Between Clonmell and
Waterford he took a severe cold, which laid him up some weeks at
Carlow and Clongowes Wood, and afterwards at Dublin. Having
recovered sufficiently to pay a visit to that warm-hearted, excel
lent, and most hospitable nobleman, the late Earl Gosford, at his
mansion, county Armagh, he was so recruited that he re-crossed to
Scotland from Belfast, and was on his way to London, to concert
measures for the promotion of emigration from the Highlands of
Scotland. Dr. Rolph having attended the great meeting of noolemen
and proprietors at the Hopetown Room, Edinburgh, on January
10th, 1840, at which the measure was to be discussed. He reached
the house of his former schoolfellow, the Rev. Mr.Reed, at Dumfries,
on the 11th, intending to remain there a few days, to recruit before
starting for London. Early on the morning of the 14th he awoke,
expressed himself chilly, and immediately expired. He was in the
eightieth year of his age. In every relation of life, as subj ect, prelate,
relative, and friend, he was a model of everything valuable. To his
sovereign he brought the warm and hearty homage of a sincere,
enthusiastic, unconditional allegiance, and the most invincible,
uncompromising loyalty ; as prelate, he was kind, attentive, and
devoted to the interests, welfare and happiness of his clergy ; as a
relative, his attachment was unbounded, and his death created
an aching void to hundreds of sorrowing relatives, whom he coun
selled by his advice, assisted with his means, and protected, by his
influence ; as a friend, he was sincere, enthusiastic, and unchang
ing in his attachments. Such, indeed, was the liberality of his
'views and the inexpressible benignity of disposition, thatall creeds
and classes united in admiration of his character, respect for him,

272 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and congregated together to bid him farewell, as he left the shores
ofthe St. Lawrence, on that voyage which proved but the prelude
to that long and last one, from which there is no return.

EARL OP SELKIRK.
The Right Honorable Thomas, Earl of Selkirk, Lord
Lieutenant of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, born in 1774, died
at Pau, in the South of France, where he was buried on the 8th
of April, 1820. He was the youngest of five sons (all of whom
attained to- manhood) of Dunbar, 4th Earl of Selkirk, who died in
1799. In the latter end of 1807, he married Jane, daughter of
James Wedderburn Colville, Esquire, by whom he left one son, who
became Earl of Selkirk, born in 1809, and two daughters. Her
ladyship accompanied the earl to North America, and afterwards
to France, and continued with painful and unwearied assiduity to
administer, till the last -hour of his life, those kind and soothing
attentions which wealth can neither purchase nor reward.
Few men were possessed of higher powers of mind, or capable of
applying them with more indefatigable perseverance. His " Treatise
on Emigration" has long been considered as a standard work, and as
having exhausted one of the most difficult subjects in the science
of political economy. His lordship was also advantageously known
to the public as the author of some other literary productions, all
of them remarkable for the enlargement and liberality oftheir
views, the luminous perspicuity of their statements, and that severe
and patient spirit of induction which delights in the pursuit, and is
generally successful in the discovery of truth.
His gentle and condescending manners wound themselves round
the hearts of those admitted to his society, and conciliated an at
tachment which every fresh interview served to confirm. With
those connected with him by the ties of kindred, aud the sweet
relations of domestic society, his lordship lived in terms ofthe most
affectionate endearment. Indeed, seldom had there existed a
family, the members of which were more tenderly attached to each
other than that of which his lordship was the head ; and few families
experienced a more severe succession of those trials, by which the
Almighty chastens the hearts and disciplines the virtues of his
creatures. His lordship was eminently exemplary in the disoharge of every

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 273
social and private duty. He was a considerate and indulgent land
lord, a kind and gracious master ; to the poor a generous bene
factor, and of every public improvement a judicious and liberal
patron. The latter years of the life of this true nobleman were employed
in the establishment of an extensive colony in the western parts
of Canada which has since risen to the important settlements of
Red River, &c. In the prosecution of this favorite object, he had
encountered obstacles ofthe most unexpected and formidable cha
racter. With these, however, he was admirably qualified to con
tend; as, to the counsels of an enlightened philosophy, and an
immoveable firmness of purpose, he added the most complete habits
of business and a perfect knowledge of affairs. The obstructions he
met with served only to stimulate him to increased exertion, and
after an arduous struggle with a powerful confederacy, which had
arrayed itself against him, and which would long ere his death have
subdued any other adversary, he had the satisfaction to know, that
he had finally succeeded in founding an industrious and thriving
community. It has now struck deep root in the soil ; and is com
petent, from its own internal resources, to perpetuate itself, and to
extend the blessings of civilization to those remote and boundless
regions. His lordship, besides his work on emigration, published a pam
phlet on the Scottish Peerage, and the following tracts : — " Speech
in the House of Lords, August 10, 1807, on the defence of ihe
Country," 8vo ; " Observations ou ihe present state of ihe High
lands," 8vo, 1805, 2nd edit. 1806 ; " On the necessity of a more
effectual system of national defence" Svo. 1808; "A letter to John
Cartwright, Esquire, on parliamentary reform." 8vo.

MAJOR-GENERAL DUNN.
Major-General William Dunn, a son of the late Honorable
Thomas Dunn, of Lower Canada, and a native Canadian.
He entered the army on the 22nd December, 1803, and by 1857,
had risen to the rank he holds, when he retired upon full pay, and
resides in England. He has seen a great deal of active and
arduous service, beginning in 1805, he served the campaign in Italy;
battle of Maida, and capture of Scylla Castle, in 1806, expedition
to Egypt, in 1807, including the attack on Alexandria and Rosetta,
and battle of El Hamet, where he was taken prisoner, but soon
35

274 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
after being exchanged, he took part in the defence of Scylla Castle,
in 1808. He went through the Peninsula campaigns of 1810-11,
including the operations before Ciudad Rodrigo, operations
between the Agnada and Almeidia, battles of the Coa, Buasco, and
Albuhera, and the actions at Usaqre, and Aldea de Ponte, at which
last he was severely wounded in the groin, by a musket ball, which
remains unextracted. Major-General Dunn, also served in 1814 in
his native country during the American war, including the taking
of Moose Island, and occupation of Castine. He has the war
medal, with three clasps, for Maida, Buasco, and Albuhera.

COMMANDER ALLEYN, R.N.
Richard Israel Alleyn, father of the Hon. Charles Alleyn,
provincial secretary, (a notice of whom appears in this book, and
which see for lineage of family, &c.,) is a native of Ireland, having
been born in the county Cork, in the year 1782. He entered
the navy, in October, 1795, as first class volunteer, on board the
Marlborough, seventy-four, Captains Henry Nichols, and Joseph
Ellison, on the channel station, where, and in the Mediterranean
and West Indies, he afterwards served, as midshipman in the
Boadicea, thirty-eight, Captain Richard Goodwin Heats ; Cormorant
twenty-four, Captain Honorable Courtney Boyle; Haerlem, and
Africaine, both commanded by Captain George Burlton ; Texel,
sixty-four, Captain Richard Incledon ; and Timiraire, ninety-eight,
flag-ship of Rear-Admiral George Campbell; and the Speedy,
commanded by Lord Cochrane. While in the Cormorant, he was
wrecked, we believe, off Damietta, on the Egyptian coast, 20th May,
1800. On 23rd June, 1802, he became acting-lieutenant of the
Syren frigate, Captain John Wentworth Loring; and, on the
paying off of that vessel, was confirmed, by commission, dated 13th
October, in the same year. His subsequent appointments were,
on the Home and North American stations, to L' Egyptienne, forty-
four, Captains Hon. Charles Elphinstone Fleeming, and Hon.
Charles Paget ; Crescent, thirty-six, Captain James Carthen ; Endy
mion, forty, Captains Hon. Thomas Bladen Capel, and Sir William
Bolton; Abercromby, seventy-four, Captain William Charles Fahie ;
the Endymion and Hotspur, thirty-six, Captain Hon. Josceline
Percy. Mr. Alleyn was in Sir R. Calder's action, off Cape Finis-
terre in July 1805. He served for several years as first-lieutenant,
previously to which, on the evening of 8th March, 1806, he had com-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 275
manded the boats of L' Egyptienne, in conjunction with Lieutenant
Philip Cosby Handfield, at the cutting out, under an incessant
fire from two batteries, of the French frigate-built privateer L'Alcide,
pierced for thirty-four guns, and moored to the beach, in the
harbor of Muros, in Spain. Having been unemployed since June,
1814, at which period he invalided from the Hotspur, Mr. Alleyn
accepted the rank he now holds, 20th April, 1835.
He is deputy master of the Trinity House, Quebec, and is the
representative of Edward Alleyn, founder of Dulurch College.

Hon. JACOB ^EMILIUS IRVING, M.L.C.
A member of the Legislative Council of this province. Mr.
Irving was born at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 29th Janu
ary, 1797. He was the eldest son of Jacob JEmilius Irving,
Esquire, of Ironshore, Jamaica, and of Liverpool, who was the
nephew of the Colonel P. IE. Irving, mentioned elsewhere.
He entered the 13th Light Dragoons at an early age, and served
with that regiment through the Waterloo campaign, having been
wounded in the action of the 18th of June, 1815. On his return
to England, he was presented with the freedom of the town of
Liverpool, for gallant conduct and services during the war.
On the 10th December, 1821, he married Catherine Diana,
daughter of Sir Jere Homfray of Landaff House, Glamorganshire, by
whom (who died 23rd January, 1858) he left issue a family, one
of whom is IE. Irving, Esq., barrister-at-law, of Hamilton, C. W.
In 1834, he emigrated to Upper Canada, and, in 1837, aided in
suppressing the rebellion on the Niagara frontier. Upon the
introduction of the municipal system, when the office of warden
was an appointment by the Crown, he was selected as first warden
for the district of Simcoe.
In 1843, he was called to the Legislative Council, and as a
prominent member of the liberal party, warmly supported the
Baldwin-Lafontaine party, in their struggle with Lord Metcalfe.
He died at the. Falls of Niagara, on the 7th October, 1856.

276 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. COLONEL WELLS.
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Wells; born in 1757 ; died at
Davenport, near Toronto, C. W., in 1853. He entered the army
in January, 1798, by purchase, in the Scotch Brigade. In March
following, he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 43rd, joined
them in the West Indies in 1800, and on their return home, wag
appointed adjutant. In 1804 he purchased his company; he
obtained, in 1811, his majority, and in 1814, a lieutenant-colonelcy.
In 1815, consequent on all second battalions being about to be
reduced, he exchanged with Lieutenant-Colonel Pearson, as inspec
ting field officer in Canada, but, to his great mortification, six
months afterwards, was placed on half pay. He held a seat in the
Legislative Council, previous to the union.

CAPTAIN ECCLES.
Captain Eccles resided in Toronto for many years, and was
highly esteemed by all who knew him, as an upright and indepen
dent citizen and a warm hearted friend. Captain Eccles was bom in
1776, and entered the army in 1802 as ensign in the 61st Regiment.
He was with Wellington through the entire Peninsular campaign,
and losing his arm in the battlefield, he retired on his hard-earned
laurels, and settled down in Wales, where he married. In 1830,
Captain Eccles removed to Somersetshire, near the city of Bath,
and in 1835 emigrated with his family to Canada ; he resided in
Niagara from 1835 to 1841, when he removed to the city of
Toronto. Captain Eccles took an active interest in political matters, on
the liberal side. In the great reform bill movement of 1832, he
was chairman of Mr. Brigstock's election committee in the famous
contest for Somersetshire, when his candidate was triumphantly
returned. In " the troubles of 1837," he commanded a regiment
of volunteers, on the Niagara frontier, on the " loyal side." On
the arrival of Lord Durham in Canada, Captain Eccles was sent
for and consulted as to the most fitting measures of redress, and we

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 277
believe he contributed largely to the material of. Lord Durham's
famous report. In the various parliamentary elections for
Toronto, Captain Eccles took an active share, and his great age
did not prevent his being chairman of Mr. Brown's committee in the
well contested election between that gentleman and the Honorable
J. H. Cameron, Q. C.,in 1858. He was also chairman and spokes
man of the committee of citizens who, a few weeks previous to his
death, presented an address to the governor-general, Sir E. W.
Head, signed by nearly 4,000 of the people of Toronto, praying
for a change of ministry, and his eloquent speech on the occasion
will be long remembered. His death occurred late in the year of
1858. Captain Eccles left a widow and a numerous family, among
whom are Mr. Henry Eccles, the eminent Queen's counsel, and
Mr. William Eccles, barrister, of St. Catharines.

Hon. JAMES BABY.
James Baby was born at Detroit, in 1762. His family is one
of the most ancient in the colony, and it is noble. His father had
removed from Lower Canada to the neighborhood of Detroit
before the conquest of Quebec, where in addition to the cultiva
tion of lands, he was connected with the fur trade, at that time
and for many years after, the great staple of the country. James
was educated at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Quebec, and
returned to the paternal roof soon after the peace of 1783. The
family had ever been distinguished (and indeed, all the higher
French families) for their adherence to the British Crown ; and to
this more than any other cause, are we to attribute the conduct of
the province of Quebec during the American war. Being a great
favorite with his father, James was permitted to make an excur
sion to Europe, before engaging steadily in business ; and after
spending some time, principally in England, he rejoined his family.
Unfortunately the limits assigned by treaty to the United States,
embraced within it the larger portion of his father's property ; and
the family attachment to the British government being well
known, they were looked upon with little favor by the American
population, and found it necessary, after much loss and disappoint
ment, to remove to the north side of the river Detroit, which con
stitutes the boundary of Upper Canada. When the province of

278 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Quebec was divided into two distinct governments, Upper and
Lower Canada, the subject of this notice became an executive
and legislative councillor of the former, and continued in the
regular and efficient discharge ofthe high and important duties of
these eminent stations to the day of his death.
Soon after his return from England, he became extensively con
cerned in the fur trade, and other commercial pursuits ; but war
with the United States having broken out, all business was sud
denly and completely stopped by a hostile invasion. Previous to
this, he had experienced very serious losses in his commercial
dealings, and also in the erection of mills on the property still
retained within the territories of the United States, and was
endeavoring to make such arrangements as would relieve him
from all such difficulties, and enable him to attend to his farm and
orchard, and his promising family. The sudden war, and the ca
lamities which it occasioned him, were not the only evils which
befel him. About the same time he lost an affectionate wife,
leaving five sons and one daughter, all very young.
To this lady, a woman of excellent name, unblemished worth,
and attentive to every conjugal and domestic duty, he had been
married several years, and in her society had enjoyed the greatest
happiness. Her death gave him a great shock; nor did he perhaps
ever wholly recover from the blow, for there were moments when
he felt the loss, even to the last, most deeply, and he never mar
ried again. The death of Mrs. Baby appeared to blast his hopes,
and derange his purposes, and to throw him as it were adrift on
the ocean of life.
The commencement of the war was perhaps fortunate for him
under his heavy bereavement, for he was immediately called to
active service. He commanded the militia of the western district,
and performed many services highly essential to the preservation
ofthe province. The people were anxious to win his favor; they
had the most unlimited confidence in his judgment, and at his
request their provisions, their cattle, and personal services were
ever ready to support the king's forces in making head against
the enemy. When it was in contemplation to withdraw the troops
from the western part of the province, he sent his children to
Quebec ; and when this event took place, he found his health so
much impaired by fatigue and privation, and the grief which still
consumed him, that he found it necessary to adopt the advice of
his physicians, and to retire to Lower Canada. There he remained
with his children till the re-establishment of peace, but not in the
enjoyment of health, nor was it till after he had been some time at
Sandwich that his strength and energy returned.
His merits had been so oonspicuous during the war — his services
so disinterested — his losses and privation so great, that government
was anxious to confer upon him some mark of approbation, and

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 279
knowing that his means had been much impaired by the sacrifices
he had made, it was determined to confer upon him the first office
that became vacant, if worthy of his acceptance. As if to meet
these views, the office of inspector-general, a place of great
responsibility, was in a short time at the disposal of government,
and was immediately bestowed upon Mr. Baby. The last seven
teen years ot his life were spent at York, in the discharge of the
duties of this office, and never was there the slightest shadow of
complaint — a fact, the more remarkable, as he had to check every
other office in the province, and to pronounce in a variety of ques
tions, in which numbers were deeply interested, but such was the
public confidence in his integrity and honor, that not a murmur
was ever heard.
As a member of both councils he displayed the most uncompro
mising probity, and no influence could induce him to give up an
opinion, which, after mature examination, he concluded to be right.
This estimable man's death occured at York, now Toronto, on
the 19th February, 1833, after a short but severe illness, deeply
regretted by all shades and classes of society in the western capital.
There was a primitive simplicity in Mr. Baby's character, which
added to his polished manners and benignity of disposition, threw
a moral beauty around him, which is very seldom beheld. His
favorite amusements partook largely of this simplicity.
His external accomplishments and manners were highly adapted
to win affection and esteem. To an address peculiarly engaging,
from its dignity, urbanity and ease, was united a cordiality and
kindness of deportment which induced one to desire a more inti
mate acquaintance.
In his social intercourse he was an universal favorite, for the
sweetness of his temper and innocence of his heart opened the
affection of all in his favor. It was not that he was distinguished
for his colloquial powers, for he was by uo means the leader in con
versation, but there was the polish of the most refined manners,
ripened by innate benevolence, which made him so acceptable in all
companies, that those only who had the happiness of meeting him
often in society, could form a just conception of the pleasure of
his presence. But highly as this excellent man was to be admired
and loved for his engaging manners and virtuous sentiments, the
exalted qualities which dignified his moral nature are still more
worthy of approbation. These were the gems which shed around
his character that lustre which made him so great a favorite. A
strict probity and inviolable love of truth were perhaps the most
prominent of his moral virtues. From these his conduct derived
such a purity and elevation, as could only spring from a mind in
which the finest sensibilities of virtue had ever remained uncon
taminated by the consciousness of dishonor. To transmit this
precious inheritance to his children by precept and example was

280 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the principal study of his life, and to secure to them the perma
nent enjoyment of this valuable deposit, he labored unceasingly
to inculcate that which he truly deemed the foundation of every
virtue — the principle of religion. His family still reside in the
province.

Rev. JOHN HOLMES.
Mr. Holmes was born at Windsor, in the State of Vermont, of
a Protestant family, in 1709. He was studying for the ministry
in the Wesleyan church, when he became a convert to the Catholic
faith. He then went to the Montreal college, where he entered
the highest class, that of philosophy, and was subsequently
admitted to the study of theology. He was a professor for some
time in the Nicolet college, and, after taking priest's orders was
appointed vicar, or assistant to the Cure" of Berthier, which parish
he left for a mission in the Eastern Townships. He entered the
seminary of Quebec, as a professor in 1828, and was soon after
elected one of the directors of this institution. Striking origi
nality and great talent, both in the pulpit and in the professor's
chair, attracted much attention towards the young priest, and he
immediatelybecame extremely popular. He was appointed director
of the studies in the minor seminary, and among the principal
reforms, he at once introduced into the system of teaching, were :
the study of the Greek language, which had never previously been
attempted; the teaching of geography in the junior classes on an
improved principle, that of history by means of lectures delivered
by the professor, an outline of which the pupils were required to
give in writing at the meeting following each lecture ; also,
Algebra and the elements of geometry, in the junior classes ; a
greater development of the study of natural history, and of natural
philosophy in the higher classes, and the cultivation of vocal and
instrumental music, and of drawing, which had previously been
much neglected.
He created a considerable sensation by the introduction of
dramatic performances, music and dialogue, in public examinations,
thus rendering them more attractive and entertaining, contrasting
most strikingly with the cold and formal plaidoyers which up to
his time had been the only relief and compensation afforded to
either the pupils or the public, for the length and tediousness of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 281
ordinary school exhibitions. The other colleges, and even the
common schools, adopted the same practice ; but latterly it became
necessary to check it as it in some measure trespassed beyond its
proper limits.
Every thing that could be done to create emulation among the
students and to enliven and pleasantly diversify the monotony of a
college life was studiously and successfully attended to by the
new principal. During play hours in the long winter evenings he
gave lectures, which were more sought after, even by the youngest
pupils, than any other kind of recreation. He accompanied them
by illustrations with the aid of the magic lantern, and experiments
in natural philosophy and chemistry; but no seasoning was more
acceptable than the many humorous and interesting anecdotes
which he would from time to time introduce in those lectures.
On a holiday he would take out the pupils on some botanical or
mineralogical excursion, which was always enlivened by a few
good stories, and crowned by a little feast, the whole being con
ducted in that mysterious and almost surreptitious manner which is
so charming in the eyes of youth. His mildness and indulgence,
combined with the peculiar faculty which he possessed to a great
extent of captivating the minds of children, and leading them
gently to the most difficult points of science, endeared him to all
his pupils, who have never forgotten the many pleasant hours they
passed with him in those days, that may be called, the dawn of a
new era in the history of colleges.
His great partiality for the study of geography, which he used
to say, comprises, if well understood, almost every other study,
induced him to compile a treatise in French, which is perhaps the
most complete and most entertaining elementary book ever pub
lished on that subject.* A work of this nature was then much
required, there being at the time nothing within the reach of the
French Canadian youth but dry and incomplete treatises, which,
besides being unreadable, contained inaccurate notions as to
America in general, and to our own country in particular.
In that work the most minute attention has been paid to all
relating to our continent, and with reference to the rest of the
globe, the book having been compiled from extracts from the best
authors, and being written in a very attractive and beautiful
style, was perhaps the very best work on geography extant before
Hodgin's geography appeared.
It has been translated into English, and we believe also into
German, and has now reached its fifth Canadian edition,")" each
being brought up to date in point of statistics and of legislation.
* Nouvel ahrege" de geographic moderne, suivi d'un appendice et d'un abr£g£
de giographie sacrSed I'usage de la jeunesse. Quebec 1832. Neilsen & Cowan,
300 pages in 12mo.
f The last (1854) was published by the Messrs. CrSrnazie of Quebec, who
have bought the copyright. ao

282 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
In 1836, Mr. Holmes was sent on a mission to Europe by the
provincial government, to procure teachers for the normal school,
at that time intended to be opened in Lower Canada. He was
also commissioned to inquire into the system of normal schools in
several countries, and to procure books, apparatus, and collections
of natural history for the new institution. He returned the next
year with Mr. Regnaud, who had been recommended to him by
Mr. Guizot, then minister of public instruction in France, and Mr.
Findlater who had been brought up in one of the training schools
of Scotland. They opened a normal school at Montreal, but, in
consequence of the insurrection and of the suspension of the con
stitution, it had to be given up, and Mr Findlater went back to
Scotland. Mr Regnaud found employment here as a surveyor,
and delivered an address at the opening of the Jacques Cartier
normal school, nearly twenty years after the failure of the first
undertaking. In the course of his visit to England, Scotland, France, Belgium
aud Italy, Mr. Holmes was considered by many men of science,
with whom he became acquainted, as a person of superior ability'
and attainments, and was treated with the highest regard. He
also took the opportunity during his journey of purchasing for
the seminaries of Quebec, of Ste. Anne, andof Nicolet, philosophical
instruments and collections of mineralogy, which still do honor to
those several institutions.
A few years after his return, Mr. Holmes met with one of those
terrible family afflictions which are so disastrous to the public career
of all men of feeling. From that day he withdrew by degrees from
the prominent position he used to occupy in the direction of the
seminary, appeared seldom in the pulpit of the cathedral, where his
presence always used to attract great crowds of hearers, till finding
that his health was considerably impaired, he retired to Lorette,
where he died in 1852, at the age of 53. A few years before his
death he re-appeared in the cathedral, where he delivered, during
Lent, a series of sermons which were published, and are highly es
teemed in Canada and abroad.*

^Conferences de Notrc-Dame de Quebec, par M. VAbbS Jean Holmes, Quebec,
A. Cote et cie., 1850. 160 pages, 8vo.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 283

CHIEF-JUSTICE Sir J. B. ROBINSON, Bart.
Chief-Justice Robinson is justly regarded as one of the ablest
men that Upper Canada has produced. Even those who, when he
was a politician, differed from him in politics, generally admitted
that his talents rendered him an ornament of the country which
gave him birth. He was the son of Christopher Robinson, Esq., a
British officer who served in the revolutionary war of the United
States, and afterwards resided in New Brunswick. The subject of
this notice was born at Berthier, in Lower Canada, on the 26th July,
1791, his father having accompanied Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe to
Canada, after the close of the revolutionary war. Sir John Beverley
Robinson's recollections go back to the time when Upper Canada
had a population of only thirty thousand souls. In those days the
province could not boast the means of superior education which it
possesses at present ; and the present chief-justice may be esteemed
fortunate in having found so able a preceptor as the present bishop
of Toronto, who, in the early part of his Canadian career, devoted
himself to the instruction of youth at Kingston, and afterwards at
the then village of Cornwall, Upper Canada. Having gone through
the necessary educational course, young Robinson entered as a law
student; and whilst in that capacity, served as clerk of the House of
Assembly of Upper Canada for one session, and on being admitted
to the bar, he attained the high position of attorney-general for
Upper Canada at the early age of twenty-one, a post which he held
only temporarily, however, until the release from a French prison
of the Honorable D'Arcy Boulton, in 1815, who was appointed
actual attorney-general. Mr. Robinson then accepted the office of
solicitor-general, a post which he filled until 1818 ; when, Mr.
Boulton being elevated to a judgeship, he was again appointed attor
ney-general, but this time permanently. He has now been in the
service ofthe Crown no less than forty-six years. He was eighteen
years in the legislature, serving about an equal length of time in
each chamber. Although he was appointed chief-justice in 1829,
his career as a legislator did not end till the legislative council was
re-modelled under the re-union act of 1840. He enjoyed the con
fidence of three successive governors : Sir Perigrine Maitland,
Sir John Colborne, and Sir Francis Bond Head. The thanks
of the Legislature of Upper Canada were voted to him for the part
he took in adjusting the financial difficulties between Upper and
Lower Canada. He never once incurred the displeasure of his supe
riors ; while, on the other hand, it was his good fortune to be hon
ored with the express approbation of his sovereign on at least one

284 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
occasion ; and his public conduct repeatedly elicited the approbation
of colonial secretaries. On one occasion he appealed to the three
governors whose names have been mentioned, and who were then
all living in England, to bear him witness that their approbation
had not been obtained by the suppression of his opinions or the sur
render of his judgment.
Belonging to one of the few prominent families, who, having
fought under the British flag in the American war of indepen
dence, took up their residence in Upper Canada, his loyalty, as he
himself said of the United Empire loyalists, was of no doubtful
origin. These persons, it is now no treason to say, sometimes made
too much of this circumstance, and put forth too extravagant claims
on account of their loyalty. Sir J. Beverley Robinson was one of
those who did not depend altogether upon an hereditary claim to
superior loyalty ; when the war of 1812 broke out, he was one of a
company of one hundred volunteers who followed Sir Isaac Brock
in the expedition which led to the capture of Detroit. During the
whole of his political career, he was identified with the small official
party known as the " Family Compact." They defended the oli
garchical system with a zeal fully proportioned to the interest they
had in maintaining it; and opposed the introduction of responsible
government as if it had been an overtried project, under which Bri
tish interests were sure to suffer destruction. They opposed Lord
Durham's mission as high commissioner; and the chief-justice,
then clothed with the judicial ermine, officially condemned the
report of that nobleman on the affairs of Canada. If he erred in
this particular — if time has proved that responsible government
was not pregnant with the danger that he supposed it was, but proved
on the contrary the very thing suited to Canada, this much may
at least be said, that he only shared the error of the entire official
party in the province ; that his error was the error of the times and
of a party, and that party systematically sustained by the British
Crown. As attorney-general, it fell to his lot to conduct some prosecu
tions against the press for alleged libels of a political nature. The
publishers ofthe Colonial Advocate and the Freeman, published in
Toronto, and of the Herald, published in Kingston, were all prose
cuted for political libels. Collins, who was literally and practically
editor, printer, and publisher of the Freeman, was condemned to
two years' imprisonment. This was for a libel upon the attorney-
general himself, the subject of this notice, whom he charged with
having displayed "native malignancy" in conducting the prosecu
tion in a former trial, as well as with having uttered an open, pal
pable falsehood. The chief-justice seems to have seen the folly of
these prosecutions, for he afterwards permitted to pass unnoticed
libels upon himself of a far more damaging nature, of which the
following is a specimen : — " Mr. Chief-Justice Robinson may thank

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 285
his stars that he was a legislator of Upper instead of Lower Canada,
when he told the home government in his recent communication
of the 27th May, 1828, that any dissatisfaction with the present
system of conducting criminal prosecutions in the courts of oyer
and terminer was then confined to the Speaker of the House of
Assembly and others of his fellow members — a very few individ
uals in the Assembly, whose opposition to every arrangement and
institution of the government is very indiscriminating." This
reference pointed to the case of Mr. Christie, who was expelled the
legislature of Lower Canada on the charge of being a spy upon its
actions. But this sort of charge, as we have stated, the chief-jus
tice came to despise, and instead of prosecuting the publisher as
he had Collins of the Freeman, he passed it over in silence.
In 1829, Mr. Robinson resigned the office of attorney-general to
accept that of chief-justice. It was doubtful, however, whether he
could legally pass directly from the one office to the other; and to get
over the difficulty, he accepted an intermediate office for a few days
— that of registrar of the county of Kent. His appointment to the
chief-justiceship bears date July ,15, 1829, in which office he suc
ceeded Sir William Campbell, on the retirement ofthe latter. Bir.
H. J. Boulton succeeded him in the attorney-generalship, and Mr.
Hagerman succeeded Mr. Boulton in the solicitor^generalship.
At the same time, Mr. James Buchanan Macaulay was made judge
of the same court, in the place of Mr. Willis, who had been removed
under very peculiar circumstances. The law required that three
judges should sit in banco to hear applications for appeal. A case
came up with which one of the judges, Mr. Justice Sherwood,
was mixed up, and therefore he could not act. Another of the
judges was absent; and, instead of three judges, which the law
required to hear applications for appeal in banco, there was only one
left. Under these circumstances, Mr. Justice Willis refused to
act. The government censured and suspended him at first, and
finally removed him for refusing to act in a ease where the law ren
dered him incapable. Mr. Macaulay was his successor.
Sir J. Beverley Robinson is a picture of amiability and benevo
lence. He has a great flow of language, and is a pleasant speaker.
As a judge, his impartiality has never been successfully impugned ;
but it is said of him that, from his having always at the bar acted
as crown prosecutor, and never once having appeared on the defen
sive, he has acquired a habit of assuming that every prisoner is
guilty until the contrary is proved. This is doubtless stating the
matter strongly, and no doubt overstating it; but at the same time
it is not impossible that the circumstance of having always appeared
when at the bar, as prosecutor, and never once for the defence,
might unconsciously have had its effects upon him. He is the
author of several valuable works on Canada.
A few years ago he received the honor of a baronetcy, having,

286 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
previously refused to accept a knighthood. He married in Lon- '
don, England, in 1817, Emma, the daughter of the late Charles
Walker, Esquire, and niece to William Merry, Esquire, who was for
many years deputy secretary-of-state for war. He is the father of
several children. One of his daughters married the Hon. George
W. Allan, representative of the York division in the Legislative
Council; and one of his sons (John Beverley) represents the western
portion of the city of Toronto in the other branch of the legislature.

Sir F. N. B. CONYNGHAM, Bart., G.C.H.
This gentleman was the twin brother of the third Lord
Conyngham, and was born on the 26th December, 1766.
Sir Francis was, for some years, lieutenant-governor of this
colony; and, in 1824, administered tho government ot Lower Ca
nada, during the absence of the Earl of Dalhousie. History does
not mention anything extraordinary that he performed during his
stay in Canada. His character is represented as pleasant and
agreeable. He was one of the knights of the shire for the county of Clare,
a colonel of the Clare militia, and one of the hundred members
sent to the Imperial Parliament. In 1802, he was re-elected for
the county of his residence without any opposition.
He married, 4th June 1801, Hon. Valentia Laetitia Lawless,
third sister of Lord Cloncurry, by whom he had three sons, one of
whom entered the army and the other the navy.
Sir Francis died at Bath, 27th January, 1832.

JOCELYN WALLER, Esq.,
A Canadian journalist. He was brother of the late Sir Robert
and Sir Charles Waller, of Newport, Ireland. Mr. Waller was an
accomplished scholar, and he as editor of the Canadian Spectator
distinguished himself as an able and talented political writer. In

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 287
private life his amiable and virtuous character endeared him to all
who had the advantage of his acquaintance. He died at Montreal
on the 2nd December, 1828.

DONALD McKENZIE, Esq.,
Born in Scotland in 1784. Died at Mayville, Chataque County,
U. S., in 1851.
At the age of seventeen he come to Canada, and joined the North-
West Company, and continued eight years with them. In 1809 he
became one of the partners with the late John Jacob Astor, of New
York, in establishing the fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains.
Washington Irving narrates a few of Mr. McKenzie's adventures
on the frontiers. In March, 1821, Mr. McKenzie joined the Hudson
Bay Company, and was immediately appointed one of the council
and chief factor. In August, 1825, he was married, and shortly
afterwards was appointed governor. At this time he resided at
Fort Garry, Red River Settlement, where he amassed a large for
tune. In 1833, he went to Mayville, where the residue of his life
was spent.

Rev. M. DEMERS.
Mr. Demers was born at St. Nicholas, county of Levis, in 1774.
He was the son of a respectable farmer, who being distinguished for
his loyalty, was made a prisoner by General Arnold, during the siege
of Quebec, in 1775. His neighborsand friends gathered and rescued
him. Mr. Demers studied in the seminary of Quebec, but before
entering the school of theology, he had spent some time in the
world learning land surveying, as he had a strong natural taste for
mathematics. He was during fifty years a member ofthe seminary,
passing during that long career, through all the several offices and
chairs of teaching to the principalship.
Mr. Demers, did a great deal to promote the study of natural

288 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
philosophy; at a time when books on that subject were scarce, or
rather hardly to be found in the country ; he himself compiled
treatises, which being manuscript, had to be copied by the pupils.
He had a remarkable taste for architecture, painting and the fine
arts in general, and exercising as he did during all his life a
great influence over Canadian society, he turned it more than once
into account for the protection and encouragement of our artists.
The beautiful paintings in the chapel ofthe seminary were selected
by him from a collection sent from France to the Abbe Desjardins.
He died on the 17th of May, 1853, at the age of 79. His several
treatises on the natural sciences were never printed, and this is
perhaps not to be regretted, inasmuch as those sciences have gone
through such phases, as render old treatises something very much
like a Journal of Fashion twenty years old. But fortunately for
Mr. Demers, he had given his attention to subjects which are
eternal and immutable of their nature, and the only book which
he published, his Institutiones Philosophica , will remain as one of
the best and most complete treatises on logic, metaphysics and
ethics.*

GENERAL LORD AYLMER, G.C.B.
The Right Honorable Matthew Whitworth, fifth Lord
Aylmer, born in 1775, was the eldest son of Henry, the fourth lord,
by Catherine, second daughter of Sir Charles Whitworth, and sister
to Charles Earl Whitworth ; at whose death, in 1825, Lord Aylmer
assumed the name of Whitworth before his own, and received the
royal permission to quarter the arms of that family.
He succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, October
22, 1785 ; after which his mother was re-married, iu 1787, to
Howell Price, Esquire. Her ladyship died in 1805.
Lord Aylmer entered the army as an ensign in the 49th Foot in
1787. He served nine months in Barbadoes, at the expiration of
which period he went to England on sick leave for six months;
and afterwards returned to the West Indies, and served two years
and a half, eleven months of which he was at St. Domingo. His
lordship was present at the first and second attacks upon Quiberon ;
at the storming of Fort l'Acul, near Leagone, where he was
* Institutiones Philosophica' ad usum studioste juventutis. Quebeci, ex tyhis
T. Cary et Socii, 1835. 395 pages, 8vo.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 289
wounded ; at the affair of Bombard, near Cape Nicola Mole ; and
at the reduction of Port-au-Prince. In 1791 Lord Aylmer received
a lieutenancy in his regiment; and the 8th August 1794, a com
pany. In October, 1794, his lordship reached England on sick
leave for six months. In 1797 he served as aide-de-camp to
Major-General Leland. In May, 1798, he was present at the
descent, near Ostend, and was taken prisoner, with the whole of
the grenadier company of the 49th Regiment under his command ;
and he remained in a French prison six months. In 1799, he was
present in the action at the Helder ; the attack on the- British lines
the 10th of September; and the battles ofthe 19th of September
and 2nd of October. After his return from Holland, he served as
aide-de-camp to Major-General Lord Charles Somerset, until his
promotion to a majority in the 85th Foot the 9th October, 1800. In
1801, he served for seven months in Jamaica. The 25th of March,
1802, he received the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 85th, and upon
the reduction of the 2nd battalion of that regiment in October fol
lowing, he was placed on half-pay. The 9th June, 1803, his lord
ship exchanged into the Coldstream Guards. In 1805, he served
under Lord Cathcart in the expedition to Hanover ; he was after
wards at the siege of Copenhagen ; and in 1807 was appointed
assistant-adjutant-general to the Kent district. In January 1809,
he proceeded as assistant-adjutant-general to Portugal, with the
expedition under the command of Major-General Sherbrooke. On
their arrival, the general and staff officers, and the troops composing
the expedition, were incorporated with the army serving in that
country. On the 25th of July, 1810, he received the brevet rank
of colonel, on being appointed aide-de-camp to the king. In
January, 1812, he was appointed deputy-adjutant-general to the
army in the Peninsula.
On the 4th June, 1813, he received the rank of major-general,
and was soon afterwards appointed by the Duke of Wellington to
command a brigade of infantry, with which he continued to serve
until the conclusion of the war. He was present at the passage of
the Douro, in the battles of Talavera, Buasco, Fuentes d'Onor, and
Vittoria; atthe affairs ofthe Oth, 10th, 11th, and 12th December,
1813, near Bayonne ; the siege of Bayonne, and other actions of
minor importance in the Peninsula. On the conclusion of the war,
his lordship was appointed major-general on the staff in Ireland,
and subsequently adjutant-general, in which latter situation he
continued for some years. He attained the full rank of general,
May 27, 1825 ; was appointed colonel ofthe 56th Foot, October 29,
1827 ; and of the 18th Foot, July 23, 1832. He was nominated
K.C.B. on the enlargement of the order of the Bath in January
1815, and G.CB.ln September, 1836.
In 1828, Lord Aylmer was appointed governor-general of Canada
His government lasted nearly five years ; and previously to his
37 '

290 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
departure from Quebec, which took place on the 17th September
1833, the citizens presented a farewell address, signed by 4,000
persons, expressing their regret at the termination of his lordship's
residence among them. His lordship's decease took place in
London, on the 23rd February, 1850.
Lord Aylmer married, August 4, 1801, Louisa Anne, second
daughter of Sir John Call, Bart. ; but by that lady, who survived
him, he had no issue. The peerage devolved on his only surviving
brother, Frederick William, a vice-admiral and C.B.

Hon. and Right Rev. J. STRACHAN, D.D., LL. D.,
The history of this great and truly remarkable divine deserves
special mention in a work of this description, more particularly on
account of the important services which he has rendered, not only
to the church of which he is an ornament, but to the western
province, in whose interests his enlightened mind has heen most
earnestly engaged, and in which he has lived and labored for so
long a time. He is one of those active minds who have shown
how much distinction and honor a man ean attain in this world
by energy and perseverance, combined with talent and merit.
Feeling, as we do, such high respect and admiration for his char
acter as a zealous and active prelate, and for his distinguished
abilities in the several capacities in which he has lived and served
Canada, we are assured our readers will readily pardon any
exuberance of feeling on our part.
The venerable bishop was born in Aberdeen, on the 12th April,
1778 ; and was educated at the grammar school of that ancient
city. In 1793, he matriculated in King's college of that uni
versity, where he subsequently took the degree of A.M. ; he then
removed to the university of St. Andrew's to prosecute his
theological studies. In 1797, he commenced to teach in the little
village of King's Kettle. It was at this time that he received the
offer, through the late Honorable Messrs. Richard Cartwright and
Robert Hamilton, to proceed to Canada, to organize and take
charge of a college or university, which Governor Simcoe had
determined on establishing at the seat of government of Upper
Canada, in order that the youth of the province might enjoy the
benefits of a sound education. This offer was first tendered to the
afterwards celebrated Dr. Chalmers, at that time studying at

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 291
St. Andrews ; he declined it, but recommended Mr. Strachan,
who accepted it. His first connection with Canada, dates back to
the month of August 1799, when he came to Canada in pursuance
of the above offer. But unfortunately for the interests of the
colony, General Simcoe, being appointed to another governorship,
had left the province, and had been succeeded by another, who did
not seem inclined to carry out the plans of his predecessor, and thus
the establishment of the university was for the time dropped.
This must have caused considerable disappointment to Mr. Strachan;
but his native energy enabled him to surmount the difficulties of
his new position. He opened a school in Kingston ; and, by the
influence of Mr. Cartwright,' collected a number of pupils, among
whom were that gentleman's own children. Here he remained for
three years; and under the instruction and advice of the Reverend
Dr. Stuart, arch-deacon of Upper Canada, prepared to enter the
Church of England. He was accordingly ordained deacon by the
Right Reverend Dr. Mountain, first bishop of Quebec, and appointed
to the mission of Cornwall. Here he commenced the grammar
school of that place ; and had the honor of including among his
pupils several young gentlemen, who afterwards rose to the highest
positions in colonial society. One of these, John Beverley Robin
son, was afterwards raised to a baronetcy, and was appointed chief-
justice of Upper Canada, in 1829 ; an office, the duties of which,
we trust, he may long be spared to discharge, with as much honor
as he has done in the past. Another pupil of the Cornwall gram
mar school was the late Sir J. B. Macaulay, chief-justice of the
Common Pleas, and the late Honorable Jonas Jones, a puisne1
judge. It is unnecessary here to inquire into the cause of this change
of denominational persuasion by Mr. Strachan. It may have been
that a wider field of usefulness opened out to him in connexion
with the Church of England, than with the Kirk of Scotland. In
1807, the university of St. Andrew's conferred on Mr. Strachan
the degree of LL. D. ; and in the same year, the university of
Aberdeen also conferred on, him that of D.D. In 1812, Dr.
Strachan, was appointed rector of York. In 1818, he was, by
royal warrant, appointed an executive councillor, and took his seat
in the Legislative Council ; in 1825, he was appointed archdeacon
of York ; in 1836, he resigned his seat in the Executive Council ;
in 1839, he was created bishop of the diocese of Toronto ; in 1840,
he resigned his place as a member of the Legislative Council, and
now in 1861, at the advanced age of eighty-three, on the 12th July
past, he retains the freshness and vigor of a man of three-score
and three, with all the peculiarity of accent which distinguished
the natives of Aberdeen of the last century, — one of the strangest
coincidences in the career of the indomitable bishop.
To Bishop Strachan Upper Canada is indebted for many benefits,

292 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
as we have before mentioned. But for him the "Queen City"
could not boast of so many attractions, raised by his untiring
industry and assistance. It is but meet to enumerate, among them,
the name of the celebrated Trinity college of that place, an
institution which entirely owes its origination and existence to the
persevering energy and assiduity of the right reverend prelate,
in the cause of the Church of England.
Bishop Strachan has ever been the friend of the poor ; to his
hand has been ascribed many benefits conferred upon them, in the
promotion of education, and establishing institutions for the
welfare of the old as well as the young. He has indeed merited
all the love and affection, which his people cherish for him. He
is universally beloved and esteemed by his clergy and parishioners.
We think we cannot do better than append to this brief sketch
a portion of the venerable bishop's charge to the Church Society,
Toronto, on the 13th of June, 1860, and which has reference to his
remarkable career. He said : —
" In 1796, having finished my terms at King's college, Aber
deen, and proceeded to the master's degree, I removed to the vicin
ity of St. Andrew's, and while there I contracted several important
and lasting friendships, amongst others, with Thomas Duncan, after
wards professor of mathematics, and also with Dr. Chalmers, since
then so deservedly renowned. We were all three very nearly of
the same age, and our friendship only terminated with death, being
kept alive by a constant correspondence during more than sixty
years. After leaving St. Andrew's, I was for a time employed in
private tuition, but having a mother and two sisters in a great
degree dependent on my exertion, I applied for the parochial
school of Kettle, in the county of Fife, and obtained it by public
competition. And here, at the age of nineteen, I made my first
essay in the great field of educational labor, commencing my career
with a deeply rooted love for the cause, and with something of a
foreknowledge of that success which has since crowned my efforts.
It was my practice to study and note- the character and capacity of
my pupils as they entered the school, and to this discrimination
which gave correctness to my judgment, many owe the success
which they ultimately achieved. Among my pupils at that time
was Sir David Wilkie, since so well known as one of the first paint
ers of the age. I very soon perceived Wilkie's great genius, and
with much difficulty prevailed with his uncle to send him, still
very young, to the celebrated Raeburn, then eujoying the highest
reputation in Scotland. It is pleasing to remark, that after an inter
val of perhaps thirty years, the preceptor and scholar met in Lon
don, and renewed an intimacy so profitable to one and so honorable
to both. They attended the meeting of the British Association at
Birmingham together, and saw much of one another during my
short stay in England. Often did Sir David Wilkie, atthe height

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 293
of his fame, declare that he owed everything to his reverend
teacher, and that but for his interference he must have remained
in obscurity. Commodore Robert Barclay, afterwards so unfortu
nate on lake Erie, from causes over which he had no control, was
another of my pupils. He was a youth of the brightest promise,
and often have I said in my heart that he possessed qualities
which fitted him to be another Nelson, had the way opened for such a
consummation. While at St. Andrew's, the Reverend James Brown,
one of the professors of the university, a gentleman of vast scien
tific attainments, became so exceedingly attached to me as to take
me under his kind protection. After some time he was advanced
in the chair of natural philosophy in the university of Glasgow,
to which place he removed. Still interested in my welfare, he
proposed to me to become his attending assistant, to prepare and
make the experiments necessary for the illustration of his lectnres,
and in his absence from infirm health, which was not unfrequent,
to read his prelections, and discharge such of his duties in the
lecture room as I was qualified to undertake. But difficulties
intervened to prevent this arrangement from being carried out
when almost completed, and Dr. Brown was, as he intimated
to me, reluctantly induced to retire on a pension. But our mutual
attachment continued through life. This to me was a very bitter
disappointment. A career of honorable usefulness had been opened
in a way after my own heart, and it was in a moment destroyed.
But I was not overwhelmed, for God had in his goodness given me
a cheerful spirit of endurance, and a sanguine disposition as to the
future, which it was not easy to depress, and a kind Providence,
even before I had altogether recovered the shock, presented to me
an opportunity of removing to another sphere of activity, and in the
frame of mind in which I found myself, I was the more disposed to
accept employment in Canada.
' Among the many schemes contemplated by General Simcoe, for
the benefit of the province, was that of establishing grammar
schools in every district, and a university at their head, at
the seat of government. Anxious to complete, as soon as possible
so beneficial an object, the governor gave authority to the Hon
orable Richard Cartwright and the Honorable Robert Hamilton, to
procure a gentleman from Scotland, to organize and take charge of
such college or university. These gentlemen, whose memories are
still dear to the province, applied to their friends in St. Andrew's,
who offered the appointment first to Mr. Duncan, then to Mr.
Chalmers, neither of whom were yet much known, but both declined.
Overtures were then made to me, and, suffering severely under my
recent disappointment, I " was induced, after some hesitasion, to
accept the appointment.
I sailed from Greenock towards the end of August, 1799, under
convoy ; but such was then the wretched state of navigation, that

294 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
I did not reach Kingston, by the way of New York and Montreal,
till the last day of the year 1799, much fatigued in body, and not
a little disappointed at the desolate appearancce of the country,
being, throughout, one sheet of snow. But a new and still more
severe trial awaited me. I was informed that Governor Simcoe
had some time before returned to England, but of which I had
received no information, and the intention of establishing the pro
jected university had been postponed. I was deeply moved and
cast down, and had I possessed the means, I would have instantly
returned to Scotland. A more lonely or destitute condition can
scarcely be conceived. My reasonable expectations were cruelly
blighted — a lonely stranger in a foreign land, without any resources
or a single acquaintance. But my return was next to impossible,
and it was more wisely ordered. Mr. Cartwright, to whom I had
been specially recommended, came to my assistance, and sympa
thized deeply and sincerely in this to me unexpected calamity, and
after a short space of time, proposed a temporary remedy. My
case, he acknowledged, was most trying, but not altogether hope
less, and he submitted an arrangement which might be deemed
only temporary, or lasting, as future events should direct. Take
charge, said he, of my four sons, and a select number of pupils
during three years ; this will provide you with honorable employ
ment and a fair remuneration, and if at the expiration of that period
the country does not present a reasonable prospect of advancement,
you might return to Scotland with credit. He further added that
he did not think the plan of the grammar schools and university
altogether desperate, although it might take longer time to estab
lish them than might be convenient or agreeable. In my position
there was no alternative but to acquiesce, and I was soon enabled
to return to a healthy cheerfulness, and to meet my difficulties
with fortitude and resignation. In the meantime, a strong attach
ment grew up between me and Mr. Cartwright, whom I found to
be a man of great capacity and intelligence, of the strictest honor
and integrity, and, moreover, a sincere churchman from conviction,
after deep enquiry and research. A similarity of feelings and
tastes tended to strengthen and confirm our mutual regard, which
at length ripened into a warm friendship, which continued without
the slightest change or abatement till we were separated by death.
I was left the guardian of his children, the highest and most pre
cious proof of confidence that he could have conferred upon me,
and I feel happy in saying that under my guardianship they be
came worthy of their excellent father. At Kingston, I formed
other friendships, especially with the Reverend Dr. Stuart,Jthe
rector of the parish, and the bishop's commissary for Upper Canada;
a gentleman whose sound judgment, sagacity and other high men
tal qualities were rendered more useful and attractive by his kind
and courteous demeanor, and a playful wit, which seemed inexhaus-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 295
tible. From this gentleman I received the most affectionate and
parental attention and advice from the day of our first interview,
and our friendly intercourse continued ever after without interrup
tion. At Dr. Stuart's suggestion, I devoted all my leisure time
during the three years of my engagement with Mr. Cartwright, to
the study of divinity, with a view of entering the church at its
expiration. Accordingly, on the second day of May, 1803, I was
ordained deacon, by the Right Reverend Dr. Mountain, the first
Protestant bishop of Quebec ; and on the third day of June, 1804,
I was admitted by the same prelate into the holy order of priests,
and was appointed to the mission of Cornwall."

MAJOR RICHARSON.
The subject of this brief notice was a native of Upper Canada ;
and, if we mistake not, belonged to a family, the members of whieh,
during the war of 1812, exhibited great loyalty and devotion.
Having entered the army, he was led, by a desire of seeing service,
or by the hope of advancement, to join the British Auxiliary Le
gion, organized by Colonel (now General Sir) De Lacy Evans, and'
employed in Spain. It was his ill-fortune, at an early period of his
engagement, to incur the displeasure of the lieutenant-general,
Colonel Evans, (by some statement which appeared ina printed, but
not published preface to his journal of " Movements of the British
Legion ;") and, by his own shewing, there were but too many, in
that heterogeneous levy, ready to defame and asperse one who
had rendered himself obnoxious to their leader, the great fountain
whence flowed honors and promotion to the officers serving in the
Spanish Legion. Major Richarson appears to have buffetted
with fortitude and skill the storm of troubles by which he was as
sailed ; and after many severe trials, having piloted his bark
safely into port, he obtained tardy justice, grudgingly rendered,
from the lieutenant-general and his staff and adherents. He pub
lished a narrative of the campaign and of the circumstances of
which we have spoken.
We do not know when he returned to this province ; but he
speedily became known and celebrated here through the many in
teresting tales he produced relative to the history of this country —
" Wacousta," according to general opinion the best, was immensly
popular. "EcarU," the "Canadian Brothers," and " Eight years in

296 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Canada," were also much esteemed. He received some public em
ployment, and founded a newspaper in Upper Canada.
Major Richarson was a knight of the military order of St.
Ferdinard; and, we believe, died in the United States some years
ago

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE CHAPMAN.
The Hon. H. S. Chapman was a son of the late Henry Chapman,
Esq., of the war department. He received his education at West
minster school ; he first came to Canada in 1826, and for some time
devoted himself to mercantile pursuits at Quebec ; but he was more
successful in walks of literature. He contributed largely to the
columns of the local papers, always taking the extreme liberal side
of all political questions ; but though politics had great attractions
for his pen, he wrote with greater gusto on all commercial subjects.
In 1832, he published a pamphlet on the currency, written with
the object of disabusing the public mind ofthe fallacies then pre
vailing, with regard to the advantages of a depreciated currency.
In 1833, Mr. Chapman proceeded to Montreal, and established the
Daily Advertiser newspaper. He edited this journal with the
greatest vigor and ability ; so much so, as to incur the greatest vi
tuperation and abuse from the old tory papers, and had to encoun
ter perhaps the coarsest personality ever indulged in by any class
of writers, at any period, in Canada. His writings, however, did
everything for the liberal party, the leading members of which
highly appreciated his efforts in the cause of constitutional gov
ernment. About 1836, Mr. Chapman left Canada, and determined
to try his fortunes in England, though in a different capacity.
Lord John (now Earl) Russell appointed him on a commission to
enquire into the state of the working classes in the manufacturing
districts ; and he found employment in writing for some of the
periodical publications for three or four years. About this time
he studied law, having entered at Lincoln's-Inn, and was called to
the bar.
In July, 1851, without consulting Mr. Chapman, Earl Grey ap
pointed him colonial secretary for Van Dieman's Land, where he
resided until 1853, when differences having arisen between him and
the Executive Council, relative to the transportation question, Mr.
Chapman resigned his office, and returned to England. He subse-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 297
quently was appointed to . a judgeship in one of the Australian
colonies. In society, Mr. Chapman's great natural parts, improved
by cultivation, a good heart and winning manners, made him a
very general favorite,, aud much beloved by his personal friends.

Hon. JOHN NEILSON.
John Neilson, sixth child of William Neilson and Isabel Brown
his wife, was born in Scotland, at Dornald in the parish of Balina-
ghie, in the stewartry of Kircudbright, on the 17th July, 1776.
He received his early education in one of those parish schools of
Scotland, which have so greatly contributed to elevate the charac
ter of her population ; but the acquirements he brought from
school could but have formed the foundation of his subsequent
success, which he mainly owed to his own assiduity in self improve
ment in after life. When about fourteen years of age, his family sent
him to seek his fortune in Canada, placing him under the care of his
elder brother, Samuel Neilson, who had just then succeeded his
uncle, Mr. W. Brown, in the property and editorship of the Quebec
Gazette, which had been first published by him and his partner,
Mr. Gilmour, on the 21st June, 1764.
Mr. S. Neilson died in 1793, and Mr. J. Neilson being yet a
minor, the publication of the Gazette was conducted by the late
Reverend Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Sparks, his guardian, until 1796,
when, Mr. Neilson coming of full age, he assumed the direction of
the paper, and from that period it took a new character of interest
and importance. In 1810, the increasing demand for political
intelligence and the importance of the public questions which
began to be discussed in the legislature, induced Mr. Neilson to
enlarge the size of the paper, and to publish it twice a week, and,
as had formerly been the case, in both languages. Under the
management of its judicious editor, the Quebec Gazette acquired
a perceptible and increasing influence on public opinion, by the
ability and discretion with which political subjects were discussed
in it ; the personal influence of its editor naturally increased with
that of his journal; his capacity for civil affairs, attracted the
attention of his fellow citizens, and in 1818, he was brought forward
as a candidate and elected to the provincial assembly, as a member
for the county of Quebec : he thus entered upon a new and more
38

298 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
important political career; he was now in the full vigor of his age
and ripened intellect, and, as might be expected from his character,
he soon took a lead in the active business of the legislature. At
an early period after he became a legislator, he turned his attention
to the measures necessary for the promotion of two of the most
important and enduring interests of civil society — education and
agriculture ; and, as an auxiliary to the latter, he sought to effect
an improvement in the system of granting the waste lands, to
encourage the survey and exploration of unknown territory within
the limits of the province, and thus to assist the development of
the resources of the country.
He bore a leading part also in the discussion of the grave ques
tions which, after 1818, occupied the public mind, and led to
differences between the executive government and the Assembly,
as to the control and appropriation of the public revenues — the
accusations brought against public functionaries — the plurality of
offices, and the alleged abuses or evils in the administration of
government, Mr. Neilson's conduct was marked by firmness and
impartiality, and by that spirit of justice which was part of his
individual character.
But as the Quebec Gazette was employed by government as the
vehicle of publie notifications, and might thus be represented as
in some sort its organ, Mr. Neilson, in 1822, in order to be free in
his political capacity from even the appearance of any such con
nection, transferred the whole establishment to his son, Mr. S.
Neilson, who, shortly afterwards, accepted a commission from
government as king's printer and editor, and for about a year
the paper bore the imprint, " by authority." But the commission
having been revoked in 1823, the Gazette resumed and thence
forth retained the character of an independent paper, which it had
borne since its establishment.
The disputes between the executive government and the
Assembly, on financial matters, had, in 1822, apparently become
so irreconcilable, that the Imperial Government, pressed at the
same time by Upper Canada to interfere in a question of finance
pending between the two provinces, determined to propose to
Parliament to re-unite the provinces. The intelligence of this mea
sure created general uneasiness among a large part Of the people
of Lower Canada, and a strenuous spirit of opposition to it being
aroused, it was determined by those adverse to it to send dele
gates to England with representations against it. Mr- Neilson was
chosen as the delegate from the district of Qubeec, and Mr.
Papineau, for that of Montreal, and through their remonstrances,
supported by the influence of Sir J. Macintosh in Parliament, or
rather by his withdrawal of the assistance which the government
had understood him to have promised, the measure was, in 1823,
abandoned for the present.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 299
In 1828, the discussions between the local government and the
Assembly having become more and more exasperated, a petition of
grievance was sent to England, addressed to the Sovereign and
Parliament, complaining of the administration of the government,
and bearing the names of upwards of 80,000 inhabitants of the
province. Mr. Neilson was again chosen as a delegate jointly with
Mr. D. B. Viger and Mr. Cuvillier, to support the complaints and
demands of the petitioners before the imperial authorities ; and a
committee of inquiry having been appointed by the House of
Commons, Mr. Neilson and the other delegates were examined,
with many other witnesses ; and a report was made favorable in the
main to the views of the petitioners. The testimony given by Mr.
Neilson, with respect to the Legislative Council, gave occasion
subsequently to a charge against him of having recommended that
that body should be made elective; but an unprejudiced perusal of
his evidence, taken as a whole, will shew that then, (as at all times
afterwards, both in his editorial articles and in his place in the
Assembly,) he discountenanced all suggestions of fundamental
changes, and maintained that the existing constitution and frame
of government, if properly administered, were sufficient "for the
peace, welfare, and good government of the province."
In like manner, both before and after that celebrated inquiry,
Mr. Neilson always expressed his entire confidence in the good
intentions, liberality and justice of the British Government, in
every thing that concerned the welfare of the people of Lower
Canada; and the recommendations of the report then made, being
carried into execution, in a spirit of concession and conciliation by
a new governor (Sir James Kempt), had the effect of producing
a greater degree of tranquillity in the province.
On the 29th of March, 1830, Mr. Neilson received the thanks of
the House of Assembly for his services on this mission to England ;
and we extract a part of his answer to the Speaker on that occasion :
" In performing a duty imposed upon me by my fellow citizens,
I did nothing more than was incumbent on any inhabitant of the
province, who might be honored with their confidence ; and whose
means might allow of those sacrifices of ease and individual interest
which we all owe to the common welfare, and of which so many of
my most esteemed friends, both in and out of the committee by
which I was delegated, have set such an honorable example. Next,
after the consciousness of having faithfully endeavored to discharge
a public duty, the best reward is, the certainty that we have been
successful as to obtain the approbation of those for whom we have
acted ; it is in this respect, that I set the highest value on the testi
mony of approbation, with which the representatives of the people
have been pleased to honor me."
* Nor was this vote of thanks the only public mark of approba
tion which Mr Neilson's services to the people called forth. In

300 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
January, 1831, a silver vase, which cost one hundred and fifty
guineas, (raised by public subscription) was presented to him at a
public dinner, given to him by a large number of his fellow
citizens, in testimony of their gratitude for his services in England,
in 1823 and 1828. This tribute bore the following inscription :
"A John Neilson, Ecr., M.P. P., d6put6 deux fois aupris
du Parlement Imperial pour difendre les droits des Canadiens ; ce
liger tribut de reconnaissance lui est offert en mimoire des services
qu'il a rendus aupays, et comme un hommage d ses vertus civiques."
Mr. Neilson's well known modesty, however, prevented any
notice of this public honor from appearing in the Quebec Gazette,
and we have been obliged to take these details from a cotemporary
journal. It was about this period that a difference of opinion on points of
political importance began first to shew itself between Mr. Neilson
and the leaders of the party with whom he had generally hitherto
acted. His career was in nothing more remarkable than for his con
stant desire to maintain the ancient institutions, usages, and
social arrangements ofthe French Canadian portion ofthe popular
tion; and he vigorously opposed the measure called Le Bill des
Fabriques, in 1831, which he considered as a needless and mis
chievous encroachment on the laws and customs by which the
parochial church corporations had hitherto been governed, and, as
tending to create- disorder and confusion, where tranquillity and
contentment had generally prevailed before.
The separation thus made was widened still further at the same
period, and the political quiet partially restored by the measures of
administration in 1829 and 1830, was again disturbed by the
agitation of the question of an elective Legislative Council, by
the imprisonment of two publishers of newspapers for alleged libels
on that body, and, by the deplorable events at the Montreal
election, in 1832, when the editor of one of those papers was elected
to the Assembly. When this unfortunate occurrence was made
the subject of investigation before a committee of the Assembly,
and the feelings of party and origin were aroused into irritated
action, Mr. Neilson abstained from taking any part in the proceed
ings, and his conduct on that occasion was justly considered as
indicating his marked disapprobation of the course pursued by his
political friends, who strove to cast the whole odium of the occur
rences in question upon the civil and military authorities. He
looked with ill-boding, and prophetic eye on the measures of his
party, as mischievously intermeddling with what ought to have
been left to the proper tribunals of justice; and from that period
may be dated his entire separation from that party. The conse
quences of that separation to himself personally were soon evident;
for, on the occasion of the general eleotion of 1834, he was thrown

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 301
out of the representation of the county of Quebec, for which he had
sat for fifteen years.
In the session of 1834, the celebrated ninety-two resolutions on
the state of the country, (which a minister of the crown described
as a " paper revolution," but which have now almost become a
reality,) were adopted, and were brought before the Imperial Par
liament, in a petition, calling for organic changes in the constitu
tion, and the general adoption of the elective principle. Those
who desired to maintain the constitution of the country unimpaired,
formed themselves into " Constitutional Associations," throughout
the province ; and sent home petitions to the government and parlia
ment in England. True to his principle of seeking administrative
and opposing needless constitutional changes, Mr. Neilson accepted
the appointment of a delegate from Quebec, associated with Mr.
Walker, an advocate, of Montreal, to carry these petitions to
England, and urge the objects of them there. Upon this third
mission, Mr. Neilson proceeded to England, in the spring of 1835,
and communicated with the new colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg ;
but, in the month of July, the British cabinet determined to
transfer the further inquiry into these political distractions to the
province itself, by recalling Lord Aylmer, and sending out Lord
Gosford, as governor-in-chief, with a commission also, jointly,
with two others, as commissioners of inquiry. Mr. Neilson, conse
quently, returned immediately to Canada. In this year, the health
of his son, the editor ofthe Gazette, which had been for some time
failing, sank under the labor of a daily publication, (a change
which had been adopted in 1832, when the Gazette appeared
alternately in the two languages'), and he was obliged to go to the
south of Europe ; — and, having died at New York, on his return
to his family, his father, at the age of three score, while suffering
under this afflicted bereavement, and the disappointment of his
hopes, resumed his editorial labors, in order to maintain the old
establishment. Amongst the events of 1837 and 1838, Mr. Neilson was found
true to those loyal principles, which he had always inculcated —
recommending order and obedience to the laws, and respect to the
constituted authorities. Notwithstanding the deplorable revolt of
a portion of the population, he still shewed himself the firm and
constant friend of the French Canadians, and maintained that the
mass of the people were untainted by disloyalty or disaffection.
He was, in truth, attached to them as a people — he loved to talk
of their primitive manners and customs, their simple character and
habits, and the peculiar changes and occurrences of their history ;
for their clergy, too, he entertained a high respect ; which was
returned by equal respect and regard, on their part, which followed
him, it is believed, to the last moments of his life, and still attends
his memory.

302 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The union of the provinces, which followed upon the events of
1837-8, was opposed by Mr. Neilson, so long as he conceived that
opposition could be of any avail ; — having been called to the special
council, in 1839, after the suspension of the constitution, he there
voted against the union, being supported only by two other mem
bers, (Messrs DeRocheblave and Quesnel), and in June, 1840, at a
general meeting ofthe inhabitants of Quebec, he proposed a series
of resolutions, which were embodied in a petition sent to England,
remonstrating against the measure.
When the act of union passed, Mr. Neilson came forward, and
was elected without opposition, as member for his old county of
Quebec, in the united legislature. One of the first measures
introduced by him, was an act to restore to the electors of the
suburbs of St. Roch and St. John, the right of voting for members,
which had been taken away from them by the electoral arrange
ment, under the act of union.
Mr. Neilson's rooted desire to stand by old institutions, and even
usages, again manifested itself in his constant disapprobation of
what is called " responsible government ;" and, his opinion upon
this innovation upon the old system of colonial government, are to
be found thickly scattered through his editorial articles in the
Quebec Gazette, from the adoption of the resolutions upon this
subject in the Assembly, in 1841.
On the formation of a new government, in November, 1843, he
was urged to accept the honorable post of Speaker of the Legisla
tive Council ; but he declined it, as he had uniformly declined
every office of emolument, in fulfilment of a public declaration he
once made to his constituents, and it was not till the session of
1844, that he consented, though the offer had before been fre
quently made to him, to become a member of that branch of the
legislature. He was now verging to the appointed period of three score years
and ten, and his constitution betrayed the inroads of age. He had
already seen many contemporaries go before him to the grave, with
whom he had been connected in the relations of sincere friendship,
or in those of political life ; but he still continued to take that
active part which he considered to be his duty, as a member of
society, in all public measures, either within the legislature or
without, which appeared to him conducive to the public weal; on
such occasions, he shrunk not from meeting or co-operating with
those who might be of an adverse political party, and the respect
with which his suggestions were received in the public assemblies
of his fellow citizens, shewed the weight attached to his opinions,
and the confidence reposed in his ripened judgment and long
experience in public affairs.
It was at last in discharging a voluntary duty that he had taken
upon himself, by attending with his brethren of St. Andrew's

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 303
Society, to receive the representative of his sovereign with due
honor on his visit to Quebec, in October, 1847, that Mr. N. brought
on himself the malady which proved ultimately fatal to him ; he
was on that occasion exposed for a considerable time to a chilling
rain, but persisted in remaining to read the address of his fellow
citizens, to his excellency, on his first arrival in^the ancient capital
of Canada.
He was shortly after taken ill, and never fully shook off the
disease ; but in spite of increasing weakness, his spirit failed him
not, nor his habits of application to business ; so that neither his
family nor his medical attendants perceived the full extent of his
danger, and it may be said that he "died in harness," for the very
evening before his death, he wrote off for the next issue of the
Gazette, and with a steady hand, and almost without obliteration,
the two remarkable articles, his last impressive words to his fellow
citizens, which appeared in the Gazette of 31st January, 1848 ;
the following day he was no more. He had some days before left
his town residence for his loved retreat at Cap Rouge, where his
family hoped that retirement and repose might help to check his
malady and prolong his days, but the morning before his death he
was seized with a shivering, from which he passed into a lethargic
slumber, and gently breathed his last at four o'clock in the morning
of the' 1st February, at the age of seventy-one years, six months,
and a few days.
After thus tracing Mr. Neilson's public career, from its com
mencement to its close, it remains for us to notice the principal
features of the character which he had established, by his abilities
and integrity, in the course of a long and laborious life, and which
he left as the best heritage to his descendants.
As a public journalist, his labors, spread over thirty volumes
of the Gazette, attest his industry, ability, firmness and modera
tion, in delivering to the public the opinions upon the various
subjects of political discussion which occupied the public atten
tion oftentimes' during the periods of great difficulty and agitation.
In his style of writing he was a model for journalists — plain,
simple, concise, terse and idiomatically English. When the oc
casion required, as may be seen in some of his communications to
the Quebec Gazette, then conducted by his son, in the summer
of 1812, after the fatal occurrences at the Montreal election, he
threw into his compositions a degree of eloquence and force seldom
surpassed in any public journal. His forte lay in compressing into a
small compass of well arranged thoughts and well chosen words, what
ordinary writers would spread over columns with &flux de paroles.
To his earnest pursuit, as a legislator, of what seemed to him to
be for the public good, ample testimony is afforded by the statute
book of the province, and the journals of the legislative bodies to
which he belonged.

304 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
As a member of society, sincerely aiming at the welfare of all,
he was remarkable for the absence of self-seeking — carried even to
the extent of sacrificing or neglecting his personal interest ; — this
freedom from selfish views, and his clear integrity, kept him out of
the vortex of those petty intrigues, which, in colonies especially,
are often used by meaner minds, as the crooked paths to attain
wealth or power; — if he had a feeling of contempt for any persons,
it was for those who trod such paths.
Lifting the veil of private life, which it were only fitting to do
in these pages, there he was seen the head of a family regarded by
him, and he by them, with unbounded affection, and the most
unrestrained confidence. In his personal friendship in society, his
moderation and openness of character insured their constancy. If
ever a man became his enemy, it was because he chose to be so.
Of enmity to others he seemed to be incapable, except " the strong
antipathy of good to bad," — and if occasionally an observation was
made to him, on the misrepresentations of his conduct and opinions
to which, as must happen in political discussions, he was often
exposed, he would reply with a smile, — " never mind, wait a while,
and let us in the meantime only return good for evil."
In social intercourse he was remarkable for a natural good breed
ing, a constant cheerfulness, good humor and pleasantry, that
shewed a mind and heart well poised and tempered within ;
habitually under the influence of true benevolence, disturbed by
no angry passions, and enjoying " the ceaseless sunshine of a kindly
breast." In his personal habits he was not only temperate but abstemious
in his mode of living —active in mind and body — fond of rural and
sylvan life, and of the wild scenes of nature. He had built a
lonely cabane on one of the mountains overlooking the valleys
through which the Jacques Cartier river finds its way from the
north ; and here he loved sometimes to resort, and enjoy the
unbounded solitude. Even in the last year of his life he expressed
a wish to explore the wilderness through which that river flows,
and onwards to Lake St. John, and proposed to make up a party
for the purpose, as a winter excursion.
Mr. Neilson's funeral took place on the 4th of February. He
was interred according to his often expressed desire, in the burial
ground which had been given by himself to the Presbyterian church
at Valcartier, a settlement about sixteen miles from Quebec, in the
progress and prosperity of which he had always taken a deep inter
est. To that romantic spot his remains were followed by a long
cortege of mourners, on one of the stormiest days of the season.
But the funeral service over him was in. St. Andrew's church,
Quebec, which was crowded with citizens, both of French and
British origin. An extract from the address of the Reverend
Dr. Cook on that occasion may appropriately conclude this notice

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 305
" It is a saying of the great apostle — ' no man dieth unto him
self :' and in the widest sense of which the words are capable, it
is a saying which holds emphatically true. By the unalterable
arrangements of the Divine Providence, we are bound together in
too many and too close relations, ever to remain altogether unaffected
by what breaks up and dissolves these relations for ever. Even in
the case ofthe humblest individual in society, and the most isolated
from the ordinary relations of kindred and love, there is power to
reach our hearts and to awaken our sensibilities, in many tokens,
however rude and simple, by which we are made aware that a
human spirit has departed; that with another of our race, the
work and the battle of this life are over, and the mystery of a new
life begun. We feel the tie of brotherhood with the departed.
We recognize in what hath befallen him, the common destiny of
all; and we give way to an awe, which is neither ignoble in a
rational spirit, nor unworthy of a Christian believer, while antici
pating so great an event in the progress of our being as that which
is to separate us for ever from this world of living men, and to
place us amidst the interests, the employments and the retributions
of the world invisible.
"But seldom is it, indeed, that any one passes' away from this
life, without affording proof more ample and direct, that he died
not to himself — that in the great change which had come over him,
he was not alone interested. In the neighborhood to which a man
belonged ; in the circle of society, however small, in which he
moved ; among the friends and associates with whom he was in
daily converse and communion, his loss is felt; and, at all events,
in the household to which he belonged, there are some whose
hearts are wounded, and on whose relations with this life, and their
condition in it, a serious and irrevocable change has been effected.
Seldom does any one pass away unmourned and unmissed by all.
God hath not bound together the children of the human family
with ties so loose and uncertain.
" The feeling of loss and mournful regret over the ashes of the
dead, by which we bear testimony that the departed died not to
themselves alone, must of course be extensive in its range, and
intense in degree, in proportion to the place which they who are
gone, held in the public eye, and the public estimation ; to the
talents which they had displayed ; to the public services which
they had rendered ; to the worth of their character ; to the kindli
ness of their nature ; to the existence and exercise within them of
those affections which win our love, and those higher principles
which command our esteem and admiration. Where these have
been eminent ; where these have been long acknowledged ; death
comes not to the individual alone, nor to the sanctuary of domestic
affection, but it carries sadness into the general community, and
each feels as if a friend and a benefactor had passed away.
39

306 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" Let it be one, for example, who for more than fifty years had
been known in a community, as a good and valuable citizen;
who had early established a character for inflexible honor and up
rightness, and continued to bear it to the last; in whom steady
application to the duties of life, and purity of moral princi
ple, were combined with the powers of a singularly shrewd and
clear and perspicacious understanding, and a promptness to bring
the strength of his understanding, and the weight of his character
to bear upon every measure that was designed to promote the
general good ; let it be one, too, who was known to all, and had a
word of kindness for every one ; to whom the humblest could have
access for advice and assistance, who was at once liberal and unos
tentatious in his charity, who treated his dependents rather as his
friends and his children, than as inferiors, and manifested ever, in
his whole bearing and intercourse with society, that genuine and
unassuming simplicity, which is the characteristic of a noble
nature ; can such a one be said, in passing away from this life to
' die unto himself ? Is there not a general loss under which all
suffer, and their sense of which it is natural and reasonable that
(in humble submission to the will of Providence), they should
openly and earnestly express ?
" And the supposition we have made may be still farther ex
tended. Let such a one, with all the claims to respect in a limited
community, which we have now been describing, have also for a
long period of time applied his talents to the higher duties of the
legislator and the statesman, with honor to himself and advantage
to the publie ; let him have set an example, known and acknow
ledged by all, and but too rare in the unhealthy atmosphere of pro
vincial politics, of a perfectly honest and independent man,
actuated by no selfish motives ; seeking no personal advantage,
deferring neither to the men in power, nor to the popular leaders,
when in his own clear judgment, he thought either in the wrong;
ready to co-operate with any party, up to the point, that in his
conscientious opinion, they were seeking the public good, and their
efforts tending to promote it ; sure to leave and to oppose them,
the moment they overstepped that point, without regard to party
connections, or the abuse which his independent conduct could not
fail to bringdown upon him, and that too, from different points in the
political compass; the determined foe of every abuse in the execu
tive government, and yet in whom unflinching loyalty was not
the dictate of convenience and temporary expediency, but a princi
ple of honor and conscience, which his reason approved, and to
tamper with which, he counted a crime, to be regarded with abhor
rence. Let such a one be called away from the midst of us, and
shall there not be a yet deeper and more wide-spread conviction of
the public loss ; token that as he had not lived, so he did not die
to himself alone ?

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 307
"Once more let us extend this supposed case, into another
sphere of public labor and usefulness. It is not easy to set too
high a value on the power of the press in these times, to influ
ence the public mind for good or for evil. And he who has
the opportunity of expressing his opinions to the public in a widely
circulated and frequently published journal, and the capacity of
expressing these opinions tersely and clearly, setting them forth in
the fairest light, supporting them with argument, and illustrating
and enforcing them with facts drawn from a capacious and well
stored memory, cannot fail to be, to a very considerable extent, the
corrupter or the benefactor of the community. Let such a one
then, as we have before described, be for a long series of years in
possession of this powerful engine for influencing the public mind ;
and let him use it for wise and good purposes, not so as that wise
good men may not sometimes differ from him in opinion, yet so as
that all shall acknowledge the purity of his motives and the gen
eral soundness of his principles ; let it never be turned into a
vehicle for slander or personal malignity ; let the sacred sanctions
of religion and morality be ever treated with reverence, and
solemnly enforced on every proper occasion ; let the benefits of
industry, and order, and general education be unceasingly incul
cated ; let a sober tone of feeling be expressed respecting the possi
ble benefits of political measures and political changes,. and the
necessity be ever shown, of personal exertion, and moral principle,
in private individuals, to the general prosperity of the country ;
let all this be taught from day to day, and from year to year, till
it fails not materially to influence the public mind ; and let the
career of the editor be closed, without giving cause for making one
personal enemy, andjwith a few short and simple sentences embody
ing the principles, moral and political, which he had cherished for
a life time, and forming, though without any such purpose on his
part, a befiting charge with which to close the scene of life, would
not the public calamity be unspeakably enhanced, in the loss of
such an able and sober-minded instructor and guide of public
opinion ?
" My friends and fellow-citizens, I need not say, it is such a cal
amity under which we are now suffering. It is the loss of such a
man we this day deplore — which, coming unexpectedly on us, has
thrown a gloom over our whole community, and has brought u ¦ in
solemn mourning to the house of God. It has not been at all my
aim, in what I have said, to delineate fully the character of the
eminent and venerable man whose ashes are this day to be laid in
the dust. That will be done by others better fitted for executing
the task. Already, one who served him faithfully for fifteen years,
has paid an affectionate tribute to his memory ; and another may be
expected from an old and much esteemed friend. I have but
indicated such claims to the public respect as all will acknowledge

308 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
that he possessed. The faults and frailties which cleave to all men,
it little behoves us to remember, in the case of those who have
passed from the judgment of man to the judgment of God. These
we leave to Him, who doing ever right, is yet unspeakably more
merciful and loving than the best and most benevolent of men. It
is the good in the departed which it behoves us to remember ; and
to remember that we may imitate it. And long, I trust, it will be,
ere the memory pass away from this community, of the private and
public virtues of him, whose remains now lie before us ; or ere that
memory cease to have a powerful and beneficial efficacy on those
who cherish it."

JOHN CHARLTON FISHER, Esq., LL. D.
Dr. Fisher, was a gentleman of high literary attainments, and,
as a Canadian journalist, very few could cope with or excel him.
Previous to his connection with Canada, he was the proprietor
and editor of the New York Albion, a journal which he founded,
and which still exists and flourishes. Invited to Canada in 1823
to conduct the Official Gazette, by authority, under the administra
tion of the Earl of Dalhousie, his paper was managed in a way
whieh gained him the approbation of scholars, of persons fond
of lighter literature of the day, and of all those who sincerely desired
to see British supremacy, and an affectionate acknowledgment of
the advantages it conferred upon Canadian colonists, duly under
stood and appreciated. In this task he worked fearlessly and
incessantly, and continued until, in the year 1831, he was directed
to suspend his political articles, as they were not in accordance
with the views of the party then in the ascendent in the mother
country ; and his Quebec Gazette, by authority, was (as its contem
porary, the Upper Canda Gazette, published by Mr. Stanton, had
previously been) reduced to a mere official sheet, in fact, assimi
lated to the London Gazette in the mother country. He edited
the Quebec Mercury for some years, and in 1841 started the Con
servative, a weekly journal. Speaking of this, the Mercury, the
great authority in those days, said : —
" Ofthe manner, in which this new candidate for public favor will
be conducted, we may safely say, that the well known urbanity of
the editor, his classical knowledge and good taste, will render it
the most polished public print published on this continent. It
will contain candid views of politics, and its literary character will

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 309
be ofthe first order. In short it will be a publication, which if
duly encouraged, will be found in the house of every truly loyal
British subject; and one which may be laid on the drawing room
table of the most refined, for its literary articles, and be advantage
ously read by persons of all classes for the sound and loyal princi
ples it will inculcate."
He was president, and an active, energetic and useful member
of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, which it is not too
much to say, he raised by his superior talents, to the high standing
held by the society, previous to the burning of its museum and col
lections. He died on board the Sarah Sands, steamship, in September,
1849, whilst returning from England, whither he had gone for the
benefit of his health.

S. J. BURTON, Esq.
Samuel Judge Burton, Esquire, Collector of Customs at
Frelighsburgh, where he died on the 10th November, 1845, was
the son of a dignitary of the Church of England. He had served
with credit, in the 76th Regiment, during part of the Peninsular
war, and having embarked at Bordeaux, for America, he eventu
ally settled and married in Canada. He was distinguished as an
agriculturist and horticulturist, combining and applying, very
happily to this country, the most approved modern theory and
practice. He introduced the art of macadamising roads into the
province, and conferred a lasting benefit on the inhabitants of
the vicinity of Quebec, by converting an impracticable morass into
an excellent road. In the commission of the peace for upwards of
twenty years, and at the head of a corps of volunteers during the
late rebellion, he was conspicuous for his impartiality, rectitude,
humanity and firmness. His decease was hastened, if not caused
by fatigue, privation, and exposure, towards the fall of the year, in
the zealous discharge of his duties. In him, society lost an accom
plished gentleman, the provincial government a valuable and con
scientious servant, and the Queen a devoted subject.

310 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Rev. DANIEL WILKIE, LL. D.
Dr. Wilkie was born in Scotland in the year 1777. He was
the youngest of twelve children, and was left an orphan at an
early age. His education, from first to last, was with a view to
the ministry, and his brothers, under whose care he fell, con
tributed out of their scanty resources the necessary means. In
1789 he entered the grammar school of Hamilton, and in 1794
commenced his collegiate course at the university of Glasgow,
under Professors Jardine and Young. In 1797 he entered the
divinity hall, and in 1803 competed successfully for the first
university prize, a silver medal, for an essay on the Socinian con
troversy. He came to Canada in the same year, and in 1804 was
licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Montreal. He took up
his residence in Quebec, and during the next forty years was
actively and successfully employed as a teacher. Many of his
pupils have occupied, and do still occupy, distinguished places on
the bench, at the bar, and in the legislature of this country. He
took an active part in every association designed to advance
literature, science, or art, and many of his metaphysical and scien
tific productions appeared in the periodicals of the day. He was
editor of the Star newspaper during the three years of its exist
ence, the first number of which appeared in December, 1827. The
design of the publication was to correct, if possible, the extremes into
which the press in the province had fallen, of indiscriminate praise
and indiscriminate censure ofthe administration of Lord Dalhousie.
The undertaking was made by the late Andrew Stuart, Esq., who
entered into it with his whole heart and soul, contributing most
valuable articles on general subjects, but more especially on legal
and constitutional questions. Dr. Wilkie wrote, in all cases, the
editorial portion, and contributed many long articles on educational
and literary subjects.
In 1843, at the foundation ofthe high- school, he was appointed
rector of that institution, but advancing age compelled him to
retire from the active duties of his profession before the end ofthe
year. The remaining years of his life were spent in retirement.
The first symptoms of disease appeared in 1845, and he died in
1851 . He was buried in Mount Hermon cemetery, where a hand
some monument has been erected to his memory. It bears the
following inscription : —
Daniel Wilkie, LL. D.
Born at Tolloross, Scotland, 1777.
Settled at Quebec in 1803.
Where he died on the 10th May,' 1851.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 311
He was a learned scholar ;
An indefatigable student of philosophy and letters ;
An able and successful instructor of youth ;
Of genuine uprightness and guileless simplicity ;
A devout, benevolent, and public spirited man ;
Commanding through a long life
the respect and esteem
Of the community in which he lived.
This monument
is erected by his pupils,
in grateful remembrance of his services,
and as a memorial
of their deep and earnest veneration for
his character and virtues.
Quis desiderio sit pudor, aut modus
Tam cari capitis ?
We close the notice of this " good old man," with the address
delivered on the day of his burial, by1 the Rev. Dr. Cook, Quebec : —
" In the Providence of God we have been called together, this
day, to commit the ashes of an old and much valued friend to the
dust : an office of brotherhood, with which we are but too familiar,
and which we must expect to continue to perform till we are our
selves summoned away from this mortal life, and others have to
discharge the same duty to us. It is not, however, with common
feelings, that we now discharge this common duty. Ordinarily,
death comes among us suddenly — sternly. By a few days or weeks
of suffering his work is accomplished, and when we meet to lay the
body, which has been despoiled of its immortal inhabitant, in the
grave, it is wdth the painful feeling of a recont and mournful
separation. But se it is not in the present instance. In the case of the
venerable individual, around whose mortal remains we now stand,
the separation had long been accomplished ; separation from the
world and its interests ; separation from society and its duties ;
separation from communion with even the nearest and dearest of
his friends, almost as complete as that which has now taken place.
He had dropped out of his usual place in society. He had ceased
to appear in circles, where for so long a period his face and figure
were familiar. He had already, while life was still lingering on
in its last stages, begun to pass away from the common remem
brance. The place that had once known him, was beginning to
know him no more. And the announcement of his actual depar
ture and the mournful solemnities, in which we are now engaged,
serve less to excite any painful feeling of separation, than to recall

312 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
vividly to the mind the image and memory of one, who had already
been long removed from us.
"I wish I could set before you, in a few plain words, what is
thus recalled to the minds of all, giving expression to the com
mon opinion and the common feeling ; but it is little necessary.
You have before you more vividly than I could represent them,
the form and figure of the old philosopher, moving slowly, and
sometimes incongruously enough, in the midst of our busy com
munity, — obviously abstracted from the common interests ; — little
occupied with common objects of desire and ambition, and dwelling
in a world of his own ; a world of speculation ; a world of theories
and fancies, and doubtings, but into which, none of the mean or
sordid, or selfish passions of the actual world ever found their way.
You know as well as I can describe them, the guileless simplicity
of his nature ; his inflexible integrity ; his perfect frankness and
sincerity ; his genuine benevolence ; his unaffected courtesy.
" There will, I trust, be borne other and more valuable and more
permanent testimony than any that could come from me, to
the important services which, forthe long period of forty years, he
rendered to this city as a teacher of youth — the indefatigable
earnestness and the successful results of his labors in that toil
some and ill-requited but most honorable profession — and his per
severing and zealous efforts to keep up a high standard of educa-
tion, in a community but too much inclined to limit education to
the more immediate wants of commercial business. From first to
last, without aid or countenance from the provincial authorities,
nay, and while these were sometimes actively opposed to him, he
maintained in this latter respect his steady and unyielding course,
and so conferred a benefit on the community, great in itself, and
to which no other person of the same profession can assert any
thing like an equal claim.
" It will be for others also to bear witness to his zeal and efficiency
in supporting every literary and educational institution ; every
means by which the intellectual improvement of the community
could be promoted. He was indeed, and showed it when required,
by sacrifices and personal exertion such as few are inclined to
make, of a large, a public, a patriotic, and a philanthropic spirit.
And in regard of the highest of all subjects, in regard of religion,
whose office it is to bind men to God and to one another, while
from the turn of his mind, and the circumstances of his education,
he was prone to indulge in speculations, and, perhaps, reached con
clusions with which we might be little inclined to agree, yet were
both his daily conduct and his devotional temper in accordance
with the faith which he had been early taught, and the simple
worship on which he regularly waited, and I feel it is a good and
holy wish I utter for myself and you when I desire that we all may
have and cherish such profound reverence and love for the Lord

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 313
Jesus Christ as he felt and continued to feel, I do believe, as long
as he was capable of feeling ; for blessed, and only blessed are
they, who love Christ, and whose hope is founded upon Him.
" It was a mournful spectacle — the bodily and mental decline of
this good and valuable man ; a decline which proceeded till only
the elements of his original character remained — his devotional tem
per — his domestic affections — his genuine kindness and courtesy.
These continued with him to the last. And it was striking to ob
serve, and not without a lesson to those entrusted with the teach
ing and training of the youthful mind, how in the ' deepening
twilight of his powers' when he could indulge no longer in moral
and metaphysical speculations, when he was incapable of compre
hending the most elementary principles of geometry or arithmetic,
and the pages of classic literature, with which he had been familiar,
had entirely faded from his remembrance, the words of divine
truth still dwelt in his mind, and it was still possible to draw from
him the petitions of the prayer which Christ taught his disciples,
or the verses of the twenty-third psalm, in that simple version
which is sacred in the associations of every Scottish churchman.
Surely it is good that that which was best remained the longest.
And it is wise to lay up in the mind first that which is best.
" But if his gradual decline was a spectacle mournful to his friends
it was not, we may be sure, without its use. It is reasonable to
believe that in the arrangements of the divine providence it
answered important ends to himself. It gave opportunity for a
most touching and impressive exhibition of devotedness in the
aged partner of his life. And it emphatically called on all, while
in the full exercise of their powers to give heed to the things which
concern their everlasting peace, instant and immediate heed ;
since even before this life comes to an end, it may altogether cease
to be available, in order to a preparation for the life eternal.
" That call, brethren, I would now repeat, to you and to myself.
Now is the accepted time and the day of salvation. Oh ! let us
each say with our great Lord : ' I must work the work of him
who sent me, while it is day ; the night cometh when no man can
work.' And let us cherish, through the faith of Christ, the blessed
conviction that though ' the earthly house of our tabernacle be
dissolved, we have a building of God ; a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.' "

40

314 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

MAJOR-GENERAL F. HERRIOT, C.B.
General Herriot was a resident of DrummondviUe, Canada
West, where he died. He was a gallant military officer, and had fought
in more than one battle during the American war of 1812, in Canada.
He was also a member of our provincial Parliament ; and was born
in Jersey on the 2nd January, 1766. He was second in command
under De Salaberry at Chateauguay, and for his military services was
made a C.B. After the war he retired to DrummondviUe, which
we believe he had founded and settled. On the birth of the Prince
of Wales, he was promoted to the rank of major-general; he was
also provincial aide-de-camp, and member of the Executive Council,
as well as of the Assembly. His death took place at his residence,
Comfort Hall, on the 30th December, 1844.
General Herriot had secured the attachment of a numerous circle
of friends and acquaintances both in public and private life, by his
kind and conciliatory manners, as well as by his benevolence and
charitable disposition, both of which were unbounded. Of the
village of DrummondviUe he may truly be said to have been the
father and founder, having retired there, on half pay, in 1816, with
a number of veterans and pensioners from the different corps dis
banded in the province after the late war ; his Majesty having
rewarded his active and meritorious services by a large grant of
land situated chiefly in the county of Grantham, of which the
village forms a part.

Hon. JAMES CROOKS, M.L.C.
We think it due to the memory of the above enterprising gen
tleman to include in this collection a short notice of him. He was
one of the first settlers in Upper Canada, and one of the first to
lead the van in home and local enterprises, which at the present
day so distinguish the enlightened and intelligent people of the
western section of the province, and goes far to stamp them as a
wealthy, thriving, and industrious class of subjects.
Mr. Crooks was an ancient resident of Niagara, having emigra
ted thither from Scotland, in 1794. He established himself as a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 315
merchant ; and it was he who sent the first load of wheat and
the first load of flour from the upper province to Montreal, which,
in those days, was both a matter of difficulty and danger. He was
elected a member of the legislature of Upper Canada ; and, during
the war of 1812, took part on our side in the struggle that ensued
for the mastery of Canada. He was in command of a company of
the 1st Lincoln militia, and fought gallantly at Queenston and
other places. He was a member of the Legislative Council for twenty-
five years, and always bore himself in that body, as an honest and
consistent man, favoring neither party, being perfectly independ
ent in his views. The Honorable Mr. Crooks established the first
paper mill in Upper Canada, and carried it on successfully for many
years; but he grew tired of business as old age wore on, and
finally abandoned the paper-making business. The facilities at his
command were limited, because the demand for paper was light, yet
the Flamborough paper mill supplied the wants of the entire commu
nity then ; now the case is different, and such an establishment
would do but little in keeping up a supply for the newspaper offices
within range of the old mill. His death occurred at Flamborough
West, on the 2nd March, 1860. He was in the 82nd year of his
age, having been born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, in 1778. His de
mise caused very general regret among his numerous friends and
acquaintances.

LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHNSTON, C.B.
Colonel Johnston, long a resident of the county of Haldi
mand, C. W., was born in 1769. He entered the military service
in 1784, and was employed with the army in reducing the impor
tant fortress of Dharwar, and in the field through the Mahratta
war ; was in the leading party at the storming of Seringapatam ; ap
pointed deputy quarter-master general of the force under the late
Duke of Wellington, (then Sir Arthur Wellesley), and took an
active share in the labors of the memorable battle of Assaye;
during a cessation of hostilities he assisted in the survey of the
Ghaut Mountains, in the Deccan, a most arduous and perilous task ;
and afterwards was appointed quarter-master general of the Bom
bay army, and retired from the honorable East India Company's
service, after forty years active service. He was created eompa-

316 sketches op Celebrated Canadians,
nion ofthe Bath by his Majesty George IV., a distinction, at that
period, seldom conferred on officers of the Indian army. Colonel
Johnston died at his seat, "The Retreat," near Dunnville, C.W., in
February, 1816.

Hon. Sir JOHN CALDWELL, Bart.
He was the eldest son of Sir James Caldwell, the third baronet,
(who was made a Count of Milan by the Empress Maria-Theresa),
by Elizabeth, daughter of the Most Reverend Josiah Hort, Lord
Archbishop of Tuam, and the Honorable EUzabeth Fitzmaurice,
daughter of William, 20th Lord Kerry. He succeeded his father
in 1784 ; and married Harriet, daughter of Hugh Meynell, Esq.
He was connected with Canada through his appointment of re
ceiver-general of the lower province. During the time he hell that
office, he was found to be in default with the province for a very
large sum of the public monies, which, however, we believe was
afterwards partly refunded by the sale of his large property in
Canada. He died at Ramsgate, in June, 1830, and left a son (the late Sir
Henry Caldwell) to inherit his title.

Hon. JAMES McGILL.
A notice of the distinguished philanthropist and benefactor,
James McGill, to whom Montreal owes so much for founding and
endowing the noble university which bears his name, may not be
inappropriate in this collection.
Mr. McGill was a native of Glasgow, in Scotland, having been
born in that city on the 6th of October, 1744. He came to this
country at an early age, and immediately engaged in mercantile
pursuits, in which he was most successful, amassing a large and
handsome fortune as the fruits of his exertions. He was succes
sively a member of the Parliament of Lower Canada for the city

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 317
of Montreal, and member ofthe Legislative and Executive Councils;
he was also an officer in the militia, and rose to the high rank of
brigadier-general in the war of 1812.
Mr. McGill was distinguished for his charity, his sound practical
judgment and his kindness of heart ; he mixed much in society,
both English and French, being connected with the latter by mar
riage. He died on the 19th December, 1813, being sixty-nine years
of age, in the city of Montreal, where he had resided ever since he
came to Canada, and where for his liberality, goodness of heart,
and philanthropical munificence, he left behind him a monument
of his worth, which will assuredly carry his name down to posterity
with honor and distinction.
He married on the 2nd December, 1776, Charlotte Guillemin,
daughter of the late Guillanme Guillemin, in his lifetime
councillor of the King of France, in Canada, lieutenant-general of
the admiralty of Quebec, and judge of the Court of Prerogatives,
and widow of the late Francois Amable Trottier Des Rivieres.

LIEUTENANT MACPHERSON.
Allan Macpherson, Esquire, of Orillia, C. W., was one of that
gallant band of heroes who defended the honor of Britain during
the eventful period from the French revolution to the peace of 1815,
and whose deeds of valor form one of the most splendid pages
in the annals of British history. Of those noble veterans, a scat
tered remnant, fast disappearing before the onsets of death, is still
to be found in the recesses of our forest land, and forms an influ
ential and interesting portion of our people. Entering the army
at the age of seventeen, Lieutenant Macpherson fought at the battle
of Maida, in the 78th Highlanders, that gallant corps which has, un
der the immortal Havelock, achieved for itself such undying fame.
For his brave conduct at that action he received a medal. He
subsequently accompanied his regiment to Egypt, where he suffered
severely from ophthalmia, like many of his fellow soldiers in that
land. He next assisted in forming and drilling the Royal Sicillian
Regiment, of which he was adjutant. He was put on half-pay in
1815, came to Canada in 1835, and thus exchanged the sword for
the ploughshare. He became one of our most spirited and enter
prising settlers. A Highlander by birth, he possessed much of
the spirit of his countrymen, warm-hearted, friendly, and energetic.

318 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
He was indeed a worthy representative of a Highland gentleman,
and did honor to that gallant people, whose noble deeds, whether
at Waterloo, Balaclava, Inkerman or Lucknow, have won immor
tal laurels. He died at his residence at Orillia, in 1859.

WILLIAM KEMBLE, Esq.,
A talented Canadian journalist ; born in 1781 ; died at
Quebec, on the 25th of February, 1845. He was formerly of
Clapham Common, Surrey, England, and a member of a distin
guished mercantile family in London, one of whom, at the period
of Mr. Kemble's death, was a member in the Imperial Parliament,
for the county above mentioned. As editor of the Quebec Mer
cury, from 1823 to 1842, he greatly distinguished himself as a
writer, and the spirit and raciness which characterized his writings
will long be remembered. His talents were of a high order. He
was also a valuable contributor to many periodicals, including the
celebrated Simmonds Colonial Magazine, of London, England.

DAVID THOMPSON, Esq.
Mr. Thompson, during a residence of nearly twenty years in
the township of Glengarry, was favorably known for his kindness
and generosity of character, and as one of the magistrates of the
county, discharged his duties with the greatest integrity. He was
many years a partner in the late North West Company, during
which time he was professionally employed in exploring those vast
regions towards the Columbia river and Pacific ocean, and of which
he has left maps and charts, conveying a minute description of the
country as to soil, climate, &c, which must rt this period, when
there is a prospect of these regions being more closely connected
with Canada, be of infinite value. Mr. Thompson, previous to
his death in 1856, was employed as astronomical surveyor, on

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 319
the part of the British government, attached to the commis
sion for defining the boundary line between the United States and
Canada.

Sir DAVID JONES.
Born 1794; died 23rd August, 1838, at Brockville, C.W., where
he and his family had long resided. Few men were more respected
and none could be held in higher estimation by his countrymen.
In private life he was an uncompromising supporter of British
interests. He visited England in 1835, as agent for the Brock
ville " Loan and Trust Company," at which time he received the
order of knighthood from his Majesty William IV., at Windsor
Castle, being the first native of the province who had the honor
of receiving so distinguished a mark of royal favor. He died after
an illness of only five days ; his death casting a gloom over his
native place.

Right Hon. the EARL OF GOSFORD, G.C.B.
This distinguished nobleman was the second earl of the same
name, who held the office of governor-general of Canada, and con
tinued in that office two years and a half, having arrived at Quebec
in August, 1835, and left on the 26th February, 1838. He was
chief of a commission of inquiry and pacification, whose labors, it
was hoped by ministers, would haVe led to the adjustment of all
political differences, and the establishment of the provincial govern
ment upon a firm and liberal footing, the grand principles of the
British constitution being always kept in view. That the mission
failed in its object is a matter of notoriety ; and that terms, which
have been accepted with thankfulness by the other British American
colonies had been factiously rejected by Lower Canada, is also too
well known to render it necessary that we should further dwell upon
the subject on this occasion. That Lord Gosford, as governor-in-

320 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
chief, executed the instructions of concession and conciliation,
which had been imparted to him, to their full extent, is equally
well-known. Indeed he pushed his courtesy to the utmost bound,
and still held out the olive branch, when the enemies of the con
stitution and of British connection were sharpening their swords
in the hope of overthrowing the government, and of severing that
tie by which the province has been raised to its rank in the British
colonial possessions ; whilst the religion, the institutions, language,
and laws of the inhabitants have been preserved inviolate. At length
the undisguised language of the declaration, at the meeting of the
six counties, held at St. Charles on the 23rd of October 1837, too
plainly proved that the endeavor at governing Lower Canada
under the existing constitution was a hopeless task; and Lord
Gosford then apprised her Majesty's ministers of his thorough con
viction of the necessity of changing the conciliatory poUcy which
had been hitherto pursued for measures of a sterner character ; and,
at the same time, he declared his inability to conduct the govern
ment under the instructions by which he had to that time been
guided, adding that if he stood in the way, from his adherence to
those instructions, of the full execution of the measures which had
obviously become necessary, he was willing to resign the trust that
had been confided to him, and begged to be relieved from his
charge. Her Majesty's ministers, whilst they fully concurred in
all that his lordship had done in the government of this colony,
and expressed their approbation of the manner in which his
important duties had been discharged, consented to his lordship's
return to ^ Britain, and sent instructions to his ExceUency
Lieutenant-General Sir John Colborne to assume the reins of
government upon his lordship's departure. This transfer of author
ity took place. Whatever errors Lord Gosford may have committed
during the short but eventful period of his administration, no man
can question his motives ; we believe that none will be found so
rancorous iri their censure of his conduct as to question the purity
of his intentions or the benevolence of his views. But having been
instructed to endeavor to form a government by uniting the most
moderate of the two political parties, his lordship pursued this
object with an earnestness that caused him to lend too ready an ear
to the representations of designing men, who affected to secede
from the majority of the Assembly, only to forward their views of
personal advancement ; and, unhappily, these were too successful
in palming their pseudo-loyalty upon the noble lord, and pro
ducing a far more favorable impression than their previous con
duct, considered along with their after professions, ought to have
obtained for them. That Lord Gosford did not succeed in admi
nistering the government of Lower Canada, and calming the
dissensions by which it was torn, cannot be imputed to his memory
as a disgrace, his predecessors for years had not been more fortu-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 321
nate, and if open rebellion, pretended to have been provoked by the
necessary interference of the Imperial Parliament in the concerns
of the colony, broke out under the conciliatory policy enjoined by
his instructions, it is fully obvious that such an outbreak would not
have been averted had coercion been resolved to at an earlier
period. An appeal to force might have produced for the insurgents
a strong sympathy among the people of the United Kingdom and
even in the Imperial Parliament, under the idea that they had been
driven to desperation by arbitrary and oppressive conduct pursued
towards them; whereas they stood prominent as reckless and
ungrateful rebels, who refused concessions which had been thank
fully received by every other province in British America, and
had been seduced by their own vanity, and the vaunts of their
unprincipled chiefs, to wage an unprovoked war against the mother
country, without even the most distant prospect of success to cloak
the crime of treason in the mantle of revolution.
He married 20th July, 1805, Mary only daughter of Robert
Sparrow, Esquire, of Worlingham Hall, Suffolk. She was lineally
descended from Thomas Sparrowe of Sotnersam, living A.D. 1419,
and by her had issue one son (present peer) and four daughters.
The Earl of Gosford died in England on the 29th March 1849.

LIEUT.-GENERAL Sir GEORGE GIPPS.
It being our province to give the particulars of the lives of all
those celebrated men who have in any way been connected with
Canada, we place next on the list the above distinguished civil and
military officer who, as will appear, bore a very important part in
the affairs of this country, at a time when we were really in an
alarming predicament.
We will not enter into the details concerning the ea.rly portion
of his distinguished career ; but will content ourselves with giving
the simple facts and adding the various and important civil employ
ments in which he was engaged previous to and at his death.
Together they extend over a period of thirty-eight years, and are
such as to entitle him to an honorable rank among the best servants
of his country.
Sir George was born about the year 1791. His father was the
Rev. George Gipps, rector of Ringwould in the county of Kent.
His commissions in the honorable corps to which he had the honor
41

322 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
to belong, are dated respectively, second lieutenant, 11th January,
1809 ; first lieutenant, 21st December 1809 ; second captain, 30th
September, 1814 ; first captain, 8th April, 1826 ; brevet-major, 10th
January, 1837; regimental lieutenant-colonel 23rd October, 1841.
In 1811 he was ordered to join the army in the Peninsula, and
was present at the successful siege of Badajos, in March and April,
1812. Whilst leading one of the columns of assault on Fort Pi-
eurina, he was wounded in the left arm ; and for his gallant con
duct on the occasion he was specially mentioned in the Duke of
Wellington's public despatches. In 1813 and 1814 he was with Sir
John Murray's army in Catalonia, and took part in the affair of the
pass of Biar, the battle of Castella, the capture of Fort Balaquer,
(for which service he was again honorably mentioned in the des
patches of Sir J. Murray) in the siege of Terragonna, and blockade
of Barcelona. From November, 1814, to July, 1817, he served with
the Duke of Wellington's army in the Netherlands and France ;
but he was not present at the battle of Waterloo, having been de
tached some time previously for the purpose of putting the fortress
of Ostend into a state of defence. Subsequently to the withdrawal
of the army of occupation from the French territory, Sir George
was permitted to remain some timeout of active service, and availed
himself of this opportunity to visit Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria,
Turkey and Greece. After further military duty at Chatham, he
proceeded in October, 1824, to the West Indies, and at the expira
tion of that service he visited Mexico, and returned to England in
December, 1829. The able representations which he made during
this period on the subject of the emancipation ofthe slaves in those
particular colonies, with which he was immediately acquainted,
so strongly impressed the ministry ofthe day with his capacity for
civil business, that after his return, whilst in command of the
Royal Engineers at Sheerness, he was nominated on two successive
government commissions, the one in Ireland and the other in Eng
land, on the subject of the proposed boundaries for constituencies,
under the parliamentary reform and municipal corporations acts
respectively. In 1834 he was appointed private secretary to the Earl of Auck
land, then first lord of the Admiralty ; and in the subsequent year
proceeded with the newly appointed governor-general of British
North America, the Earl of Gosford, and the Right^Honorable Sir
Charles E. Grey, to Canada, as a commissioner "for the investi
gation of grievances affecting her Majesty's subjects in thatcolony,"
which had been raised by Messrs. Papineau, Mackenzie & Co. But
these men failing in their endeavors to obtain redress for their
alleged " grievances," excited and fomented a portion of the people
to rebellion. Sir George, on this occasion, received the honor of
knighthood. As to the success of the mission, e are all aware
how unfortunate it was in its results ; but this was ot the fault of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 323
those that composed it. The blame lay at the door of another
party, higher in office, and over whom they had no control or
authority, and but for whom all would have gone on well ; and the
people of Canada would not have to blush for the part a portion of
their countrymen played in 1837. Sir George returned home,
after a brief excursion into the United States, in April, 183" ; and
in the course of the same year, received the appointment to a more
arduous undertaking, the government-in-chief of the Australian
colonies, and sailed for Sydney in the following October.
The anxieties of this high office, exercised under every succes
sion of administrations, during a period of nine years, laid the
foundation of that disease, which at the early age of fifty-six, de
prived the country of the further services of a most able, talented
and energetic officer. He died on the 28th February, 1847, of a
complaint of the heart, within a few weeks after his return to
England. His wife, whom he married in 1830, was a daughter of
the late Major-General Ramsay, of the Royal Artillery, who with
one son, their only child, are still living.

Right Hon. Sir CHAS. E. GREY, G.C.H

This learned and distinguished gentleman, who came to Canada
in 1835, as one of the " Three Gs," as they were called, but in
other words, the royal commissioners, appointed for the adjustment
of the affairs of this province, and which was composed of Gos
ford, Gipps, and Grey ; is the son of Ralph William Grey, Esq.,
of Buckworth, Northumberland, (descended from the Greys of
Horton-castle) by the daugter of Charles Brandling, Esq., of Gos-
forth House, Northumberland ; born, 1785 ; married, 1821 ;
second daughter of Sir Samuel Clarke Jervoise, Bart., (she died
1850) ; educated at University college, Oxford, where he graduated
B.A., 1806 ; obtained a fellowship at Oriel, and thence graduated
M.A , 1810 ; author of the prize essay of 1808, on the "Heredi
tary Rank-" was^called to the bar, at Lincoln's-Inn, 1811 ; ap
pointed a bankruptcy commissioner in 1817 ; a judge of the Su
preme Court at Madras, in 1820 (on which occasion he was
knighted) ; chief-justice ofthe Supreme Court at Bengal, in 1825,
and commissioner for the affairs of Lower Canada, in 1835. On
his return from this country he received the Hanoverian order ;
was governor of Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, St.

324 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Lucia, &c, from February, 1841, to. September, 1846, when he
was appointed governor of Jamaica, (salary £6,000). In 1837
was an unsuccessful candidate at the Tynemouth election ; but, on
petition, succeeded in obtaining his seat, which he held till 1841.

CHIEF-JUSTICE Sir J. STUART, Bart., LL.D.
Perhaps there never existed a public man in Canada who pos
sessed higher attainments and more gifted endowments of mind,
or a more varied and extensive range of legal and other knowledge,
than the eminent individual whose name heads this notice. No
one, perhaps, ever exercised such power and influence in political
circles, or controlled the destinies of the country with a more
jealous eye and in a more guarded manner.
Sir James Stuart was the third son of the celebrated divine, Dr.
John Stuart, then a clergyman of the Church of England at Fort
Hunter, and afterwards rector of Kingston, a notice of whom we
have given. Sir James was born at Fort Hunter, on the Mohawk
river, in the state of New York, on the 2nd of March, 1780. After
passing two years at school, in Schenectady, he went to the college
at Windsor, in Nova Scotia, then the only Protestant collegiate
institution in British North America. Having completed the or
dinary course of study in that college, at the unusually early age
of fourteen, he became, in 1794, a student-at-law with Mr. Reid,
when prothonotary ofthe court of King's Bench at Montreal, with
whom he remained four years. In 1798, he entered the office
of the late Jonathan Sewell, then attorney-general, and afterwards
chief-justice of Lower Canada. With this gentleman he completed
his studies, and was called to the bar on the 28th of March, 1801.
Before being called, however, he received from Sir Robert Shore
Milnes, lieutenant-governor of Lower Canada, the appointment of
assistant-secretary, which he retained for several years, practising
at the same time his profession at Quebec.
_ In 1805, at the early age of twenry-five, he was appointed soli
citor-general for Lower Canada, and removed to Montreal, which
was the usual station of the incumbent of that office.
At the general election, in 1808, he was returned to represent
the county of Blontreal, und also the county of Buckingham, and
declared his option to sit for Montreal. In 1809, in consequence
of some difference with the executive, he was removed from the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 325
office of solicitor-general. He remained a member of the Assem
bly until 1817, when he withdrew for a time fjom political life.
In December, 1822, he was sent to England as the delegate of
the British -nhabitants of the city and county of Montreal, to ad
vocate the re-union of Upper and Lower Canada, under one legis
lature ; and, while in England advocating that measure, he w?s
offered by the British government the office of attorney-general
for Lower Canada, which he accepted, and to which he was form
ally appointed in 1822.
In 1827, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council,
and elected a member of the provincial Parliament for Sorel. In
Ma^ch, 1831, in consequence of the part whieh he held it his
duty to take in the political struggle of the day, he was suspended
from office by Lord Aylmer, the then governor-general, which
suspension the colonial minister (Lord Godericlj') thought it expe
dient to advise the Crown to confirm, in November, 1832 ; but in
the following month of May, after the change in the administra
tion, by which the Right Honorable Edward G. Stanley (now the
Earl of Derby) became secretary-of-ntate for the colonies, Sir
James received from him an official communication, acknowledging
in effect the injustice of the decision against him, and accompanied
by an offer of the office of chief-justice of Newfoundland, which
was respectfully declined. Sir James then returned to Lower Ca
nada, and resumed practice as an advocate, at Quebec.
In 1838, the Earl of Durham, after completing his well known
enquiry into the state of the provinces, and before leaving Quebec
on his return to England, appointed Sir James chief-justice of
Lower Canada, in the place of the Honorable Jonathan Sewell, who
retired upon a pension. In Lord Durham's despatch to Lord
Glenelg, dated Castle of St. Louis, 20th October, 1838, the motives
for this appointment are given in the following terms : —
" In the place of Mr. Sewell, I have not hesitated a moment to
appoint Mr. James Stuart. Public opinion, with so universal a
consent, points out this gentleman as the ablest lawyer in the pro
vince, that there cannot be a doubt that it would be injustice and
folly to place any other person in the highest judicial office of the
province. It is especiaUy necessary that in times like these, the
¦capacious understanding, sound knowledge, and vigorous decision
of Mr. Stuart should be employed ,-Ti the public service."
During the administration of Lord Seaton (then Sir John Col
borne) he was a member of the special Council of Lower Canada,
and acted as chairman of that body. And among the many use
ful acts of legislation which are generally attributed to Irs pen, is
the first successful attempt to introduce into Lower Canada a sys
tem of registration of titles and claims to and upon real estate.
The incorporation of the cities of Quebec and Montreal, and a
general municipal system for Lower Canada, are also understood to

326 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
be his work ; and his talents' were also made available by Lord
Sydenham in preparing the act to re-unite the provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, and for the government of Canada, passed by
the British Parliament in 1840, and now forming the constitution
of Canada.
For his eminent public services, he was created a baronet of the
United Kingdom in 1840, on which occasion he selected for his
motto : " Justitise propositique tenax," which few words contain an
epitome of his character. He was married in 1818 to the only sur
viving daughter of Alexander Robertson, Esquire, of Montreal, and
leaves four children, three sons, the eldest of whom inherits the
baronetcy, and one daughter.
His practice as an advocate was of the most extensive and varied
character, his eloquence and legal ability of the highest order ; and
of the estimation in which his rare qualities were held by his pro
fessional brethren, the resolutions ofthe bars of Quebec and Mont-
eal, on the occasion of his death, which occurred on the 14th
July, 1853, afford ample proof: —
" At a meeting of the members of the bar of the Quebec section,
held in their rooms on Friday, 15th instant, the foUowing resolu
tions were unanimously adopted : —
" Moved by the Hon. Henry Black, Q.C., seconded by Mr. Soli
citor General Chaveau, and resolved :
" That the members of the bar have learned with the deepest
sorrow the death of the Hon. Sir James Stuart, Baronet, chief-
justice of the court of Queen's Bench for Lower Canada, and as
such, the head of the profession therein ; and feel it right to record
their high estimate of his abilities and character, and their pro
found sense of the loss which the profession has sustained by his
decease." " Moved bythe Hon. R. E. Caron, Q.C., seconded by the Hon. F.
W. Primrose, Q.C., and resolved :
" That throughout the long period of more than fifty years,
during which Sir James was a member of the profession, and
during a very great portion of which he held the highest profes
sional rank and office, his great and varied learning, his profound
legal research and attainments, his unwearied industry, and his in
flexible integrity, have placed him among the foremost of the
jurists of the day, and marked him as one of whom our country
may be justly proud."
******** At a meeting of the Montreal section of the bar of Lower Ca
nada, on the 18th of July, 1853, besides the usual resolutions of
condolence, tho following were adopted : —
" That the members of the Montreal section of the bar have re
ceived with emotions of deep regret the intelligence of the death of
the late chief-justice, Sir James Stuart, who for several years

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 327
past has occupied the position of head of the judiciary in this sec
tion of the province.
" That his acknowledged abilities, and deep learning in his pro
fession, obtained for him the respect of the bar, whilst his integ
rity in his judicial office, secured for him the confidence of the
public generally."

Hon. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU.
The Honorable Louis Joseph Papineau will be remarkable
in history, chiefly as an agitator. Having all his life been in oppo
sition, there are no tests by which to measure those administrative
abilities which, because he never had an opportunity of displaying,
his opponents have generally agreed in denying to him, for his
appointment under Lord Dalhousie is no exception.
The father ofthe subject of this notice was born at Montreal, on
the 16th October, 1752, and died, in the same city, shortly before
attaining his 89th year. His commission as notary was dated on
the 19th July, 1780. He was long a member ef the Legislative
Assembly of Lower Canada, and his career was as active as his
general conduct was honorable. In addressing the electors of
Montreal in 1810, the elder Papineau said he had no other personal
motive in wishing to be elected than a desire to consecrate his
feeble talents to the support of the government and of our happy
constitution; at the same time appealing to his past conduct as a
proof of " his fidelity to the king, as well as his zeal to sustain the
interests of his Majesty's subjects in this province, without dis
tinction of rank, situation or religion," and alleging that "he had
given proof of his devotion to the preservation of a,- strict union of
the provinces with the mother country ; and that he was still ready
to expose his property and even his life for the preservation of the
happiness we enjoy under the British government."
Such was the father of a man destined to become the most cele
brated agitator that Canada has produced. The subject of this
notice was born at Montreal, having first seen the light in October,
1789, two years before the passing of the constitutional act. He
is, therefore, now 72 years of age. He is a well-preserved man,
;: nd has always, even during his eight years of exile, had abundant
means of taking care of himself. His retirement from public life,
however, may be regarded as definite. The Papineau family ori-

328 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
ginally emigrated from the South of France to Lower Canada towards
the end of the seventeenth century. Louis Joseph was educated
at the Seminary of Quebec, under the superintendence of the
Roman Catholic priests of that city; a circumstance which did not
prevent his opposition, in after years, to many claims and preten
sions of the priests. He steadily opposed for many years the levy
ing of tithes — a twenty-sixth part, noi a tenth, upon the grain
produced by the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada. After his
return from exile — eight years spent pleasantly at Paris — he
changed his tone, and rather courted the favor ofthe clergy; but
his opponents declared that this was a purely diplomatic move.
Quitting college at thea ge of seventeen, he entered on the study
of the law, and was called to the bar in 1811 or 1812.
His early inclinations led him to take an interest in political
affairs ; and while yet a student he had beeu in 1809, elected a
member of the Legislative Assembly, for the county of Kent,
afterwards called Chsmbly. He started as he ended — in opposi
tion to the government. After representing this county for two
sessions, he was for twenty successive years representative of the
west ward ofthe ci y of Montreal. On his entrance into Parlia
ment, he found in contest a subject which offered wide scope for
agitation — the control of the revenue, which was claimed by the
legislature against the official party. Such use did M. Papineau, the
younger, make of this question that, in 1812, by the time he had
been called to the bar, he found himself leader of Tie young and
enthusiastic Canadian minority. He and his party were strongly
averse to fie war with the United States, then on point of break
ing out, but when war was inevitable, he did not shrink from bear
ing his part in it, and having entered the militia, he served as
captain till the restoration of peace. He had command of the
company that preceded the American prisoners who had been taken
at Detroit, after the surrender of Gereral Hull, into Montreal; but
he indignantly wheeled out of line and refused to proceed while
the prisoners were insult. 1 by the band playing "Yankee Doodle."
Of a naturally polite and gentlemanly turn of mind, he could not,
though ready to fight for his country, be induced to be a party to
treating prisoners with discourtesy ; and this, he declared, his duty
to his country would never require of him.
In 1817 he was elected Speaker of the Lower Canada Assembly,
a situation which he continued to fill for twenty years, at a salary of
£1,000 currency a year. He was the only member of the opposi
tion who contrived to make his position profitable ; and he has often
been reproached with close-fistedness. There is no doubt that his
coadjutors did feel that, while he received the only salary which a
member of the opposition could obtain, it was not generous in him
to leave the pecuniary burden of agitation to be borne entirely by
those who were not so favored, who had nothing but what they

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 329
saved from their own private sources. Whether they took a cor
rect view of the matter, it is not for us to inquire ; it is sufficient
that we place the matter on record.
In 1820, Lord Dalhousie assumed the governorship of Lower
Canada. Observing the talents of M. Papineau, he appointed him
executive councillor. This was done in face of the fact that M.
Papineau had opposed the demand of the official party for a perma
nent civil list, a civil list for the life of the king, or, at the very
least, the voting of the supplies en bloc. Next year, the house
presented an address on grievances, to-whieh the governor returned
a polite answer. But things were destined to assume a different
complexion between the popular leader and the governor. In 1827,
Lord Dalhousie refused to sanction the election of M. Papineau as
Speaker ; and. even went so far as to deprive him of his captaincy
of the militia. A warm subject of debate — although it was one
over which the local legislature had no control — was the proposal
made in the Imperial Partiament, at the instance of Mr. EUice, in
1822, to unite the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, as was
afterwards done in 1840. M. Papineau was and is a great stickler
for the preservation of the French Canadian nationality ; and in
this respect he does not differ in the least from the rest of his
race. This love of nationality — undying, and even gaining strength
with time — is the most powerful feeling that influences the French
Canadians. M. Papineau then threw up his practice at the bar to
devote his entire attention to politics; and although he received a
certain indemnity in his Speaker's salary, it is doubtful whether he
was not, like most other lawyers in Canada who have allowed poli
tics to absorb their attention, a loser by the operation.
M. Papineau was hearty in his opposition to the administrations
of Lord Dalhousie and Aylmer, but there is no reason to believe
that he comprehended what was required as a remedy for the evils
of which he complained. Seeing that the official party set at naught
the votes, declarations, and opinions of the Assembly, M. Papineau
could think of no better remedy than to make the Legislative
Council elective, that body being the instrument used by the oli
garchy to thwart the wishes of the Assembly. He never thought
that the true remedy would be to make the government, on whose
advice appointments were made to the Legislative Council, respon
sible to the Assembly. In 1831 he first demanded an elective
second chamber. The demand for elective institutions every day
received new force under the leadership of M. Papineau ; but
a royal commission, appointed in 1835, with Lord Gosford at
its head, reported against the various demands of the Assembly.
In denouncing the report of the commission, M. Papineau in 1836,
made the famous declaration, which is by a certain class regarded
as prophetic, that " not only were republican institutions to prevail
42

330 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
throughout the whole of this continent, but America was destined
to furnish at some future day republics to Europe."
The Imperial Parliament having, in 1837, undertaken to seize
upon the money which the Lower Canada Assembly refused to vote,
to defray the expenses of the government, the rebellion followed.
Of his share in that event, M. Papineau does not appear to have
been proud ; for he has declared that he took no step in it, but in
obedience to the orders of Dr. Nelson, an honor of which the latter
gentleman has been equally disposed to make a present to M.
Papineau. If the movement had not failed, its leadership would
not now be repudiated.
After the failure of the insurrection, M. Papineau went to the
United States, where, it is said, he tried, without success, to influ
ence the government to interfere in the quarrel. In February,
1839, he left for France, and after spending eight years, chiefly in
Paris, in perfect quiet — having issued only one letter all the time
— he was allowed to return. He was subsequently elected to the
united Parliament, and led the opposition against M. Lafontaine,
who, however, was too much for him ; he was totally opposed to
the union and never ceased to demand its repeal. In 1854 he
retired from public life, and has since been enjoying that literary
leisure of which he is so fond, on La Petite Nation Seigniory,
Ottawa River. After his return, he found his brother in power,
and several of his relations provided for, and he himself was paid
£4,500 arrears of salary as Speaker, though he asked, like Oliver,
for more, but asked in vain. M. Papineau is a man of fine talents,
with a mind highly cultivated, and of most gentlemanly demeanor.
He has four daughters besides sons, one of the latter of whom
was some years ago appointed prothonotary in the Queen's Bench
of Lower Canada.

WILLIAM LYON McKENZIE, Esq.
Few men have exercised a more potent influence on the affairs
of Canada than that wielded by the subject of this notice. He it
was who first directed attention to the necessity of those changes
in the system of government, which were afterwards effected under
the auspices of others when he had been driven into exile. During
'his long public career he did many things which he afterwards
admitted to be wrong, and for which he expressed the deepest
regret ; but whatever errors may have blended with his exertions
— errors which he himself afterwards frankly admitted— there can

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 331
be no question that he did his share to advance the cause of civil
liberty in his adopted country.
Mr. Mackenzie was born at Springfield, Dundee, Forfarshire,
Scotland, on the 12th March, 1795. His father, Daniel Mackenzie,
dying twenty-seven days after his only child was born, his mother
was left a widow with slender means of subsistence. The circum
stances of being an only child, and being indulged by his mother
with a great deal of his own way, doubtless had an important influ
ence upon his character in after life. From this source he proba
bly derived much of the strong, unbending will for which he was
conspicuous. Resembling his mother very closely in appearance
as well as in his mental characteristics, there can be no doubt that
from her he took the impress of his character. She was of the
same ardent disposition with himself ; and the energy that he ex
pended upon politics was in her case devoted to religion. He was
a favorite with his school teacher, Mr. Kinnear, of Dundee, from
whom he received more than an ordinary share of attention.
At the age of seventeen or thereabouts, he went into mercantile
business, to which he added a circulating library in Ayleth, not far
from Dundee. Meeting with only indifferent success, as might
have been expected at so early a period of his life, he afterwards
went to England, where he was for some time in Lord Lonsdale's
employment, as clerk. Before starting for this country, he also
spent some time in France.
It was in 1820 that Mr. Mackenzie first came to Canada. In the
vessel in which he came out, was one of the Lesslies, with whose
father he had previously had business connections in Scotland. For
a short period after his arrival he was employed as superintendent
over the works of the Lachine canal, but it was not long before he
went into partnership with Mr. John Lesslie, now of Dundas, in
Toronto, in the book and drug trade. Soon after, the partners es
tablished a business at Dundas under the name of Mackenzie &
Lesslie. The business succeeded remarkably well in both cases,
The connection closed, however, early in 1823.
And now it was that Mr. Mackenzie entered on the stormy sea
of politics. How little he could have foreseen of the career that
was before him, and the trouble it was to bring upon himself ! If
he could have obtained a foreknowledge of all he was to encounter
in the political. arena, would he have made the venture ? There is
much reason to doubt that he would ; for towards the close of his
life he often expressed dissatisfaction at his abandonment of mer
cantile for political life. On the 18th May, 1824, appeared the
first number of the Colonial Advocate, very much in the shape of
old Cobbett's Register, and containing thirty-two pages. The form
was, however, altered to the broad sheet in the second or third num
ber. The Colonial Advocate was at first issued at Niagara, in the
house now occupied by Mr. David Thornburn. In those days the

332 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
government was a sort of close corporation, and was not accustomed
to have its acts freely criticised. The Colonial Advocate soon
fell under the displeasure of the ruling party, and every effort, ex
cept such as reason and the law might have sanctioned, was made
to suppress it. A bitter personal quarrel, carried on by means of
the press, between Mr. Mackenzie and some prominent members of
the official party, led, in 1826, to the violent destruction of the
Advocate printing office by a mob of irritated friends of the ruling
party. The office was forcibly entered, and the types cast into the
bay of Toronto. At this time, the paper was printed at that city.
A most inopportune time was chosen for the work of destruction.
It was probably not known to the rioters that the last number of the
paper which it was intended to destroy had already been published;
for if it had the act would have been as stupid and unnecessary as
it was wicked and illegal. As the act was done in the face of day,
the perpetrators of it were known, and damages were recovered
against them, on the case being brought into a court of justice.
We must suppose that the object of scattering the types into the
bay was to put an end to the existence of an obnoxious newspaper ;
but the effect was precisely the contrary of what had been intended.
The paper, of which the last number had already been issued,
received from the violence used to put it down a new lease of ex
istence. The Colonial Advocate, instead of expiring in 1826, as it
would, if left to itself, continued to be published till 1833, when
the press and types were sold to Dr. O'Grady.
The "press riot" had another effect, the reverse of what was in
tended. Through it, not only was Mr. Mackenzie brought more
prominently into notice than ever before, but that popular instinct
which always flies to the succor of any man who is unfairly treated,
created for him a large number of enthusiastic friends and sup
porters. In 1828, the question of his becoming a candidate for
the county of York, at the election about to take place, was raised.
In those days, something analogous to the present political conven
tions was not unknown. Mr Mackenzie attended two of these
meetings, at both of which he was by far the lowest oh the ballot.
He had for an opponent, Mr. James E. Small (now county judge),
who before the contest had vainly endeavored to induce him to
leave the field, on the ground that he was sure to be beaten. But
Mr. Small was mistaken. Mr. Mackenzie was returned.
The violence of the official party was not confined to the de
struction of a printing office. Mr Mackenzie had, in his news
paper, used language towards the majority in the Assembly, which
that majority chose to regard as libellous, and they resolved to pun
ish the representative for the act of the journalist. The alleged
libel consisted of describing the majority as sycophants fit only to
register the decrees of arbitrary power. Language quite as strong
as this has frequently been used in the House of Commons. For

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 333
instance, Henry, now Lord Brougham, when in the House of Com
mons, said of the Minister Peel, " I do not arraign him as much as
I do you, his flatterers, his vile parasites," for which language, so
far from being expelled, he was not even called to order. But ad
mitting the language used by Mr. Mackenzie to have been libellous,
the proper remedy would have been to bring the case before the
jury. But that remedy was hopeless ; it was notorious that no
verdict could have been obtained against the publisher of the al
leged libeL It was treated as a breach of privilege ; on that
ground the expulsion proceeded, and an attempt was made to ren
der Mr. Mackenzie incapable of sitting in the Assembly. His re
election could not, however, be prevented, for no member of the
official party would have had the least chance against him ; and as
often as he was- expelled — five times — he was re-elected ; once
when he was absent in England. At this time of day no one pre
tends to defend the arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly, and it
is impossible to read the debates which took place on the occasions
of these repeated expulsions, without being surprised at the want
of sagacity in the men by whom they were performed. No new
offence was deemed necessary to justify each new expulsion — the
original breach of privilege as, it was called, was held to incapaci
tate the person charged with it from taking his seat in the house
to which he was so often elected. Other pretexts were, however,
found, but it is a remarkable fact that not one of the expulsions
proceeded from anything that Mr. Mackenzie had done as a mem
ber of the house. The hostility of that body was directed en
tirely against a member of the press. The printing and distribu
tion at his own expense of 200 copies of the official journals of the
house was attempted to be made a cause of expulsion. It was not
pretended that the journals had been falsified or interpolated. The
motion rested upon an obsolete rule of the house which forbids
any one to print the proceedings of that body without authority —
a rule that is constantly and systematically violated, and the putting
of it into force would be just as absurd as the revival of the Eng
lish statute which renders it penal for any person to fail to appear
in the Established Church once every Sunday. The cause of the
liberty of the press became identified in the minds of the people,
with Mr. Mackenzie, and every new expulsion only added to his
popularity, and increased his power. At last it was resolved to
punish the constituency which had persisted in re-electing the ex
pelled member, and the Assembly refused to issue the writ for a
new election. This refusal contrasted strongly with the official
pretence previously set up that it was necessary for the county of
York to be fully represented in the legislature, and that therefore
no time ought to be lost, after an expulsion, in calling a new elec
tion. These arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly finally evoked
the decided condemnation ofthe Imperial Government. The period

334 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
during which the county of York was left without a representa
tive, from this cause, extended from 1831 to 1834. On one occa
sion the re-election of Mr. Mackenzie was followed by a demon
stration of menacing character against the Assembly. A large es
cort conducted him to the Assembly to take his seat. Strangers
were ordered to be excluded from the galleries, but the doors of
the Assembly were burst open, and ;the order of exclusion set at
defiance by the people.
In May, 1832, Mr. Mackenzie proceeded to England bearing a
petition of grievances to the Imperial Government, said to have
been signed by 19,000 persons. He remained there for a period of
eighteen months, and was able to effect far more than any one could
at that time have done in Canada during the period of a lifetime.
While there he had the hearty and energetic assistance of his
early and constant friend, the late Mr. Joseph Hume. Mr. Hume
had at that time considerable influence in the Hous3 of Commons,
with the press and with the government. Mr. Mackenzie obtained
a patient hearing at the colonial office, and the result of his inter
views with Lord Goderich was a long and elaborate dispatch from
that nobleman, laying down for the guidance of the Canadian go
vernment principles that wonld effect great reforms and get rid of
many of the grievances complained of. His exertions procured
the removal of some of the officials who held the first places in the
government, and caused instructions to be sent to the lieutenant-
governor to appoint one member at least of the popular party to a
governmental office. To himself a most tempting offer was made by
the colonial secretary. The post office in Upper Canada, then un
der imperial control, yielded about $60,000 a year, and the whole of
the revenue went into the pocket of the postmaster. Lord Goderich
proposed to divide this office, and give Mr. Mackenzie half the
spoils. The latter replied that if he accepted the offer he certainly
should benefit himself individually, but that the abuse of which
he was sent to complain would still be continued. He therefore
declined to accept the offer. It was at the instance of the colonial
secretary that Mr. Mackenzie's stay was protracted to eighteen
months in England, in order that an opportunity might be afforded
to discuss the various questions on which the popular party in Up
per Canada had complained to the Imperial Government. Perhaps
it was his success on this occasion that caused Mr. Mackenzie to
the close of his life to believe that our political movements could be
best influenced by the application of a leverage power in Downing
street ; an error which arose from his not making due allowance
for the change which our system of government has undergone.
He had been anxious to make a second journey to England, and he
was firmly convinced that if he were there he eould produce
changes as great as those which resulted from his previous visit.
His idea of course included the being armed with a monster peti-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 335
tion from the people. On his return from England, Mr. Macken
zie received an abundance of thanks; but he thought himself
entitled to be re-imbursed the expense of the journey.
From first to last, Mr. Mackenzie was elected to the legislature
of Upper and of United Canada fourteen or fifteen times, and he
was once defeated. This was in the election of 1836. He con
tended that he had not been fairly beaten, but that just previous
to the election the government had issued patents to a large num
ber of persons for small lots at the mouth of the Credit river, in
respect of which the conditions of the grant had not been fulfilled.
His petition against the return of Mr. E. W. Thompson, his oppo
nent, was at once rejected by a majority of the ruling party. Into
the merits of that question it is impossible here to enter ; and indeed
where one is overwhelmed with mountains of documents relating
to the career of a public man, it is almost impossible to give a
satisfactory biographical sketch within the limits at our disposal.
The life ofthe subject of this notice can only be fully understood
when it is w ritten at sufficient length to allow all the principal
events which it embraces to be dealt with in a comprehensive and
discriminating spirit.
The first mayor of Toronto — chosen in 1836— he was also one
of the first magistrates ever elected in Upper Canada. Before the
passing of the charter under which he became mayor of Toronto,
elective magistrates were unknown in the province.
Of the insurrection in which Mr. Mackenzie bore so prominent
a part, in 1837 and 1838, it is impossible within the limits. of our
space to treat. He has always said that he was led into it by the
urgent entreaties of the Lower Canadians, and he has left behind
him documents in which he frankly confesses the error of the part
he played and expresses regret for the course he was induced to
take. But even the rebellion, with all its evils, was not without
its incidental advantages. It awakened the attention of the Im
perial Government to the various abuses of the oligarchial sys
tem which had previously existed, aad brought about a beneficial
change sooner than it could otherwise have occurred. Few men
paid more dearly for an error than Mr. Mackenzie did in this
case. His life was spared, it is true; but if the whole story could
be told, it is very doubtful whether one person in a hundred would
consider life desirable upon such conditions. Under the Van
Buren administration, Mr. Mackenzie was sentenced to eighteen
months' imprisonment for a breach of the neutrality laws of the
United States, and he was actually kept in close confinement for
twelve months at Rochester. There can be no greater mistake
than to suppose that he enjoyed any of the immunities which are
sometimes accorded to state prisoners. On the contrary, he was
kept in close confinement within the narrow walls of an insalubrious
room, where he contracted ague from the poisonous miasma arising

336 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
from the neighboring Genesee river. Ruined by the confiscation
and sale of his property in Canada, and unable to use his exertions
for the benefit of his family, he was made to taste the bitter
draughts of poverty. His aged mother, who had attained her
ninetieth year, died while he was debilitated by intermittent fever
in prison, and it was only by resorting to a stratagem that he was
permitted to see her at all before she expired. A writ of habeas
corpus ad respondendum was obtained to secure his attendance as
witness in a trial which was got up for the occasion, and which was
held in the house where his mother was dying. The court was
held by the father of " Grace Greenwood," who indulgently pro
tracted its duration for thiee hours. While in Monroe county
prison at Rochester, Mr. Mackenzie was shot at through a window
by a tall person armed with what appeared to be a fowling-piece
and accompanied by a dog. The ball entered the opposite side of
the room. This is only one of the many attempts that at various
times were made upon his life, and where they were so numerous
it is surprising that he escaped. Mr. Mackenzie never took root
in the United States. He was not at home there ; he was an
exile. He found foreigners looked upon with suspicion, and exclu
ded from nearly all the offices in the gift of the Federal govern
ment. He was long anxious to return to Canada before the issu
ing of the amnesty which enabled him to do so. The case of all
the Canadian refugees except himself had been covered by amnesty,
and he was under the impression that the Canadian govern
ment exerted some hostile influence to prevent his return. He
finally received a pardon through the influence of his friend, Mr.
Hume, and he always continued of the impression that he had
nothing to thank the Canadian government for in that respect.
More than this, he had a suspicion, whether well founded or not,
that some even among his own colleagues and associates were anxi
ous to prevent his return. This notion was probably not without
its influence upon his course after he re-entered public life in
Canada. He might have occupied an influential position in the
United States had he resolved to make that country his home,
but the desire to return to Canada was too strong to permit him to
think of becoming a permanent resident there. He published a
journal both at New York and Rochester, entitled Mackenzie's
Gazette, and he was for a considerable time connected with the
Tribune, of whose proprietor, Mr. Greeley, he had the most exalted
opinion. The amount of labor that he performed — at one time as
Washington correspondent of that journal, at another time its cor
respondent at Albany while the State Convention was sitting to
revise the constitution — was prodigious; quite enough to have
given occupation to almost any other three men. He burned the
midnight oil and prematurely consumed his own vitality.
After his return to Canada in 1850 he offered as a candidate for

AND PERSONS CONNEOTHD WITH CANADA. 3?.7
the first constituency — Haldimand — that became vacant. He op
posed and beat Mr. Brown, who ran on the government interest.
He continued to hold his seat in the Legislative Assembly till
1858, when he resigned. He attached himself to no party, and
though he was generally in the opposition, he attended no opposi
tion caucusses, entered into no party engagements, and persistingly
refused to have any thing to do with the formation of the two-
days' government. In 1858 he supported the Hon. Mr. Allan
for the Legislative Council, solely because he believed him to be
preferable to the other candidate.
It is now universally conceded that, however erroneous his
views, Mr. Mackenzie did everything from a thoroughly honest
motive, and in the belief that it was best for the country. He was
no trading politician or office-seeker, and the best test of his politi
cal virtue is that he resisted the most alluring temptations when
he thought their acceptance would be contrary to the interests of
the public. His most intimate friends best know the value he set
upon political honesty and how deep and utter was his detestation
of a tendency to dishonesty or corruption.
A few years ago a public subscription was set on foot to provide
funds for the purchase of a " Mackenzie homestead." The net
visible result was chiefly expressed in a house which cost, we be
lieve, £950, though owing to some misunderstanding a sum of
£1,500 of what was subscribed was never collected. He died at
Toronto, in August 1861, in comparative poverty.
Mr. Mackenzie married, in 1822, Isabel Baxter, sister of Mr.
George Baxter, of Kingston, who, when master of the royal
grammar school of that place, educated many of the men who
have since held some of the most prominent positions in public life.
In his darkest fortunes she was always at his side ; whether amidst
the chill snows of Navy Island, or the drear gloom of the Roches
ter prison. Mr. Mackenzie left seven children ; only two of whom
are married.

WOLFRED NELSON, Esq., M.D.,
Chairman of the Board of Prison Inspectors, &c.
This well-known gentleman was born in Montreal on the 10th
July 1792. His father was Mr. William Nelson, son of a victualling
officer in the royal navy, as the commissariat of that department
was then termed. His mother was a daughter of Mr. G. Dies, a
43

338 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
gentleman of large property on the Hudson River, state of New
York, and formerly well known as " Dies Manor." Being an
enthusiastic loyalist, he lost all he possessed, and took refuge in.
Canada, where, shortly after the declaration of independence ofthe
United States, he terminated a long and respected life.
At the early .age of less than fourteen years, Wolfred Nelson was
apprenticed to Dr. Carter, of the army medical staff, at Sorel, in
the month of December, 1805. There being few medical men in
Canada at that period, he was soon forced into practice, and had
the drudgery of a small military hospital confided to him. In
December, 1810, he went to Montreal for his examination, but could
only come before the board at the end of January, 1811, when he
was duly licensed. He established himself at St. Denis, on the
Richelieu river, and soon enjoyed a flourishing practice.
When war was declared in 1812, he volunteered his services,
requesting at the same time to be the right hand man of his regi
ment of militia ; he was, however, forced to take the surgeoncy, as
medical men were " few and far between." The battalion was
ordered to the frontier, but peace being soon proclaimed, the
militia was disbanded.
In 1827 he was solicited to contest the representation of the
" Royal Borough of William Henry," against Mr. James Stuart,
the attorney-general ; and although great influence was used
against him, he was elected by a majority of two, after seven days
of the hardest election contest ever experienced in Canada. The
attorney-general, instituted actions of so harassing a nature, that
the House of Assembly was petitioned ; this resulted in Mr. Stuart's
suspension from office. But he assumed such a fierce and deter
mined attitude towards the then governor, Lord Aylmer, that it
led to his being deprived of his high office.
But to come to the most important period of Dr. Nelson's
life. In 1837, the year in which he took part in the rebellion
of this part of the country, the doctor from his professional con
nection with, and from having been one oftheir representatives in
Parliament, possessed great influence and authority in the country
bordering on the Richelieu river, where the outbreak took place.
He was accordingly appealed to on all political questions of great
moment; and at the memorable meeting of the " Five Counties,"
was chosen chairman. That he should have used that influence
and authority for the base purpose that he did ; — to excite the
Queen's subjects to open rebellion, and connect himself with
Papineau, the great chief of the movement, was certainly repre
hensible, and drew down upon him and the others the just indig
nation ofthe government and the loyal inhabitants ofthe country.
An armed troop, under Colonel Gore, was dispatched to arrest him
and the other leadersand concoctors ofthe fomentation. Dr. Nelson
and his friends hastily retreated to his residence, where, with a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 339
small force of habitants, they made all the resistance they possibly
could to the demand made for their surrender. Shots were
exchanged; human blood was spilled; but the troops had to retreat
without effecting their purpose. Dr. Nelson and some friends also
beat a hasty retreat, Mr. Papineau, having, previous to the fight,
absconded. They made a part oftheir way to the frontier ; and after
wandering about, and suffering many privations for some days, were
arrested by an armed force from Montreal. Two thousand dollars
had been offered for the arrest of Dr. Nelson ; and, consequently he
was conveyed with all possible speed to Montreal, where he was
confined for seven months. At the end of that time, having pre
viously received his sentence, which was banishment for life, he
was with other persons connected with the rebellion, taken to
Quebec, and placed on board one of her Majesty's vessels, in order
to be taken to the West Indies. Previously, however, to sailing,
he had conveyed to the Earl of Durham a message reflecting on the
character of his advisers. When in the West Indies, the exiles
received the proceedings which had taken place in the House of
Lords declaring their transportation illegal ; they were allowed to
depart, and reached the United States, 1st November, 1838. In
the United States Nelson remained in the prosecution of his pro
fession until August, 1842, when he returned to his native city, with
a wife and a large family, to begin the world anew, having lost all
his fine property by fire. Some people would be disposed to pity
such a man, but the more numerous proportion of loyal citizens
would do just the contrary. Dr. Nelson knew perfectly well what
he was doing, when he joined in the movement; he was in happy
circumstances, and had secured a fortune in the country which he
wished to ruin. He well knew the result, if he was captured ; and
knowing this, he rushed madly on to his own destruction and the
ruin of his family. Why then should he excite any compassion or
seek to palliate his offence ? Happily now, we can look on his aged
form with feelings of tenderness, for he has deeply atoned for the
past; and, by his services in preserving human life during the
time when fever and cholera were raging, and when grim, death
was stalking and carrying off numberless victims, he endeared him
self to a great many, and became entitled to the grateful remem
brance of the people of the country. But not to depart from the
" even tenor of our way," in 1 845, Doctor Nelson was triumphantly
elected for the county of Richelieu, in opposition to the great Mr.
D. B. Viger. He represented that county for two parliaments,
and was a member ofthe house when the celebrated rebellion losses
bill was discussed and passed. When the hard names of traitor
aud rebel were hurled against him, the old man rose in his place,
and in a determined manner, claimed to be heard : " Those who
call me and my friends rebels,", said he " I tell them they lis in
their throats; and here and everywhere else, I hold myself respon-

340 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
sible for the assertion. But, Mr. Speaker, if to love my country
quite as much as myself, if to be ardently attached to the British
crown and our glorious sovereign is to be guilty of high-treason,
then I am a rebel indeed. But I tell those gentlemen to their teeth,
that it is they and such as they, who cause revolutions, who puU
down thrones, trample crowns into the dust and annihilate dynas
ties. It is their vile acts that madden people, and drive them to
desperation. As for my own great losses, wantonly inflicted as they
were, I cheerfully make no claim for thom ; but I call on you to
pay those whose property you destroyed in my hands ; and I am
happy, for I feel that with the protection of an Almighty Provi
dence, I may yet honorably by my own exertions, acquit my dues,
advanced as I am in years. But there are hundreds of others with
less encouraging prospects before them, whose only crime was,
reposing confidence in the man they loved and trusted ; pay these
unhappy men, I ask no more."
This speech was certainly a very novel one, and the request still
more so ; the most surprising thing is that the doctor was allowed,
in those exciting times, to speak at all on the subject.
Doctor Nelson refused re-election, and devoted himself with his
wonted energy to his profession, in the line ofwhieh the inspection
of prisons clearly ran. He was made inspector of the prisons in
1851, and so continued until December, 1859, when he was ap
pointed chairman ofthe board of prison inspectors for the two pro
vinces. He has also been a justice ofthe peace and commissioner
for the trial of small causes — offices which he threw up in 1837.
He has repeatedly been elected vice-president and president of the
medical board and college of surgeons. He was appointed chair
man of a board of commissioners during the prevalence of the emi
grant fever in 1847, on which occasion he rendered great service
in preventing the spreading of that dreadful disease ; as also
chairman of the board of health during the time that the cholera
raged in the country. He was also likewise twice elected mayor
of the city of Montreal. His reports on prisons, &c, are well written,
and contain much valuable information.

Right Hon. Sir F. B. HEAD, Bart., K.C.H.
This celebrated author, who from 1835 to 1838, governed Upper
Canada, is a descendant of the same ancient English family as our
late much esteemed governor-general. He was born near Rochester,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 341
England, in the year 1793, and entered the military service at an
early age, in, we believe, the corps of the Royal Engineers, in
which he served with some distinction; was present at Waterloo,
and the campaign under Wellington, and bore a high character as
an engineer ; so much so, that whilst an officer of that distinguished
corps, he received from a mining company an invitation to explore
the gold and silver mines of South America, between Buenos Ayres
and the Andes. He arrived in Buenos Ayres in 1825, and in a
short time had completed the work to the great satisfaction of the
company, having crossed the Pampas four times and the Andes
twice, and ridden upwards of six thousand miles, most of the time
unaccompanied. His " Rough Notes," published after his return
to England, and a well known work, give a graphic description of
his expedition. But however suited Sir Francis was for the
military profession, the life, it appears, did not please him, or was
it congenial to his tastes, and having gained a majority, he in
1828, retired on half .pay from the service. In November, 1835,
he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, and held
office during the distracted period of 1837, and until 1838. He
has been censured for his administration of the affairs of tha
province during the rebellion, and accused of having trifled with
the disaffected parties concerned ; be that as it may, his " Narra
tive " of the events which took place, which was published on his
return to England, exonerates him in a great measure, in the esti
mation of some, from the charges preferred, and justifies the course
he took for the suppression of the rebellion. Since governing
Canada, Sir Francis has not re-entered the public arena, but has
lived a life of retirement. His reputation will .be highest as an
author, by which, indeed he is principally and widely known.
His " Bubbles from ihe Brunnen of Nassau," " The Emigrant,"
" Life of Bruce, ihe African traveller," "Faggot of French sticks,"
" Fortnight in Ireland" and his most recent, and it is said, best
work, " The Horse and his rider," are all both amusing and
instructive works, and have been favorably commented on by the
press of England and America, and universally read. He enjoys
a pension of one hundred pounds from England, for his services to
literature. Sir Francis Bond Head married in 1816, a daughter of Hon
orable Hugh Somerville, and sister of the 16th Lord Somerville.

"42 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir GEORGE A. WETHERALL, G.C.B.
Few can be ignorant of the important services which this
gallant and skilful general rendered to Canada, during the short
time he remained amongst us ; and we are sure that all will very
gladly welcome a notice of him, however brief and imperfect it
may be.
Sir George is a son of the late General Sir Frederick Wetherall,
by the daughter of E. Mytton, Esquire, and was born at Penton,
Hants, England, in 1788. Sir George pursued his studies at
Winchester, and in the senior department of the Royal Military
college, with much success ; and first entered the army in 1804.
Since then he has seen much arduous service, and been at nearly
all the foreign and colonial posts of the army. Our readers will
coincide with us when we say, that any honor or distinction he
may have received from his sovereign he richly merited. In
1807, he was appointed brigade-major at the Cape of Good Hope;
and, accordingly, proceeded thither. In 1811, he served at the
attack and conquest of Java, for which he received the war medal,
and one clasp. From 1822 to 1825, he was military secretary to
the commander-in-chief of the forces in Madras ; and in 1826, he
was appointed deputy judge-advocate, in India. He first became
connected with Canada previous to the disturbance of 1837, in his
capacity of military secretary, we believe, to the commander ofthe
forces, (Sir John Colborne.) When the awful scenes took place
on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, consequent upon the
Papineau faction inciting the people to rebellion ; when the young
and brave Lieutenant Weir, had been inhumanly murdered in cold
blood, and the whole loyal population of Canada, roused as a lion
from his den, to wreak vengeance on the heads of the miscreants,
General (then Colonel) Wetherall, took part on behalf of the Crown
in all the engagements and scenes that occurred ; and invariably
acquitted himself with much distinction. More particularly, may
here be mentioned, the gallant victory which he achieved over the
rebels, at St. Charles and Point Oliver, with a small force. At
the former place, more than a thousand men were concentrated,
who doggedly held out to the very last, even until their intrench
ments were battered away, by the effective fire of Wetherall's few
guns. Fifty-six of their number were killed, and many wounded;
this was a just retribution for the death of Weir, and his country
men, and the manner in which it was carried out, reflected
the highest oredit upon Colonel Wetherall's military skill and
judgment. For his distinguished servioes during the rebellion,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 343
he was made a companion of the most honorable order of the
Bath.* He remained in Canada until the year 1850, filling the
post of deputy adjutant-general, when he was appointed to the
same office at the Horse Guards. In 1854, he had risen to the
high post of adjutant-general, and colonel of the 84th Regiment.
In 1856, her Majesty, the Queen, in recognition of his high
services and merits, conferred upon him the honor of knighthood;
and next year, he was appointed lieutenant-general, a rank which
he at present holds; and commands besides one of the military
districts of England.

Hon. Sir CHAS. S. GORE.
Sir Charles Gore, whose services in Lower Canada during
the rebellion of 1837-8, in conjunction with those of Lieutenant-
General Sir George Wetherall, conduced so much to its sup
pression, is the third son of the second Earl of Arran, and was
born in 1793. He entered the army in 1808, and by his peculiar
talents speedily rose to distinction in the service. In 1811 he
went out to the Peninsula, and served throughout the campaign,
was present and one of the storming party at Fort San Francisco
at the investment of Ciudad Rodrigo ; also at the siege and storm
ing of that fortress and of Badajos, battle of Salamanca, as aide-
de-camp to Sir Andrew Barnard ; and in a similar capacity to Sir
James Kempt in the battles of Vittoria, the Nivelle, the Nive
(9th, 10th, and 11th December), Orthes and Toulouse. He was
*The people of the district of Montreal, sometime afterwards presented him
with apiece of plate, which bore the following inscription : —
"To
Q. A. Wetherall, C.B., K.H.,
Colonel 2nd Battalion, 1st Royal Regiment,
the loyalists of Montreal, present this
testimonial of gratitude, for his important
services to the great cause of
British connexion,
in the defeat of the rebels, at St. Charles, on
the 25th November, 1837, to which, by its
moral influence, may be mainly ascribed,
under Providence, the speedy arrest of
insurrectionary movement ;
and of admiration of his wisdom
in conduct, his gallantry in action,
and his mercy in victory."

344 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
also in the action of San Milan, capture of Madrid, storming of
the Heights of Vera, Bridge of YanzS, and all the skirmishes of
the light division from 1812 to the close of the war in 1814,
after which he accompanied Sir James Kempt with the troops
sent to Canada under his command ; returned to Europe in time
for the campaign of 1815; was first and principal aide-de-camp
to Sir James Kempt, and was present at the battles of Quatre
Bras, where his horse was shot; Waterloo, where three successive
horses were shot under him, and at the capture of Paris. For
these services he received the war medal, with nine clasps.
He received the honor of knighthood a few years since, and
about the same time was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-general.

Sir J. R. EUSTACHE, K.H.
Sir J. R. Eustace is the fifth son of General Eustache (repre
sentative of the Viscounts of Batlinglass, a title under attainder.)
He was born in 1795, and received his education at St. Peter's
college, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. in 1816. He
adopted the military service as his profession, and in November,
1859, had risen to the rank of lieutenant-general, not however
before he had seen and experienced much hard service. He served
in Upper Canada during the campaign of 1813-14 in command of
a troop of the 19th Light Dragoons, attached to the division of
the army under the immediate command of General Sir Gordon
Drummond, and was engaged in the battle of Lundy's Lane, on
the 23rd July, 1814, and commanded the whole of the cavalry
outposts and pickets during the siege, was present at the storming
of Fort Erie, and had the honor to be personally mentioned in
the general orders of 1814, upon three different occasions, and to
receive the honor of knighthood for his gallant and efficient
services. In 1827 he was appointed to the Grenadier Guards, and accom
panied the 1st battalion of that distinguished corps to Lower
Canada in 1838, and was present with his regiment in the advance
upon Napierville and in the subsequent pursuit of the insurgents.
In 1848 he was appointed high sheriff of Kildare, a post which
he still continues to occupy.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 345

LTEUT.-COLONEL GRIEFIN.
A notice of this high-spirited and estimable public man cannot,
we are sure, but be acceptable to the people of Canada. Colonel
Griffin was, as it were, born into the 32nd Regiment, with which
he was so long identified, being the son of Dr. Griffin, late of her
Majesty's 32nd Regiment, surgeon of the military prison at Quebec.
He was born at Greenwich, England, and at an early age obtained
a commission in her Majesty's Regiment with which he served in
the Ionian Islands, and came to Canada in 1830. His winning
manner, (said the Montreal Gazette") his kind and earnest usefulness,
his good and religious life, won for him the unfeigned respect of the
whole of that millitary family. Those who enjoyed an intimacy
with that " band of brothers," the officers of the 32nd Regiment,
will remember well that with them the familiar name of " Frank"
was emphatically a household word. With Inglis, Griffin served at
St. Eustache during the unhappy rebellion of 1837. Here he
first attracted notice. On the suppression of the revolt, he was
appointed by Sir J. Colborne, now Lord Seaton, a military magis
trate, with civil powers, in the county of Two Mountains, and num
bers will, even now, bear grateful testimony to his unwearied and
successful exertions in mediating between exasperated nationali
ties, to protect the weak, to raise the fallen, and to assuage the
horrors of civil war. This noble work to .a great degree accom
plished, he was removed to Montreal, and for some time employed
as adjutant-general in the organization of the provincial volun
teer force. Subsequently he was appointed deputy adjutant-
general to her Majesty's forces at Montreal, and served in that
capacity under Lord Seaton, Lord Cathcart, Sir Richard Jackson,
Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and Lieutenant-General, now Sir W.
Rowan, K.C.B., to whom he was military-secretary, until the termi
nation of his command in 1855, when he proceeded to England,
and died at Torquay in Devonshire, on the 29th of July, 1858.
Colonel Griffin through life, was remarkable for the scrupulous
performance of duty, — of all duties, the foremost with hirn was
his duty to his God.

44

346 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

MAJOR-GENERAL YOUNG, K.H.
Many will, no doubt, remember the name of Major Plomer
Young, and his connection with the rebellion of 1838. He was
one of the most efficient officers in Canada at that period. We
give a brief sketch of his military career.
He entered the army in May, 1805, as cornet, and in 1806 gained
his lieutenancy. He served as adjutant of the 89th at the capture
of the Isle-of-France in 1810, and at the capture of Java in 1811
(for which he received the war medal with one clasp), on which
last service he was wounded in the action of Welteveden, and
at the storming of Fort Corneliu; and was, for his conduct on
those occasions, appointed, by Major-General Sir Robert Gillespie,
major of brigade to the Batavia division of the force. He accom
panied Sir Robert as such in the arduous operations against Djoc-
arta in 1812, which terminated by the storming of that capital
aud capture of the Sultan. Served as major of brigade on the
expedition to Ava, from June, 1824, until the close of the
Burmese war in 1826, and was present at the principal affairs
during that period, including the operations in the vicinity of
Rangoon, defeat of Bandoola's army at the Sheevedageen Pagoda,
Tavoy, Mergui, Kokein, Denobiu, Prome, Melloon, and Pagahm
Mew. We do not know the year he came to this country. He
was in command of the Johnstown district during the insurrection
of 1838, and commanded the troops in the attack and defeat of the
brigands under Van Scoultz, at the Windmill Point, near Prescott,
on the 13th November of that year, in the most gaUant manner, so
as to draw forth the admiration of his superior officers, and the
loyal inhabitants of the province, and was promoted to a lieutenant-
colonelcy by brevet in consequence. Since that time he has been
promoted to his present rank.

Hon. J. H. WALLACE
Was born on the 7th June, 1807, and was son of the late Hon
orable the Earl of Hopetoun. He died at his seat, Featherstone
Castle, on the 7th of January, 1854. This distinguished noble-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 347
man was, until 1844, a captain and lieutenant-colonel in the Cold
stream Guards, in which regiment he served for about twenty-three
years. In 1838, he came out to Canada with his regiment, and in
November, of the same year, was selected by the then governor-
general, Lord Seaton, to raise a regiment of volunteers, for general
service in Canada. The order was given on the 5th of November,
and, in less than a week, he had the regiment of " Queen's Vol
unteers," consisting of ten companies, of one hundred rank and
file each, organized, and ready to take the garrison duties, which
enabled the battalion of Grenadier Guards to be moved up the
country. The high state of discipline, and perfect and wonderful
correctness with which the Queen's Volunteer Light Infantry per
formed their duties, frequently drew forth great praise from the
commander of the forces, and, also from Major-General Sir James
McDonell, who was then in command of the garrison.
Colonel Hope was in every sense of the word a thorough soldier,
and although very strict — for he would never allow any deviation
of duty on the part of his officers or men to pass unnoticed — yet,
his kind manner of putting his orders in execution, won for him
most deservedly the esteem and regard of every officer and man,
under his command. Colonel Hope was, however, not only beloved
by those who came under his immediate command, but by every
one in .Quebec who had the good fortune and pleasure to make his
acquaintance. Soon after he left Canada, Colonel Hope succeeded to the estates
of his uncle, Lord Wallace, and took the name of Wallace. He
married, in 1837, Lady Mary Francis Nugent, a daughter of the
Marquis of Westmeath, and left by her three sons and four
daughters.

COLONEL G. HAMILTON, op Hawkesbury.
Among the many loyal and valued individuals whose lives foil
a sacrifice directly or indirectly in the defence of Upper Canada
against the unprovoked and atrocious invasions of its soil by a
ruthless set of unprincipled adventurers, it is believed that the
lamented gentleman above named is one of the most extensively
deplored, and whose death inflicted the heaviest blow on the com
munity in which he lived. Mr. Hamilton was a native of the
county of Meath, in Ireland, where he was born on the 13th of

348 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS
April, 1781. He emigrated to Canada at an early age; and after
a long sojourn at Quebec, where he was extensively engaged in
business for several years, he retired from that city, and took up his
permanent residence on his extensive property in Hawkesbury, in
the year 1811 ; and has, with a few slight intervals, remained there
until his death. His talents and acquirements became early
known to the government ; and on a formation of the district of
Ottawa in the year 1816, he was appointed to the judgeship ofthe
District Court, an office which he continued to discharge with
exemplary integrity and correctness during the rest of his life.
He was also for many years chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and
contributed greatly, by his energy and strict enforcement of the
laws, to create and maintain the high degree of social order and
quietness for which the Ottawa district has been so long favorably
conspicuous. He held also several Other honorable and confidential
situations under the government, the duties of which he invariably
fulfilled with distinguished fidelity and judgment. His political
predilections were rigidly conservative, though far removed from
sycophancy and subserviency; and although compelled by the cir
cumstances of the times to assume the chieftainship of his party,
his unflinching firmness and the caustic severity of his eloquence
were at all times agreeably relieved and modified by the suavity of
his demeanor and the generosity of his conduct. He was repeat
edly invited by the local government to accept a seat in the Legis
lative Council, but he invariably declined the proposed honor, on
the patriotic ground that he could be of much greater service to
the government by watching over its interests at home. As lieut
enant-colonel of militia, he had been ordered to superintend the
formation of several reserve companies for possible active service
against the American brigands, and to inspect occasionally their
state of organization and discipline. On the fourth day of Decem
ber, 1838, he travelled for this purpose to Plantagenet, where he
inspected and reviewed th§ reserve company of that township, com
manded by Captain Kearnes. The weather was intensely cold and
stormy, and it was while reading the general orders to the men,
and addressing them at length upon the occasion, that the first
symptoms of his illness manifested themselves. These were still
further increased on his journey home, where he arrived late at
night, almost dying with cold and exhaustion ; and, notwithstand
ing the instantly applied, and unremittingly continued cares, and
assistance of several medical gentlemen of high standing, he lan
guished until the 7th of January, 1839, when death relieved him
from his sufferings.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 349

Hon. M. S. BIDWELL.
Marshall Spring Bidwell, a name that figures to a consider
able extent in the annals of Upper Canada, and more particularly
during the period immediately anterior to the rebellion, was an able
and energetic legislator, and a clever lawyer. He was born in Massa
chusetts, before the treaty of 1783, and settled at Bath, C. W.,
in 1811. He is the son of the celebrated Barnabas Bidwell,- who
was expelled from the Upper Canada legislature, on account of
his being an alien. Shortly after which event he was triumphantly
returned for his father's county, Lennox and Addington, and twice
was elected to fill the office of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
The colonial-secretary, in 1837, directed Sir F. B. Head, the lieu
tenant-governor of Upper-Canada, to elevate him to the bench,
which Sir Francis, for some good reasons of his own, refused to do ;
and detecting some connection of his with the rebels, gave him the
option of either allowing him (Sir F.) to peruse some private letters
of his which had been placed in his hands by the postmaster, or to
leave the province. Mr. Bidwell preferred the latter alternative, and
left the Upper Province for the States in 1838 ; and, we believe,
has never returned ; he has built up for himself a lucrative prac
tice at the New York bar, and is considered there an eminent prac
titioner.

DOCTOR ROBERT NELSON.
Doctor Nelson is both a man of celebrity and notoriety. His
name figures in the history of Canada as the leader and originator
of the lamentable and unhappy, as well as ludicrous invasion of
Canada in 1838. Believing that a sketch of him would prove in
teresting to a great portion of the people of Canada, we herewith
give all the information which we have been enabled to gather
concerning him.
He was born in January, 1794, and at an early age was appren
ticed to the late celebrated Doctor Arnoldi, of Montreal ; and even
before he was admitted to practice, he had raised a reputation for
himself as a talented and clever young man, and one likely to rise

350 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
to the head of his profession. While yet in his youth he was ap
pointed surgeon to a regiment called the " Indian Warriors," and
served during the war of 1812. He was one of the most distin
guished and celebrated doctors of the day. It is told that on one
occasion an influential patient of his had had a ball lodged in his
thigh for a considerable time, and which Dr. Nelsonwas unable to
extract, went to England to consult some of the medical celebrities
there. These, on ascertaining who had attended him in Canada,
said, " if Dr. Nelson is unable to do anything for you, we are per
fectly sure we can do nothing." The gentleman returned and died
without the ball having been extracted. Having been prominently
mixed up with the politics of the day, after a warm contest, the
Doctor was elected in 1827, conjointly with M. Papineau, to re
present the city of Montreal in Parliament. He soon, however,
withdrew from that position to devote his time solely to his profes
sion, which he loved beyond all other things. He did not take
an active part in the scenes being enacted on the north and south
shores of the St. Lawrence, in the autumn of 1837 ; but he was
arrested certainly without any justifiable cause, and cast into prison
on the news arriving of the result of the fight between his brother
and the royal troops ; after a time he was admitted to bail.
In 1838, the most eventful period of his career, he played a con
spicuous part in the affairs of the country. Being induced by a
number of dissatisfied and disloyal persons of Canada, as well as
some " sympathizers" from the States, to take up arms against
his country, and thus entered madly as chief into the chimerical
scheme of invading Canada, which proved abortive and awfully
disastrous to those engaged in it. His property was sold at a great
sacrifice, and his debts accumulated. He himself, a fugitive from
justice, wended his way to California, where, by patient industry,
he amassed a considerable fortune which he unwisely entrusted to
the hands of an agent who swindled him out of every shilling. He
is now, we understand, a resident of New York, and practices as a
consulting surgeon.
He has translated Hupeland's system of medicine, and has writ
ten several valuable articles for various medical publications ; and
we have reason to believe he is now engaged in writing a history
of the Asiatic cholera which prevailed so extensively in Canada, in
1832, as well as a disquisition on the difficult subjects of conta
gion and infection.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 351

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE MORIN.
Augustin Norbert Morin, another name well known, and to
a great extent connected with the history of the lower province
at some of its most interesting epochs.
He was born at St. Michel, district of Quebec, in 1803, and re
ceived his education at the seminary of that ancient city, where
his progress was both rapid and brilliant, and elicited the enco
miums of all those over and connected with him. He studied law
under the late Honorable D. B. Viger, and was admitted to the bar
at Montreal in 1828. As the greatest ambition of all our Canadian
lawyers is to be elected to Parliament as soon as possible, so
that they may have an opportunity of displaying their oratorical
and other powers, and be enabled to establish a reputation and
take part in the administration of the affairs of the country, and
finally attain the bench, young Morin was, in 1830, returned to
Parliament, being then only twenty-eight years of age, and speedily
made his way by his peculiar abilities over those who had sat in the
house for lengthened periods. He took part in all the great discus
sions and questions of the day, and displayed much wisdom and
foresight in the arguments which he set forth. So valued and
appreciated was he by his party, that, when in 1834, a person was to
be deputed by the Assembly to carry their petitions on the state of
the province, to Mr. Viger, then in England, and to sustain that
gentleman in his representations before the English ministry, he
was selected to perform that responsible and onerous duty; and
he returned only after he had done all in his power and might to
carry out the ends of his party and the instructions which he had
received. Mr. Morin is a gentleman of remarkable energy of
character, and was not likely to be stopped in what he had taken
in hand. Let whatever obstacles rise in his path, he would over
come them. Having continued ;in the legislature after the union,
he entered the Lafonoaine-Baldwin ministry, on the loth of
October, 1842, as commissioner of crown lands, and remained
in that office until December, 1843. In 1844, he was elected
simultaneously for the counties of Saguenay and Bellechasse,
but selected to sit for the latter county. He was returned
again by the same constituency in the general election of 1848,
when he was elected to the speakership of the house, and remained
in that position until 1851, when, jointly with the great Mr.
Hincks as the premier, they formed the celebrated government
that bears their names; and he accepted the office of provincial
secretary of the province, and was elected for the county of Terre-

352 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
bonne. From August, 1 853, to January, 1855, _ he was commis
sioner of crown lands ; and in that year was raised to the bench
as a judge of the Superior Court of Lower Canada.^ In 1859, he
was appointed a member of the commission for codifying the laws
of Lower Canada, a position which he continues to retain, reflecting
in that capacity both honor and credit on himself and the country.
Kage thus speaks of him, in his "Life of Lord Metcalfe " : —
" Mr. Morin a French Canadian, commissioner of crown lands.
He had been thrown in early life, by the troubles of his country,
into the stormy sea of politics ; but I believe had followed the
law as a profession. His character, as described to Metcalfe, would
have fitted well the hero of a romance. With administrative
abilities of the highest class, vast powers of application, and an
extreme line of order, he united a rare conscientiousness and a
noble self-devotion, which in old times would have carried him
cheerfully to the stake. His patriotism was of the purest water.
He was utterly without selfishness and guile. And he was of so
sensitive a nature, and so confiding a disposition, that it was said
of him, he was as tender-hearted as a woman, and as simple as a
child. But for these — the infirmities only of noble minds — he
might have been a great statesman. If the enthusism and
demonstrativeness of his character, rendered him a striking contast
to Secretary Harrison, he was in these and other respects also
remarkably dissimilar to Mr. Receiver-General Dunn."

Right Rev. J. J. LARTIGUE.
This most estimable and learned divine, was born at Montreal,
on the 20th of June, 1777.
He was named, by Pope Pius VII., on the 1st February, 1820,
bishop of Felmessa in Lycia, and suffragan bishop to the bishop of
Quebec, for the district of Montreal. He was consecrated in the
parochial church of Montreal, by his Grace Bishop Plessis, on the
21st January, 1821.
We are indebted to him for the firm and determined stand which
he took in 1837, against Papineau and his party, when they wished
to deluge the land with blood, and to bring ruin and dishonor on
the heads of the simple habitants of Lower Canada. By the vigor
ous and well-timed measures, which Bishop Lartigue adopted, in
conjuring the people to abstain from all the horrors and miseries bf

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 353
civil war, and in denouncing the rebels at the altars and confes
sionals of his church, he did good service, both to his church and
to the crown, under which he served.

Hon. JOHN MAITLAND, C.B.
Colonel Maitland was a son of the last Earl of Lauderdale,
and a brave and distinguished officer, who, if he had lived, would
have undoubtedly made his way to great distinction. His name is
linked with the history of Canada, but more particularly with the
western section of it, as the gallant colonel of the brave 32nd Regi
ment, and as the victor of a splendid victory over the American
brigands, at Point Pelee Island, in lake Erie, on the 3rd March,
1838. Unfortunately he caught a severe cold on the march to, and
during the attack on the island, which speedily overpowered him, and
brought on a disease, which carried him to his grave. He died at
London, C. W., on the 18th January, 1839. No one was ever
more sincerely regretted than this meritorious officer, from the
commander of the forces, down to the humble privates in his
regiment, all mourned his death. Previous to his connection with
Canada, he had served in Spain and Portugal, as extra aide-de
camp to General Houston ; and in 1816, was appointed an
inspecting-field-officer in the Ionian Islands, from which he ex
changed into tha 32nd Regiment.

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE ELZEAR BEDARD,
Was, like the other members of the Bedard family, a prominent
politician and legislator. He was also a member of the Lower
Canada Assembly, and the reputed father of the celebrated ninety-
two resolutions ; although, we believe, Judge Morin has more claim
to that distinction. M. Bedard became puisne judge of the Court
of Queen's Bench, and, in conjunction with the late Judge Panet,
was in favor (in 1838) of establishing the law of habeas corpus by
substituting the statute of Charles II. for the provincial ordinance
45

354 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of 1784. He was suspended from the bench, but afterwards rein
stated. He subsequently entered into a contest with the Honora
ble Justice Day as to precedence, and the question was referred
to the Imperial Government, the decision of which resulted in his
favor, but only arrived when he was on his death-bed. He was a
victim of cholera, and died at Montreal in 1849.

ETIENNE PARENT, Esq.,
Assistant Provincial Secretary, (East.)
We could hardly omit in such a work some notice of this well
known official whose career has been respectable and successful.
Mr. Parent was born on the 2nd May, 1801, on his father's farm at
Beauport, near Quebec. He received his education at the semi
nary of that city, where the generality of the gallic Canadians of
the Quebec district, graduated until the foundation of the Laval
university. Young as Mr. Parent was, ere he left school he had
acquired a reputation as a political writer and a profound scholar.
The story goes that after he left the seminary, some influential
friends, high in office in the lower province at the present time,
determined to put his talents as a writer to the test. With that
view they proceeded to his father's farm, where they found young
Parent commendably engaged assisting his aged parent in farm
operations. Being struck with his nobleness of mind, exhibited in
this act of filial acquiescence, they offered him the editorship of the
largest and most influential French journal then published in the
province, Le Canadien, which offer he accepted, and he edited
that paper for three years viz., from 1822 to 1825. He then entered
into the office of Mr. C. E. Casgrain, to study the profession ofthe
law, and subsequently into the office of the late Chief-Justice
Vallieres de St. Real, who was then practising in Quebec. But
the bar, apparently, was not Mr. Parent's forte, for shortly after he
had been received and had practised for a short period, he gave up
the profession for an appointment as French translator in the House
of Assembly of Lower Canada. With this office he likewise held
the law clerkship, and he afterwards served at> librarian of the same
house. These appointments he subsequently resigned, to re-es
tablish the Canadien, which he edited for a period of fourteen
years, rendering it by his extensive knowledge, his purity and
eleganoe of style and force of reasoning the political standard ofthe

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 355
French Canadians, and the best exponent of their views. It was
during this period of his life (1838) that he underwent imprison
ment in the Quebec jail for giving too bold an expression to some
extreme political opinions in his newspaper. At the union of the
provinces, Mr Parent was returned to Parliament for the county
of Saguenay ; and he continued to sit therein, until responsible
government was established under Sir Charles Bagot, when he
vacated his seat to accept the responsible appointment of clerk
of the Executive Council, which he held till 1847, when he was
appointed to be assistant-secretary, east, an office in which he still
continues, and has acquired the respect and esteem of all parties.
Bibaud says of him, " His series of lectures on political economy,
labor and material progress, entitle him to rank amongst the most
enlightened minds of America." Mr. Parent, although in his
sixtieth year, is as robust and active as ever. His mother only
died a few mouths ago, at a very advanced age, which makes us
imagine that he will be spared to the country for a lengthened
period ; and that such may be the case we sincerely trust.

Hon. THOMAS RADCLIFF,
An efficient member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada,
and a retired military officer, born 1794 ; died at Kingston, C.W.,
where he had resided for some time, on 9th June, 1841. He
served his country gallantly in the four quarters of the globe; he
followed the Duke of Wellington through the whole of the Peninsu
lar campaigns, during which he received eight wounds; and, in the
late rebellion in Canada, distinguished himself as the commander
of the militia on the western frontier, and captured the piratical
schooner Ann, having on board several rebel leaders.

LIEUT.-COLONEL MOODIE.
This gallant soldier was a native of the neighborhood of Dun
fermline, in Fifeshire; and, having joined the army very early in
life, and seen much of the severest service of the Peninsular war,

356 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the 104th Regiment. He
served in Canada during the American war of 1814, and distin-
buished himself in many sharp affairs with the enemy. He was
gresent at the battle of Queenston, where he acted with great
pravery. About the year 1822, he returned to Scotland, and
resided at St. Andrew's for the education of his family. He con
tinued in that town until 1835, when he again came to Canada, for
the purpose of taking possession of a valuable and extensive tract
of land which he had acquired near Toronto, and where he was
killed by the insurgents, in December, 1838. He left behind him
his widow, a Canadian lady of Scottish extraction, two sons and
three daughters.

Sir R. H. BONNYCASTLE.
Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, Knight, son of kthe late
John Bonnycastle, Esquire, professor of mathematics in the Royal
Military Academy, at Woolwich, was born in 1791 ; he married in
1814, a daughter of Captain William Johnstone. In 1825, he
became a captain of the Royal Engineers, and, in 1848, was
advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army. He served
at Flushing in 1809 ; in America, from 1812 to 1815 ; was com
manding royal engineer in Canada West, from 1837 to 1839;
received his knighthood for services in the defence of Kingston, in
Canada, in 1837 ; was commanding royal engineer in Newfound
land ; and published a work on Newfoundland — " The Canadas
in 1841." He is also the author ofthe celebrated work, " Canada
as it was, is, and may be," &c.
Sir Richard was an officer of considerable literary and scientific
acquirements, zealous in the discharge of his duties, an ardent
student, and leaving, at his demise in 1848, a mass of interesting
writings on Canada — the most important colony of Great Britain.
These have been published.

And persons connected with Canada. 357

Hon. P. D. DEBARTZCH,,
A member of some repute in the Lower Canadian party of 1837.
He first entered the legislature as a member of the Assembly, in
1810, and enrolled himself in the ranks of the opposition of the
day, in which he assuredly performed a distinguished part, not only
by his activity and energy in carrying out the projects of his party,
but, also by his oratorical powers, which were great. He was elevated
to the Upper House in 1815; and there, as in the other chamber,
remained a steadfast ally and friend of his party. He founded a
journal in Montreal, whieh contributed, in a great measure, to
excite the people to the lamentable outbreak of 1837; and he pro
tected and defended some ofthe leaders of the insurrection.
We do not know the period of his death.

Hon. A. McDONELL.
The Honorable Alexander McDonell, at one time Speaker
of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, was a native of Inver
ness, Scotland, having been born there in the year 1 760. He died
at Toronto, on the 18th Mareh, 1842. An Upper Canadian
journal thus eulogized his character on that occasion : —
" Throughout a residence in this country, almost from boyhood,
he sustained a high character for loyalty and public virtue, and has
now sunk to his rest, amid the regrets of a community who loved
him for the mild excellence of his domestic and private character,
no less than they esteemed him as a public man."

ROBERT CHRISTIE, Esq., M.P.P.
A Canadian historian and a native of Nova Scotia, but for
a lengthened period, an inhabitant of Canada ; born in 1788 ; died
at Quebec, on the 13th October, 1856.

358 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The name of Mr. Christie is well known for his literary produc
tions, as well as for his parliamentary career. Most of our readers
will remember the circumstance of his being expelled from the
House of Assembly in 1829, on the ground of his having misadvised
the government to dismiss certain magistrates from the commission
of the peace for their political opinions and votes in the Assembly.
He was again returned by his constituents, and again expelled,
and continued deprived of a seat until the union, after which he
was again elected by the same constituency, and remained a member
until the general election of 1854. Mr. Christie was at various
times a contributor by his pen to the Quebec Gazette, when con
ducted by the late Honorable John Neilson, and subsequently to
the Quebec Mercury. His writings were vigorous, and showed an
intimate acquaintance with the political history of the country.
He was rather a violent and crotchetty politician, and his hot
temper greatly impaired his political utility. His principal literary
labor is his " History of Canada ;" valuable as a compilation,
but otherwise not deserving the name of history, or even entitled
to the credit of being a connected and clear narrative of events.

Hon. PETER McGILL.
A resident of Montreal for upwards of half a century, Mr.
McGill's name is identified with the welfare, progress, and prosperity
of that city.
Mr. McGill, we learn, is a Scotchman by birth — and, if we
are not mistaken, a native of Dumfriesshire, or Gallaway — came to
Canada in 1809, in connection with the old, and, by the last
generation, highly respected firm of Parker, Gerrard, Oglivie &
Uo., with whom he continued a partner for some years. He after
wards joined the firm of Porteous, Hancox, McCutcheon &
Cringan — his name being then McCutcheon, which he shortly
after consented to change to that of McGill, at the request of his
uncle, the Hon. Mr. McGill, of Toronto, whose heir he became,
inheriting his extensive and valuable property in Upper Canada.
Mr. McGill subsequently carried on a very extensive business with
the late Mr. Dunn, under the firm of Peter McGill & Co., which
firm was dissolved some years ago, since which time Mr. McGill's
connection with mercantile life mainly consisted in his position
as president of the Bank of Montreal, to which office he was
yearly elected from June 1834 until June, 1860, when, from the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 359
state of his health, he resigned it. It was not, however, as a
successful and enterprising merchant and man of business alone
that Mr. McGill gained the eminent position he so long held in
Canada. In public as in private life — as a statesman and
philanthropist as well as a merchant and banker — he equally
secured the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens, and but a
year or two before his death, ere his health failed him, he held
and zealously performed the duties of the following various and
important offices : — besides being a member of the Legislative
Council, an office which he had held before as well as after the
union, he was president of the Bank of Montreal, governor of
the University of McGill College, director of the Grand Trunk
Railroad Company, governor of the Montreal General Hospital,
president of the Lay Association of Montreal in connection with
the .Church of Scotland, president of the Canadian School
Society, chairman of the Colonial Life Assurance Company, a
lieutenant-colonel of militia, and trustee of the University of
Queen's College, Kingston. Most of these offices were connected
with social life, but in political life Mr. McGill's services were also
sought for and readily obtained. He was for some time an Exe
cutive Councillor and, in 1843, was, by Lord Metcalfe, offered the
speakership of the Legislative Council, an office which, although
he then declined it, he afterwards, in 1847, accepted and held until
the following year, when with his colleagues in the administration,
he resigned it. Mr. McGill was also, for many years, president
of the Montreal Bible Society, and when he resigned the office, in
1843, not only received the cordial thanks of the society for his
long and zealous services, but was placed at the head of the hono
rary governors of the society, then created. He was also the first
chairman of the first railroad company — the St. Lawrence and
Champlain — established in Canada, from its commencement, in
1834, until the completion of its road, in 1838. For many
years, dating from its commencement in 1835, he was pre
sident, and gave much of his time, and no small amount of
his means, in supporting the National Society of St. Andrew.
He also served the office of mayor of Montreal from 1840
to 1842, during which period many and great, improvements
were effected in that city. In short, whether as a statesman
and politician, a useful and active member of our municipal govern
ment, or as patriotic, liberal-minded and philanthropic citizen, it
would be difficult, if not impossible, to name any man who, in the
community of Montreal, or indeed in any community, so deser
vedly merited the esteem and regard of his fellow-men as the late
Mr. McGill. He died at his residence Beaver Hall Place, Mon- .
treal on the 28th September 1860 .

360 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. JOHN MOLSON.
This gentleman, to whose liberality, philanthrophy and gene
rosity Montreal owes so much, was born in that city, on the 14th
October 1787.
Mr. Molson was of English descent, his father, the late Honor
able John Molson, having come to Canada in 1782, being then
onjy eighteen years of age. Two years afterwards, having deter
mined to settle in this province, he returned to England, and
having just come of age, he raised a considerable sum of money on
the security of his estate of Snake Hall and Moulton, in Lincoln
shire, the whole of which he sunk in building a brewery in
Montreal, then an inconsiderable town of a few thousand inhabi
tants. Finding his means insufficient to complete his plans, he again
went to England, and returned with a further sum of money, which
he expended with a like result. Determined not to be defeated,
he visited England a third time, sold out his property, and with
the balance was just enabled to get his brewery into operation. The
foundation of the ample fortunes which the Molson family have
since acquired was thus laid by the sacrifice of his inherited estate ;
a circumstance which is also true of several other well-known
Canadian names.
In the year 1807, the celebrated Fulton launched his first steamer
on the Hudson ; and two years later the first movement towards the
steam navigation of the St. Lawrence was made by the elder Mr.
Molson. On this occasion Mr. M. again went to England and
brought out engineers and other workmen, with such parts of the
machinery as could not be made in Canada. The first vessel placed
upon our waters was the Accommodation, a small boat 72 feet in
length, 16 feet beam, and propelled by an engine built by Mr.
Jackson, of not more than six horse power.
Two years later, viz., in 1811, another vessel, the Swiftsure, was
launched by Mr. Molson, and in the following year did the state
some service in the transport of troops and stores during the war
with the United States in 1812. These vessels were placed on the
route between Montreal and Quebec, and were soon after replaced
by him with the Malsham, Lady Sherbrooke and others of supe
rior tonnage and power.
Later in life the elder Mr. Molson became president of the
Bank of Montreal at a time of great commercial difficulty, Benjamin
Holmes, Esquire, being made cashier at the same period ; since
which time that institution has attained the high position it has

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 361
since preserved. Mr. Molson, senr., was also a member of the
Executive Council of Lower Canada. He died in 1836, in the
seventy-second year of his age.
The subject of this memoir was connected with his father in all
his enterprises, first in his father's service, then for a short time in
opposition, when his father gave him a vessel to set him up in
business, and afterwards as a partner, and we believe we are correct
in saying that it was not a little owing to the energy and enterprise
of the son that the father added largely to the handsome
competence of which he died possessed.
A striking instance of the business capacity of the son has often
been mentioned. The boat given him by his father was of inferior
power and speed, but the young man was not to be outdone. The
river was not lighted and buoyed as at present, and it was, there
fore, deemed unsafe to run after dark. The son, however, ran his
boat all night, and by working while others slept, made the best
time with the slowest boat.
At a later period when railroads were introduced, Mr. Molson
took an active part in their introduction into Canada, and was
president of the first railroad opened in the province, — the St.
Lawrence and Champlain, of which he continued a director until
his demise. Nor was he less active in advancing the interests of
our monetary institutions. He had felt the want of these in early
life, when he kept guard over his father's strong box, and paid out
the English guineas, French crowns, and Spanish pieces, to his
numerous workmen. He became a director in the Bank of
Montreal, but retired to make room for his father at the period
already referred to. Resuming his seat at the board on the retire
ment of his father from the presidency, he remained in the
direction till 1853, when, in connection with his brother, William,
he established the Molson Bank, under the free banking act, but
which obtained a charter in 1854, when his young brother, Thomas,
also became a large shareholder in that institution.
In politics, Mr. Molson was highly conservative ; and when
the Special Council replaced the Parliament in 1837, he was
called to a seat in it. He, however, never desired to enter public
life. He preferred to assist in carrying out those public improve
ments which had been set on foot by himself and others, to develop
the resources, and aid in the advancement of his native country.
Having shouldered his musket in 1837, he, with many other
loyal men, felt keenly the passing of the rebellion losses bill of
1849 ; and was one of the first signers of the famous annexation
manifesto at that time, a proceeding for which he was deprived of
his commissions of justice of the peace and colonel ofthe militia;
the offers afterwards made by government to reinstate him, he
respectfully declined.
As a private citizen, Mr. Molson was highly 'esteemed. The
46

362 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
cause of education and philanthropy ever found in him a friend,
and there is scarcely an important educational or charitable insti
tution in Montreal with which his name has not been connected.
The Molson chair in the McGill college, endowed by the liberality
of the three brothers, may be specially mentioned as an instance of
munificence and public spirit. As a governor for many years of
the Montreal General Hospital, from the presidency of which he
retired about a year previous to his death, owing to his failing
health, his zeal will be long remembered, wbich, considering the
magnitude of his business engagements, often surprised his coad
jutors, in the management of that benevolent institution. The old
and respected gentleman died at his residence Belmont Hall, Mon
treal, on the 12th of July, 1860, in his seventy-third year, uni
versally regretted, we may say, by all parties in his native city,
and by a large circle of friends throughout the country.

COMMODORE DUNLOP, R.N., M.P.P.
Robert Graham Dunlop, Esquire, commodore royal navy,
for a long time member of Parliament for the county of Huron, a
man of sterling integrity, and of great capacity. Born 1789,
died at Gairbraid, near Goderich, C. W., on the 28th of February,
1841. Captain Dunlop entered the service, at the age of thirteen, on
board his Majesty's sloop Tortorelle, and after a cruise in the
North Sea, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, in the Active,
frigate, commanded by Captain (now Admiral) Mowbray; when
Lieutenant Warwood, then first lieutenant of the Active, was
promoted to the command of the Pylades, he took him along with
him as acting lieutenant.
During the five years that he served in these ships in the
Mediterranean, he was in no action of any public notoriety —
except the passage of the Dardanelles ; though few weeks elapsed
without his being engaged in the very dangerous service of cutting
out in boats, and though upwards of one hundred times under fire,
he miraculously escaped unhurt.
On his return to England, he was sent to the Cape of Good
Hope, to join the Scipion, then carrying the flag of Admiral Sir
Robert Stopford, the late hero of Acre. While attached to this
ship, he was employed at the siege of Fort Cornelcris, and though

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 363
wounded in three places, was carried through the breach on the
boarding pikes of his sailors.
For his services here, Admiral Stopford promoted him to the
rank of lieutenant, on board of the Surabaya, a Dutch brig, so
called from having been captured in the harbor of the same name,
in Java. In her he proceeded to Bombay, where he was placed
on half pay, she being out of commission. Having then been
upwards of nine years in the navy, and never having slept but
seven nights ashore.
On his return to England, he was appointed to the Surveillant,
Captain Sir George Collier, with whom he was employed on the
coast of Spain. During this period, he and his brother officer,
Lieutenant Dowal O'Reilly, were employed in manning a naval
battery, at the siege of St. Sebastian. In this service he was
severely wounded, having his arm and three ribs fractured, by a
twenty-four pound shot passing between his arm and body.
Afterwards he and his comrade O'Reilly, passed the Duke of
Wellington's army across the Adour — a service so hazardous, that
the French were quite unprepared for it, inasmuch as they thought
that nobody would have the temerity to attempt it. He advanced
with the Duke's army into the Pyrenees, but was afterwards
shortly recalled to act as flag lieutenant to Admiral Sir Charles
Penrose. While in this situation, he was sent in the Garonne, to
cut out a flotilla of gun brigs, gun boats, and store ships, intended
for the relief of Bayonne. In this he fully succeeded, and brought
out the whole flotilla, with Bonaparte's imperial barge, with the
single exception of one ship loaded with gunpowder, which,
thinking it unsafe to bring under the fire of the batteries, he
blew up.
Before the tide served to carry him out, and protected by the fire of
the gunboats he had captured, he landed and repulsed an attack of
five hundred men of the French army, though his command
amounted only to one hundred and fifty men. On his return to
England, he proceeded to the Halifax station, where he joined the
Leander, on board which ship his old friend, Sir George Collier,
had kept a berth for him. But the ship not being in the harbor at
the time, he went with the army on the Penobscot expedition,
where he was again slightly wounded. On the Leander being
paid off at the close of 1815, he was appointed first lieutenant of
the Glasgow, Captain (commonly called) Paddy Doyle. From
her he was promoted to the Curlew sloop, and from thence trans
ferred to the command of the Termagant frigate, which he brought
home to England, in 1823, after which time he was not employed,
his limited means not allowing him to take a command during the
time of peace.
After being placed on half pay, he endeavored to make up for
an education, necessarily deficient, by attending lectures in the

364 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
colleges of Glasgow and Edinburgh, for three years ; during this
period he was a most laborious student, and limited himself to
dining abroad on Saturdays only. From his return to India to
his arrival in this province, he applied himself exclusively to
scientific pursuits, chiefly those connected with his profession, in
the building and sailing of vessels, and in mineralogy and geology.
He was the first member for the county of Huron, and served
in that office to the time of his death ; he originated many
useful enactments, among which may be enumerated the Huron
county bill, and the Goderich harbor bill, but was unsuccessful
in others, such as the lunatic asylum bill, the mineralogical survey
bill, &c.
As an early settler in that part of the country, he exerted himself
for the good of all his brother settlers ; his house was ever open to
them whatever their rank might be, and no man ever went away
hungry from his door. We may well conclude by saying that he
was honest and just, as well as kind and considerate to all who
came within the sphere of his action.
His funeral was attended by almost all the people in the neighbor
hood where he resided, and by many who came from a great dis
tance, to pay the last homage to his memory. Four gentlemen, sons
of post captains of the royal navy, offered to carry his body to
the grave, but the captains of the vessels in the port had pre
viously volunteered their services, and the flag of Britain, under
which he so bravely fought, was the pall which covered his coffin,
when he was laid in the narrow house appointed for all.
In him the community lost a thoroughly independent man, who
neither courted power nor feared it, and whose loss it has been
difficult to replace in his county.

Right Hon. The EARL OF DURHAM.
With the exception of that of Lumley, Earl of Scarborough,
the family of Lambton is the only one in the county of Durham
which still retains the seat whenoe it originally derived its designa
tion; and, there is proof incontrovertible, that the Lambtons
existed at the time of the conquest, although, from the destruc
tion of family records, in the civil wars of Henry III., the regular

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 365
pedigree cannot be traced higher than the twelfth century. Upon
this point, Surtees, in his History of Durham, observes, " no earlier
owners of Lambton are on record, than the ancient and honorable
family which still bears the local name. Although the regular
pedigree can only be traced from the twelfth century, the previous
residence of the family is well established, by attestations of
charters and incidental evidence, from a period very nearly ap
proaching the Norman conquest."
From Robert de Lambton, feudal Lord of Lambton, in the
county palatine of Durham, who died in 1350, lineally descended
John Lambton, of Lambton, who was born in 1504, and who
married Agnes, daughter and co-heir* of Roger Lumley, Esquire,
of Ludworth, and niece of Richard, Lord Lumley. This John
died in 1549, and was succeeded by his son, Robert Lambton, of
Lambton, who espoused Frances, daughter of Sir Ralph Eure, con
stable of Scarborough Castle, temp. Henry VIII., and grand
daughter of William, Lord Eure. Through this alliance, the
Lambtons obtained an infusion of the blood of the Plantagenets.
The son and heir of Robert Lambton and Frances Eure, Ralph
Lambton, married, in 1587, Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Tempest,
Esquire, of Stanley, and, dying in 1593, was succeeded by his son,
Colonel William Lambton, who received the honor of knighthood
from King Charles I., and fell fighting under the royal banner at
Marston Moor.
This gallant cavalier married two wives: first, Jane, third
daughter and co-heir of Sir Nicholas Curwen, of Workington,
in Cumberland, by which he had a son, Henry, and two daughters.
His second wife was Catherine, daughter of Sir Henry Widdring-
ton, Knight, of Widdrington Castle, in Northumberland ; and, by
her, he had two other sons, William, who, like himself, fell in the
royal cause at Wakefield, and Thomas Lambton, colonel of the
horse of the bishopric of Durham, afterwards governor of the
Leeward Islands.
Sir William Lambton was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry
Lambton, of Lambton, who wedded Mary, daughter of Sir Alexander
Davison, Knight, of Blakiston, and had five sons and four daugh
ters : the eldest son, William, represented the county of Durham
in seven parliaments ; he died, unmarried, at the advanced age of
eighty-four, in 1724 : the second son, Alexander, died unmarried :
the third son, Henry, was a barrister-at-law, and attorney-general
to the bishop of Durham. He also died unmarried, in 1709, as
did the fifth son, John, in 1722. The fourth son, Ralph, espoused,
in 1696, Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of John Hedworth, Esquire,
of Harraton — heir general and representative of the family of
D'Arcy, of Harraton and Herrington — and left, at his decease in
*With her sisters, Isabella, wife of Richard Conyers, Esquire, of Hordon, in
Durham, and Margaret, wife of Thomas Trollop, Esquire/of Thomley.

366 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
1717, five sons and four daughters : the eldest son, Henry, repre
sented the eity of Durham in six parliaments, and - inherited
Lambton, with the other estates of the family, from his uncle
William; he died, unmarried, in 1761. The second son, Major-
General Hedworth Lambton, died unmarried in 1758; as did the
third son, William, in the same year, The fourth son, Ralph, was
collector of the customs at the port of Sunderland, and died like
wise unmarried, in 1781. The fifth and youngest son, John
Lambton, inherited, eventually, the estates, and became "of
Lambton." This gentleman was a general in the army, and
colonel of the 68th, or Durham Regiment of Foot, (of which he was
the first colonel.) He represented the city of Durham in five parlia
ments, and married, in 1763, Susan, daughter of Thomas, Earl of
Strathmore; he died in 1794, leaving, with two daughters, two
sons, William Henry and Ralph John.
The elder, William Henry Lambton, Esquire, of Lambton, was
born in 1764, and educated at Eton and at Cambridge. He
succeeded his father in the representation of the city of Durham,
for which he continued to sit during the remainder of his life. In
and out of parliament, Mr. Lambton was a stanch whig; and, at a
period when the House of Commons resounded with the eloquence
of a Pitt, a Fox, a Sheridan, and a Burke, the acute power of his
reasoning faculties, the manly and nervous tone of his oratory, the
refinement of his taste, and the accuracy of his judgment, procured
him a distinguished place within its walls. Zealously attached to
the principles of reform, Mr. Lambton signed, as chairman, in 1792,
" The Declaration and Address of the Society of Friends of the
People, associated for the purpose of obtaining Parliamentary
Reform." The views of this association were exposed to much
obloquy and misrepresentation, and Mr. Lambton stood forward
the defender of himself and his colleagues. " From a state of con
fusion," he observed, " I have every thing to lose, and nothing to
gain; and I must hope, that neither my head is so weak, nor my
heart so wicked, as to seek the misery of others, at so great a
personal risk. All I wish is, to see this happy constitution
reformed upon its own principles — that every reparation may be
made in the style of the original building."
The same sentiments which influenced the whole of Mr. Lamb-
ton's political life, rendered him adverse to the interference of the
British government in the internal affairs of France, and an
opponent of several consequent restrictive measures at home.
Upon all occasions, the member for Durham was found amongst
the friends of humanity who advocated the abolition of the nefari
ous traffic in slaves ; and, his voice was last raised in the British sen
ate, to oppose (in 1795) the bills for altering the laws, regarding
treason and sedition. He died at Pisa, on the 30th of November,
1797, of consumption, at the early age of thiry-three. Mr.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 367
Lambton had married, on the 19th of June, 1791 Lady Anne
Barbara Frances Villiers, second daughter of George Bussey, fourth
Earl of Jersey, and left, with a daughter, four sons, of whom the
late Lord Durham was the eldest. His widow espoused, secondly,
the honorable Charles William Wyndham, and died April 1, 1832.
Mr. Lamb ton's eldest son, being but five years of age, at his decease,
the representation of the city of Durham devolved upon his brother,
Ralph John Lambton, Esquire, who advocated the same indepen
dent principles, and continued the representation of Durham for
five successive parliaments.
John George Lambton (afterwards created Earl of Durham,)
was born on the 12th of April, 1792, and, like his father, received
his education between Eton and Cambridge. As soon as he
attained maturity, he was elected to Parliament by the county of
Durham, and took his seat almost immediately on coming of age.
He had previously married Miss Cholmondeley, who died on the
11th of July, 1815. Mr. Lambton espoused, in the next year, (on
the 9th of December,) Lady Louisa Elizabeth Grey, daughter of
the late prime minister, and had issue by both ladies. In Parlia
ment, the abilities of Mr. Lambton very soon obtained him a
distinguished position.
Mr. Lambton, inheriting the sentiments of hi£ predecessors upon
the question of parliamentary reform, introduced, on the 8th of
April, 1821, a plan to amend the representation of the people — a
project differing but little from that which has since become the
law of the land. In one material point, however, it differed from
the measure as finally sanctioned by Parliament, the abolition of
the septennial act, and restoration of triennial parliaments.
On the 17th January, 1828, it pleased his sovereign to elevate
Mr. Lambton to the peerage, under the title of Baron Durham,
of the city of Durham, and of Lambton Castle, in the county
palatine of Durham. Mr. Lambton had selected himself the title
of D'Arcy, and the patent was actually in preparation, when it was
discovered, that a Barony of D'Arcy was already in existence,
although in abeyance, and that the ducal house of Leeds laid claim
to the suspended dignity.
Upon the accession of his father-in-law, Earl Grey, to power, in
1830, Lord Durham was appointed lord privy seal, and became
a cabinet minister.
In 1831, Lord Durham experienced a domestic calamity of the
deepest dye, in the decease of his eldest son, Charles William, who
expired on the 24th of September, in that year. The beauty of
this promising boy, has been immortalized by the pencil of
Lawrence. Amongst the works of the late president, "young
Lambton" excited universal admiration; and his portrait will
remain a chef d'ceuvre of the British school of painting.
On the first of June, his lordship was deprived of another child,

368 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
in the person of the Honorable Harriet Caroline Lambton, his
youngest daughter by his first wife. The young lady had just
completed her twentieth year. His lordship left surviving at his
decease — by his first marriage, Frances Charlotte, and Georgiana
Elizabeth ; by his second ; Lady Mary Louisa, Emily Augusta (now
Countess of Elgin), Alice, and a son, George Frederic D'Arcy, the
present earl, born 5th September, 1828.
On the 12th March, 1833, Lord Durham retired from the
cabinet, received an earldom, and in the summer of the same year,
proceeded on a special mission to the court of Russia. In 1835,
his lordship returned to Russia as British ambassador, and remained
there until the summer of 1837 ; and, in the following year, went
out as governor-general to Canada, whence he returned, after a few
months' absence, without any permission from government, and
died in 1840.
For the following, we are indebted to the celebrated colonial
historian, Robert Montgomery Martin, Esquire : —
" Justice — that sacred principle so little understood, and so
seldom practiced — repudiates the maxim, " de mortuis nil nisi
bonum." It is one of the many blessings of a free constitution,
that the actions of public men are freely canvassed, and, although
party feeling may obscure merits, and confer undeserved honors,
yet truth, sooner or later, will maintain her position.
" We do not, therefore, think that the dead, any more than the
living, are to be spared the free examination of their public life ;
and the good of a nation is always best consulted by a temperate
expression ofthe conduct and character of those who seek to exercise
an influence over their fellow-men. When we reflect how readily
that which is evil is perceived, and how silently the good passes on
its beneficial course, we should pause in judgment, and be disposed
to spare censure, even where it appears deservedly due. More
over, if consideration be had to the physical temperament of
individuals, to their social position, to their education and surround
ing circumstances — men not subject to similar influences should
be cautious how they condemn, and charitable in their conclusions.
" These are general remarks, and not made merely with reference
to the subject of the present notice. It is now so rare to find a
man of rank and fortune devoting himself to colonial questions,
that we would be wanting in our duty to the colonies, did we omit
to offer a few brief remarks on the character of the late Earl
of Durham, so far as we can form an opinion from the recorded
events of his life.
By birth and inclination, Lord Durham was one of the earliest
advocates of political and popular reform; and to his credit, be it
said, he was ever foremost to aid the cause of the oppressed. His
sympathies were Saxon, and consequently with the people, but the
Norman, or feudal pride, was often seen struggling with the more

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 369
liberal principles of his early ancestry. At a period when few
men stood forward to oppose the encroachments of ministerial
power, Lord Durham was always the staunch opponent of oppression,
whether national or individual. With a generous disposition, he
was prompt to relieve distress, and expend his wealth in objects
conducive, as he thought, to his country's good. There was no
niggard or parsimonious spirit in his proceedings, whenever it
could be proved that money or energy could advance the cause he
took in hand. And an unsullied integrity, and lofty patriotism,
were among the distinguishing characteristics of this lamented noble
man. Possessed of a mind well stored with varied and useful
information, and sincerely desirous of turning his position and
opportunities to good account, it is remarkable how little real good
Lord Durham effected. We admit the important part he bore in
the reform of parliamentary representation in the House of Com
mons, and in the upper house ; but, there was a lamentable absence
of expansive and constitutional views in the settlement of that
great question, when one of the finest opportunities occurred for
renovating the constitution of this empire. Lord Durham's plan of
abolishing the right of cities, towns, burghs, &c, to return members
to Parliament, and cutting up the country into parallelograms, with
a certain number of electors in each section, however plausible in
theory, was not only totally impracticable, but, if effected, would
have destroyed the peculiar sectional and municipal freedom, whieh
tends to prevent centralization, and the evils consequent on a
destruction of local power and political rights.
" The adoption of the ballot and of triennial parliaments, would
have quickly led to the overthrow of this parallelogram-constitution,
and to the establishment of a despotism. The same want of
practicability was observable in other parts of Lord Durham's
public life ; and, while we admit, that in several instances, his
views were in advance of the age in which he lived, it is to be
regretted that the real rather than the ideal was not more generally
the object of his solicitude. This remark is fully illustrated by
Lord Durham's mission to Canada, undertaken, as we believe, with
the purest intentions, but totally failing as regards any object
which might not otherwise have been obtained. The project of
now uniting the whole of the British North American provinces
in a federal union, was, to say the least of it, Utopian, and its
promulgation, together with the vague declaration of responsible
government, productive of no good result. Of the celebrated
Canadian report of Lord Durham we may merely observe that
it abounded with truisms, contained several erroneous principles,
and often mistook effects for causes; but not a few just and sound
ideas were promulgated, and very many valuable facte were collected
and registered for public investigation, while its tone was bold
and manly, though too egotistical. 47

370 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" But here our praise of Lord Durham's Canadian mission must
end. His lordship set a most dangerous example to men, in high
or low station, by the undignified and unconstitutional manner in
which he quitted the government-general of British North America,
particularly at a moment when one rebellion was but just quelled,
and another on the eve of breaking forth. No governor of a
colony has any right to gratify his own feelings by the desertion
of a post in which his sovereign has placed him. Lord Durham's
conduct on this occasion deserved impeachment, or, at the very
least, a strong rebuke from the crown, and a marked vote of censure
from both houses of the legislature. We say this without any
reference to the alleged proceedings, or want of support of the
ministry ; no conduct on their part could have justified Lord
Durham's retreat from his post. Nor was the manner in which his
lordship acted after his return to England in unison with the high-
spirited tone which he had assumed, and with his reckless defiance
of the constitutional practice of the realm, or his ungracious
despisal of the authority of his sovereign — that sovereign too
being a' woman. We willingly pass, therefore, from the subject,
as with it Lord Durham's political life ended, and we are disposed
to think that idiosyncrasy of temperament, or bodily suffering, may
have warped his judgment, and influenced his actions.
"The dark spots in the character ofthe nobleman, whose loss we
lament, and who has passed away ere that period of life when age
would probably have tempered asperities and impetuosity, are few,
while the bright shades are in strong relief. Lord Durham loved
his country, and ardently, though we think, in some instances,
mistakingly espoused the cause of political freedom ; he idoUzed
our favorite idea of ' ships, colonies, and commerce,'* and his
purse ' and his time were ever cheerfully devoted to that great
cause. He was ambitious, personally and nationally ; but we think
the latter outweighed the former ; his passions were strong, but
not lasting ; and his nature too generous to be vindictive. As one
of the few noblemen who sought to extend the colonial dominion
of England, we honor Lord Durham's memory, and do justice to
his statesmanlike views — in his faults and his virtues he was truly
English ; and while numerous sorrowing relatives deplore his early
decease, the advocates and friends of the colonies have reason to
regret his too premature loss to his country."
*To Lord Durham England owes mainly the colonization of New Zealand.
His manly mind saw at a glance the importance of our settlement on that fine
portion of the southern hemisphere, and he rested not until his wishes were
realized.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 371

CHARLES BULLER, Esq.,
A celebrated English politician, connected with Canada
during the administration of the Earl of Durham, whose secretary
he was. Born at Calcutta, August, 1806; died in London,
November 28, 1848 ; educated at Cambridge, where he graduated
as B.A. in 1826 ; he entered Parliament in 1830 as member for West
Looe, and in the following year was admitted a barrister at
Lincoln's-Inh. He voted for the reform bill, which disfranchised
West Looe, but in 1832 was returned for Liskeard, in Cornwall,
which he continued to represent until his death in 1848, dis
tinguishing himself by his support of liberal measures, and by his
readiness as a debater. Whilst in Canada he took a very active part
in our affairs, and wrote a great portion of the celebrated " Report"
of Lord Durham. On his return to England he devoted himself to
the practice of his profession, chiefly in connection with Indian
affairs. In 1841 he became secretary of the board of control; in
1846, judge-advocate-general; and in November of the same year
a Queen's counsel. In November, 1847, he was appointed
president of the poor law board, but his promising career, which
pointed to him as one of the future great statesmen of England,
was cut short by death a year afterward. His skill in the treat
ment of public questions was made evident in his writings, most of
which appeared in the journals of London and the leading period
icals of the country.

Sir T. E. M. TURTON, Bart.
Many in Canada will, no doubt, remember the name of the
above gentleman, who accompanied Lord Durham to this country
on his great mission, as his law adviser, and to him no doubt may
be ascribed most of the errors which his lordship fell into during
the short period of his administration.
He was born on the Sth November, 1790, and was the only son of
the late Sir Thomas Turton, Bart, of Starborough Castle, Surrey, for
many years M.P. for Southwark, and clerk of the juries in the
Court of Common Pleas, by Mary, daughter and heir of the
Reverend John Mitchell, rector of Thornbill, County York.

372 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS
He was called to the bar by the honorable society of Lincoln's-
Inn, on the 6th February, 1818. He was an unsuccessful candi
date for the borough of Sudbury at the general election of 1837.
He was registrar of the Supreme Court at Calcutta from 1841 to
1848, having previously practised in the same as an advocate.
He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father
in 1844.
He died at the Mauritius, on his way to England, on the 13th
April, 1854.
Sir Thomas Turton was three times married ; first on the 2nd
November, 1812, to Louisa, second daughter of Major-General
Browne, from whom he was divorced in 1831, which gave rise to
a trial in the Courts of England; secondly, to Adeline-Maria,
daughter of  , who died at Calcutta, July 14, 1841 ; and
thirdly, in 1842, to Maria Louisa Hume, second daughter of
Captain Edmund Denman, R.N.
His eldest daughter was married in 1842 to Francis Buller
Templer, Esq., only son of F. J. Templer, Esq., of Columbo.
His third daughter, Alice Trevor, in 1844, to Lieut. Ouchterlony,
Madras Engineers. Another, Constance Trevor, in 1846, to James
Forlong, Esq., of Milnath, Kishnaghur. Fe left a son to inherit
his dignity of baronet.

THOMAS FARGUES, Esq., M.D.
Born at Quebec in 1780 ; died at the same place, 11th Decem
ber, 1847 ; a distinguished scholar and eminent physican. He
was educated in Harvard college, United States, where he gradu
ated in the early part of the present century. He soon after left
for Europe to complete his medical studies, and obtained his de
gree of doctor in medicine at the university at Edinburgh after
defending a Thesis in latin on " Chorea," which was considered a
production of great originality and merit ; he afterwards resided
for some years in London and became the intimate friend of plain
John Abernethy, F.R.S. Those who were acquainted with both
men considered them in talent and eccentricity the prototype of
each other. He returned to Quebec, his native city, about the
year 1811, and soon took the lead in his profession, and made for
himself an extensive and lucrative practice.
In the variety and extent of his reading, the originality and
strength of his mind, the sagacity of his observation, and the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA; 373
capitvating power of his conversation, Dr. Fargues was an extra
ordinary man ; he possessed one of the best private medical libra
ries in the country,* and was thoroughout life an indefatigable
student, apart from his profession, metaphysics was his favorite
pursuit. He was several times solicited to accept a seat in the
councils of the province, which he declined, preferring to spend the
whole of his valuable time in the exercise of his profession, of
which he was so distinguished an ornament.

Hon. D. B. VIGER.
Mr. Viger's is one of the names bound up inseparably with
the history of his country. In the days when M. Papineau's
magic eloquence spread disaffection through the province, while
he was doing battle in Parliament for the fullest concessions of his
liberty to his fellow countrymen, he had no stauncher ally and
adviser than Mr. D. B. Viger. A lawyer of standing, and well
read in constitutional lore, he occupied a most prominent place in
the controversy whieh led to the insurrection of 1837 and 1838.
He crossed the Atlantic to lay the grievances of the Canadians
before the Imperial Parliament. When the rebellion broke out, he
was seized and imprisoned, charged with seditious practices. No
sooner was he free to act again, than he regained his hold upon the
popular affections, and was returned to Parliament. He sat for
Richelieu, if we mistake not, in the first Parliament of United
Canada ; and for Three Rivers in the second. When Lord
Metcalfe quarrelled with his Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet, Mr.
Viger was asked to take part in the new government as its Lower
Canada leader, a task which he accepted, and which proved one of
the most difficult and trying ever undertaken by any man. Mrj
Viger had a sincere respect for the sincere, manly and generous
qualities which adorned Lord Metcalfe's character, and made him
almost the idol of a great portion of the people of the country.
He believed him honest and just in his appreciation of the position
which an imperial governor must assume in the country, and
wished to give the strongest evidence to show that it was not dis
loyalty to the British crown, but a desire to secure the blessings of
free government for his fellow countrymen, that prompted the
*The library was purchased by George Okill Stuart, Esq., Q. C, of Quebec,
and given by him to the Laval university.

374 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
action he had taken before 1837 and 1838. But although he
secured the alliance of M. Papineau, a brother of the much
loved popular chief, whose very name, it was believed, would prdve
a tower of strength,— Mr. Lafontaine yet proved too strong for
him, and he utterly failed to rally the masses of his countrymen to
his side. He was raised, if we remember aright, in 1848, to the
Legislative Council, where he continued to sit and vote for some
years afterwards, but with the fall of the Metcalfe ministry, his
political career may be said to have ended. His health precluded
him for several years from attendance upon his parliamentary
duties, and not long before his death, his seat was declared vacant
for non-attendance, amid general expressions of regret. He died
on the 13th February, 1861, and attained, we believe, a great age.
His funeral was one of the largest ever witnessed in Montreal.
After leaving his residence, it proeeeded to the Recollet
church, and thence to the French cathedral. An impressive
funeral service was chaunted at the altar with responses by a choir
of male voices. The grand altar, as well as the smaller ones, were
draped in black ; and in the centre of the church, covered with a
mourning pall, and surrounded by waxen tapers, stood the coffin.
Monseigneur Bourget officiated, and at the close of the mass came
forward to the stairs leading to the altar, and pronounced a brief
eulogy of M. Viger's many virtues, as a citizen and Christian.
In the course of his remarks he referred to the exemplary
life which M. Viger had led, and desired the congregation
to remember and act upon the glorious words he uttered when
expiring : " J' aime mon Dieu et j'aime mon pays." At the request
of the deceased, all show and pomp were avoided in the funeral.
It was no less deeply affecting than marked by perfect simplicity.
Monseigneur Larocque, bishop of St. Hyacinthe, and the Hon. L.
J. Papineau were present. The following gentlemen were paU-
bearers : the Hon. Justice Smith, J. De Beaujeau, F. A. Quesnel,
T. Bouthillier, W. Coffin, and A. Laframboise. M. Viger was the
first president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, and an honorary
member of the Congregation St. Michel. These societies, with the
Institut Canadien, Union St. Joseph, Congregation des Hommes
de Ville Marie, L'Union St. Pierre and Societe de Temperance,
formed in a line after the funeral service ended, making with the
immense number of friends and relations, one of the largest funeral
processions ever seen in Montreal. The Place d' Armes was
thronged with people, showing their respect for the deceased, and
the public sorrow which is felt for his death.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 375

Hon. Sir DOMINICK DALY.
We know of no one who has figured in official life in Canada
who has carried away with him so much esteem and respect from
our people.
Sir Dominick Daly is the third son of the late Dominick Daly,
Esquire, by the sister of the first Lord Wallscourt, and brother of
Malachy Daly, Esquire, a banker in Paris. He was born in Galway,
Ireland, in 1798, and married in 1826, the second daughter of
Colonel Ralph Gore, of Barrowmount, county Kilkenny. He passed
the usual examination, and was called to the bar ; but he did not
practice for any length of time. We believe he first came to
Canada as secretary to one of the governors, and resided at Quebec.
He subsequently became provincial secretary for Lower Canada;
and, at the union, was appointed provincial secretary of Canada, as
also a member of the board of works, with a seat in the Council.
The latter he held until 1846, but the former he continued to hold,
taking an active and lively part in all the most important affairs of
the day, until 1848, when he vacated that post, but still continued
a member of Parliament for the county of Megantic, for which
constituency he sat during three first parliaments, until 1851, when
he proceeded to England. His length of service in Canada amounted
to twenty-five years. Afterwards he held some important com
missions from the home government, and was appointed governor
of Tobago, and subsequently lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward's
Island, a post which he vacated only a few years since. He was
knighted by patent during the time he held the latter office.
He has lately been elevated to the governorship of Western Aus
tralia. Kaye, in his " Life of Lord Metcalfe" gives the following
sketch of Sir Dominick, then provincial secretary.
" Mr. Daly was the secretary of state or provincial secretary of
Lower Canada. He was also an Irishman, and a Roman Catholic,
but although for the latter season his sympathies were strongly with
the French people, or had been, so long as they were oppressed by
the dominant race, his feelings, the growth of education and early
association, were of a conservative and aristocratic cast. All Met
calfe's informants represented him to be a man of high honor and
integrity, of polished manners and courteous address ; a good spe
cimen of an Irish gentleman. It was added, that he was possessed
of judgment and prudence, tact and discretion; in short, a man to
be trusted."

376 sketches op celebrated Canadians,

Sir G. ARTHUR, Bart., K.C.H., D.C.L.
Sir George Arthur's connection with Canada, although
necessarily brief, was important in its results to this country, in
asmuch as he was appointed to the high office of lieutenant-governor
of Upper Canada at a time when it was inundated with troubles ;
and by his wise, concilitory and also energetic mode of government,
with the assistance of an able coadjutor in the distinguished officer,
known best in this country as Sir John Colborne, perfectly restored .
peace, good will and contentment to the distracted province under
his supervision. He checked, in a great measure, those evils
which had arisen during his predecessor's term of government.
Sir George was born on the 21st June 1784 ; and, being destined
for the profession of arms, early obtained a commission, and joined
the army of his country. From all we can understand, he rendered
good service during the time he was actively engaged, certain it is
he could not otherwise have risen to such high rank, and to the
eminence which he enjoined, having been before he came to Upper
Canada governor successively over Honduras and Van Dieman's
Land. As our province is more especially to draw attention to his
services in this country, we will content ourselves by saying that
previous to being appointed to the government of Upper Canada,
he had been knighted by his sovereign, in recognition of his high
abilities and of the important parts which he had taken in his
country's service.
On the 23d of March, 1838, he was appointed to be lieutenant-
governor of Upper Canada, and was sworn in at Toronto, Sir F. B.
Head having been previously re-called. He immediately took the
most active measures to suppress the rebellion, known as that of
1837, which had been raised by Mackenzie and his " sympathisers."
He was entirely successful ; the course which he adopted at first
was cautiously and prudently allied with bold measures. He bound
himself to none, no parties, but was actuated by the purest motives.
Many prisoners who had assumed an hostile attitude against us, he
humanely released, and would have continued in this temporizing
course, were it not that a more stringent and enforcing rule of con
duct was demanded against the base and infatuated fanatics, who
would not be driven away, or be subjugated by kind or conciliatory
means ; and who returned again and again to their infernal prac
tices, until they finally met the fate which all such as they so
richly merit. History tells the tale how many suffered on the
scaffold for the sins they had committed; nothing but this could
move the rebellious and refractory to subjugation, or to lay down
the arms which they had taken up against a confiding sovereign.

A&D PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 377
When the troubles happily passed away, and peace was restored
Sir George devoted himself to the minor affairs of state, which
demanded his attention ; and he worked assiduously for the good
weal of the country. Many important changes were effected during
the short time he held the reins of state ; and more would as
suredly have been effected, were it not that in 1839 the union of
the provinces was resolved upon by the home authorities. The
Honorable C. Poulett Thompson was appointed the first governor-
general of United Canada. Sir George Arthur therefore, on the
arrival of that gentleman, took his departure from the province,
deservedly regretted by all parties of British tendency in Upper
Canada. His success in that section of the province, as a colonial
governor, was so good and so highly spoken of, that he was imme
diately appointed governor of Bombay.
Sir George married in May, 1814, Eliza, second daughter of
Lieutenant-General Sir J. F. S. Smith, by whom he had many
children, several of whom are still living.

LIEUT.-GENERAL Sir R. ENGLAND, G.C.B.
Sir Richard England is essentially a Canadian, having been
born at Detroit in 1793, then forming part of the province of
Upper Canada, and as such we feel proud to be enabled to record
his name with other " celebrated Canadians" in these pages. He
is the son of the late Lieutenant-General Richard England of
Lifford, county Clare, Ireland, (who served with distinction in all
the American campaigns from 1775 to 1781) and at one time was
commandant of Detroit. He was well known at that period to most
of the people of the upper province, for his kind and amiable
disposition to the settlers, and for his efforts in colonizing the ex
treme western portion of Upper Canada.
The subject of this brief notice entered the army in 1808, and in
the next year saw active service by serving at the siege of Flushing,
and on the staff in Sicily in 1810; and in France in 1815, &c, he
commanded the 75th Regiment for several years ; was commandant
of Caffraria in 1832-3, and was prominently employed in the Caffre
war of 1835-6; was nominated a K.C.B. for his services in the
Affghan war of that year, where he commanded the Bombay column
which relieved Candahar ; commanded an infantry division with the
local rank of lieutenant-general in the Crimea in the campaign of
48

.378 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
1854-5 ; was present at Alma, Inkerman, the unsuccessful attack
of the 18th of June, and all operations before Sebastopol, from
October, 1854, to August, 1855; made colonel ofthe 50th Foot in
1854, and lieutenant-general for his services against the Russians,
1856 ; received the order ofthe Medjidie of the first class from the
sultan; and was created grand officer of the legion of honor, 1856.
Sir Richard married first in 1814 the daughter of John Anderson,
Esquire, (she died in 1839); second in 1844; the daughter of Richard
F. Wilson, Esquire, of Milton Park, Yorkshire.

Hon. ZACCHEUS BURNHAM,
Born on the 20th February, 1777 ; died at Cobourg in 1857.
He came to this country in the year 1798, and lived at first in
Haldimand. In the following year he removed to Cobourg, and
for some time resided with his brother, the late Asa Burnham,
Esquire, whose son, Asa A. Burnham Esq., now occupies the sams
premises. At that time, the site of Cobourg was covered with a dense
forest, and not a single log cabin was raised as a landmark in the
dreary wilderness. The only " clearance," if such it might be called,
was a beaver meadow, on the skirts of the little creek in the heart
of the town now crossed by King-street. Here Mr. Burnham cut
his first hay, before grass had time to grow on the blackened fallow
which the axe, the fire and his own sturdy hands had cleared.
Hitherto the first Settlers had been obliged to bring their provi
sions, generally on their backs, from Kingston and Napanee; but
about the year 1793, Mr. Elias Smith built a mill at Smith's creek,
the site of which is now Port Hope. Mr. Burnham would often
mention his brother's first attempt to get some corn ground at the
mill. Fully equipped with a yoke of oxen and strong sled, he drove
up along the beach to the mill, but a sudden thaw, (it was the
month of March,) removed the ice from the beach, and he was
obliged to return through the woods. In some places the trees
had been felled where the road was intended, but the logs lay
in the position the choppers had thrown them, and to guide a
yoke of oxen after night in such a state of matters might well be
called engineering under difficulties.
In the year 1801, Mr. Burnham removed to the farm he occu
pied at his death. During his long and active life, he filled various

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 379
stations of trust, honor and emolument. He was an officer of
the militia in the war of 1812. In that contest he took charge
ofthe government stores, and conveyed them in bateaus up and
down the lake. In 1814 he was appointed treasurer of the New
castle district, and held that office till 1851, a period of thirty-
seven years. In 1816, he was elected to the Assembly, and again
represented the county in 1824. He was appointed legislative
councillor in 1834, and held that high position till the union of
1841. He was also at different periods chairman of the quarter
sessions and judge of the division court. He was colonel of the
militia more than twenty years, and acted in that capacity at the
time ofthe rebellion of 1836-37.
Mr. Burnham was one of those strong men that make a country.
In his disposition he was good-natured, with a considerable vein of
humor. He was a shrewd man of business, and at his death was
considered the richest man in the district. He left a name that
will not soon be forgotten.

Hon. JOHN STEWART,
For sixty-four years a resident of Quebec, where he died in June,
1858. He filled many offices in the government and in the com
mercial institutions of the country. Under the administration of
Sir G. Prevost, he was appointed deputy paymaster-general of the
incorporated militia, the duties of which office he continued to dis
charge until the forces were disbanded. Upon the accession of
Lord Dalhousie to the government of the province, he was called to
a seat in the Legislative and Executive Councils, and was appointed
sole commissioner of the Jesuit estates, having been for many years
previously a member of the board of management. For a long period
he was president ofthe Executive Council, a position which he held
during the rebellion of 1836, when the peculiar state ofthe country
imposed upon him duties of the most onerous and responsible
nature. As a member of the commercial community, his life was
no less active and useful. He was president of the Board of Trade,
president of the Bank of Montreal, master of the Trinity House,
and a firm and upright member of the Church of England. In
every station of life, public or private, his conduct was marked by
the strictest honor and integrity, and commanded the respect and
esteem of all who became acquainted with his character,

380 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir R. J. ROUTH, K.C.B.
Sir RANDOLPH^was a son of the Honorable Richard Routh,
past chief-justice of Newfoundland. He was descended from a very
ancient Yorkshire family, of Routh, near Beverley. Sir Randolph
was born at Poole, Dorset, England, in 1787. He received his
education at Eton, and entered the military service. In 1826, he
was appointed commissary-general, and from that time, saw
continual service, and always of an arduous character. For thirty-
seven years he served abroad, in Jamaica, at Walchern, in the
Peninsula, and at Waterloo (under the Duke of Wellington), also
in the Mediterranean, West Indies, and Canada, where in the latter
place, he was an efficient member of the Executive Council before
the union, and while here, received the honor of knighthood by
patent. During the famine in Ireland, he was made a commander of
the order of the Bath, for his able superintendance and services
in attending to the wants of the people during that time. In this
country he was a universal favorite with all classes of the com
munity, and it was with regret they witnessed his departure. He
married first, in 1815, at Paris, Adelaide Marie Josephine, grand
daughter of Colonel Laminiere, secretary- general of the Gardes
de Corps of Louis XVI., who died. Secondly in 1830, at Quebec,
Maria Louise, daughter of Honorable Mr. Justice Taschereau, and
niece of the Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec. Sir Randolph
Routh's death took place in London, in 1858.

COLONEL M. B. MENARD.
Michel Branamour Menard was born in Canada, at the
little village of Laprairie, near Montreal, on the 5th of December,
1805. His parents were French. At the age of sixteen he
engaged in the north-western fur trade, in the employ of an American
company, at Detroit. At about nineteen, he went to Missouri, at
the solicitation of his uncle, Bierra Menard, then lieutenant-
governor, and an extensive Indian trader, and 'for several years
traded for him among the Indians. Becoming attached to Indian
life, he determined to remain among them, and was elected chief

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 381
by the powerful tribe of the Shawnees, which station he held for
several years. His influence over them, and other tribes among
whom he was known, was very great.
Truth, justice, honor and courage, were instinctive to his character
and displayed in all his actions — qualities which command confi
dence and affection among all men — the red and black even more
than the white. The Indians still cherish his name, and it is a
common expression among them, speaking of him by his Indian
name, " Michelee never deceived us." A few days prior to his
death, a brother of Tecumseh, with several other Shawnees, came to
Galveston to see him. His meeting with them was affecting. They
went to his house but would not enter. He sat on the ground with
them for hours, and they begged him to go back again and be their
chief. Such was his known influence with the Indians, that at one time
he was in treaty with the United States government for the
removal of all the tribes of north-western Indians to the present
country of Utah and California. This, of course, was never
consummated, but we have heard him say that he came very near
uniting all the Indian tribes into one great nation, and being their
king, with over 100,000 subjects.
About 1833 or 1834, he went to Texas, settled at Nacogdaches,
and traded with the Mexicans and Indians. When the revolution
broke out, the Mexicans endeavored to incite the Indian tribes on
the north-eastern frontier, to overrun and desolate the country.
At the solicitation of the Texan government, Colonel Menard went
among them, and by his personal exertions, no doubt, prevented an
invasion and kept them quiet.
He considered this event in his life of important service to
his country.
He was a member of the convention which declared the inde
pendence of Texas, and formed the constitution of the republic.
In 1839, he was a member of Congress, from Galveston county,
and was the author and powerful advocate of the system of finance
by the issue of exchequer bills, which, failing that session, was
recommended by General Houston the next, and adopted ; and at
a time when the country was flooded with red backs at a mere
nominal value, and credit nearly gone, provided a revenue and
currency which carried on the government, and saved the country.
In December, 1836, the first congress of the republic, for the
price of $50,000, granted to Colonel Menard the league of land on
which Galveston now stands, then unoccupied by a single habita
tion. He was emphatically the founder of the city of Galveston.
From that day to that of his death, he was identified with every step
of the progress of that city. Of enlarged public spirit, and the
truest benevolence, there has been no enterprise which has not
received his helping hand. No man possessed a larger share of

382 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the confidence and respect of the entire community, or a stronger
hold on its regard and affection. His death occurred at Galveston,
in 1856.
Colonel Menard possessed a mind of very great originality and
vigor. He was a strong, direct, practical thinker, who went to
" the inner fact of things," and expressed himself in the most
sententious, nervous, and apt language, His conversation was
very agreeable and interesting, abounding in ancedote, enlivened
by keen wit, and rendered especially striking by his French gesture
and accent.
His domestic character was admirable — a devoted husband and
father — a hospitable neighbor, and a warm and generous friend.

Hon. A. W. COCHRAN, D.C.L.
Andrew William Cochran was born at Windsor, in Nova
Scotia, in the year 1792. His father, the Rev. WiUiam Cochran,
D.D., was a learned and eminently respectable Irish clergyman,
who emigrated originally to the colonies which afterwards became
independent; and having passed into Nova Scotia, became ul
timately vice-president of King's college at Windsor, where the
subject of this notice passed through his college course and finally
became D.C.L. Mr. Cochran was bred to the profession of the
law ; but he had been noticed by the late Sir George Prevost,
lieutenant-governor at the time of Nova Scotia, as a young man of
far more than ordinary promise, and when Sir George became
governor-in-chief, and assumed the reins of the government of
Lower Canada, he sent for Mr. Cochran, and appointed him as
sistant civil secretary, in which capacity he served also during the
short administration of Sir Gordon Drummond. He rose after
wards, under Sir John C. Sherbrooke, to be civil secretary, and
filled the office with distinguished credit to himself, both under
this patron and the Earl of Dalhousie, — the Duke of Richmond,
whose government intervened between that of Sir John and the
Earl, having brought out Colonel Ready, as secretary, who contin
ued to serve for a short time in the same capacity under the last
mentioned of these governors. As a servant of the crown and of
the public, Mr. Cochran passed through many changes, and expe
rienced some vicissitudes and disappointments which never shook
the evenness of his spirit or the cheerful flow and playfulness of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 383
his temper ; and in the unusual number and variety of offices whieh
he sustained at different periods of life, he uniformly acquitted
himself, according to the acknowledgment of all parties, as a tho
roughly able and conscientious man, perfectly at home in whatever
he undertook. At one time, in the early part of his career, he acted
as judge-advocate within the military command of this country; at
a period somewhat later (in the interval already mentioned between
his occupation of the civil secretaryship under Sir J. Sherbrooke
and Lord Dalhousie,) he was secretary of the clergy reserve corpo
ration ; he was also appointed auditor of land patents, (an office
since abolished), and held, while it lasted, the office of commissioner
of the Court of Escheats. Previously to the suspension of the
constitution, consequent upon the troubles of 1837, he was law-
clerk of the Legislative Council, and during the existence of parti
cular circumstances which created an interruption in the judicial
functions of two of the judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, he
was one of those who were appointed to occupy these important
vacancies. He was also a member of the Executive Council of
Lower Canada. Subsequently to the union of the provinces, he
returned to the bar; and as he was now Queen's counsel in virtue
of an appointment made in the time of Lord Dalhousie, he conducted
under the late administration, the business of the crown in the
criminal court at Quebec. Shortly before his death he was one of
the commissioners for the administration of the loans made to the
sufferers by the conflagrations of 1845.
He also filled, with great ability and assiduity, certain unremu-
nerated offices in institutions connected with the government,
having been for many years an eminently useful member, and at
one time, principal of the royal institution for the advancement of
learning, and having a short time previous to his death been chair
man of the commissioners of education, under the school act, at
Quebec. The multiplicity, however, of these official occupations did not
withhold him from taking an active and prominent part in a variety
of useful public institutions or operations, whether literary, reli
gious, or beneficient. He was one of the trustees of Bishop's col
lege, at Lennoxville ; a vice-president and honorary counsel of the
incorporated Church Society of the diocese of Quebec ; a member of
several other institutions connected with the operations of the
Church of England, to whose principles he was deeply attached ;
but his beneficient exertions took a wider range, and his time often
severely taxed as a working member of charitable associations, espe
cially in the hour of public calamity.
In the departments of literature and science, there was no man
in this country who manifested a more zealous interest, or was better
qualified to bear a leading part, examples of which may be pointed
out, in the Literary and Historical Society (of whieh he was at one

384 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
time president), and the Quebec Library Association. The range of
his acquirements was unusually varied and extensive; the stores of
his memory were really prodigious ; and his habits, notwithstanding
the vast variety of calls upon his time, were perseveringly studious,
— all opportunities being turned to account. He was curious in
books, and, besides his acquaintance with classic literature, was
familiar with the principal modern languages of Europe. He tra
velled at one time in some of the principal countries of that con
tinent ; and although his opportunities in this way were not very
extended, his mind had treasured up, with great accuracy, what
ever he saw of celebrity or interest.
A most honorable tribute, conceived in the highest terms of
eulogy, was paid to his ability, integrity and capacity for business,
as a public servant, in the report of the royal commissioners sent
out to inquire into the affairs of Canada, in 1835.*
In private life he was a person of ready conversational powers
and great friendliness of spirit — warmer, sometimes, on behalf of
his friends than he would have been for himself — yet of a remark
able firmness and solidity of character. He was of a social turn,
and maintained an extensive acquaintance with persons at home
and in the United States of America, as well as in the colonies —
but his earthly affections were centred in the domestic circle, and,
with all the demands upon his time, which have been here enu
merated, he found means to devote a portion of it to certain
branches of the education of his own children.
Such was Mr. Cochran — but with whatever qualities to commend
him to the esteem or even the admiration of men, he knew how to
estimate himself before his God : and went out of the world, in all
the self-possession and collectedness by which he was rarely
deserted, with the deep conviction in his soul and the distinct
avowal upon his lips, that his only hope of mercy was in Him who
died for sinners. It was on the morning of the 11th July, 1849,
after having gone to bed as usual and passed a comfortable night,
that he became sensible of an indisposition which prompted him to
write a note, about half-past seven, from his summer cottage, to
his medical adviser in town. The attack soon declared itself in the
unequivocal symptoms of Asiatic cholera, although not in theirmore
violent form ; and before three, p.m., of the same day his earthly
history was brought to a close. It is history which affords an
example, among others, that those who have best served the govern-

* It may be worth while to mention an anecdote in Mr. Cochran's life serving
to illustrate the absence of faste and stiffness whioh are known to oharaoterize
the Duke of Wellington. Mr. Cochran being upon one occasion in London, was
3ent for by the duke, who wanted some information oonnected with the military
defence of the Canadian frontier, but being indisposed, he requested, that his grace
would excuse him for that day. The duke immediately proposed to come him
self to the lodgings of Mr. Cochran. This however the latter would not permit,
but made the exertion to wait upon the duke.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 385
ment and the public in this country, have not always been the best
requited. Mr. Cochran, in all human probability, would have been
a far more prosperous man at the time of his death, if he had
simply followed his profession, and had never served government
at all.

Right Hon. LORD SYDENHAM, K.G.C.M.
This great man, to whom we undoubtedly owe the existing
union of Canada, was born at Wimbledon, in 1793, and was the
eldest son of Mr. J. Poulett Thompson, of Rochampton and
Austin-friars, and brother of George Poulett Scrope, Esquire,
late M.P., for Stroud, who on his marriage in 1821 assumed
the arms and name of Scrope by sign manual. When about
twenty, he became resident in St. Petersburg as the correspondent
of his father's firm ; and until his accession to public office in
1830, he continued to be connected with the mercantile business.
He represented Dover in the House of Commons from 1826 until
1K30, when, being returned both for that borough and Manches
ter, he took his seat in Parliament as member for the latter influen
tial manufacturing town. A reputation for commercial knowledge,
a readiness of debating powers, and a zealous devotion to his party,
recommended Mr. Poulett Thompson to Earl Grey's notice, and
when, in November, 1830, that statesman was called on to form
the reform administration, he was appointed vice-president of the
board of trade and treasurer of the navy, and was sworn in a privy
councillor on the 23rd of November. In July, 1834, he became
president of the board of trade, and resigned with Lord Mel
bourne's administration in November following. In April, 1835,
he resumed that office, in which he continued until he was selected
to succeed the late Earl of Durham as governor-general of Canada.
As a cabinet minister, Mr. Thompson's principal efforts were
directed to simplify and amend the customs laws. He attempted
to negotiate a commercial treaty with France ; but when he fondly
anticipated that his agents had achieved the task, he found that all
his efforts had been thrown away, and that the French government
repudiated the concessions of their employes. Mr. Thompson was
deeply mortified at this result, and pertinaciously refused to resume
the negotiations unless the French ministers would define an out
line of details by which they would be bound ; this they refused to
do, Mr, Labouchere (now Lord Taunton), his successor at the
49

386 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
board, did resume these negotiations without such preliminary
stipulations. On Lord Seaton's recall from Canada, Mr. Thompson was appointed
to the supreme government of British North America. He ar
rived at Quebec on the 16th October, 1839. On the 19th he as
sumed the reins of government ; and soon afterwards visited Mon
treal and other parts of the country, holding sessions of the then
existing legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada. On the 10th of
August, 1840, her Majesty was pleased to elevate the governor-
general to the peerage of the United Kingdom, by the title of
Baron Sydenham, of Toronto, as a mark of approbation of the
manner in which he conducted the important government entrust
ed to his care. On the 20th of May, 1841, his lordship, while
still in delicate health, left Montreal for Kingston, for the purpose
of opening the first session of the united legislature of Canada,
but which, from the alarming character his indisposition had
assumed, he was only destined to close by deputation.
Lord Sydenham had slowly conquered the distrust of the Cana
dians, and under his administration prosperity gradually re-dawned
on our noble province. The union of the two provinces was
skilfully commenced by him — an attempt was made to develop
their great resources by completing the public works indispensable
to their prosperity ; and the name of Lord Sydenham will be pre-
serveid in connection with Canada for time immemorial.
He was appointrd a knight grand cross of the order of the
Bath on the 19th of August, 1841.
His excellency, whilst riding near Kingston, on the 5th Sep
tember, 1811, met with a fatal accident by the falling of his horse.
His right leg was broken, and at the same time a deep and painful
wound was inflicted just above the knee. For about a week after,
he appeared to be going on tolerably well. On the 13th, however,
spasms came on, first in the leg, and afterwards in the stomach and
throat. The prorogation of Parliament had at first been fixed for
the 15th September, and subsequently, at the request of the Assem
bly, postponed till the 17th; and during the 16th the governor-
general was employed in giving his decision on the several bills
which had been passed, and in revising the draft of the speech,
which, at his desire, had been prepared for him. On the morning
of the 17th, his illness increased so much that he was obliged to
put off the prorogation, and after consultation with his medical
advisers, he determined to prorogue the Parliament by deputation.
General Clitherow, being the senior military officer at Kingston,
was selected for the purpose, and prorogued the Parliament on the
morning of the 18th, at twelve o'clock, giving, at the same time,
the royal assent or reservation to the bills which had all previously
received Lord Sydenham's decision, and almost all of them his
signature. On the night of the 17th the symptoms were fearfully

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 387
aggravated, and even those who had before hoped most, were forced
to confess that hope was now vain. He was perfectly conscious of
his own state, and about two o'clock on the 18th, he, together with
all his establishment, received the sacrament. He then dictated
to Mr. Dowling his will. To all his establishment he left some
token of his regard. He desired to be remembered to Lord John
(now Earl) Russell, to whom he bequeathed a memorial of his
frendship, and when that part of his will was read over to him,
he exerted himself to say, with emphasis, though interrupted by
violent spasms in the throat, " Dowling, Lord John is the noblest
man ic has ever been my good fortune to know," He then took
leave of all individually, saying something kind to each. To Mr.
Murdoch, his civil secretary, he expressed a wish that he should
write the history of his administration in Canada. He repeatedly
mentioned his continued interest in our country, and his satisfac
tion that the Parliament was prorogued, the great constitutional mea
sures he had devised and proposed to Parliament passed into law,
and the purposes of his mission accomplished. To his private
secretary, Mr. Grey, late member of Parliament for Tynemouth, he
said, " Good bye, Grey ; you will defend my memory. Mind,
Grey, you will defend my memory !" He then spoke kindly to
Major Campbell and Mr. Baring, adding (motioning with his
hand to all), " Now leave me alone with Adamson (his chaplain,
and the chaplain and librarian of the Legislative Council) to die."
The rest of that day and the whole night were spent by him in
prayer and conversation with Dr. Adamson. During this period he
suffered very much, but it was not until seven o'clock on Sunday
morning that he breathed his last. There can be no doubt that
the severity of the two winters he passed in this country, acting
on a constitution not strong, alone rendered him unequal to bear
the effect of an injury not otherwise of a fatal character.
In compliance with his own request, his remains found a fit rest
ing place among the inhabitants of that town (Kingston), which
owed to him its selection as the capital of United Canada. His
funeral took place at Kingston, on the 23rd September. The
occasion was observed as a day of mourning, the shops were closed,
business suspended, and the greatest respect paid to the memory
of the departed and great hearted nobleman. Immediately after
the funeral, Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Jackson was sworn in
as administrator of the government.
Lord Sydenham died unmarried, and his peerage expired with
him. We make the following extract from the life of this distinguished
nobleman, edited by his brother (0. Poulett Scrope, Esquire,
•M. P.) and published in London in 1843 : —
"Lord Sydenham died at the age of forty-two; an age at which
the public career of many statesmen is only commencing, of few

388 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
is more than half accomplished. Had his life been prolonged,
and a stronger constitution permitted him to continue to devote his
talents and experience to public business, few living men, perhaps,
would at this time have commanded a larger share of the confi
dence of the community, or possessed, whether in or out of office,
a greater influence over the course of affairs, by which the national
welfare is determined.
" No man, we often hear, is long missed ; his place is quickly
filled, and the world goes on as before, or as it would have done had
he not left it. In the case of Lord Sydenham, he had, in fact,
for the two years previous to his decease, been withdrawn from
the immediate focus of British politics ; and, though the report
of his brilliant administration in Canada excited much warm ad
miration among his friends in this country, and extorted praise and
respect even from his political opponents, still a pubUc man, who
is lost sight of for two whole years in the centre of the political
arena, runs much chance of being forgotten altogether.
" Had he, however, been permitted to return from Canada,
Lord Sydenham's own energies and persevering anxiety to for
ward the march of improvement must, under any circumstances,
have secured to him a high position in public estimation. And
the tendency of events, since the period of his quitting England,
has been precisely of a nature to render his peculiar qualifications
of more than ordinary value and importance in the conduct of
public affairs. From the epoch of the decease of Mr. Huskisson,
he had been generally looked up to as the leading advocate of the
doctrine currently known as that of free trade ; and of the impor
tant, and till of late disputed principle, that the industry of a
country thrives best when left to its" own devices, uninterfered
with by legislative and fiscal shackles, imposed for the pretended
object of encouraging and protecting it. He had gone further
than Mr. Huskisson himself had ventured in laying down this
grsat principle, and in recommending it for adoption, as a state
maxim. He had never wavered for an instant in the expression
of his opinion in its favor, nor in a fearless determination to act
up to it, so far as a just regard to circumstances would permit ; and
he had, in fact, vigorously and indefatigably striven to carry it out
into practice during nine years of official power. He endured,
without flinching, the savage storm of ridicule, calumny, and mis
representation, which from the countless organs of the various
monopolies was daily, weekly, and monthly poured forth upon him,
as previously upon Huskisson, for daring to make war against their
darling system of (miscalled) protection ; and this at a time, when
those, who now claim the credit of having always supported the
principle of commercial freedom, either opposed him, or at the
best stood coldly and silently aloof, and left him to bear the full
weight of the odium then attaching to its advocacy. And now

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 389
events, which his sagacity long since foresaw and predicted as
inevitable, had brought about a crisis in the commercial and econo
mical history of the country, in whieh the full application of
this principle could brook no longer delay, if the nation was to
retain its pre-eminence in wealth and power, and be preserved
from impending ruin, — a crisis in which the leaders of the very
party that had for years past thwarted and calumniated the efforts
both of Mr. Huskisson and Lord Sydenham to liberate trade from
the restrictions of the ' protective ' system, were forced to come
forward and admit the soundness of the doctrine they had so long
allowed their followers to revile unchecked, and the necessity of
far more largely acting upon it than they had permitted their po
litical opponents, when in power, even to propose with any chance
of success.
" As thjs crisis approached, and before Lord Sydenham's death,
many who saw with dread the blackening of the horizon, and
heard the threatenings of the coming storm, looked with anxiety
for the expected return of one whose experience and judgment
was, in- their opinion, well fitted to cope with its emergencies, and
exert, even out of office, a salutary influence in the national coun
cils on its occurrence. And their regret was proportionately
severe, when this hope was destroyed by his premature and melan
choly dissolution.
" Nor, whatever sincere respect we may entertain for the abili
ties of those who now hold the foremost rank in that noble con
test into which he, with them, would have so warmly entered, as into
his natural element, had his life been spared, can it be gainsayed
that no one individual among his survivors united so many of the
peculiar qualities, which he possessed for successful service in this
particular cause. His comprehensive and liberal views of com
mercial policy were founded, not upon the book-learned theory,
caught up from the suggestions of pamphleteering economists, but
upon extensive practical acquaintance with commerce, and an ex
perience gained in the superintendence through many years of the
whole range of the commercial interests of this mighty empire :
with this, an intimate acquaintance with finance — habits ot order
and business — indefatigable application — the confidence of prac
tical men, built upon a long intercourse, and, moreover, the tact,
judgment, and prudence taught to a mind of great natural sagacity
by a long and intimate acquaintance with parliamentary tactics
and ministerial responsibility.
" Possessing the acknowledged qualifications, had Lord Syden
ham returned to England with the additional reputation acquired
by his brilliantly successful administration of Canadian affairs,
where being isolated from all others, his individual abilities had
been brought out the more conspicuously, it cannot be questioned
that he would have commanded a high position in public opinion,

390 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and must have taken a very prominent and valuable share in the
discussions that have been, and are yet going on, upon the absorb
ing questions of the day relative to commercial legislation.
" These speculations are perhaps useless at present ; but not so,
it may be hoped, this attempt to record and present to the public
a review of the acts and opinions of one who did so much while
living to advance the prosperity of the country by giving freedom
to its industry ; and whose authority may yet have some influence
in guiding the current of public opinion, now setting so strongly,
and, as it would appear, irresistibly, in the direction, which, for so
many years, he laboured to give it.
" Nor, it is hoped, will the portion of this memoir which re
lates to his Canadian administration, be devoid of a similar value.
It may serve to teach a lesson of great practical value with res
pect to the treatment of colonial dependencies. The time is gone
by when the important task of representing in them the sovereign
authority can be safely entrusted to unskilful or inexperienced
hands. The peace of the empire, the progress and future desti
nies of great nations, can no longer be jeopardized in this man
ner It requires a mind of no ordinary vigor aad capacity to
encounter successfully the ever-varying difficulties of such an
office ;— above all, where the colony possesses an independent legis
lature, and perhaps no lengthened experience in the exercise of
such an institution. By executive mismanagement a colony may
be very easily ruined and lost, or the parent state weakened and
distressed by its forcible retention. A mere glance at the history
of Canada, during the last few years, will amply demonstrate to
the most casual observer that such a colony is only to be preserved
and rendered a real source of strength, power, and wealth to the
mother country, through the rapid development of their common
resources by a cordial union, when the sovereign power within it
is delegated to some statesman, who, like Lord Sydenham, can
temper conciliation with firmness, mildness with decision, — who,
without trenching on the freedom of representative institutions,
knows how to maintain the supremacy of the imperial authority,
and whose personal influence, prudent skill, and practical know
ledge of mankind may enable him so to work upon the discordant
materials he has to deal with, as to obviate those shocks and col
lisions to which new and popular institutions are ever liable; and
which, at a distance from the central supreme authority, are more
than ordinarily hazardous.
" Such a governor as Lord Sydenham, is indeed not to be
always obtained. Perhaps one so happily fitted for the task will
never be again seen. But he afforded a high standard towards
which to approximate iu our estimate of the qualifications required
for such an office.
" Canada has, certainly, no less reason than England to deplore

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 391
his loss ; since, even though absent from her, he might have
been relied on to watch over her destinies, with which so much of
his own future fame is embarked, and advocate her cause on every
opportunity in the imperial councils. But it may be reasonably
hoped that the great institutions and large schemes of public
economy, which were founded by him, will survive the embarass-
ments that mismanagement or party dissensions may have for a
time occasioned ; and that this province, of which the natural re
sources are so vast, may long continue incorporated with the
glorious empire of Britain, growing in wealth, power, and pros
perity into the mighty and ultimately independent nation which
it is, no doubt, destined hereafter to become. For this prospect
both countries will, it is confidently anticipated, ever consider
themselves in a large degree indebted to the wise resolves and
vigorous action of Lord Sydenham's administration of the affairs
of Canada in the years 1839, 1840 and 1841.
" The public character of Lord Sydenham has been anticipated in
the narrative of his public career. Little remains to be said but
what would be mere repetition. His mind was of a class peculiarly
fitted to deal with the necessities of the bustling and practical
period in which he lived ; and that was the secet of his early and
rapid success in the arena of politics. His was not, however, a
parliamentary reputation of the usual stamp, acquired by oratori
cal display, or gladiatorical powers of debate. He seldom attempted
any flights of eloquence, though in some of his earlier speeches,
there are passages which cannot be read, and certainly were not
heard, t without creating strong emotion. His voice, however, in
speaking was not well modulated, and this is well known to be
essential to successful oratory. The subjects to which he exclu
sively confined himself, in addressiug the House of Commons,
were, moreover, necessarily dry and unentertaining, full of details
of facts and figures, usually of the most uninteresting character to
such an assembly as the House of Commons. On the exciting
party question of the day he rarely opened his mouth ; and hence
his services to his party were liable to be under valued by those
who look rather to the debates in the house, than to the principles
on which the government is carried on, or the mode in which it
conducts the affairs of the country. In fact, he ever disliked
and avoided speaking, unless when the commercial or financial
interests of the country, to which he devoted himself, required the
exposure of some abuse, or the suggestion of some legislative im
provement, or when the business of his office, rendered defence or
explanation necessary.
" His fame must rest, as has been noticed in an earlier part of
this memoir, not so much on what he did or said in parliament, as
on what he did and proposed to do out of it, — ononis consistent,
and to a great degree successful efforts, to expose the fallacy of the

392 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
misoalled ' protective system,' and gradually but effectively to
root it out of the statute-book, and thereby to free the universal
industry of Britain from the mischievous shackles imposed, and
yet partially maintained, by an ignorant and mistaken selfishness,
— to allow the development of its inherent energies, unincumber
ed by the officious patronage of the legislature to permit it to
make (as under such circumstances it is sure to do) that vigorous,
rapid, and healthy progress, which must secure to all engaged in it a
continually increasing remuneration, and to the nation at large a cor
responding increase of her power, her strength, and her prosperity.
" His Canadian administration may be looked on as a brief
though brilliant episode in his public life, which, while it confirm
ed the high opinion ever entertained of him by his friends, con
vinced those who had under-estimated his powers before of their
extent and variety, — convinced every one that in aU the great
qualifications of intellect, temper, habits, and acquired information
that constitute a statesman, few have been so rarely gifted as the
lamented subject of this memoir.
" In private life, Lord Sydenham was universally loved and
esteemed. His amiable disposition and pleasing manner excited
the warmest attachment among those who were admitted to his
intimacy ; and in every circumstance that affected their happiness,
he always appeared to feel the liveliest personal interest. In the
midst of his uneasing occupations, he never failed to find time for
any work of kindness or charity that offered itself, and even for
the attentions required by the forms of society. His assistance was
always prompt and eagerly afforded, whenever he could oblige a
friend, or confer a favor on a meritorious object. His integrity
and sense of honor were of the loftiest character, and his disin
terestedness carried to an excess.
"The remuneration, indeed, for his arduous publie services in
office, with which he was contented, was far inferior to that of any
other official of equal station, and much below (be it said in
passing) what a just and wise appreciation ofthe importance ofthe
post would assign to it. But never having married, his wants
were moderate, and his private fortune more than compensated the
exiguity of his official salary. That he remained single may,
perhaps, be partly attributed to an early disappointment; but,
chiefly to his incessant occupations and failing health.
"The friendships he formed with individuals of either sex were
both strong and lasting. Indeed, few men were more fitted by
nature to captivate and enchain affection. His person and counte
nance were singularly prepossessing ; his manner full of charm and
refinement, and his address frank, manly, and courteous ; his dispo
sition obliging ; his regards to the feelings of others, exquisite.
His mind was amply stored with varied information, acquired from
books, from frequent foreign travel, from an acquaintance with the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WtTH CANADA. 393
leading characters of the day, and a special intimacy with the
subjects of paramount interest in these bustling times. His re
markable aptitude for foreign languages made his conversation as
pleasing, and his society as much sought after by foreigners as by
his countrymen. Few men were more generally popular in the
circle in which he moved, and this was ever the highest and most
intellectual of whatever place he inhabited. He was a sincere
Christian, and the account given of his last hours, by the reverend
gentleman who fulfilled the last painful duties towards him, as his
chaplain, is at once affecting and consolatory to his intimate friends
and connections, among whom his loss created a void whieh can
never he supplied.
" It is not, however, in his private capacity, but rather as a
public benefactor, that it has been the object of this memoir to
record him, and, it may safely be concluded, by the expression of
an opinion, that the annals of no country can produce an instance
of one, who, in a spirit of truer patriotism, during the brief period
permitted to his earthly career, more nobly, ardently, devotedly
pursued, in defiance of ridicule, obloquy, and the most odious mis
representation, through good repute and through bad, and at the
sacrifice of his own ease, health, and even life itself, the one great ob
ject which was ever uppermost in his thoughts, to the last moment
of his existence, namely : the increase of the happiness of his fellow-
creatures, by all such means as are within the reach of those gifted
statesman who wield the supreme power of Imperial Britain.
" None knew better than he the amount of that power, — the
influence which Great Britain, at the head of the advancing ener
gies of the civilised world, exercises over the destinies of mankind.
And the task which he laid down for himself, on arriving at man
hood, and assiduously labored through the remainder of his life to
accomplish, was, in truth, the highest, the noblest, the most
god-like, which is given to man upon earth to undertake. Time
and power were not afforded him to give full effect to his exertions,
or bring them to maturity. Nevertheless, those, who hereafter
review the events of the age he lived in, will, it is believed, see
reason to assign to their impulse no inconsiderable share of the
beneficial progress which is now generally making towards a right
understanding, and a practical exemplification in this country,
(followed as she is sure to be at a distance by other states) of the
great problem how human institutions can best secure, and least
interfere with, the spontaneous development of man's ingenuity
and industry, in the production and just distribution of all the
material comforts and enjoyments of existence, which a gracious
Providence has abundantly placed within his reach.
" This, and the impress of his influence on the future history of
our North American colonies, will form ;Lord Sydenham's most
enduring and appropriate monument." 50

394 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. AUSTIN CUVILLIER
For many years occupied a conspicuous position amongst our
public men. In 1815 he was returned to Parliament as member
for the county of Huntingdon : there his eminent financial abilities
displayed themselves, and he became one of the leading members
on all matters relating to the finances of the country. In the diffi
culties between the House of Assembly and the oligarchy which,
under the" name of the governor-general, administered the affairs
of the country, he was found at all times arrayed in the ranks of
the advoqates of the rights of the people, and the privileges of
their representatives. In 1828 he was delegated, along with the
Hon. D. B. Viger and the late Hon. John Neilson, to lay before
the Imperial Parliament the petition of 87,000 inhabitants of Lower
Canada, complaining of the privation of their political rights to
which they were subjected. He was examined before the select
committee of the House of Commons, and his answers evinced a
high degree of ability, and a thorough knowledge of the defects of
the then system. The report ofthe committee, it is well known,
admitted the well-founded nature of the complaints of the people of
Canada, and promised reparation ofthe abuses.
Mr. Cuvillier continued to sit as a member for Huntingdon until
1834; when he lost his seat in consequence of his differing in opin
ion with the majority of the House of Assembly on the celebrated
" 92 resolutions."
At the first elections of members of Parliament for united Can
ada in 1841, Mr. Cuvillier was again returned for Huntingdon, and
he had the high honor of being elected speaker of the Legislative
Assembly. This office he filled with great dignity and impartiality
during the first Parliament.
In the second Parliament after the union Mr. Cuvillier was not re
elected, in consequence of his being considered not to concur in the
view taken by the Lafontaine-Baldwin administration in the rup
ture with Lord Metcalfe, which led to their resignation. Since
that time he took no part in public affairs.
As a merchant, Mr. Cuvillier conducted the most extensive com
mercial establishment, we believe, in Canada. His business talent
was certainly unsurpassed by that of any of bis rivals or contempo
raries. Altogether, whether as a public man, or as a merchant, Mr.
Cuvillier evinced talent very rarely to be met with. He was one
of those instances whicli may, with propriety, be adduced in refuta
tion of the absurd and unfounded prejudice which underrates

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 395
Canadian talent and enterprise. In whatever country Mr. Cuvillier
might have been born — or in whatever sphere he might have
moved — his talents would have been appreciated, and he could
scarcely have failed to rise to eminence.
He died at Montreal on the 18th of July, 1849.

JOHN WAUDBY, Esq.,
A Canadian journalist. Mr. Waudby was a native of England,
though the last thirty years of his life were spent in Canada, during
a portion of which time he was connected with the newspaper press
of this country. He was editor of the Kingston Herald, when that
journal was under the proprietorship of Mrs. Thompson, from whom
subsequently he purchased the proprietorship. He was also selected
by Lord Sydenham, when governor-general of the province, to
edit a newspaper at Toronto, with a view to forward his lordship's
views respecting the union of Upper and Lower Canada. But
sometime previous to his death (which occurred in August, 1861,)
vacated the editorial chair for the responsible office of clerk of the
peace for the united counties of Frontenac, Lennox, and Adding
ton. Mr. Waudby not only possessed literary talent, but was also
a mechanician and inventor. In his lifetime he laid claim to the
invention of " angle-sided mail-clad ships and floating batteries."

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE SULLIVAN.
This was truly one of the greatest statesmen, politicians and
lawyers that Canada could reckpn among her indigenous sons.
We understand that Mr. Sullivan was born in Toronto, but we
have not the date of his birth. Let it suffice, however, to record
that he was brought up and educated, that he lived and died there,
and that he was one of the illustrious men whom the " Queen City "
has produced to do honor to her name, and to be a credit to the
country.

396 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
He studied the profession of the law under his uncle, the late Dr.
Baldwin, father of the Canadian statesman of that name. Whilst
engaged in his legal studies, he was appointed librarian of the
House of Assembly, from which situation he probably derived some
advantages from access to the books at a time when public libra
ries^ were scarce and most private ones meagre. At this period of
his life, we are told in an article in the Leader recording his
death, that he was noted for what afterwards was more conspicuous
in him, brilliancy of wit, sobriety of conduct, and severe applica-
tion. He was admitted to the bar in 1824, or 1825, and, not think
ing himself competent as yet for a professional life in town, he
removed to the county of Middlesex, where he for a time practised
until his services were called into requisition in various cases in
Toronto, first as counsel for Dr. Morrison before the House of As
sembly, in the contested case of member of Parliament for York,
between that gentleman and the present Chief-Justice Robinson.
He also appeared in the celebrated prosecution case of Collins, for
libel, and after the trial he industriously got up a petition to the
government in the prisoner's favor. In consequence of his conduct
in the latter case, a requisition was presented to him from the
citizens of Toronto, praying him to reside in that city, — a prayer
with which he complied, and ever afterwards lived amongst them.
This was in 1828, and not until 1834, we believe, did he enter public
life, and then only as mayor of the city. The advent of his entre
into the grand arena, however, was not long delayed. On the resig
nation of Sir F. B. Head's council, he accepted a vacant seat. Till
then he had never had one in either branch of the legislature,
and had never contested a constituency, nor did he now look out
for one, although there is no doubt he could have been easily re
turned for several places. He preferred the higher branch of the
legislature, and accepted a seat in it from the governor. On the
death of the Honorable Peter Robinson, Mr. Sullivan became com
missioner of crown lands, in which situation it was his misfortune
to have thrown on him the responsibility of a subortinate defalca
tion, the amount of which he made good out of his own pocket. He
subsequently became a member of Sir George Arthur's govern
ment, which position he held during the troubles of 1837, and took
an active and judicious part in suppressing it, to the satisfaction of
all that had at heart the good name of their country. In the
government of Lord Sydenham, Mr Sullivan also held a place. The
administration of that great nobleman a^id statesman was distinguished
chiefly by the union of the provinces, which was mainly effected
by his exertions. This was the dawn of responsible government.
During the government of Sir Charles Bagot, Mr Sullivan was also
a member of the executive, as in that of Sir Charles Metcalfe, but
resigned with his liberal colleagues on the famous antagonism be
tween that governor and his ministry. This was one of the most

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 397
critical conjunctures that had ever arisen in Canada between two
parties, and two great party cries, constitutionalism and reform. In
the former the subject of this notice took a determined stand, and
his letters under the signature of '• Legion," did good service to
the cause which he espoused, so .much so, that, combined with his
activeness and energy, they in a great measure achieved the triumph
of his party.
In the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry of Lord Elgin, Mr. Sullivan
held the office of provincial-secretary, until raised to the bench in
September, 1848, a position which he maintained with great honor
and advantage to the country, and credit to himself and family,
until his death, on the 14th April, 1853.

Hon. ROBERT BALDWIN, C.B.
Mr. Baldwin was born in the city of Toronto in 1804. His
family, father and grandfather, came to this country in 1798. His
father, the Honorable William Warren Baldwin, was the son of
Robert Baldwin, Esquire, of Summer Hill, otherwise Knockmole,
near Corregoline, in the county of Cork, Ireland. When the
family came to this country, they originally settled in the township
of Clarke, on lake Ontario, where they were among the earliest
settlers. They afterwards removed to Toronto — then the town of
York — where they took up their residence in Spadina; and there
the family resided till the death of the father of the subject of
this notice, which took place on the 8th January, 1844. The
Honorable W. W. Baldwin, was a medical man ; having taken his
degree of M.D. at Edinburgh. After removing to York, how
ever, Dr. Baldwin betook himself to the profession of law, which
he practised with success for a number of years. He (father of
the Honorable R. Baldwin) had represented the county of Norfolk
in the Parliament of Upper Canada; and been called to the
Legislative Council about six months before his death. On the
occasion of the death of Dr. Baldwin, Mr. Hincks wrote : — " Our
country has lost a friend ; and the country, it may be said, will
follow him as mourners to the grave. By the removal of one so
worthy, so disinterested, so excellent, we have sustained a loss, the
magnitude of which it is difficult to appreciate, much more in this
community to repair. It is not Toronto only that will feel the
privation, or drop tears of submissive sorrow over his honored
tomb. The sad tidings, like an electrie shock, the less convulsive

398 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
in its effects because expected, will widely extend an awakened
interest over regions sufficiently enlightened to appreciate his
worth, and sufficiently grateful to deplore his loss." To his son,
these words might with equal truth be applied. No .public man
in Canada, perhaps, in his day, commanded such general respect
as the Honorable Robert Baldwin. His integrity was so far above
suspicion' that the breath of calumny itself never uttered a word
against his fair fame. He commanded the respect of all parties ;
the affection of his own was willingly accorded. His name, even
to the last hour of his life, was a tower of strength ; it might easily
have been made the nucleus of a party round which the scattered
elements of the Reform ranks would have rallied, till union was
once more restored.
In stature Mr. Baldwin must have been about five feet nine or
ten inches. His frame was of stout build ; but the work of disease
appears to have begun to undermine his constitution eight or nine
years hefore his death. In the spring of 1850 his health had
visibly declined ; and there being no hopes of a speedy improvement
he was the more anxious to retire from public life, in the following
year. He was of a mild and affable disposition ; but he lacked that
peculiar style of address which characterizes the man easy of
access and of familiar manners and habits. He had few of the
characteristics which usually make a man popular with the crowd.
He scorned to bend to those petty arts which inferior men find so
useful, and indeed so indispensable, to their success in dealing with
the public. He paid small court to even the most prominent of
his constituents; and by this means lost something of that
ephemeral and local popularity which are necessary to the states
man who wishes to retain undiminished the full strength of his
position. His name is, however, inseparably interwoven with the
brightest period of our history; the period in which constitutional
principles triumphed over the oligarchical system on which the
province had previously been ruled. His was a career that will
be the more valued according to the increasing distance at which
it is seen ; his a lustre that will shine the brighter as time continues
to roll on.
Following the profession adopted by his father, he entered on
the practice of the law, in 1825, and the firm was long carried on
under the name of Baldwin & Son, till he retired on the 28th
July, 1848, when the business was continued by Mr. Adam Wilson.
His father and he built up an extensive and lucrative practice ;
and he must have left behind him a fortune of something like a
miUion of dollars. He owned an immense amount of property in
Toronto. Of the large amount of wealth which he leaves behind,
a part had been left to his father, by bequest, from the Honorable
Peter Russell.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 399
Mr. Baldwin inherited the liberal principles of his father. He
was first elected to the Upper Canada Assembly in 1829, in opposi
tion to Mr. SmaU; having in the previous year made an
unsuccessful run against Mr. Mackenzie, for the county of York.
This election took place on the resignation of Chief-Justice
Robinson; Mr. Baldwin came forward as the liberal candidate in
opposition to Sir John Colborne's administration. His opponent
was then deputy-clerk of the Crown, and many of his friends were
well provided for, in one way or another, out of the public. The
whole influence of the placemen was cast against Mr. Baldwin,
While the election was pending, Mr. Mackenzie wrote : — " Our
earnest wish, is that the election of Mr. Baldwin may prove to the
world that the capital of Upper Canada has burst her fetters, and
followed the praiseworthy example of her sister city, Quebec,
which sent to Parliament an independent citizen, a few months
ago, in spite of all the military and civil influence of all the
constituted authorities." Sir John Colborne, before his retirement
from the government, recommended to the colonial secretary, the
appointment of Mr. Baldwin to the Legislative Council, of which
body, if we mistake not, an uncle of his was a member. The
appointment was, however, not made; and a subsequent governor
wrote to England to discourage the recommendation of Sir J.
Colborne. The Opposition to which Mr. Baldwin, the newly elected member
for York — now Toronto — had allied himself, had a parliamentary
existence as early as 1820. Even at that time it was respectable,
if not formidable, both in talents and numbers ; but as yet it
could not count a majority of the representatives. But after the
election of 1824, the seales were turned; and the Government
found itself perpetually in a minority in the popular branch of
the legislature. The election of 1828 brought no additional
strength to the executive government ; and the same anomalous
spectacle of a government ruling in defiance of the constantly
expressed wishes of the Legislative Assembly presented itself to the
eyes of Mr. Baldwin, when in 1829 he entered Parliament for the
first time. It was one well calculated to impress upon his mind the
necessity which existed for changing the system of government.
Subsequent events were not calculated to remove that impression ;
for although the executive did contrive to secure the return of a
majority of supporters in the elections of 1830, events soon
showed that this was but a passing accident ; for the elections of
1834 again left them in -a minority, in which condition the govern
ment continued to be carried on for two years. In the twelve
years from 1824 to 1836, the executive was in a minority in tbe
Legislative Assembly for eight years. During the whole of this
time, the Legislative Assembly were consistently passing bills which
were as constantly rejected by the Legislative Council. For these

400 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
evils Mr. Baldwin declared that he saw no remedy but that of
placing the " Executive Council permanently upon the footing of
a local provincial cabinet, holding the same relative position with
reference to the representatives of the king and provincial Parlia
ment as that on which the king's imperial cabinet stands with
respect to the king and Parliament of the empire; and applying
to such provincial cabinet, both in respect to their appointments
and their continuance in office, the same principles as those which
are acted upon by his Majesty with respect to the imperial cabinet."
To an elective legis'ative council Mr Baldwin was opposed ; believing
that the demand for it would never have arisen, if the principle of
responsible government had been conceded as soon as the executive
found themselves permanently in a minority in the Legislative
Assembly. This opinion he never changed. He never concurred
in the propriety of constituting, on a new basis the Legislative
Council ; and for this reason he thought there would be an incon
gruity in his consenting to be elected to that chamber. From the
time of Mr. Baldwin's entrance into Parliament, we find the
principle of executive responsibility constantly asserted. It was
embodied in the address in reply to the speech from the throne,
1829; and again in 1835, it was made the subject of a solemn
appeal to the imperial government, in an address to the sovereign
passed by a majority of twenty-one votes. On this occasion, the
Assembly went so far as to intimate their intention to refuse the
supplies if their reasonable demand was not complied with. After
the resignation of the Executive Council, in 1836, of which Mr.
Baldwin was a member, the Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution
declaring it to be the opinion of that house that the appointment
of a responsible Executive Council, " to advise the lieutenant-
governor on the affairs of the province, was one of the most happy
and wise features in the constitution, and essential in our form of
government." In a house of fifty-five members only two votes
were recorded against this resolution. In 1836, Mr. Baldwin went
to England, and while there endeavored to impress upon Lord
Glenelg, then colonial minister — by writiug, for he was never
granted an interview at the colonial office — the necessity of apply
ing the English principle of responsibility to the provincial
executive. When in England, the intelligence of the success
of the tories in the Upper Canada elections, which had just been
held, reached London; and Mr. Baldwin took special care to
impress upon the colonial secretary not to deceive himself by
supposing that this event would supersede the necessity for an
application of the principle for which he so strenuously contended.
If it were withheld, he assured the imperial government, there
was great danger that the affections of the majority of the people
would become alienated from the mother country. In their quarrel
with Sir Francis Head, the executive took the ground that the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 401
principle of responsible government was intended to be conceded
by the constitutional act of 1791.
Mr. Baldwin, having thus begun, never ceased to do battle for
the principle of responsible government, till it was fully and un
reservedly conceded. He has been called the father of responsible
government ; and in one sense he may be said to have been so
Not that he was the only one to advocate the principle ; but there
was this difference between him and most of the other reformers,
that while he relied entirely upon this principle as the basis of all
real reform, they did not by any means confine themselves to this
single demand. They were always discussing what ought to be
done when the machinery for doing it should be obtained. Mr.
Baldwin was for obtaining the machinery first, and then trusting
to its successful operation when it should have been secured. This
devotion to a single leading principle — which, however, contains
all that is valuable in the British system of government — earned
for Mr. Baldwin, in certain quarters, the designation of a man of
" one idea." And a glorious idea it was ! Without it what would
Canada be to-day ? Of this principle the ablest opponents were to
be found in the Legislative Council. An excellent summary of
their objections — containing all that could be said against respon
sible government — is to be found in a report of a eommittee ofthe
Legislative Council, which, in 1839, undertook to answer Lord
Durham's able report on British North America. Although this
document contained all the tory wisdom of the day, it is impos
sible to peruse it now without a smile.
Mr. Baldwin's principle — his one idea, if you will — had found
a powerful advocate in Lord Durham ; and from the moment of
the publication of his famous report, the oligarchical system was
doomed. It managed to totter on a little longer, by the aid of
violence and fraud ; but nothing could avert a doom which was
inevitable. Even the reaction attempted by Lord Metcalfe was
unavailing. He would consult his ministers on all "adequate
occasions," so he said — and he was left without ministers for nine
successive months, having only a provincial secretary, after the
resignation ofthe Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet in November, 1843.
Mr. Baldwin was among those who resisted his reactionary move
ments ; and he was one of those who came in after the fall of the
ministry which, after the elections, Sir Charles Metcalfe had been
able to form.
Mr. Baldwin was in several different governments. He was
first sworn in as executive councillor on the 18th February, 1836 ;
having for colleagues, Messrs. Rolph, Dunn, Bidwell and Mark-
land. They held office for a very short time ; and it was after their
resignation, upon a difference with Sir Francis Bond Head, as to
how the government should be conducted, that he made the visit
to England previously referred to. In 1840, on Mr. Draper being
51

402 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
appointed attorney-general — on vacating the solicitor-generalship
— Mr. Baldwin was appointed solicitor-general. This step was
publicly approved by his friends. At a meeting held in Toronto
for that purpose, Dr. Widmer occupying the chair, Henry John
Boulton, who had p -eviously been allied to the " Family Compact,"
appeared a« an advocate of responsible government. The meeting
was, however, essentially reform in its complexion. Mr. Baldwin
thus explained his views in accepting office : " I distinctly avow
that in accepting office, I consider myself to have given a public
pledge that I have a reasonably well grounded confidence that the
government of my country is to be carried on in accordance with
the principles of responsible government, which I have ever held.
My position, politically, is certainly peculiar ; but its peculiarity
has arisen out of the position in which the present Parliament has
placed the governor-general, (Sir George Arthur) themselves and
the country, by the course they chose to adopt during the late
session; and it is therefore right that it should be distinctly under
stood that I have not come into office by means of any coalition
with the attorney-general. *******
Whenever I find that the government is to be carried on upon
principles adverse to those which I profess, I shall cease to
afford them my support, and shall cease to be a servant of the
Crown." This step was fully endorsed by the county ; and Mr. Baldwin
was elected for two constituencies, the south riding of York and the
county of Hastings. In September of 1842, Mr. Baldwin became
attorney-general for Upper Canada, M. Lafontaine occupying the
corresponding office in Lower Canada, and dividing with him the
somewhat anomalous dual premiership. He continued to occupy
this position till the rupture with Sir Charles Metcalfe. Taking
the same office again in February, 1848, he held it till July, 1851,
when he quitted ministerial life for ever. At different times he
represented the town of York, the fourth riding of York, Rimouski
and Hastings, in Parliament. His death took place at his seat
Spadina, near Toronto, on the 9th December, 1858. There also
his body lies. His funeral was attended by an immense concourse
of people of all political parties.
Mr. Baldwin married a sister of the late Honorable Robert Sul
livan, who bore him several children. He survived her. One
daughter is married to the Honorable John Ross ; one son is at
sea, and another in the church. A man of charitable dispositions,
he has been known to subscribe as much as £100 at a time to a
worthy object.
At a meeting of the members of the bar held two days after his
death, in the convocation room at Osgoode Hall, for the purpose of
paying such tribute to the memory of Mr. Baldwin, who had been
treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada, as his high position

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 403
and marked integrity deservedly entitled him to, the following
resolutions were passed : —
" Moved by Mr. Attorney-General Macdonald, seconded by Geo.
Ridout. Esquire : That the death ofthe Honorable Robert Baldwin,
C.B., late treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada is to
this meeting, and to the whole profession, a source of profound
regret. " Moved by Honorable J. S. Macdonald, Q.C., seconded by Hon
orable P. M. Vankoughnet, Q.C. : That the legal knowledge and
abi,;ty of the late Robert Baldwin secured to him the high respect
of the bar, while his pure love of justice and the unaffected honesty
of his character commanded the sincere admiration and esteem
of all who knew him."
Mr. Baldwin, although his valuable life was not very long ex
tended, lived to witness in Canada a very remarkable progress, both
material and political. That progress is described, in an article
which appeared some years ago, by Mr. John W. Cook, Quebec ;
and as the political improvement which it records was very mainly
owing to the labors of Mr. Baldwin, we may not unfitly conclude
with it this notice of his life : —
" What vast changes a few years have witnessed in Canada ! Swamps
have been made the seats of cities abounding in all the means of en
joyment peculiar to civilized life. Territories, but yesterday asitwere,
serving only as preserves for wild beasts, have been turned into areas
of cultivated land. Innumerable acres, which butashorttime ago were
lying in their original waste, abound now with granaries stocked with
the food of man, the product of agricultural labor. Vast wildernesses
have become fruitful fields. In the very heart of districts which but a
few years back were covered with the primeval forest, are the home
steads of thousands of happy settlers, surrounded on every side
with the most substantial marks of comfort. Were Goldsmith to
rise from his grave and see our farm houses, we firmly believe that
he would bless the results of that monopoly, which, in the finest of
his poems, he denounced as the cause of British depopulation. Yet
many of these abodes have been erected by recent settlers. It
requires but a steady exercise of perseverance to procure in Canada
for the industrious comforts of which a life of self-denial would in
all probability have left them destitute in Britain. And long after
the agricultural settler has placed himself- in a better position than
he could ever have occupied at home, he still retains the indus
trious habits which, with the concurrence of propitious circum
stances, gained him that position. Placed in a larger sphere, his
ideas expand. He no sooner obtains one comfort than he looks
forward to another. And the more he desires the better for the
country. Agricultural ambition is the mainstay of trade. The
longing of the tiller of the ground for those luxuries to which his
industry entitles him, is the builder up of our cities. To supply

404 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
his wants becomes the aim of many, who assembled together in
new formed towns, vie with each other in offering to the agricul
turist whatever he may regard as attractive. Every new settler, in
however remote a section he may establish himself, advances in
two ways the general interests. Not only does he make a piece of
ground hitherto useless become productive ; he also offers induce
ments to others to settle in the country. Anticipating that success
will crown his labors, the trader follows him to the forest. And he
is not deceived. The farmer is successful. He is in good time
enabled to avail himself to a greater or less extent, of the proffered
luxuries; and as he increases in prosperity his views enlarge. The
stores ofthe merchant increase in exact proportion to the number
of cleared acres. When we consider the near relation between
agriculture and trade, we need not wonder at the rapid rise of our
cities. Success in trade always follows agricultural success. And
the latter is sure to attend the industrious farmer in Canada.
" It is impossible, however, even when bearing in mind the great
advantages of Canada, to avoid wondering at the success of its in
dustrious population ; so great is the change which their industry
has worked — so great the change which it is every day working.
The alterations which late years have witnessed in the material
condition of the province, can indeed be only compared in magni
tude to the political changes which have contemporaneously
occurred. The latter are in their way as striking as the former.
An old settler might have laughed at the person who told him
that in twenty years the then desolate site of Hamilton would be
come the seat of a considerable city. But he would not have been
one whit less surprised, had he been told that the two provinces
would be united under a just and liberal system of government;
that the power of self-government would be recognized by imperial
authority as a right not to be called in question ; and that the party,
which denied the soundness of the great principles for which
reformers contended, would become powerless in the state. Per
haps, indeed, the prospective rise of a city would not have seemed
so strange to him as the prospective fall of irresponsible mis-rule.
His ideas of provincial government would have, likely enough,
been indissolubly connected with a few families. The reign of
an oligarchy he might have looked forward to as interminable.
There are many now living who never expected to see the country
governed on sound principles. But those principles have happily
triumphed ; and a more thoroughly popular system of government
than that which exists in Canada, could not possibly be found in
any country.
" Perfection in the administration of public affairs has, indeed,
yet to be attained. The great revolution did not all at once
givegood government to England. Italmost immediately improved
the political condition of the oountry, but it still left many evils

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 405
untouched. ' The vices and ignorance,' says Lord Macaulay,
speaking of another period, ' which the old tyranny had generated,
threatened the new freedom with destruction.' So it was in 1688.
To the superficial observer it seemed that affairs were even in a
worse condition than in the time of James. A boorish usurper
had, it was said, replaced a king who had at least, the hereditary
dignitv ofthe Stuarts. Shortsighted, narrow-minded men were
dissatisfied because of the temporary inconveniences which fol
lowed the change. Very few even dimly discerned the great bene
fits which have ever since continued to flow from it. There may
be many with us so disgusted either by real or imaginary abuses in
the administration of affairs during late years, as to be unable duly
to appreciate the benefits which have already flowed from re
sponsible government. But if the province is true to itself, the
period of the inauguration of that system, will be to it what the
period of the revolution is to England — the period from which will
date, not indeed revolution in the outward form of its government,
but continued improvement in the manner of its administration.
We never expect to see absolute perfection; but we do expect to
see the rise of a spirit which will ultimately impart to our politics
the same character which now distinguishes the politics of Britain.
While almost every other country in Europe presents a more, or
less piteous spectacle, England stands conspicuous for its combi
nation of law and liberty, loyalty and order. And the old reformers
of Britain — the men who fought and died for the constitution in
the darkest periods of English history — did not fight for the enjoy
ment of it by England alone. The Hampdens and Russels fought the
battles ofthe future inhabitants of countries of which they had
probably never heard. Thanks to the exertions of such men as
Mr. Baldwin, we enjoy the advantages of the system which they died
in defending. Whether or not we can work it well is a great political
problem which has not yet been thoroughly solved. But if fanatical
bitterness is disregarded, and the dictates of a judicious publie
opinion, which seeks only the general good, become the guide of our
Parliament, there will be no doubt of the final result. The province
will then present a pleasing spectacle. Political improvement will
keep pace with the wonderful material improvement on which we
dwelt in the former part of this article ; and closely connected with
prosperity as it is, good government will regulate and sustain our
progress. It rests with the people of Canada themselves to make
their political future a bright one.

406 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

LIEUT.-GENERAL CLITHEROW.
John Clitherow was the eldest son of Christopher Clitherow,
Esquire, of Bird's Place, in Essenden, Hertford; by Anne, only sur
viving daughter of Gilbert Jodrell, Esquire, and was born in the
year 1782. He died October 14, 1852.
He was appointed ensign in the 3rd Foot Guards, December 19,
1799 ; lieutenant and captain, February 24, 1803 ; captain and
lieutenant-colonel, October 8, 1812. He served in the Egyptian
campaign of 1801, and received its medal ; the expedition to
Hanover in 1805, and that to Walcheren, in 1809. In December,
1809, he proceeded to the Peninsula, where he was present in the
battle of Buasco, and severely wounded in that of Fuentes d'Onor,
and in consequence he went home. He rejoined before the battle
of Salamanca, in which he was engaged; and was again wounded
at the siege of Burgos, and obliged to return. In 1815, he served
in France.
He attained the rank of colonel, in 1821, that of major-general,
in 1830, and that of lieutenant-general, in 1841. He administered
the government of Canada, in 1841, after the decease of the
lamented Lord Sydenham, and until the appointment of Sir R. D.
Jackson. He was appointed to the command of the 67th Regiment
on the 15th January, 1844.
On the death of his cousin-german, James Clitherow, Esquire,
colonel of the West Middlesex militia, on the 12th October, 1841,
he succeeded to the representation of that ancient family, — the
only family, we believe, of any antiquity in Middlesex, having first
settled at Boston House, in the parish of Brentford, in the reign
of Charles I. in the person of James Clitherow, Esquire, who was
the son and heir of Sir Christopher Clitherow, lord mayor, in
1636, and one of the citizens in parliament for the city.

LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR R. D. JACKSON.
Sir R. D. Jackson, who administered the government from
1841 to 1842, was the commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada,
and an officer who had seen much service. He distinguished
himself particularly at the battle of Barrosa, in the oommand of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 407
the detachment of the Coldstream Guards, which in conjunction
with the 87th and 67th Regiments, repulsed the right wing of the
French army, and captured an imperial eagle. Sir Richard served
throughout the after campaigns in the Peninsula, on the quarter
master-generals staff, and in 1820, succeeded. Sir Benjamin D'Urban
as deputy quarter-master-general, and colonel of the brigade staff
corps. He dfed at Montreal.

Hon. FRANCIS HINCKS.
This gentleman to whose enlightened mind and patriotic spirit,
Canada is so deeply indebted, is the fifth and youngest son of Dr.
Hincks, of the family of Hincks, of Breckenbrough, in Yorkshire,
which traces its origin to William Hincks, an alderman of Chester
in 1341. Dr. Hincks, who settled in Cork in 1791, was an active
member of the various benevolent societies in that cuy. He was
minister of the Princess Street Presbyterian congregation, and
secretary of the Cork Institution ; and was also distinguished for
his success in the instruction of youth, several educational works
that he published having had a large circulation, and many of his
pupils have risen to eminence in their respective professions. In
addition to the ordinary branches of school education, he gave lec
tures on natural philosophy, chemistry, and natural history, which
were open to others as well as his immediate pupils, and which led
to the establishment of the Cork Institution, of which he may be
regarded as the founder. In January, 1815, he removed to Fer-
moy, in consequence of obtaining the mastership of the classical
school there founded by John Anderson, Esq. ; and in July, 1821,
to Belfasi, having been elected head classical master and professor
of Hebrew in the Royal Institution of that city. He died a short
time since.
Edward, the eldest son of Dr. Hincks, obtained a fellowship in
Trinity coUege, Dublin, in 1813, and is now rector of Killyleagh,
a college living which was formerly of considerable value. He is
the author of several papers in the transactions of the Royal Irish
academy, on subjects connected with Egyptian, Persian, and Assy
rian archaeology. In the two latter, his discoveries have attracted
much attention, in connection with those of Colonel Rawlinson, the
same results having, in several instances, been obtained almost
simultaneously, by the one at Killyleagh, and by the other at

408 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Bagdad. He was the first to determine the forms and values of
the Assyrian numerals, from an examination of ancient inscriptions
at Van ; an account of which was published in the journal of the
Asiatic Society.
The second son, William, is distinguished as a naturalist ; he
was the first professor of natural history in Queen's college, Cork,
and holds since 1853, a similar situation in the university of Toronto,
an institution of great celebrity on this continent, being indeed
only second to Harvard of Boston.
The third son, Thomas, has been curate of Belfast, and is the
prebendary of Cairne Castle ; he has the character of being one
ofthe most active and efficient clergymen of the Established Church
of Ireland.
Francis, the subject of the present notice, commenced his educa
tion under his father, at Fermoy, and continued it in the classical
and mathematical school of the Belfast Institution, then presided
over by Dr. James Thompson, afterwards professor of mathematics
in the university of Glasgow. In the month of November, 1822,
he entered the collegiate department of the institution, and attended
the logic and belles-lettres and the Greek and Latin classes
during the winter session. But in May, 1823, he expressed a de
sire to be a merchant, and it was finally arranged that he should
be articled for five years to the house of John Martin & Co., pre
viously to which, however, he had three or four months initiation
into business habits in the office of his father's friend, Samuel
Bruce, Esq., notary public and agent. The period for which he
was articled terminated in October, 1828, but he continued with
the firm until the beginning of 1830, when he sailed to the West
IndieB as supercargo of one of Messrs. Martin & Co's. vessels. He
visited Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad, and Demarara, but not meet
ing with an inducement to settle in any of these colonies, he agreed
to accompany a Canadian gentleman, whom he met at Barbadoes,
to Canada, and proceeded to Montreal and Toronto, his object being
to ascertain the nature of Canadian commerce and business.
Having gleaned the information he desired, he returned to
Belfast in 1831. In the following summer, having determined
to settle in Canada, he married the second daughter of Alexander
Stewart, Esq., a merchant of Belfast, and soon after sailed to
New York, and proceeded to Toronto, where he became the tenant
of a house and store belonging to and adjoining the residence of
Mr. Baldwin, who had emigrated from Cork several years previously.
From him Mr. and Mrs. Hincks, and their youthful family, received
attentions and services of which Mr. Hincks often speaks with
grateful recollection. He soon obtained a high reputation for
knowledge of business, and when Mr. Mackenzie attacked Mr.
Merritt and others respecting the Welland canal, and obtained a
parliamentary investigation, he was chosen, with another merchant,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 409
to examine the accounts ; he was also appointed secretary to the
Mutual Insurance Company, and cashier to a new banking com
pany. .
On the appointment of Lord Durham to the government of
Canada, Mr. Hincks commenced the Examiner newspaper, in the
editorship of which he displayed such remarkable vigor and talent,
that he was invited to become a candidate for the representation of
the county of Oxford in the first Parliament held after the union
of the upper and lower provinces. The election was held in
March, 1841, when Mr. Hincks was returned by a majority of
thirty-one over his opponent, a gentleman named Carroll. Shortly
after his election, he was appointed by Sir Charles Bagbt
inspector-general, and was obliged, in consequence, to vacate
his seat and return for re-election. He was opposed by John
Armstrong, Esq., who abandoned the contest at noon on the third
day, Mr. Hincks having a majority of 218. When Lord Metcalfe
dissolved the Canadian Parliament in 1844, Mr. Hincks was de
feated, his opponents being Robert Riddle, Esq., (a son-in-law of
Admiral Vansittart) who was returned by a majority of twenty
over Mr. Hincks, and the Hon. Thomas Parke, who did not go
to the poll. In 1848, however, he was declared elected by the
legislature, by the large majority of three hundred and thirty-five
over his old opponent, Mr. Carroll, although the returning-officer
had declared Mr Carroll elected, through some legal technicality
in Mr. Hincks' qualification. Having for the second time accepted
the office of inspector-genoral under the administration of his first
friend in Canada, he was re-elected without opposition.
Upon the reconstruction of the ministry, consequent on the re
tirement of Mr. Baldwin, owing to his impaired health, Mr. Hincks
was, through the strong expression of publie opinion, named prime
minister by the governor-general, and until the latter part of
1854, held that post with distinguished honor, and with the confi
dence and respect of all the good men of every political denomina
tion in Canada. Nor is this a higher meed than he deserves, for
it is in a great measure owing to him and others, and his financial
ability, his enlarged views as a politician, his great practical
knowledge of what is conducive to the material interests of Canada,
and his taot and experience as a parliamentary debater, that the
province occupies its present position, and has before it the brilliant
prospects that are constantly opening up.
On his return to Canada, from a visit to England, he was elected to
represent the south riding of Oxford for the fifth time, by a majority
of 64 over his opponent, J. G. Vansittart, Esq., a son of Admiral
Vansittart of Woodstock, C. W., and therefore a rather formidable
opponent. This was his last election contest. Mr. Shenstone,
clerk and census commissioner of the county of Oxford, has, in
his " Oxford Gazetteer," borne powerful testimony to the value
52

410 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of Mr. Hinck's patriotic and praiseworthy exertions. In dedicat
ing his useful work to that gentleman, he says: "I find that
the first municipal act, giving to the people great powers ; the
amendment of it, whereby these powers were greatly increased ;
the establishment of township councils ; the new elective law
whereby a poll is opened in each township ; the amendment
of the elective act, whereby sheriffs are ex-officio returning
officers, and township clerks ex-officio deputy returning officers ;
the division court act, the assessment act, the new jury act, the
new post-office act, and cheap postage — all of them date their
existence from the time of your first election to represent this
county, and in all of them your masterly hand is unmistakably
discerned. In addition to these inestimable and invaluable bless
ings, enjoyed, in common with us of this county, by the whole
province, I may add that, although the Great Western Railroad
and the London and Hamilton Plank and Gravel Road had long
been in contemplation, and repeated unsuccessful attempts had
been made to forward them before your election, it required your
information, energy and perseverance to complete the one and
place the other in its present prosperous and promising condition."
It was he, too, who first appreciated the necessity of a great system
of railways throughout the province ; and it is to him that the
credit of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, in its present ex
tended proportions, is due.
In 1855, he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of
the Windward Islands, a position he held with great honor and
credit to himself, and to the sovereign and nation which appre
ciated his sterling worth in placing him there. This year he was
elevated to the governorship of British Guinea.
Mr. Hincks has been one of our most fortunate politicians, but
no one will dispute that he has not merited everything that he has
attained. Happy, indeed, would every colony of Great Britain be,
if its councils were directed by a minister or governor as patriotic
and as enlightened as Francis Hincks.

J. B. FARIBAULT, Esq.
M. Faribault was born at Berthier, Lower Canada, in 1773.
His father, Barth61emi Faribault, a Parisian by birth, had filled the
office of military secretary, under the DuQuesne administration,
and died in 1801. Some years before this event took place,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 411
Mr. Faribault had removed to Quebec, where having obtained a
situation as accountant, in a mercantile establishment, he remained
there five years. As this calling ill-suited his inclinations, he
longed for a change, and offered his services to the American
North-West Company, which were accepted. In May, 1796, he
started from Montreal for Makinaw, where his stay was but of
short duration. While on this journey he married Miss Ainse, by
whom he had eight children. Having remained eleven years in
the employ of the North-West Company, and experienced many
reverses, he at last fixed his home in Minnesota, and founded the
settlement which bears his name. He was the first who cultivated
the soil west of the Mississippi. Forty years ago, having purchased
agricultural implements, he taught the Indians how to till the
earth, in whieh undertaking his success was complete. He was
universally known by the tribes from the Mississippi to the
Missouri, and possessed their entire confidence.
He died in Minnesota Territory, on 20th August, 1860.

Rev. Mr. GINGRAS.
This accomplished gentleman, who died at Paris, in 1860, was
in his fifty-first year.
Mr. Gingras had received his education in the seminary of
Quebec, where, in 1831, after going through his studies with great
success, he entered holy orders. In the following year, he
became professor of belles-lettres, and was, from 1833 to 1834,
successively appointed director of the seminary and of the college
of Quebec. In 1844, he visited Europe and the Holy Land, in
company with Mr. Belanger. When in Rome the degree of doctor
in divinity was conferred on him. On his return to Canada he
published two volumes containing an account of his travels in
Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Turkey, and Greece. In this_ work no
account of his travels in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and
Ireland is given, and this is the more to be regretted, especially
with regard to Germany and Ireland, as but very few French
Canadians ever visit these two countries.
Having returned to Quebec, he for sometime had charge of a
class of philosophy, and also of a theological conference. He
became once more director of the seminary, but as he found it
necessary to undertake another voyage for the benefit of his health,

412 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he had to abandon this post, which he did accordingly, in May
1860. His illness was one, however, not to be overcome, and the
consolation of breathing his last in the midst of his old school
fellows, of his friends and pupils, was denied him. His meekness,
piety, devotion, and countenance, expressive of deep piety, had
acquired for him the name of saint, an appellation by which all
were happy to know him.

WM. DUNLOP, Esq., M.D., M.P.P.
Doctor Dunlop was long a resident of Western Canada, where
he died, in 1848. He represented the county of Huron, in
the first and second Parliament, after the union. He possessed
literary talents of a high order, and was long a contributor to
Blackwood's Magazine,

M. MICHEL BIBAUD,
A Canadian author of note; born on the 20th of January,
1782, at the Cote des Neiges, near Montreal; died at the latter
place, on the 3rd August, 1857. He pursued his studies with
success at the college of St. Raphael. Among his fellow-students
were M. Jacques Viger, Judge O'Sullivan, and M. Hughes Honey.
Having left college, M. Bibaud embraced the literary profes
sion. Like many other of his countrymen, he labored hard in
defence of Canadian nationality, and for the conservation of the
French language. Chateaubriand speaks of the French in America
as a doomed race, destined to dwindle away like the aborigines
with whom they have intermingled and sympathized. If this be a
true prediction, certainly the French Canadians are themselves the
last to realize it. They, however, feel that their nationality, and
even their language, need constant efforts to preserve them in the
position they now occupy. While contributing, in turns, to the
" Aurore des Canadas," the " Bibliotheque Canadienne," the
" Magazin du Bas Canada," the " Observateur Canadien," and
the " Encyclopedie Canadienne," M. Bibaud was, in his interval

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 413
of leisure, writing verses, which have been greatly esteemed by his
countrymen, and engaged in more profound didactic and scientific
studies. He wrote the first history of Canada in French, since
the conquest, the merits of which, though variously estimated, are
generally admitted. He wrote besides, an " Arethmetique Ele-
mentaire," and edited the " Voyage de Franchere," besides
producing a variety of other valuable little works. He is described
as having always been a laborious writer, and indeed, the number
of his works proves that he must have been so. We are told that
it would have been easy for him to rise to power ; but, that he
preferred an honest ease and liberty. But a few months before
his death, he was engaged, at the age of seventy-five, in trans
lating the reports of the geological commission.

S. H. DICKERSON, Esq.
Mr. Dickerson was the pioneer among newspaper publishers
in the Eastern Townships, having established a paper in Stanstead
Plain, something more than thirty years since. He was a practical
printer, a man of considerable ability, and of very independent
character. This trait brought him into a very unpleasant collision
with the late eccentric and learned Judge Fletcher of the Eastern
Townships. Having commented in his paper upon a decision of the
Judge, in terms which the latter construed as a contempt of court,
he was committed to jail and kept in confinement for over a year.
His offence, if any, was a freedom of remark upon a judicial decision
which is now everywhere considered the legitimate right of a free
press. He sought for justice at the hands of the legislature, but
either from having espoused the wrong side of politics, or for want
of faithfnlness in those who undertook his case, he failed to obtain
redress beyond the satisfaction of seeing a report from a legislative
committee severely condemning the conduct of the judge as tyran
nical and oppressive. Mr. Dickerson early espoused the radical cause,
which he faithfully adhered to till the breaking out of the rebellion
of 1837, when he left for the United States. When the demands
of his party were conceded, he returned to Stanstead, and was some
years before his death appointed as collector of customs in that
place, in recognition of his claims for services and sufferings in the
liberal ranks. Independent of politics, we believe the office was
worthily bestowed. He died in 1857.

414 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

J. R. WILBY, Esq.
John Robin Wilby, Esquire, one of the ablest members of
the Indian press. Mr. Wilby was a native of Canada, and
received a sound collegiate education in his native town. When
a very young man he suffered from weakness of the eyes, and the
doctors advised that the only way to prevent the loss of sight was
to have recourse to a long sea voyage. His friends could not well
afford to pay for his passage, so he enlisted as a common sailor,
and arrived in India in that capacity. Having obtained his dis
charge from the ship, he remained in Calcutta, a stranger in a
strange land, in search of adventure and fortune. Mr. Wilby
tried his hand alternately as reader, reporter and contributor, in
connexion with the Calcutta press ; but it was not long before he
was taken on the editorial staff of the Hnrkaru, where he distin
guished himself by writing some of the ablest and most telling
articles that appeared in that print. On leaving the Hurkaru
press, Mr. Wilby, in conjunction with the present editor of the
Calcutta Phoenix, set up the Bengal Times, the name of which
was afterwards changed to the Citizen. The connexion, however,
did not last long, as Mr. Wilby received the offer of a handsome
engagement with the Mofussilite, and accepted it. He afterwards
had editorial charge of the Delhi Gazette, and conducted that
journal with an ability which was publicly acknowledged by the
managing proprietor, on Mr. Wilby's vacating the editorial chair.
He next joined the Lahore Chronicle, and only a short time
previous to his death, which occurred in 1857, returned to Bengal
to take his place on the staff of the Friend of India. Mr. Wilby
was a young man of extensive reading and varied information.
There was scarcely a department in philology or the sciences in
regard to which he was altogether ignorant. His linguistical and
scientific attainments were pretty nearly on a par, a combination,
not always to be met with. Above all as a public writer, Mr.
Wilby was one of the boldest and most thoroughly honest that the
Indian press possessed.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 415

LIEUT.-GENERAL DURNFORD.
Lieutenant-General Elias Walker Durnford, colonel-
commandant of the Royal Engineers; born in 1775; died at
Tunbridge Wells, on the 8th of March, 1850. He received his
commission as 2nd lieutenant, 1793; 1st lieutenant, 1796; captain-
lieutenant, 1801 ; captain, 1805 ; lieutenant-colonel, 1813 ; colo
nel, 1825 ; major-general, 1837 ; and lieutenent-general, 1846. He
was present at the seige of Fort Bourbon and capture of Martin
ique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe, in 1794. He served many years
in Canada, and it is but justice to his memory and his family to
say, that he constructed and perfected many of our most valuable
fortifications. One of his daughters married the Revd. E. W.
Sewell, of Quebec.

Right Hon. Sir C. BAGOT, Bart., G.C.B.
Sir Charles Bagot was one of our best and most successful
governors during his brief term of office. It may truly be said
he laid down his life for our interests, having accepted the high
office, which he held, at a time when he had more need of rest,
repose and retirement from the great labors which his public
life had entailed upon him. His memory deserves to be cherished
for the great benefits which his wise and prudent administration of
affairs conferred on the province.
Sir Charles was born on the 23rd September, 1781, at Blithfield,
in the county of Stafford, where his ancestors had lived from a
period antecedent to the Norman conquest, and where his family
still resides. He was the second son of William, Lord Bagot, by
his wife, Louisa, daughter of John, Viscount St. John, brother and
heir of the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke. He married Lady
Mary, daughter of the third Earl of Mornington, brother of the
Duke of Wellington, the late Marquis Wellesley and Lord
Cowley, by whom he left three sons and five daughters. He was
a privy councillor, knight grand cross ofthe order ofthe Bath, and
director of the National Gallery.

416 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
Sir Charles Bagot entered public life in 1806, as under secretary-
of-state for foreign affairs, when Mr. Canning held the seals of
that department, in the Duke of Portland's administration. At
the close of the great war in 1814, he was sent on a special mission
to Paris. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed minister plenipo
tentiary to the United States, and successively ambassador to the
courts of St. Petersburgh and the Hague. Upon the return of
Lord Amherst from the east, the high post of governor-general of
India was offered to him, but the then state of his health com
pelled him reluctantly to decline it. In the short administration
of Sir Robert Peel, in 1834, he was dispatched upon a special
embassy to the court of Vienna; and in 1841, was requested by
the present Earl of Derby, (then Lord Stanley) the secretary-of-
state for the colonies, to undertake the post of governor-general of
British North America. Sir Charles Bagot entered upon the
duties of his high office on the 10th January, 1842, and was very
favorably received by the inhabitants of Canada. He very wisely
did not pledge himself to either the conservative or reform par
ties, but judiciously passed some time in making himself thoroughly
acquainted with the affairs of the province, and made up his mind
to govern the country by the best men that he could pitch upon.
He encouraged and patronised the French Canadians, who were
powerful, even some who had been connected with the rebellion ;
' but who deeply regretted such a connection. He also took into
his confidence the reform party of Upper Canada, then led by the
celebrated Mr. Baldwin. McMullen, in his excellent History of
Canada, says of this : " There ean be no question that this was
the wisest line of policy he could adopt, and that it tended to re
move the differences between the two races, and unite them more
cordially for the common weal. The French Canadian elementwas
no longer in the ascendant ; the English language had decidedly
assumed the aggressive, and true wisdom consisted in forgetting
the past and opening the door of preferment to men of talent of
French, as well as those of British origin. The necessity of this
line of policy was interwoven with the union act ; and, after that,
was the first great step towards the amalgamation of the races. A
different policy would have nullified the principle of responsible
government, and must have proved suicidal to any ministry seeking
to carry it out. Sir Charles Bagot went on the broad principle,
that the constitutional majority had the right to rule under the
constitution." It was during this time that some of our most talented states
men came into office. Mr. Hincks became inspector-general ;
Mr. Baldwin, attorney-general, west; Mr. Lafontaine, attorney-
general, east; Mr. Morin, commissioner of crown lands; Mr.
Aylwin, solicitor-general, &c. During the administration of these
gentlemen various were the improvements effected in the province ;

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 417
innumerable were the good things that arose out of them. Sir
Charles Bagot had brought into office men of talent, and men that
could work for the country.
Unfortunately the worthy baronet did not live to see the success
ful issue of what he had inaugurated during his brief tenure of
office. Towards the close of the year 1843, his illness became of
so serious a character, that he solicited his recall, a request which
was acceded to. Sir Charles Metcalfe was appointed in his stead.
A few months passed, and the worthy and amiable Sir Charles
Bagot passed from this world to the'better. He was long and de
servedly regretted by all people of all origins and parties ; the
country lost in him one of its best friends and advocates ; the
sovereign an able and efficient servant, who had labored zealously
in the service of his country.

CHLEF-JUSTICE Sir L. H. LAFONTAINE, Bart.

Of the history of this celebrated man, we cannot say a great
deal, as the materials at our command are very meagre. He is
the descendant of Antoine Menard Lafontaine, Esquire, who was
a member of the parliament of Lower Canada, from 1796 to 1804.
Sir Louis Hypolite was born at Boueherville, Canada East, in
October, 1807 ; he is the third son of A. M. Lafontaine, (son of
the former) and of Marie J. Fontaine Bienvenu, his wife.
For the sketch of his career, we are indebted to the clever writer
of the " Washington Sketches," written at the time that the present
chief-justice was at the zenith of his political life : —
" For many years M. Lafontaine applied himself to the bar with
great diligence and success. He accumulated a handsome fortune
and made an advantageous match. It was not until he thought
himself " rich enough" that he gave much attention to politics ; a
circumstance which accounts largely for the independence and
sturdy vigor of spirit he has shown.
" At first he was follower, then a rival, of Papineau. The latter
was with the partiprdtre, the former led that of La jeune France,
and the priests shook their heads at his orthodoxy ; in fact, spoke
of him as little better than an infidel. But " circumstances alter
cases." Both fled, in 1837, from warrants for high treason. M.
Lafontaine reached England, where, not feeling himself safe, by
the assistance of Mr. Edward Ellice, who had the greatest single
property in Canada, he escaped across the channel to France.
Oo

418 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" More fortunate than M. Papineau, he was very soon enabled
to return, there in reality being no evidence against him. His
fate had been like that of Defoe : he had written an ironical letter
to a M. Girouard, on the absurdity of rebellion, which was taken
literally. "M. Lafontaine now found himself in a position to lead, and he
forthwith set himself to conciliate his old opponents, the priests.
Whether from conviction or from policy, he went regularly to mass,
and his moral conduct being irreproachable, it is to be presumed
that he was sincere, though the coincidence of interest and devotion
is striking. When M. Papineau came back, he found his chair
occupied, and forthwith M. Papineau took the extreme party, and
is now the head of La jeune France, with but a small following.
He advocates annexation, abolition of tithes, and of seignorial
rights, while M. Lafontaine sticks to responsible government, and
as nearly as possible to the status quo.
"In 1843, M. Lafontaine, who, after the death of Lord Sydenham,
had worked himself into place as the head of the French party,
quarrelled with Lord Metcalfe, in whom he met a man resolute as
himself, and more prudent, not to say more cunning. The issue
was taken on a general election. The tory party was then in the
ascendancy in Upper Canada, and, united with the moderates, out
of forty-two representatives, returned all but nine, and of these
three doubtful. M. Lafontaine brought up his wing of the brigade
gallantly ; but it was no use ; the centre and the other wing were
routed. He was doomed for three years to the ' cold shade of
opposition,' in which he showed great constancy and industry.
" In March, 1848, the tory party fell to pieces, and went to am
election in sheer desperation. Their opponents in Upper Canada
gained twenty seats, saved all the French counties, and gained
Montreal and three English or mixed counties, giving them a.
majority of two-thirds ofthe house. M. Lafontaine then resumed'
his old place, and is the virtual premier.
" M. Lafontaine in style of thought is, like all the French who'
form their ideas from books, theoretical and dogmatical. He is
not an eloquent speaker, his utterance being thick and guttural,
and his English, though good in structure, bad in pronunciation.
In fact he rarely tries the latter. But he is a close and compact
logician, and never loses temper.
M. Lafontaine is about forty years of age, though he looks older.
He has a handsome countenance, of a style which much resembles
that of Napoleon, and a magnificent forehead. I have told you
his virtues ; his faults are impracticability, pushing things to
extremes, his vanity of thinking he knows the' British Constitution
of which he knows nothing, a more thaai ordinary share of
obstinacy and undying resentments as a bala&C.e to. strong attach
ments "

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 419
Sir Louis remained in office, until October, 1851, when the
Hinck's-Tach6, administration was formed. On the 13th August,
1853, he was elevated to the chief-justiceship of the Court of
Queen's Bench of Lower Canada, and on the 28th August, 1854,
was created, for his eminent services, a baronet of the United
Kingdom. Sir Louis has married twice, but has no issue ; first in 1831, to
Adele, only daughter of A. Berthelot, Esquire, an advocate of
some standing, in Lower Canada; and secondly in 1860, to a
widow lady of Montreal.

CHIEF-JUSTICE V. DE ST. REAL.
Joseph Remi Vallieres de St. Real, some aver, was born in
the Home district, Upper Canada, in the old French settlement, at
Markham, about 18 miles north of Toronto* on the 1st October,
1787. His father died when he was very young, and his mother
having married again,Byoung Vallieres left his home, and made his
way to Quebec, where he had an uncle. He had been a very short
time in that city when his extraordinary quickness at learning
attracted the notice of the venerable the bishop of the diocese
(Plessis), who, we believe, took him under his own roof, and
superintended his education, with a view to his taking holy orders.
Mr. Vallieres was not, however, inclined to adopt the views of the
good bishop, of whom, however, he always spoke with affection and
gratitude. Abandoning his patron, he engaged for a short time in
mercantile pursuits, as a clerk ; but his friends, finding him deter
mined not to enter the church, yielded to his wishes, and enabled
him to enter that profession of which he was destined to be one of
the brightest ornaments. Having completed the usual course of
studies, with the present Mr. Chief-Justice Bowen, he was admitted
to the bar in 1812, and commenced to practice his profession in the
city of Quebec, and we need scarcely add with great success. The
extraordinary facility with which he acquired knowledge soon ren
dered him familiar with the civil law ; and he was, besides, gifted
with oratorical powers that charmed all who listened to him. He
is said to have been a delightful companion when in full health and
vigor. Until his last serious illness his conversational powers were
*Some say in Quebeo, in a house which stood on the site of the present pariia
ment building.

420 sketches oP celebrated Canadians,
unimpaired, and he was one with whom it was impossible to con
verse without deriving instruction. Mr. Vallieres was appointed a
K.C. in 1813, the year after his admission to the bar, and was about
the same time called on to take part in public affairs, having been
elected as member of the Assembly for the county of Champlain.
He attached himself to the great Canadian party, then engaged
in what they called a struggle for constitutional liberty, and was
distinguished for integrity, wisdom, and moderation. During the
absence of Mr. Papineau on a mission to England, M. Vallieres
was chosen speaker of the Assembly, and during the government
of Sir James Kempt, in 1828, was appointed resident judge of the
district of Three Rivers, where he remained several years, univer
sally beloved by the community. In 1842 he was appointed by
Sir Charles Bagot, chief-justice of Montreal, after which time his
friends had to deplore his almost constant bad health. Not
withstanding this, he labored most diligently at the business of the
court, as was publicly testified in the session for 1846 by more than
one member of the profession. On that occasion gentlemen on both
sides of the house vied with each other in eulogising the character,
and acknowledging the eminent talents of M. Vallieres. It would
be presumptuous in us to add a word on such a subject, but there
is one event of his life which deserves a passing notice — we allude
to his suspension by Sir John Colborne, in 1839. M. Vallieres
was called on to grant a writ of habeas corpus, and although ruin
stared him in the face, he had sufficient integrity and moral cou
rage to do his duty. The governor had some time before suspended
Judges Panet and Bedard, in consequence of a decision in favor of
the habeas corpus, and Judge Vallieres must therefore have been
well aware of the consequence. He was suspended, and was de
prived of his income for a considerable time, at great inconveni
ence and loss. We have referred above principally to the public
character of the judge. In private life he was most amiable and
benevolent; indeed, his interests suffered materially from his
unbounded generosity and confidence in others. He died on the
17th February, 1847, universally respected and beloved.

J. B. MEILLEUR, Esq., M.A., M.D., LL.D.
Jean Baptiste Meilleur, one of the literati of Lower Canada,
and a gentleman of considerable attainments, to whose efforts we
owe much of the present admirable system of education in the
lower province, was born at St. Laurent, on the Island of Mont-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 421
real, on the 9th of May, 1796. He is descended from a respect
able French family, the founder of which, in this country, was a
captain in the Carignan Regiment. He received his education at
the college of Montreal, and for some time studied the law, which
he abandoned for the medical profession, entering the college of
Castletown, Vermont, U. S. He at the same time studied philoso
phy at Middlebury, under the celebrated Professor Hall, pupil of
the Abb6 Hauy, who instructed him among other branches in those
of mineralogy and geology. He obtained the degree of doctor of
medicine on the 14th of December, 1825, as well as diplomas from
the college of Middlebury and the university of Dartmouth, in
New Hampshire, where he was for some time employed as a French
professor ; here he wrote his first work whieh is an analysis of the
French alphabet, containing the rules of pronunciation of the
French language in English. The medical and philosophical
societies countenanced the same. On his return to Canada, he
became one of the principal assistants to the Tessier Journal,
who cites with an encomium a trait of Dr. Meilleur upon carbuncle ;
he also assisted towards Bibaud's Canadian Library, in which he
was the first who wrote upon geology, and on the application of
chemistry to agriculture. This last work was a supplement to the
agricultural treatise of Valere Guellet. He also published, in 1833,
the first chemical treatise entitled, " Cours abrigi de Lecons de
Chimie, contenant une exposition pre" cise etmiihodique des principes
de cette science." He was named corresponding member of the
Natural History Society of Montreal the same year, in which he also
published at St. Charles, where the Hon. P. D. Debartzch had estab
lished a journal, of which he, for a short time, became editor, the
first edition of his " Nouvelle Grammaire Anglaise, redigie d' apres
les meilleurs auteurs." One thing which must not be lost sight of, is
" VExtrait du Recensement du Comte de V Assomption," which con
tains a summary of the geographical, the topographical, and the
statistical returns of that county, where Doctor Meilleur was one
of the founders and professors of the college, and where he was
elected member of Parliament on the 6th November, 1834. This
last work is praised in " V Encyclopedia Canadienne, Cahier, De-
cembre, 1842." In 1860, he published the " Memorial de V Educa
tion" of Lower Canada, a work strongly recommended by the friends
of education. In the House of Assembly, he was appointed to the
charge of making the selection of Chasseur's Museum, the purchase
of which he recommended.
Speaking and writing on education he attracted the attention of
the Assembly, although he appeared to be less admired by Mr.
Papineau, than the other members, and this led to his defeat in
the county of 1' Assomption. After the suspension of the constitu
tion, and under the administration of the union, he wrote on edu
cation at great length, and more particularly upon the proper prin-

422 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
ciples and means to extend the same, and, at the request of Lord
Durham, with the assistance of the Abbe Duehaine, he conducted
a polemical contest with that gentleman on the subject of electri
city, and being engaged to give lectures on the foundation of the
society of natural history, when he was appointed superintendent
of public instruction by Sir Charles Bagot, with the promise of
that governor that the situation should not be made a political
one. He made two trips round Lower Canada, to obtain informa
tion as to its extension, but failed. During the fifteen years and
upwards that he occupied this elevated station, he contributed from
the funds <*f the department to the foundation of forty-five superior
educational establishments. Some years since he vacated that
situation for the postmastership of Montreal, an office from which
he retired within the present year.
Dr. Meilleur is a member of several learned American and
Canadian Institutions.

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE AYLWIN.
This learned and talented gentleman, regarded as one of the
cleverest members of the bar, and since his accession to the bench,
as one of its most brilliant ornaments, is we believe a native of
Quebec, and was called to the bar in 1828.
He first entered public life as member for the county of Portneuf,
in 1841 ; and, in 1842, he became a member of the Executive
Council, as solicitor-general for Canada East, a post which he held
until December, 1843 ; and again, in March, 1848, until April, 1848,
when on the 26th of that month, he was appointed a judge of the
Court of Queen's Bench; and, it is said, that no public man in
Canada ever had that high honor conferred upon him, who better
deserved it than Judge Aylwin.
If In his course in the house, he was twice elected for Portneuf,
and three times for the city of Quebec. Being a very terse and
lucid speaker, and a gentleman of great merits and abilities, he
was regarded as a great acquisition to his party, and was extremely
popular with the people. In the opposition, in whose ranks he
was numbered for some years, he became one of the most eloquent
and indomitable of its members ; a man that never flinched from
his purpose, but pursued his line of conduct to the last.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 423
Since his elevation to the bench, people have had more oppor
tunities to witness the greatness of his abilities and attainments,
and his arguments have always been conclusive, and have excited
much admiration.
Kaye, from whom we have before quoted, thus speaks of
him: —
"Mr. Aylwin bore the reputation of the best debater in the
assembly, a man of infinite adroitness and lawyerlike sagacity,
skilled in making the worse appear the better reason, and in
exposing the weakness of an adversary's ease."

ADMIRAL VANSITTART, R.N.
Among the early settlers at Woodstock, C.W., was Vice- Admiral
Vansittart, a gentleman whose large expenditure in the county of
Oxford contributed much to its rapid advancement ; and whose
kindly manners and readiness to assist in all public improvements,
and in the personal struggles of many of his poorer neighbours,
have deservedly endeared his memory to a wide circle in that part
of the country.
The family of Vansittart are of Prussian extraction, and in that
country of considerable antiquity, having been, for generations, the
holders of an extensive property in the dutchy of Juliers, on the
confines of Holland, upon which stand the old town of Sittart;
whence the family name. On this property the present represen
tative ofthe old race of Von Sittart, as originally called, still resides.
The first ofthe name who settled in England, temp. William IIL,
was Peter, son of W. J. Von Sittart, of Dantzee, and grand son of
J. W. Von Sittart. of Juliers. He married a daughter of Robert
Saunderson, Esquire, of London, and died in 1705, leaving several
sons ; of whom the fifth, Arthur, of Shotesbrooke, in the county of
Berks, married in 1723, Martha, daughter of Sir John Stonehouse,
Bart. His eldest son and successor married a daughter of Lord
Coleraine, (extinct); whose son, again Arthur, married a daughter
of Lord Auckland. Of the children of the first named Arthur,
Robert, the second, was distinguished at the bar, and became pro
fessor of civil law at Oxford ; Henry, the third, became governor
of Bengal, and married a daughter of the Viscountess Newcomen,
(extinct) ; and George, the fourth son, father of the subjeot of this

424 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
notice, served with credit in India, where he accompanied Lord
Clive through his memorable campaigns, as private secretary and con
fidential interpreter. Another Vansittart, William, was a doctor
of divinity and prebend of Carlisle. The family of Vansittart,
whilst resident in England, have further become allied by marriage
with the noble houses of Craven, Plymouth, (extinct) Vaux and
Boston; and with the baronetcies of Palk, East, Chapman, and
Menzies. It has also given several members to the House of Com
mons : at one time no less than four Vansittarts held seats in the
same Parliament, one of whom, Nicholas, chancelier of the exche
quer, was afterwards created Lord Bexley. It will thus be seen
that Admiral Vansittart's family have occupied a somewhat conspi
cuous position during the century and a half that has seen them
British subjects.
Admiral Vansittart was the youngest son of George Vansittart,
Esquire, of Bisham Abbey, in the county of Berks, which, after
his return from India, he represented for a long succession of
years in Parliament, and of Sarah, eldest daughter of Sir James
Stonehouse, Bart. ; he was consequenty nephew to Henry Vansittart,
Esq., the former governor of Bengal (who was lost in the Aurora
frigate, on his return to India as chief commissioner for the settle
ment of public affairs there) and first cousin to the late Lord Bexley
who, for a lenghened period had been chancellor of the exchequer in
England, and occupied other important public and diplomatic trusts.
The admiral's eldest brother, General Vansittart, during the time
of the war, raised a battalion to a regiment of the line, which he
commanded, and after attaining the rank of full general, prior to the.
age of fifty, soon after which, he died during his father's lifetime.
He married a niece of the late Earl of Plymouth, and their eldest
son is now the proprietor of the Bisham Abbey property.
The subject of this notice entered the navy in 1791. Atthe
siege of Toulon by the republican army, in 1793, he was very
severely wounded while serving in a floating battery. In the fol
lowing year he assisted, in a boat belonging to L'Aigle frigate,
Captain Samuel Hood, at the reduction of Calvi. As a reward for
his conduct and his sufferings he was made lieutenant, in February,
1794, into the Stately, 64. In that ship he was present at the
capture of the Cape of Good Hope and the Dutch squadron in
SaldanhaBay. He was promoted in August, 1798 to the command
of the Hermes sloop ; was advanced to post-rank February 3, 1801 ;
was employed during that year and the following in the Aberga
venny, 54, Thunderer, 74, and Magicienne frigate; and held com
mand from 1803 until 18l2, and from the latter period until 1814,
of the Fortunie, 36, and Clarence, 74. When off the Havana, in
the summer of 1806, in company with the Surveillante, 38, Her-
cule, 74, an armed schooner, and a homeward-bound convoy, he fell
in with a number of Spanish vessels under the protection of a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 425
74-gun ship and two guarda-costas. Being detached in pursuit, he
succeeded, with the aid of the schooner, in capturing the guarda-
costas and upwards of twenty sail, deeply laden with sugar, &c.
With a noble spirit of disinterestedness he destroyed the whole of
his valuable prizes, in order that the convoy might not be detained,
although the Spaniards offered to bring off from the shore in
twelve hours a sum sufficient to ransom them. Among the captures
made by him at various times was Le Vice- Amir al Martin of 18
guns and 140 men, a most notorious privateer. She was taken on
the 11th October, 1811. He became a rear-admiral on the 22nd
July, 1830, and a vice-admiral on the 23rd November, 1841.
It may be remarked that with the exception of a very few months
in 1802-3, he was never a day out of commission, from the time he
first went to sea till the peace of 1814, a period of twenty-three
years. Marshall, in his Naval Biography, also relates that whilst
at Algiers, where he was ordered with his frigate to embark an
ambassador, "he was presented with a sword, and some other
trifling articles, and a bag of dollars ; the latter he instantly returned
to the Dey, at the same time informing him that a British officer
would never receive money for his own use from any foreign power,
but that the sword he should retain, and ever value as a mark of
the honor conferred on him by his highnesss."
He was prevented by bodily infirmity from personally serving
here, away from home, at the time of the rebellion, but to the
utmost of his ability assisted in organizing volunteers, &c, in his
own county.
. Admiral Vansittart came to this country in the year 1834, hav
ing previously dispatched Captain Drew, R. N., as a pioneer of the
settlement contemplated for his second son, Henry Vansittart. It
is understood to have been no part of the admiral's intention to re
main in this country himself, a result which was brought about by
the double misfortune of the death of his wife soon after landing
on this continent, and the complicated and unsatisfactory invest
ments of large sums by Captain Drew, as his agent, in this coun
try. (Which investments became the subject of arbitration by the
then Mr. Solicitor-General Hagerman, and were afterwards carried
into the courts of Chancery and Appeal, by Captain Drew, but with
awards throughout in the admiral's favor.) These circumstances
gave Canada one of her most valued residents. Admiral Vansit
tart never returned to Europe.
One of the first benefits confirmed by him on Woodstock and its
neighborhood, aided by the subscription of his friends in Eng
land, was the building of a commodious brick church, which he
partly endowed. He also brought out with him a highly talented
clergyman of the church of England, the Rev. William Bettridge,
who was inducted to the cure of the parish, and for whom he
provided a parsonage house. On the parish becoming a rectory,
54

426 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Admiral Vausittart surrendered the advowson to the bishop of
the diocese. The admiral was also very active in assisting to pro
cure the separation of the district of Brock (afterwards called the
county of Oxford) from the district of London, and materially aided
the arrangements for erecting the necessary public buildings. He
also built a school house ; and funds of his, prior to his arrival, had
been used in the construction of the first hotel in the town of
Woodstock. Admiral Vansittart shortly afterwards removed to a large block
of property that he had acquired about four miles to the east of
Woodstock. Here he was also instrumental in the construction of
a school house, and assisted in obtaining a small wooden church.
A village soon sprung up, which now bears the name of Eastwood
It is situated at the junction of the Paris and Brantford plank
roads. Just at the fork of which stands a tavern, the property of Mr.
Phelan, andjong known by his name, which was formerly " alone
in its glory," but now, besides several stores and shops, there stands
close by a large mill erected by Henry Vansittart, the admiral's son
This milling establishment consists of a large lumber mill, with
grist mill attached, and is worked by a steam engine of fifty horse
power. The village, also possesses a post office, and a station for
passengers and freight on the great western railway.
Admiral Vansittart was twice married, first to a sister ofthe present
Major-General Sir John Pennefather, by whom he left three sons,
the eldest of whom is now secretary to the government board of rail
way commissioners for Canada ; the second, Henry, resides upon, and
owns his father s property at Eastwood, C. W. ; and the third, Ed
ward Westby is a captain in the royal navy, and at present com-
mands the splendid frigate Ariadne, which accompanied the Prince
ot Wales to America; and two daughters, both married and living
in England. Admiral Vansittart married, secondly a Miss Steven
son in this country. He died about the year 1844, in the 65th
year of Ins age, and was buried at Woodstock; in the church at
which place a handsome monument has been erected to his memory
by his sons The stranger, as he passes through that part of the
country will find to this day that the name ofthe admiral commands
from all classes the warmest expression of affection and respect.
John George Vansittart, the eldest of the admiral's two
sons who remained in Canada, at first settled in Toronto, and
commenced the study ofthe law. His health, however, soon
began to fail, and he sought in consequence the more healthy
occupation of a country life. With this view he purchased a farm
near to his father s property in the county of Oxford, soon after
which he was seized with paralysis and totally deprived ofthe use
of one side This occurred shortly before the rebellion in 1837-
d», and by it he was prevented from taking any active part in the
stirring events of that time. F

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 427
Mr. Vansittart had married in 1835, Isabella Carrick, daughter
of James Royse Yeilding, Esq., and with his young family remained
unobtrusively on his farm, until he was made returning officer for
the county of Oxford, at the general election of 1848. The candi
dates on this occasion were the Honorable Francis Hincks, Peter
Carroll and Robert Campbell, Esquires. Here Mr. Vansittart
encountered a difficulty which first obtained for him public noto
riety. He found a legal defect in the qualification of Mr. Hincks,
which was urged on one side as an insurmountable obstacle to his
return, and as vehemently defended on the other. On this point,
which was purely a question of law, Mr. Vansittart is understood
to have consulted the crown lawyers of the day, deeming them to
be the legitimate advisers of law to an officer called upon to act by
warrant from the government, under penalty for non-performance, and
beyond two pounds a day for two days expenses, without emolument.
The advice Mr. Vansittart obtained led him to decide that Mr.
Hincks' qualification was worthless, and he therefore declined to
return that gentleman though possessed of a majority of votes, but
returned Mr. Carroll, who had polled the next largest number.
This act idsensed the liberal party, who looked to Mr. Hincks as
their head, in the highest degree against Mr. Vansittart, and upon
their appearing largely in the majority when the new Parliament
met, steps were immediately taken to bring him to condign punish
ment. The house summarily amended the return in favor of Mr.
Hincks, without reference to a " Grenville Committee," and that
honorable gentleman took his seat accordingly. Mr. Vansittart
was soon after summoned to the bar of the house to answer for
for having " acted illegally, in violation of the rights of the free
holders, and in breach of the privileges of Parliament," and if the
charge were sustained, a resolution was to be submitted to the house,
calling on his excellency to remove Mr. Vansittart from all offices
of honor or emolument which he held under the crown, and declar
ing him unfit to hold any such thereafter. Upon appearing at the
bar, Mr. Vansittart was refused the assistance of council, but
defended himself unaided so successfully that the extreme course
intended was abandoned, and the house contented itself with
memorializing the governor-general to remove him from the one
office of inspector of licences for the district of Brock, leaving him
still in the commission of the peace, and one of the government
auditors of public accounts in the county of Oxford. He gained,
at the same time, a large share of public sympathy and confidence.
In evidence of which a handsome public dinner was given him in
Montreal, and a piece of plate, purchased by quarter-dollar subscrip
tions. A public dinner was offered him in Belleville, which he
declined ; but at Hamilton, Woodstock and London, he accepted
similar demonstrations. On his return to his own county he was
met on its borders by an immense concourse of people, who escorted

428 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
him to his home. He was shortly after chosen as delegate from
the county of Oxford to attend the convention which met at Kings
ton, and the following year at Toronto (a sequel to the rebellion
losses bill), and was subsequently sent to watch the interests of the
county of Oxford on an important railway question before Parlia
ment. On the approach of the next general election, Mr. Vansit
tart was called upon to oppose the Honorable F. Hincks, (then
premier), and notwithstanding the powerful influence of that min
ister and his long hold of the county, Mr. Vansittart ran him
within sixty-four, out of over three thousand votes polled. In
addition to being a magistrate for many years, he has also been a
major of militia, served as a municipal councillor and as a lay dele
gate to the Church of England Synod. Mr. Vansittart is now
attached to the government as secretary to the honorable the board
of railway commissioners.
Mr. Henry Vansittart, second son of Admiral Vansittart, of
Eastwood, was actively engaged in cultivating and improving the
property which his father had provided for him, when the first din
of the rebellion, in 1837, roused him to busy exertion in defence
of British supremacy. After aiding in the discomforture of Dun-
combe's futile attempt in the county of Oxford, he repaired to the
frontier, and offered his services in any way they could be employed
against the rebels on Navy Island, fie was one of the volunteers
for the secret boat expedition which resulted in the cutting out of
the steamer Caroline, and was one of the second boats' crew under
Captain McCormack, who fell severely wounded whilst boarding
on the quarter of the steamer. He afterwards served in the
naval brigade, with Captain Graham, R. N. When these opera
tions came to a close, he obtained permission to raise a company to
serve with a regiment of enrolled militia, under Colonel Burrowes,
formerly of the Grenadier Guards. This company he rapidly filled
up to the requisite number, from the Scotch settlement of Zorra,
in his own county, and soon brought it to a state of acknowledged
proficiency. It was familiarly known as the Scotch company,
and was among the last to be disbanded of the so called, " six
months men." Mr Henry Vansittart then resumed his occupations
as an agriculturist, became a useful member of the agricultural
society, and by introducing improved stock, contributed materially
to the better breeds of horses and farm animals in the surround
ing district. He subsequently turned his attention to milling, and
was the first to introduce steam for that purpose in the county of
Oxford ; he built and equipped the powerful steam mills which
mainly gave rise to the village of Eastwood. He for many years
commanded the third battalion of Oxford militia; has been a coun
cillor for his township since municipal councils were first instituted;
and has always been ready to aid church and school matters, and
other local intetests in his neighborhood. In politics he has been

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 429
known as an unflinching conservative, and at his county elections has
always supported that side. Mr. Henry Vansittart married in
1840, Emily, daughter of the late Doctor Huggins, of the Island
of Nevis, in the West Indies, and has several children.

Hon. WM. MORRIS, M.L.C.
Mr. Morris was born at Paisley, in Scotland, on the 31st of
October, 1786. He emigrated with his parents, who were then in
comfortable circumstances, from Scotland to Upper Canada in
1801. Three years afterwards, his father having settled in the
city of Montreal, was engaged in business asamerchant there ; but
having lost a homeward bound ship in the Straits of Belleisle, and
no part of the cargo having been insured, owing to the carelessness
of an agent, and having sustained other heavy losses, he was com
pelled to close his business in Montreal, and retire to a farm near
Brockville. In 1809 his father died, leaving large debts in Montreal and
Scotland, and Mr. Morris continued at Brockville with his brother
and the younger members of the family, helping to support them
by his exertions, till the war of 1812 with the United States com
menced, when he left his business, and joined the militia "flank
companies as an ensign, having received his commission from Gen
eral Brock. In October of that year, he volunteered, with Lieu
tenant-Colonel Lethbridge, in the attack'of the British forces on
Ogdensburgh, and commanded the only militia gun^boat that sus
tained injury, one man having been killed and another wounded at
his side by a cannon shot. In 1813, he was present and took an
active part in the capture of Ogdensburgh, having been detached
in command of a party to take possession of the old French forts
then at that place, and performed the duty. His comrades in
arms, some of whom are still living, speak in high terms of his
soldierly bearing, and of the affection with which he inspired his
men, during this early portion of his career. He continued to
serve till 1814, when a large body of troops having arrived in the
colony from the Peninsula, he left the militia service, and returned
to Brockville, to assist his brother in the management of their
business there.
In 1816, he proceeded with the military and emigrant settlers
to the military settlement near the Rideau, and there commenced

430 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
mercantile business, at what is now the substantial and prosperous
town of Perth, but which was then a wilderness. He continued
for some years to bestow his active attention on the mercantile
business conducted at Perth by himself, and at Brockville by his
brother, the late Alexander Morris, Esq., and having prospered, in
1820 an incident took place that marked the character of the man,
and was an index to all his future career. In that year, he and
his brother received two handsome pieces of plate from the creditors
of their late father in Glasgow, for having voluntarily, and without
solicitation, paid in full all the debts owing by his estate. Such
respect for a father's memory indicated a high-toned rectitude
that could not fail to command success.
In this year, also, the political career of Mr. Morris commenced,
he having been elected by the settlers of the county of Lanark to
represent them in the provincial Parliament. He soon assumed an
active and prominent position in that assembly, and in 1820 took one
of the leading steps in his political life, when he moved and carried
in the Assembly an address to the king, asserting the claim of the
Church of Scotland to a share of the clergy reserves under the
imperial statute 31, Geo. III. cap. 31. With no hostility to the
Church of England, but yet with a sturdy perseverance and a
strong conviction of right, he urged the claims of his church, basing
them upon the Act of Union between England and Scotland. The
colonial government resisted his pretensions ; but sixteen years
afterwards the twelve judges in England decided in effect that Mr.
Morris was right. In 1835, he was elected for the sixth time con
secutively to Parliament for the county of Lanark, and on this last
occasion was not a candidate. In 1836, he was called to a seat in
the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In 1837, he proceeded
to the Colonial Office, Downing street, London, with a petition to
the king and Parliament from the the Scottish inhabitants of both
provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, asserting their claims to
equal rights with those enjoyed by their fellow-subjects of English
origin. He was selected for this mission by a meeting of delegates
from all parts of the province held at Cobourg. Subsequently he
received from the Scottish inhabitants of the province a handsome
piece of plate, bearing an appropriate inscription, as a token of their
approbation of his public services.
On his return to Canada, in 1837 and 1838, he was actively
engaged during those years in drilling and organizing the militia
of the county of Lanark, of which he was senior colonel, and twice
sent to the frontiers detachments of several regiments, going in com
mand on one of the occasions himself. In 1841 he was appointed
warden of the district of Johnstown, under the new municipal
council act, and carried the law into successful operation.
In 1844, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council
in Sir Charles T. Metcalfe's administration, and also receiver-gen-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 431
eral of the province. He was a most efficient departmental officer,
and proved himself, as Lord Metcalfe described him, " a valuable
public servant." While receiver-general, he introduced into that
department a new system of management, and paid into the public
chest whilst he held the office £11,000, as interests on the daily
deposits of public money, an advantage to the public which had
never before been attempted.
In 1846, Mr. Morris resigned the office of receiver-general, and
was appointed president of the Executive Council, the duties of
which office he discharged with great efficiency and vigor. In
1848, on the retirement of the administration of which he was a
member, he retired to private life, with health impaired by the
assiduous attention he had given to the public duties. Till the
year 1853, when he was seized with the disease which eventually
terminated his career, he continued, when his health permitted, to
take an active part in the Legislative Council. But after that year,
from failing health and strength, he ceased to take any active part
either in politics or business. Eighteen months before his
decease his wife took her departure — death having found her at
the post of duty, watching by his bed side. Yet, though the last
years of his life were passed amid suffering and the quietude of a
sick-bed, he was not in the bustle of their more active life forgotten
by many- friends. He had done much to write his name in the
history of his adopted country, and the upper house, whose dignity
he had contributed materially to establish and preserve, did no
more than was his due in placing on record their sense of his
merits. One by one the veterans of our country are passing away,
leaving behind in many instances, as in the one now before us, to
their posterity the legacy of an honorable name, and the remem
brance of lives of rectitude and usefulness. When such men pass
from among us, it is well to recall the past, and learn a lesson from
the incidents oftheir history; and we have therefore taken means
to prepare the foregoing sketch of a useful life. A clear, logical,
vigorous speaker, he was always listened to with respect, and having
a very extensive knowledge of parliamentary law and practice, he
did much to establish the character of legislation in that branch of
the legislature of which he was so long a member, and owing to
his high moral character and firm adherence to principle, wielded
a very beneficial influence in that body. Few pubhc men pass
through life, and carry with them more of public confidence and
more general respect than did Mr. Morris. He left a bright
example of spotless integrity to us in these troublous times. In
private and public life he shewed himself to be that noblest of
the works of God — an honest man, and when full of years and of
honors, after five years of patient suffering and Christian resigna
tion he entered upon his rest, he left the fragrant memories of his
busy active career, as an example and an incentive to men in public

432 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and private positions, to follow his footsteps. He died at Montreal,
on the 29th June, 1858.
His eldest son, Alexander Morris, Esq., of Montreal, advocate,
is the author of " Canada and her resources," an essay which
obtained one of the prizes awarded by the Paris Exhibition Com
mittee of Canada, in 1855, and was the successful candidate for
the south riding of Lanark, at the general election in 1861.

Right Hon. LORD METCALFE, K.G.C.B.
Great as the political acumen of Lord Metcalfe undoubtedly
was, and richly as he was gifted by nature with talents of the
highest order, and an intellect clear, comprehensive, and far-seeing,
yet he earned for himself a far higher name than any political dis
tinction can bestow, by his virtues and his charities, by the gentle
ness of his character and the truly Christian and liberal spirit which
guided his every act. As a statesman, a nobleman, and a scholar,
in whatever light we view him, he may emphatically be said to
have been a great and a good man ; he closed a political career of
forty-five years, during the whole of which, with the exception of
a few months, he was actively employed in the service of his coun
try, and every quarter of England's vast colonial possessions bears
testimony to his industry and talent. In India, Jamaica, and
Canada, his name will long be held in remembrance and veneration,
and England has acknowledged him as one of her most devoted ser
vants and accomplished deputies. Long as that flag, " the proud
attendant on the sun through all his daily path," continues to
wave over a free and generous people, so long will the name of
Metcalfe hold a high place in the roll of England's worthies.
Charles Theophilus, second son of Theophilus Metcalfe, of Berk
shire, was born on Sunday, the 30th of January, 1785 ; his family
belongs to that most noble class, the country gentlemen of England,
and his father was a member of the House of Commons, one
of the directors of the Honorable East India Company, and
possessed no little interest and consideration at that conclave of
merchant princes. Charles was early destined for the company's
service, as were also, we believe, both of his brothers ; the eldest,
Theophilus, died in China in 1822, and the younger is now in
India. The subject of this memoir was sent to Eton, and a class
mate of his, now holding a high office in the state, writing to a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 433
friend in Canada, says : " When we were at Eton, young Metcalfe
was noted for his great kindness of disposition and his remarkable
aptitude at acquiring knowledge and mastering difficulties." At
this school he remained till about his fifteenth year, when he re
ceived his first appointment, and in 1800 sailed for India. On
his arrival at Calcutta, he, according to custom, entered the college
at Fort William, established by the Marquis of Wellesley, forthe
instruction of young men in the company's service in the native
languages of the country.
At this period the affairs of the east were conducted by two
celebrated men, Lord Wellesley, one of the politicians and most
accomplished scholars of his day, being governor-general, and Lord
Lake, commander-in-chief ; the former paid a parental attention to
the college he had been the means of establishing, and he was soon
made acquainted with the rapid progress of Mr. Metcalfe, whom
he appointed assistant to the resident at the court of Sindeah,
one of the Mahratta chiefs ; the resident being, we believe, the
present Lord Cowley. Here he remained about a year, when he
was recalled to Calcutta, and appointed to a situation in the office
of secretary to the supreme government, in the discharge of the
duties of which he evinced a talent for business which soon brought
him into favorable notice, and in consequence the marquis soon
promoted him to his own office.
In 1803, the Mahratta chiefs, aided by the French, had got
possession of Delhi, and expelled the rightful sovereign, Shah
Aulum; they were expelled by Lord Lake, and Aulum reinstalled,
who Uved only five years, dying in 1808. Agra was also taken
possession of by the British. By a treaty with the Rajah of Bhurt-
pore, that prince had placed himself under the protection of the Bri
tish, and had engaged to assist them against Sindeah, but when the
war broke out, he forgot his promises, formed a coalition with
Holkar, and Bhurtphore was invested by Lord Lake, to whom it
was delivered in 1805, and the Rajah compelled to pay a fine of
twenty lacs of rupees. During this campaign, Mr. Metcalfe at
tended Lord Lake as a volunteer, or perhaps, as it was then custo
mary for a civil servant always to accompany military expeditions,
he had at his own request been selected for that purpose ; how
ever it may have been, there appears to have existed a certain de
gree of jealousy between the civil and military officers, and Lord
Lake took no pains to conceal his distaste for tliese civil attendants
on his camp, " men," to use his own expression, " who would not
fight themselves, and were in the way of others." These taunts
reached the ears of Mr. Metcalfe, and as if to prove the fallacy of
the reasoning, he signalized himself on many occasions during the
war of 1804, 1805, and 1806, particularly at the siege of Deeg, a
city about fifty-seven miles north-east from Agra, where Lord Lake
defeated the army of Holkar on the 15th of November, 1804, and
55

434 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
which led to the treaty of 10th April, 1805. At the siege of this
city, Mr. Metcalfe armed with a walking-stick, placed himself at
the head of an attacking party, and was among the first to enter
the town. This anecdote was first given to the Canadian public
through the columns of the Cobourg Star, furnished as we are
informed, by a gentleman who was present. At the conclusion of
the war, by the subjugation of the chiefs, Mr. Metcalfe returned
to Calcutta, but was almost immediately sent as envoy to the
court of Rao Holkar, and from thence was transferred, in a few
months, to Delhi, in the capacity of assistant to the resident
agent ; here he remained two years, which time he spent in
perfecting his knowledge of the various languages, and making
himself master of the policy of the Indian chiefs, as also gaining
information as to the social and mercantile state of the province.
Since the commencement of the war in 1803, several changes
had taken place in the government of India. Late in 1804, the
Marquis of Wellesley had tendered his resignation, and Lord Corn
waUis, who had been governor-general from 1786 to 1792, during
which period Tippoo Sultaun had been subdued, and who had sub
sequently signalized himself in the war of revolution in the states,
was appointed to succeed him ; he arrived in 1805, but died in the
October of the same year. Sir George Barton acted as governor
till the arrival of Lord Minto in 1807.
In 1808, disturbances had broken out in Lahore and the Punjauh,
a tract of country whieh derives its name from its being watered
by the five easterly branches of the Indus, and famous from its
having been the limit of the expedition of Alexander the Great ;
to this district Mr. Metcalfe was sent by Lord Minto to settle the
differences, which he accomplished in such a manner as to gain
the confidence of the governor-general ; and in after life he has
declared that the compliments and kindness bestowed on him by
the successful issue of that negotiation were amongst the most
grateful and cherished recollections of his life ; and well might it
be so, for the long continuance of the peace, and the subsequent
amicable relations fully justified the confidence placed in him by
Lord Minto. Many anecdotes of his life at this period are before
us, given by persons then in daily communication with him ;
but the relation would tresspass too far on the space at our dis
posal, and we also omit them for reasons hereafter to be explained.
Saib Metcalfe was beloved by all who knew him ; the natives held
him in an estimation almost equal to that they entertained for their
own great men : the stout young Englishman, in whom the absence
of official hauteur and whose affability, joined to his almost lavish
generosity, won their hearts. He remained, however, but a short
time at Lahore. On perfecting the object of his mission, he
returned to Calcutta, when he shortly afterwards accompanied
Lord Minto in a tour to the presidency of Madras. In 1809 or

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 435
1810, he was sent a second time to the court of Sindeah, where
he remained till May, 1811, when he was recalled to Calcutta,
previous to his being appointed chief British resident at Delhi,
one of the most responsible offices in Anglo-Indian government, as
it embraces all our diplomatic relations with all the northern tribes,
and requiring talent and energy second only to that looked for in
the head of the government, and at a time particularly arduous, as
the then monarch was a man not easily kept in check, and among
the proudest of the Indian princes. At Delhi, Mr. Metcalfe re
mained till 1817 and 1818, and there are in Canada many gentle
men who knew his lordship while there, and who bear a ready tes
timony, not only to the efficiency with which he conducted the af
fairs entrusted to him, but also to the urbanity and generosity of
his character. On his return to Calcutta he was appointed chief
secretary to the supreme government, and private secretary to the
Marquis of Hastings, who had been appointed governor-general in
1813, and held it till 1822, when he resigned, having twice re
ceived the thanks of the East India Company and the Imperial
Parliament for his services. He left India in a most prosperous
and happy condition, and was succeeded by Lord Amherst. We
may as well mention that in 1824 Lord Hastings was appointed
governor of Malta, and died 28th October 1825, on board the Re
venge, in the Bay of Baia, near Naples ; he was a most distinguished
officer, and appears to have been the model on which Lord Met
calfe formed so much of his political system.
In 1819, Mr. Metcalfe was appointed chief resident agent to the
Nizam of the Deccan. While here, where he remained six years,
he succeeded, in 1822, to the baronetcy, by the death of his
brother, Sir Theophilus; his younger brother Thomas, is now
resident at Delhi.
During the time that Sir Charles Metcalfe was at Deccan, the
money matters of India were in a sad state of confusion ; the gov
ernment was obliged to borrow at immense rates of interest. There
was at this period a banking house in Hyderabad (that of Messrs.
Palmer & Co.), which had great influence ; but being anxious to
extend its circulation, it proposed to receive a protegi of Lord
Hastings, Sir John Rumboldt, into partnership, on condition of
being made the fiscal agent for the government in that district.
The terms were agreed to ; money was borrowed at exorbitant
rates of interest, and repaid by authorising the banker to collect it
from the district farmers for the taxes ; this proceeding bred much
dissatisfaction and led to no little difficulty. Sir Charles Metcalfe,
however put an end to it, although in opposition to the wishes and
interest of the governor. In 1825, trouble began to show itself
in Upper India, and Sir Charles was ordered up the country.
To explain the origin of this, the second war, it is necessary to
state that Blunder Sing, the Rajah of Bhurtpore, who had been

436 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
defeated by Lord Lake in 1805, died in October, 1823, and was
succeeded by his brother, Bhuldeo Sing, who dying in February,
1825, left a son, Buliowret Sing, then six years of age, as his suc
cessor ; his claim to the throne was disregarded by his uncle,
Doorjan Lall, who assumed the sovereignty, and determined to de
fend it by arms. The British bound, both by interest and treaty,
to protect the nephew of Bhuldoes, first tried negotiation ; but that
failing, Lord Combermere was despatched against the usurper, with
an army of 23,000 men, and a large train of artillery with mortars
and rockets. This fortress, situated in the midst of an extensive
plain, had long afforded shelter to the disaffected and refractory ;
it was defended by a wall sixty feet thick and nearly eight miles
in extent, protected by bastions and a glacis reaching to the level
of the top of the wall ; it had long been considered impregnable
by the natives, having withstood many sieges. Lord Lake had
made three attempts to take it, but not being provided with a suf
ficient battering train, he failed, and a common taunt by the na
tives was, " Oh, Mr. Englishman, why don't you take Bhurtpore ?"
On the 18th of January, Lord Combermere took Bhurtpore by as
sault, having reduced the greater part of it to ashes by shells and
rockets ; he rode over the glacis and the impregnable city fell
into the hands of the English. The amount of prize-money was
large ; the share of Lord Combermere, who, for this act, got a step
in the peerage, was nearly £30,000; Doorjan Lall was charged
with the expenses of the military operations, amounting to very
nearly 25 millions of rupees, and young Bulwuret was reinstated.
Sir Charles was present with the commander-in-chief throughout
this campaign.
In 1827, Sir Charles Metcalfe was called to a seat in the Supreme
Council, and in 1828 he turned his attention to a question then
agitating India, and causing no little excitement in the company's
affairs — the granting a licence of residence to Europeans. A reso
lution to that effect passed the Supreme Council of the Bengal
presidency on the 17th of February, 1829 ; another question at the
same time began to arise — the granting full liberty to the Indian
press. With the history of this matter we are but very imperfectly
acquainted, and shall pass it over in a few words. A. decree had
been passed by whieh every editor was obliged before publication
to send a copy of his paper to the government office, and the gov
ernor had the power of striking out whatever he deemed objec
tionable, and, consequently, the journals often appeared with large
blank spaces. In order to give this law effect it was necessary
that it should be registered by the councils of the different presi
dencies ; that of Bengal at once did so, while in Bombay, where Sir
John Grant, the original " wild elephant between two tame ones,"
of Lord Ellenborough's letter to Sir J. Malcolm on this subject, was
recorder, refused to do it, and the consequence was, that while in

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 437
Bombay the press was comparatively free ; in Bengal it was subject
to rigorous censorship, from which it was not relieved till 1835,
when Sir Charles Metcalfe was acting governor-general. By some,
the removal of the restrictions on the press is attributed to Lord
Hastings, but, from all we can learn on the subject, without justice.
There is no doubt he had formed some such intention, but he did
not carry it into effect, and the credit of having accomplished it
is fully due to Sir Charles.
The period for which members ofthe Supreme Council are chosen
is five years ; but on the expiration, Sir Charles was re-chosen
for two years more ; chiefly, we believe, that his great knowledge
of Indian affairs might be more available, pending the debate then
going on in England with regard to the renewal and remodelling
the charter of the company ; and both he and Lord William Ben-
tick, who had succeeded Lord Amherst as governor-general, cor
responded fully with the government on that subject, and the in
formation which they communicated influenced the British minis
try in the leading features of that measure. Some idea of the
magnitude of the affairs of the company may be gleaned from the
following fact : —
Exclusive of the regular despatches, the explanatory volumes
accompanying them received in England, from 1793 to 1813,
amounted to 9,094, and from 1814 to 1829, to 12,414 ; pending
the debates on the Indian Bill the amount was far above, even the
best average, nearly 830 per annum. During the administration
of Lord William Bentinck, another great reform took place in
India, in 1833 ; the custom of suttees, the burning of woman on the
funeral pile of their husband's was abolished.
In 1834, Sir Charles Metcalfe was appointed governor at Agra,
but late in the same year, he was unanimously called on to assume
the duties of governor-general, vacant by the recall of Lord William
Bentinck. It was during his tenure of this office that he passed
the law above referred to, granting full freedom to the press of
India, arranging the details and changes consequent on the new
order of affairs, and relieved by Lord Auckland, in 1836, he
again resumed the government of Agra, but soon after, being
unable to convince the board of directors, in LeadenhaU street,
of the propriety of his measure regarding the press, he resigned
his office, and prepared to return to England, having been created
a civil knight grand cross of the Bath, by William IV. in 1837.
This ended his Indian career, in which, during a period of thirty-
seven or thirty-eight years, he had exhibited talents of the highest
order, and filled, with great credit to himself and great benefit to
the company, the highest offices, and from which he retired be
loved by all who knew him, and held in high estimation by the
natives of all castes, in proof of which we could produce many
touching anecdotes, but we omit to do so as we are in hopes that

438 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
some abler pen than ours, and having more command of authentic
materials, will favor the public with a fuller account of the life of
Sir Charles ; indeed, if we are rightly informed, it is the intention
of a gentleman well fitted for the task to give us such a desidera
tum ; and, from his talent and personal acquaintance for many
years with his lordship, and Indian affairs in general, a guarantee
is afforded by the work being ably accomplished.
On retiring from the service of the Honorable East India
Company, Sir Charles Metcalfe determined to pass the remainder
of his life at his paternal estate of Fernhill, in Berkshire ; he had,
as he said himself, no taste for the political tumoil which then
agitated England, besides his constitution Deeded assistance.
Thirty-seven years' active service in India does not usually give
health or strength, and he promised himself for the residue of his
days the richest of all enjoyments — the happy life of an English
country gentleman : but his country again called for his service,
and to that call he would never turn a deaf ear ; he at once
abandoned his intentions, sacrificed his domestic comforts, and left
a home which his presence had gladdened but for one short
year, to embark again on the stormy sea of poUtics.
The island of Jamaica had long enjoyed the privileges of a re
presentative government, whieh was granted to it in 1661 by
Charles IL, under the administration of D'Oyley, who had been
appointed governor by Cromwell, on the surrender of the island to
the English. The abolition of slavery and the introduction of the
apprentice system had stirred up feelings of discontent, which
heightened by the endeavors of certain fanatics and the beautiful
liberality of Lord Mulgrave, as afterwards the same gentleman
added fuel to the flames of discontent in Ireland. Sir Lionel Smith
had succeeded Lord Mulgrave, but unfortunately he was not calcu
lated to calm the troubled waters ; the provincial ParUament refused
to act, and a bill to abrogate the constitutional charter was intro
duced by the whigs in the Imperial Parliament ; but fortunately it
was opposed by the tories, and lost by a majority of five, which
defeat was of the greatest consequence, as it led to the total over
throw of the vvhigs a few years afterwards, and was the commence
ment of a series of parliamentary overthrows, which left them power
less for the remaining tenure of their office. In consequence ofthe
loss of the Jamaica bill, Sir Lionel Smith was recalled; and, on the
11th of July, 1839, Sir Charles Metcalfe was sworn in a member of
the Privy Council, and governor-general of Jamaica, where he
arrived in the September following. His first act was to call the
Parliament together ; and, in the Royal Gazette of November 21,
1839, we find that he had restored confidence, and had induced
the Parliament to aot in union with the government ; some out
breaks occurred, but they were speedily crushed, and their
instigators punished, some capitally. Sir Charles, by his mildness

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 439
and determination, his generosity and benevolence, his strict en
forcement of the laws, and his justice ever tempered with mercy,
soon tranquillised the island ; prosperity, long checked, again
showed itself; confidence was restored, for all parties felt con
fidence in the governor. One might fancy this would have been
the crowning work of his life, but it pleased the Almighty
dispenser of events that another, and if possible, a more glorious
triumph should be his. A sore in his face had been gradually
gaining ground, and had assumed a decided character, aided no
doubt by the climate and great mental anxiety ; he consequently
found it necessary to return to England for the benefit of medical
advice ; he resigned his office, much to the grief of the colonists,
and against the wishes of the government ; and Lord Elgin having
been appointed his successor, he, on the 20th of May, 1842, sailed
from Jamaica in H.M.S. Vestal. Early in July he underwent an
operation, which was performed at Mivart's Hotel, by Sir Benjamin
Brodie. The scene of his departure from Jamaica is described as having
been such as the inhabitants had never before witnessed : all
places of business were shut, a general grief oppressed the crowds
which flocked to bid him adieu; and amid blessings and prayers
he took leave of a people whom he had restored from a state of
almost hopeless anarchy to peace, happiness, and prosperity. A
proof of the estimation in which he was held is found in the fact
that within a few months £5,000 were subscribed for a statue to
him, and a large sum to found an hospital, to be called the Metcalfe
Dispensary. The hospital was completed in 1843. The statue,
which was entrusted to Mr. Bailey, is of granite, nine feet high.
Sir Charles is represented in a full military court dress, with
trousers and boots, and a cloak hanging over the left shoulder. It
is said to be an exquisite piece of work, and now stands opposite
the Senate house, in Spanish town, Jamaica. Mr. Bailey had
previously sent from his studio a magnificent bust of Sir Charles
in marble, for Calcutta.
In the year 1842, declining health compelled Sir Charles Bagot
to tender his resignation of the governor-generalship of Canada —
a government which had become so troublesome that few could be
found to undertake it. Sir Robert Peel sought among the crowd
of his political partizans for one qualified to assume so arduous an
office. At length the name of Sir Charles Metcalfe presented
itself, and he, though personally unknown to a single member of
the ministry, was solicited to accept it, and, fortunately his health
had so much improved that he was enabled to yield to the solicita
tions of the ministry.
No sooner was it known in Canada that Sir Charles Metcalfe
had been appointed to the government, than both parties congra
tulated themselves thereon. The radicals asserted that he was a

440 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
whig in principle and in practice — on what grounds it is difficult
to imagine, as he had never taken any part in English politics,
not' even to the voting at an election. The tories had no reason to
object to him, even if such had been the case, as not only whig
governors, but even whig secretaries of state, had latterly heen
guided by the principle of that party in colonial matters ; and they
had much rather have the destinies of the country placed in the
hands of such a man as Lord John (now Earl) Russell, than in
those of very many English conservatives ; besides, the previous
career of Sir Charles in the East Indies and Jamaica gave
reasonable grounds to hope all good at his hands. His character
for generosity and true liberality had preceded him, and all were
prepared to hail his arrival with the liveliest demonstrations of
satisfaction. The radicals, although unwilling to lose the influence
of Sir Charles Bagot's name, and dreading lest some known oppo
nent of their principles might be selected, evinced on the arrival
of Sir Charles Metcalfe an enthusiasm nearly equal to that with
which they had hailed the advent of Sir F. B. Head. It is true,
they did not placard the walls ; but their delight was unfeigned.
The tories, on the other hand, taught by bitter experience, and
smarting under the ridicule they had incurred by their pompous
displays of welcome to the friend and relative of Wellington, kept
aloof from any demonstration which might commit them either as
partisans or opponents of the new governor. They acted as they
had done in the case of Sir Francis Bond Head, though not from
the same motives.
Lord Sydenham had assumed the government of the province
with an avowed and specific object in view — the union of Upper
and Lower Canada. To insure this, it was necessary that he
should strike out a new line of policy, and one unknown among
us colonists. The suspension of the constitutional act in Lower
Canada, and the dependent character of the Special CouncU
appointed by the Crown, and holding the office during pleasure,
easily insured consent to the proposed measure on the part of that
section of the province. No sooner had the new governor obtained
it than he hastened to Upper Canada, Sir George Arthur having
previously informed him of the difficulties he would have to
encounter. The party then in power in Upper Canada were to aman
opposed not only tothe union, but to the governor; their sup
porters were, however, divided, and the radicals, whom the
rebellion had deprived of all influence, gladly rallied round his
lordship. The continued opposition of the heads of departments, and many
officials who had seats in the house, forced the publication of the
celebrated Russell despatches — the groundwork of responsible
government. Had a thunderbolt fallen among them, the horror
and dismay of the official party could not have been greater — its

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 441
effect was magical — it did its work so instantaneously, that the
house not only agreed to the resolutions on the union as dictated
by the governor, but received most graciously every message he
sent down. On one occasion, as if to try how far their subser
viency would go, he replied to one of their addresses by telling
them plainly to mind their own business ; but the awful scroll,
bearing date, "Downing street, September 18th," and signed
" John Russell," was constantly before them. The union and
clergy reserve measures having been carried, his lordship hastened
to call to power that party from which he had received the most
strenuous support. Mr. Hagerman, the leader of the conservative
party, hopeless of accomplishing anything, accepted a seat on the
bench, vacant by the retirement of Mr. Justice Sherwood ; Mr.
Draper was promoted to the office of attorney-general, with Mr. R.
Baldwin solicitor-general ; and Mr. Small received the lucrative
appointment of solicitor to the college council. It appears to have
been a very great oversight in Mr. Draper, his accepting office with
Mr. Baldwin, because it very materially lessened the confidence of
his party, and opened the door for other measures, of which it is
well known he disapproved. Having made these appointments,
his lordship returned to Montreal, leaving Sir George Arthur in
power as lieutenant-governor. During the interval which elapsed
between the passage of the union resolutions in the Upper Canada
House of Assembly on the 5th of January, 1840, and its declaration
on the 10th of February, 1841, parties in both sections were
undergoing a singular series of mutations : the leaders of the Upper
Canada conservatives were daily giving in their adhesion to the
government of Lord Sydenham — the appointment of Mr. Baldwin,
and the general distribution of offices, had greatly conciliated the
radicals — vast plans of public improvement were announced by the
government, and on the first election after the union, the upper
province returned a large majority pledged to support the govern
ment — the most conservative constituencies were broken up or
paralysed. But while Upper Canada thus supported the govern
ment, and its offices were bestowed on the anti-British party,
Lower Canada declared against it ; and they who had been most
conspicuous in their opposition to the policy of Viger and Papineau
were promoted. Thus Lord Sydenham hoped to prevent any
great coalition of parties, by taking the supporters of the govern
ment from contending ranks ; but the very circumstance on which
he trusted most for safety proved his ruin. Between Mr. Draper
and Mr. Baldwin there could be no community of feeling, and
the conduct of the latter soon forced his withdrawal from the
Council, and the effective radical party was formed by his union
with the French members. Lord Sydenham died, and was suc
ceeded by Sir Charles Bagot, of whose administration history says
sufficient. 56

442 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The events which led to the memorable note of the 13th of
September, 1842, have been given to the publie by a far cleverer
pen than ours. Well would it have been for the writer of that
explanation, if he had continued to act on the principles he then
enunciated. Had he done so, we should not have found the con
servatives obliged to throw aside all other considerations, and
justify their support of Mr. Draper by a fear that should he quit
the helm of affairs, Mr. Baldwin must be recalled. In 1842
another item was added to the list of evils inflicted on Canada in
the eventful month of September : already that month had
produced Lord John Russell's despatch, responsible government
resolutions, the death of Lord Sydenham, and now a total change
in the cabinet. Messrs. Draper and Ogden made way for Messrs.
Baldwin and Lafontaine. Mr. Aylwin was appointed solicitor-
general for Canada East. Mr. Sherwood was removed without
reason, to give place to Mr. Small. Mr. Hincks having made his
peace with Mr. Baldwin, retained the inspector-generalship ; and,
in order to render the sacrifice complete, Mr. Davidson was removed
from the crown land office, to make room for Mr. Morin, while Mr.
Parent was taken from the bureau of a radical paper in Quebec,
and made clerk of the Executive Council. The following retained
their places : Mr. Killaly, president of the board of works ; Mr.
Parke, surveyor-general ; and Mr. Harrison, secretary west ; and
Mr. Daly, secretary east. It were a pity not to preserve, in
regular form, a list of the Council which effected more mischief,
bred more ill-will, and were actuated by more rancorous feelings
against all who opposed them than any council we ever had or are
even likely to have.
List of the Canada Council as it stood when remodelled by Sir
Charles Bagot : —
President of the Council, R. B. Sullivan ; receiver-general, H. J
Dunn; inspector-general, F. Hincks; commissioner of crown lands,
A. N. Morin; president of board of works, H. H. Killaly;
attorney-general, east, L. Lafontaine ; solicitor-general, east, T. C.
Aylwin; attorney-general, west, R. Baldwin; solicitor-general, west,
J. E. Small; secretary east, D. Daly; secretary west, S. B.
Harrison. Here then, was the ministry to which the destinies of
Canada were entrusted. It is impossible to say what effect a dissolu
tion might have had at that moment, it could not have made matters
worse. On the part of the governor, it was attempted to attribute
these changes to force; and a member of his family actually wrote
home to persons in the highest station, declaring that the conser
vatives had forced Sir Charles Bagot to adopt the line of conduct
which he did. Illness forced Sir Charles Bagot to resign the
government', and Sir Charles Metcalfe was named as his successor.
On the 20th of March, 1843, Sir Charles Metcalfe arrived at
Boston by the Columbia, and immediately hastened to Kingston,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 443
where he was sworn in as governor-general on the 29th, and issued
the usual proclamation. Relieved from the cares of government,
Sir Charles Bagot rallied, and some hopes were entertained that he
might recover; and, in the interval between the 29th of March
and the 19th of May, he received the most marked and delicate
attention from his successor. On the latter day he died.
For some months after the arrival of Sir Charles Metcalfe,
things appeared to be going on just as smoothly as Mr. Baldwin
could desire. The Council had been styled eminent by his excel
lency. Mr. Walker was appointed to office, Mr. Powell was
dismissed — traitors were pardoned — new commissions of the peace
had been issued for the several districts. But although all was
working smoothly, the experience of Sir Charles in affairs of
colonial government, assisted as he was by his able secretary, soon
enabled him to penetrate, not only the policy, but even the cha
racters of the eminent men by whom the affairs of the country had
been managed ; he measured their powers at a glance, and felt
assured of a new victory, when the hour of pressing it should
arrive ; he distinctly announced his view of responsible govern
ment ; he reserved to the head of the executive the right to select
his officers. Almost imperceptibly, certainly without those most
interested in the matter being aware of it, energy began to infuse
itself in the conservative ranks — confidence in Sir Charles was
established, the more when it was generally known that he was
supported by the home ministry in his reading of the resolutions
of 1841. Two other circumstances tended to cement a tacit
understanding between the parties : first, the ministers were
evidently not satisfied, and the little cloud, not bigger than a man's
hand, had shown itself above the horizon; and, second, a trip which
his excellency took through the province, in the course of the
summer, had sown the seeds of his future popularity. Up to
this period, however, the conservatives had made no open
demonstration. On the 28th of September, Parliament was opened, previous to
this, the question of the removal of the seat of government agitated
the public mind in the upper province, in fact, it had been made
a party .question by the Council, and the people therefore were not
astonished at the almost immediate resignation of Mr. Harrison.
This was blow number one. Still Mr. Baldwin and his party
trusted to their vast majorities, and to the active offices of those
whom gratitude for past services made their friends ; and never
was a ministry served with such ready devotion ; both intra et
extra muros, both within and without the house, their cause was
well supported. The next blow came from the Legislative Council,
where Mr. Draper, who, against the wishes of his party, but at the
express desire of Sir Charles Bagot, had taken his seat, moved a
series of resolutions condemnatory of the removal of the seat of

444 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
government, which, after a debate of nearly a week, he carried by
a large majority on the 16th of October.
The independence of the parliament bill, as originally introduced,
betrayed something like fear ; the bill for the suppression of secret
societies, while it showed the malevolent feelings by which they
were actuated, evinced downright madness and ignorance of con
stitutional law. Then came the university bill, the district council
bill, the assessment bill, and the school bill, all founded on the
most democratic principles. They continued to press upon the
governor the most obnoxious appointments — they became petulant
and wayward — they winced under the galling attacks of their
opponents in the lower house, while in the upper their forlorn
condition almost caused a feeling of pity. In the former, the
conservatives, unable to affect anything by open vote, adopted the
fabrician policy of delay, and attacking in detail ; and never was
greater tact or more perfect knowledge of parliamentary usages
displayed than was then shown by Sir A. N. MacNab, and the
choice band which acted with him. With an overwhelming
majority against him, we have seen him so worry his opponents,
that on the floor of the house they often forgot, not only the office
they held, but their personal dignity.
During these struggles, it was amusing to mark the calmness of
Sir Charles Metcalfe. He never for a moment forgot himself:
" Gentlemen, introduce and carry your measures ; you have
responsible government." He saw tnat their feet were on the
wires, and he skilfully concealed the gun. In answer to a remark
made by the writer of this sketch to one ofthe Council, he received
this reply : " I tell you what it is, the governor is not with us, but
our majority in the house will tell." Added to their other diffi
culties, Mr. Wakefield's partisanship, and other members were
suspected ; though the divisions still went on favorably, it was
evident that the lesson of jealousy had been infused.
In Upper Canada, feelings of the bitterest hostilities were
engendered, by the absurd attempts of the Council to crush the
liberty of the press ; and it was really laughable to see and hear
them, in the highways and byways of Kingston, extolling their
own virtues and prowess. Every one who had the honor of being
on speaking terms with any of them, was as deeply versed in the
mysteries of the Council Chamber as was the president thereof
himself. The various bar-rooms of the hotels in Kingston nightly
resounded with tho ding of political strife. The debates in the
lower house were still carried on with vigor. Many thought that
the plan which had partially succeeded in Ireland during the
debate on the union would have been tried. The language of
some of the party was most unjustifiable — on both sides feelings
ran high, and we have often thought it was a happy circumstance
that there were two languages in the house. On the 21st of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 445
October, more signals of distress were hoisted. The resolutions on
the seat of government had been carried in the house by large
majorities ; and on the 4th of November they were, contrary to the
usages of a respect due to the chamber, introduced into the Legis
lative Council by Mr. Sullivan ; the Council having, since the
debate on the 16th of October, mustered their whole force. Mr.
Morris moved an amendment to the effect that it was an infringe
ment on the rules of the house. This amendment was lost, the
numbers being thirteen to seventeen ; on which Mr. Morris, with
twelve others, retired from the Council, a step which was followed
by the immediate resignation of the speakership by Mr. Jameson.
Sir Charles desired to bestow the speakership on one of the
retiring members. It was offered to Mr. Justice Sherwood, but
refused. The Council named Mr. Viger; but that did not meet the
wishes of the governor ; and finally, Mr. Caron, of Quebec, was
appointed. The retirement ofthe thirteen conservative councillors
placed the victory completely in the hands of Sir Charles. It is
true, they who remained quickly assented to every measure sent up
from the lower house. But Mr. Baldwin saw that his favorite
measures, the university and the secret societies bill, were gone.
Still he imagined the country was with him ; and still the presi
dent declared that their feet were on the necks of the tories. The
triumphant return of Mr. Murney for Hastings, and the events of
the night of his arrival in Kingston, showed they were tottering.
The odds were fearfully against them, and by their stubbornness
and maladroitness they hastened the catastrophe.
Now was displayed on the part of the governor-general, what
even his enemies admit to have been a master stroke of policy ;
forcing a Council, with a majority of twenty-one, in a house of
eighty-four, supported by the whole of one section of the province,
and an almost equality in the other, to resign ; and that, too, on a
question, which left them only one way of escape. On the Satur
day previous to their resignation, one of the Council declared that
they would soon bring old square-toes to his bearing ; and even
when he waited on his excellency, they had no idea that he
would have accepted their resignation ; and it is notorious that
many of them delayed in Kingston, certain that they would be
recalled. On the 25th November, the Council with the exception of Mr.
Daly, resigned, and on the 27th, the explanations were made in the
house ; these have been so frequently before the country, that we
need not here further allude to them, than to say, that on the 30th
May, 1844, the House of Commons fully sustained Sir Charles
Metcalfe, all parties uniting in bearing testimony to his character
and judgment. On the 9th December, Parliament was prorogued;
and, on the 13th, a provisional government was formed, consisting
of Messrs. Viger, Daly, and Draper. No sooner was the resigna-

446 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
tion of Mr. Baldwin known, than joy, seized a portion of the
province, addresses of thanks poured in ; and New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia, by their parliaments, thanked Sir Charles for the
service he had rendered the country.
In the course of the fall of 1844, the Parliament was dissolved,
and a new one called ; on the assembling of whieh, Sir Charles
had the gratification to find his views supported by a majority
which, although small, was, when we consider all the circumstances
of the case, truly astonishing. The terrible disease under which
he labored, had, it was hoped, been checked; but, in 1845, it
again resumed i ts virulent character, and on the 25th November,
he bid farewell to Canada, with the touching and kindly prayer of
" may God bless you all." He arrived in good spirits at Boston,
and sailed for England, on the 1st December. He had been
created Baron Metcalfe, in 1844. But the hope which he enter
tained, by changing our climate for a more warm and genial one,
to recover from the attacks of the disease which he had contracted
in India, was dispelled on his arrival in England. There it assumed
a more dangerous character, and notwithstanding all that the
brightest stars in the medical profession could do for him, he sunk
under his great sufferings, and expired at his seat at Basingstoke,
on the 5th September, 1846.
And thus died one of the greatest men, that ever rose to dis
tinction, by his own unaided exertions. His epitaph, written by
Macaulay, terms him "a statesman, tried in many offices and
difficult conjunctures, and found equal to all," and says that
'.' costly monuments in Asiatic and American cities, attest the
gratitude of the nations which he ruled."
Of the private character of Lord Metcalfe, we need hardly speak.
He was a good man, kind, generous and affable, with a heart over
flowing with Christian charity, and a hand ever ready to assist the
needy ; his public acts of beneficence, bare a small ratio to those
the world knows not of. His sojourn among us was short, but,
even in that brief period, how many have had cause to bless his
name ; on how many hearts is the record of his unbounded charity
engraven ; and with what pleasurable feelings, must they who were
admitted to his society recall the good old man, his benevolent
attentions, and his unvarying kindness ! To his indomitable stead
fastness of purpose, he perhaps sacrificed his life. He would not
resign ihe government of this country, when the absence of toil
and anxiety might have alleviated the terrible disease with which
he was afflicted ; but, true to his principles, he maintained his
post, exposing himself to the shafts of bitter party malevolence,
and rancorous hate, suoh as could only dwell in minds lost to every
honorabi ?. feeling, and dead to every sense of shame.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 447

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE SMITH.
James Smith, the subject of this notice is a Canadian by birth,
though a Scotchman by origin. He was born in the city of Mon
treal, and received his education in Scotland ; although previously
to his proceeding there, he had been placed with a gentleman,
(Reverend Mr. Doty), at Three Rivers, where he passed through
the primary course of instruction. He remained in Scotland for
seven years; and during that time, was an ardent and painstaking
student of knowledge. His guardian then wishing to put him to
some professional calling, having lost his parents at an early age,
requested him to return to his native country. This he did in
1823 ; and was immediately, upon consultation of his wishes, arti
cled as a law student, first with Mr. B. Beaubien, with whom he
remained four years ; and secondly, with Mr. (now the Honorable
Mr. Justice) Gale, with whom he completed his time. Mr. Smith
was called to the bar of Lower Canada, in 1830, after passing a
creditable examination. He at once shewed his wisdom and pru
dence by entering into partnership with an old and experienced
practitioner, and a Queen's counsel, the late D. Fisher, Esq., and
this goes to shew in what high estimation his talents must have
been held, for that gentleman to ally himself with a young, com
paratively unknown, and unfledged lawyer. Such would have
been the general opinion, but young Smith was no ordinary youth ;
he already had made his mark and done well, and Mr. Fisher only
consulted his own interests when he secured the services of Mr.
Smith. To be brief, that gentleman, in a few years, secured for
himself a varied, extensive and lucrative practice. How he gave
it up to enter into polities we are unable to say ; but he certainly
did so. In Canada, as we think we have before explained in this
work, there is but one path for the legal politician to traverse, he
must not only walk it, but he must actually jump. A lawyer
enters Parliament ; well, the first thing he seeks is office ; that is,
if he is naturally clever. He is not long there before, fearing a
defeat of his party, he must get on the bench — that is the golden
prize, and all strive for it, and generally all attain it ; for we do not
see very many lawyers of any political standing go back from office
to read and examine their musty parchments, and to plead at the
courts. Mr. Smith found his way to the bench too.
In November, 1844, he was elected for the county of Mississquoi,
in the Eastern Townships, after having on the 1st September pre
viously gone into office in the Viger-Draper administration, as
attorney-general, east. Of the state of politics at that period we

448 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
will say nothing in this notice ; being, as they are, fully discussed
in another portion of this work. Let it suffice to remark that party
feeling ran exceedingly high, that many offices in the administra
tion were unfilled ; and that consequently the others were the more
arduous and onerous to hold, especially when the ministry had only
a very small majority (about five or six) in the house. Neverthe
less they held together ; and Mr. Smith continued to hold office
until the 22nd April, 1847, when he resigned, and was appointed
a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench of Lower Canada. During
his political course he was most attentive to the duties of his office
and party, as he has been to those of the office which he now
holds, having never been absent a single day when his presence
was required. He is considered a real acquisition, which cannot be
said of all.
He is now a judge of the Superior Court ; and, although the
oldest in it as regards seniority of service, (having been a judge
fifteen years), he is not yet advanced to the Queen's Bench, as
remodelled. This, however, we think will speedily take place.
Judge Smith is a good speaker, and although, in his younger
days, he incurred the hostility of the French Canadians, as attorney-
general, yet by the impartiality and justness of his decisions, as a
judge, he has made hosts of friends, and we believe does not at
present bear the enmity of any portion of the community.

Right Hon. EARL CATHCART, K.G.C.B.
Charles Cathcart, (afterwards the eleventh baron and
second Earl of that name) was born at Walthams in Essex, at the
close of the year 1783, the year of American independence. He
was sent to Eton at an early age, and there imbibed a love of the
classics that lasted during life. In 1798, he wrote to his father
(then in command of a division of the army in England), as fol
lows : — " I feel that at this time, when every body ought to be
coming forward for the defence of the country that I may be of
some use, therefore if it is your pleasure, I would thank you to
assign me some post." This letter, written by a school boy of
fourteen is interesting ; it shows how early Charles Cathcart waa
influenced by that principle that was the guiding principle of a
long life ; a hereditary strong sense of duty.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 449
In 1799, being then fifteen, he entered the army,* the profession
of his family. An ensign in the 40th Regiment, he immediately
joined the expedition to north Holland, and on the Sand Hills of
the Helder he was first exposed to an enemy's fire. This expedi
tion was at first commanded by Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who, as he
looked from under his thick shaggy eyebrows, gave the idea of a
very good natured lion, and he was respected and beloved by all
who served under his command. Before the end of this year, the
boy lieutenant had been wounded on the knee by a spent ball ; and
not to speak of many less important affairs, had fought in the
general actions. In consequence of the pestilence and mal-admin
istration which caused a capitulation, the disheartened army returned
to England. The three following years were passed in hard
study at the then military college of High Wycombe. The famous
General Tarrie was the instructor. There were thirty students, who
afterwards became distinguished men, among whom were General
De Lancy, (killed at Waterloo), Sir George Murray, afterwards
lieutenant-governor of the western section of this province, and
the duke 's quarter-master-general in the Peninsula, and Lord
Hardinge. At this time he wrote : " I allow myself but one hour a
day for exercise." In 1803, martial law was proclaimed in England.
Charles Cathcart, now a captain on the quarter-master-general's
staff in Ireland, in expectation of a French invasion, was engaged
in Clare and Galway, in sketching and reconnoitering. In March,
1805, in command of a company of the 39th Regiment, he em
barked with the expedition under Sir James Craig. Passing
through the fleet commanded by Lord Nelson,f the fleet which
five months later was victorious at Trafalgar, he disembarked from
the Croivn transport, at Malta, and was again appointed deputy
quarter-master-general. Towards the close of the year he was
quartered near Naples ; when the desertion of their Russian allies
caused the British army to retire to Sicily. The greater part of
1806 was passed at Messina, where he enjoyed the society of Sir
John Moore, whose manner was so charming, that if he but said
" good day" to a stranger, he left a lasting and pleasurable im
pression. But in July, the young staff officer was sent in command
of a secret expedition to the Adriatic, and was engaged for three
months in the blockade of the French garrisons of certain islands
there. In 1807, Charles Cathcart, now a major, hastened from the
Mediteranean to join his father who was in command of the army
* It is now difficult to realize the appearance of a regimental officer of this
period ; his hair formally cut and plastered with candle grease and flour, and
perpetually tortured by the stiff regulation queue. The younger officers were
obliged to rise early to benefit by the first turn of the regimental barber, whose
later services were required to prepare the seniors for parade.
f Lord Cathcart perfectly remembered Lord Nelson ; he used to see him walk
ing up and down with Sir William Hamilton, before Greenwich Hospital. Lord
C. described the great admiral as a little man in a large cocked hat.
57

450 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
before Copenhagen. The young soldier was nearly lost by ship
wreck ; the hostile Danes had removed the lights on the coast, and
in consequence, the Nightingale brig, in which he sailed, was
nearly lost. After the fall of Copenhagen, the major was employed
on the staff in Scotland, occupied near Edinburgh, in preparing
coast defences. Notwithstanding his active duties he found time
to study German. Let it be here observed that the story of this
life is not sketched aright if it does not suggest the value and
advantages of self-education, which begins where other teaching
ends. His feeling at this time is thus expressed; he wrote, " I am
too young to settle at home ; if I remained in England I should not
be satisfied in my own mind I was acting rightly." Accordingly,
at the beginning of 1809, we find the young major, now twenty-
five years of age, on his way to Holland, as deputy quarter-master-
general of the expeditionary army. He landed at Walcheren, was
engaged in the capture of Flushing, and afterwards, whUe busied in
aiding the sick who were strewed about the streets, he was struck
down by the fever, which killed one thousand of his comrades. By
the kindness of a captain* in the navy, and with the tender nurs
ing of a rough seaman, his coxswain, Major Cathcart was enabled
to reach England, but in a state of insensibility, verging on death.
A strong constitution, and some months rest enabled him again to
leave for active service. In 1810, anxious to foUow the fortunes
of his gallant relative, Sir Thomas Graham,"}" then second in com
mand in the Peninsula, he embarked at Cadiz, for the purpose of
aiding the Spaniards who were blockaded by the French. He saw
the heroic defence of Matagorda. In March, 1811, he took a dis
tinguished part in one of the most glorious triumphs of the Penin
sular war, the battle of Barossa. He had a horse killed under him,
and he was honorably mentioned in the despatches. In June, suffer
ing from the effects of the Walcheren fever, he was obliged to return
to England. Early the following year, (1812), he returned to the
Peninsula, and was appointed deputy quarter-master-general on
the cavalry staff,! and in that capacity fought in Salamanca, and
in the numerous cavalry affairs before and after the great battle.
In August, with the victorious army, he entered Madrid, where he
wrote, " I was almost dragged off my horse and kissed and hugged

*Lord William Beauclerk.
jAfterwards Lord Lynedook, uncle by marriage to the subjeot of this memoir.
Napier the historian calls him, " A daring old man of a ready temper for battle"
— he fought the fight of Barossa, — " short, but violent and bloody ."
JThe oavalry was commanded by General Lord Combermere, then Sir Staple-
ton Colton, who also commanded tho cavalry of the army of oooupation in
France. With him Lord Cathcart was for years in confidential communication,
and always spoke of his kind friend and general, in terms of affeotionate regard
and respect. This feeling was mutual. Returning to oanip after Salamanoa,
Lord Cathcart was with his general, and saw the unlucky aocident by whioh, after
having esoaped the perils of the day, L.ord Cornbermere was shot by a Portu
guese sentinel,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA, 451
to death in the streets by the enthusiastic people." The colonel
pertinently observes " the Spaniards will shout for us, but they won't
fight for themselves." He was quartered with Baron Beck, in the
palace ofthe archbishop, Cardinal de Bourbon, where he found some
valuable papers, which in their haste the French had left. Before
Salamanca, Lord Wellington told Colonel Cathcart he might if he
chose, join his father, Lord Cathcart, in Russia, but the colonel
replied : " I prefer seeing the end of this glorious campaign."
Afterwards at dinner, Lord Wellington said, " he supposed Colonel
Cathcart did not repent having remained with him, as he had been
present at this great battle." In 1813, he was at the battle of Vit-
toria ; and later in the year he saw the garrison, after their gallant
defence, march out of St. Sebastian. He made an observation at
this time that admits of very general application, and particularly
accounts for the excellent health the observer enjoyed through
life, " I am in perfect health, which is always the case when I have
plenty to do," and another which is most characteristic of the man,
" I find wherever I go I make friends, and believe it is because I am
pleased and show myself grateful for attentions." Somewhere in the
Spectator, Addison elaborates a similar thought. He says, " and
such was campaigning in those days I can't walk, having no boots,
I am obliged to ride." In January, 1814, Sir Thomas Graham
applied to Lord Wellington for an officer to be placed at the head
of the quarter-master-general's staff in the army destined for Hol
land. Lord Wellington sent Colonel Cathcart, and wrote in taking
leave of him in these words, " I am convinced Sir Thomas will be
as glad to have your assistance as we are sorry to lose you." ( Wel
lington Despatches, v. ii.,page 464,) on the cold night of the 8th
March, Colonel Cathcart saw the gallant, and nearly successful at
tack on Bergen-op-Zoom. The peace brought him again to Eng
land, where he was kindly received by the Duke of York, who im
mediately appointed him to the staff in Kent. In the following
year, 1815, war again broke out, and Charles Cathcart, now Lord
Greenock, found himself in his old position on the cavalry staff of
the Duke of Wellington's army; the position of all others he
preferred. He was the first to speak of the conduct of others, but the
last to speak, or write of his own, but George Cathcart, his brother,
and the duke's aid-de-camp, at Waterloo, wrote thus from the field
of battle, " Charles (Lord Greenock) has greatly exerted and dis
tinguished himself; he led several charges, and had three horses
killed under him."*

*When of the close at the battle of Waterloo, Lord Anglesey was struck on the
knee by a cannon shot, Lord Cathcart received him in his arms, helped to remove
him from the field — was present -during the amputation, and used to tell of his
general's extraordinary coolness, how he smoked a cigar and thought not of his
own suffering but of his wife and her anxiety on his account.

452 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Lord Greenock had won many decorations. At Paris* he
received from the hands of the Duke of Wellington, the Russian
order of St. Waldemar, and the Dutch order of Willems ; at home
he was made a companion of the Bath. During the next four years
he served in France with the cavalry of the army of occupation.
In 1818 he married. He was employed in England and Ireland
until 1823. He was then appointed to the command of the royal
staff corps stationed at Hythe in Kent. Here for the first time Lord
Greenock had leisure, and that leisure was amused by science.
The staff corps was a scientific corps, and had detachments in
Canada and other parts of the world. A museum had been formed
at Hythe of various objects sent there by the several detachments.
This museum, together with the interesting nature ofthe adjacent
county first turned his observant mind to the study of geology; a
study he ever after pursued with his characteristic energy and
perseverance. In 1830, the staff corps having been broken up,f Lord Greenock
vent to live in Edinburgh, and for the next six years was occupied by
scientific study. He took an active part in the business of the Royal
Society, and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland;
to the former he gave his collection of rocks and minerals, and he
originated the geological museum of the latter society. In 1841 he
discovered a new mineral — a sulphuret of cadmium, and which
received after him the name of Greenockite. His long service in
the field as quarter-master-general had so improved his natural
power of observation, and his wonderful memory, (for to the end
of his life he never forgot the most minute feature of a country he
had but once passed through,) enabled him to detect many inte
resting phenomena in the neighborhood of Edinburgh which had
escaped those who had Uved there always. In 1837 Major-
General Lord Greenock was appointed to the command of the troops
in Scotland, and to the governorship of Edinburgh Castle. In 1839
he was asked to preside at the meeting of the British Association
to be held at Glasgow ; but he declined ; Sir Roderick Murchison on
behalf of the council of the British Association replied, that " They
deeply regietted Lord Greenock insisted upon estimating himself
benaeth the scientific horizon in which the council would place him."
The university of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of

*Lord Cathcart was quartered at " Malmaison," where many curious papers
were strewed about, some of them are preserved, among others a letter from the
Princess Hortense, mother of the Emperor of the French, and letters written by
tho Empress Josephine.
¦fLord Greenock wrote as follows: — "Hythe, November 30th, 1S30. Heart
breaking subject. Annihilation of a corps that had risen to such distinction.
Every day giving more and moro promise. Mortifying after the pains I have
bestowed, as I flattered myself my little command was in perfeot order.
Ruin of officers grown grey in the regiment. Economy. The authorities aot
in a hurry and will repent at leisure."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 453
doctor of laws ; the diploma bears the signatures of many eminent
men who were his friends, among others, Robert Jameson, Doctor
Chalmers, Doctor Alison, Professor Wilson, Christison, Pillans,
Wallace, and James Forbes.* Promotion in 1842 to the rank of
lieutenant-general removed Lord Greenock from the command
in Scotland : in announcing this retirement the Scotsman, one of
the leading Scotch papers of the day, and of opposite political views
statedf " that the admirable manner in which he has discharged
his duties has secured for him the utmost respect and esteem. The
absence of any ground for complaint, during an administration ex
tending over five years is not slight evidence of his aptitude for
command, his firmness, impartiality, and promptitude in business,
are such as few can expect to equal, it is only due to Lord Gree
nock that we should express the high estimation in which he is
held by the'public of Scotland." There was an interesting corres
pondence at this time with Colonel Gurwood, editor the of Welling
ton Despatches, on the subject of the duke's imputed surprise at
Waterloo. Lord Greenock wrote a very circumstantial detail of the
orders for the march of the cavalry, on the 15th June, 1815, and
refers to the original order signed by him, now in the possession of
the Duke of Argyle, whose late father took it from the dead body
of an orderly dragoon the day after the battle. It is not generally
known that the Duke of Wellington wrote a memorandum on the
subject of the battle of Waterloo, which was incorporated in an
article in the Quarterly Review of September, 1842, written by Lord
Francis Egerton ; but at that time the duke wrote privately : — " I
am really too hard worked to become an author, and to review those
lying works called histories." This circumstance suggests an
anecdote, among the fund of anecdotes which were stored in Lord
Greenock's memory : some one after dinner was cool enough to say,
"Pray, duke, were you surprised at Waterloo?" his grace looked at
his questioner and replied : " Surprised, no, no. I was not sur
prised then, but I am now !" Lord Greenock was appointed to the
colonelcy of the 11th Hussars in succession to Prince Albert, and
was afterwards promoted to the 1st King's Dragoon Guards. In
1844, Lord Greenock, now Earl Cathcart, was engaged as president
of a royal commission on military prisons ; among others he was
associated with Sir J. Jebb. This commission is known, and was
quoted in the Cornhill Magazine of May, 1861, as " Lord Cath-
cart's commission." He interested himself much in introducing
into the army a better system of prison discipline.

?Lord Neaves in an address to the Royal Society of Edinburgh observed :— "If
it be considered how total a revolution of habits and employments was involved
in the transition from Lord Greenock's military to his civil lite, it is remarkable
what success and energy attended his scientific career during the years he spent
among us."
•f Probably written by Hugh Miller the editor ofthe "Scotsman."

454 Lord Cathcart was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops in
British North America in 1845; he embarked in H.M.S. Vesuvius,
and arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, at the beginning of June,
and after a laborious examination, wrote a memorandum on the
defence of that place. He arrived at Quebec early in July, imme
diately after the great fire, and the first news he heard which
shocked him much was of the sudden death of his old friend and
predecessor, General Sir Rich. D. Jackson. On congratulating Lord
Cathcart on his appointment in a letter dated Montreal, 28th April,
Sir Richard wrote : " This command requires' a person of your
mind and body even in its present state, which I hope may not be
altered by war before it is improved in preparation." The com
mander ofthe forces immediately proceeded to inspect a portion of
his vast command. On this tour he was the first to rise, and the last
to rest, and in forty days travelled by land and by water 2029
miles. Our readers will remember that these were the days
before railroads were known in the British North American pro
vinces. On his return he was occupied in preparations for the
defence of Canada, to which he applied all his energy, his ex
perience, and knowledge of military science. The troops in British
North America at this time were armed with old flint firelocks ; he
immediately urged the government at home to send out efficient arms.
Upon the lamented retirement of Lord Metcalfe, the administration
of the government devolved upon the commander of the forces ;
and subsequently the Queen's government in January, 1846, consi
dering the then state of our relations with the United States, pressed
Lord Cathcart permanently to assume the civil as well as the mi
litary government of Canada. The secretary of state for the colonies
wrote " we (the government) are convinced that we best discharge
our duty by pressing on you with all allowable urgency the accep
tance of the very important appointment vacated by Lord Metcalfe."
Lord Cathcart did not shrink from the responsibility of this unso
licited appointment. The governor-general opened the third session
of the second ParUament in March, and in the speech from the
throne referred to the unsettled relations between the Imperial
Government and the United States;* rendering immediate atten
tion necessary to reorganise that all important arm of defence — the
militia. Reference was also made to the indication of a most im
portant charge, affecting the interests of Canada, in the commercial
policy of the empire. A change of government at home occurred
in July. More peaceful relations no longer rendered it necessary
that the civil and military authority should be united in the same
hands. In 1847 Lord Cathcart^resigned his military command and
returned to England ; he was relieved in the civil government by
Lord Elgin. The Duke of Wellington, the commander-in-chief, in

*The Oregon question.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA7 455
his own name and on behalf of the government, asked Lord Cath
cart to retain his military command in Canada ; in this private
and kind letter the duke says, " I have received this night
(1st August, 1846) from the secretary-of-state, Lord Grey, a note
upon the subject, in which he tells me that it is the opinion of the
government that it will not be desirable to continue the union of the
civil government of Canada in the hands of Lord Cathcart together
witn the command of the troops. His lordship adds, 'that if
this contemplated appointment of a civil governor should take
place, it will not be because her Majesty's government have any
reason for withholding their confidence from Lord Cathcart, but
simply because they entertain the opinion except that under
peculiar circumstances, such as the expectation of hostilities, the
two offices of commander-in-chief, and of governor- general ought
not to be united in the same hands.' I (the duke) confess that I
am most anxious that the public should still continue to have the
advantage of your service in the office of commander of the forces
in North America, and of the experience acquired by you in Cana
dian affairs; and I earnestly urge you to remain in command ofthe
troops." The duke subsequently said he did not question the
validity of the grounds on which Lord Cathcart formed his resolu
tion to resign his military command in Canada. On his departure
the inhabitants of Montreal, the then seat of government, said in a
very numerously signed address " when war was probable, when the
highest civil and military command was in his hands, all had un
bounded confidence in Lord Cathcart's wisdom and energy." He
was much pleased and affected by the feeling evinced towards him
by the citizens of Montreal*. From his command of »the royal
staff corps at home, he had been connected with the military works

*It is difficult to describe personal appearance, yet the reader of a biographical
sketch naturally desires fully to realise its subject. Those who remember him in
Canada will recall the very tall figure ofthe governor-general, somewhat bent by
years and hard service — the face, after the military fashion of his youth, olose
shaven — thick white hair rose from a high forehead — the nose prominent, and
beneath strongly marked eyebrows, grey eyes would betray when a joke was
lurking to escape from a firm yet pleasing mouth. The Veteran soldier always
appeared, as beeamehim, in military uniform. Although of a somewhat retiring
nature, Lord Cathcart was at all times noted for his frank and hearty manner.
These are small matters, yet in the study of character minute circumstances
often afford the most important clues. He was so considerate that it may be
remembered he would not ring the bell in the government house to summon the
gentlemen of his staff, when in waiting in the ante-room. And gave as a reason
that in his youth Sir James Craig adopted that convenient but not dignified
means of conveying an intimation, and that the whole of his staff concurred in a
respectful remonstrance, whereupon that high bred gentleman and active-minded
general, thanked them for their correction, and the objectionable custom ever
after was more honored in the breach than the observance. Lord Cathcart was
certainly not a man to adopt the principle that — " that which in the captain is but
a choleric word, in the soldier is rank blasphemy." In his age, and in the worst
of weather no one could induce him to cloak if every soldier on the ground waa
not similarly protected.

456 SKETCHES OP OELEBRATEp CANADIANS,
in Canada, and through his brother, Colonel (afterwards Sir George)
Cathcart,* he knew much of the principle people of the province
long before he came there, so that on his arrival neither the coun
try nor the people seemed strange to him. On leaving Canada the
last words he spoke in public were : "For myself, I shall during the
remainder of my days look back with pride and satisfaction to the
period of my sojourn in this province, and in returning to England,
or wherever my destiny may lead me, I shall not cease to take a
lively interest in everything that may concern its prosperity and
welfare ; " and he added that which he heartily felt, " we carry with
us grateful recollections of kindly attentions."
Soon after his return to Scotland, Lord Cathcart was appointed
to the command of the northern and midland district of England,
which he retained until 1854. He was also occupied in London
as one of a royal commission on promotion in the army, and at this
time, as on other occasions, he attended in his place in Parliament,
and always voted with the conservative party. The correspondence
at this period show how much he was interested in the plan for the
benefit of the soldier, of that good man, and soldiers' friend, the late
Lord Hardinge ; also the interest that Lord Cathcart took in the
important subject of the national defences. That in the exercise
of high command he knew how to visit the offence while he pitied
the offender is a fact that can be orally vouched for by many living
and grateful witnesses, and is testified throughout the corres
pondence. In 1852 Lord Cathcart had the melancholy satisfaction
of following to the grave the remains of the great captain he so
often followed to victory ; and who to the last honored him by his
entire confidence and regard. A letter to Lord Cathcart dated
May 19, 1853, shows how much the country was indebted to Lord
Hardinge for the introduction of improved arms, and his anxious
care that the soldier should be instructed in their use. The result
of this prescient care was soon after seen at Inkerman. Passing
over the anxieties and interests of that struggle in which we cof

*General Sir George Cathcart, G.C.B., was well known in Canada, having in
1838, and after that time, commanded the King's Dragoon Guards and a large
force on the south of the river St. Lawrence. In early youth he fought with the
Russians against tho French ; in his age he was fated to be killed while fighting
with the French against the Russians. The Duke of Wellington was his friend
through life. George Cathcart was the duke's aide-de-camp at Waterloo. Com
mentaries on the war of 1813 and 1814, remain to show his industry, observation
and military knowledge. By energetic skilful war, he gave peace to South Africa.
Landing in the Crimea in a war-worn uniform, he led his division up to the walls
of Sebastopol, and with judioious audacity longed to lead his willing soldiers into
tho place over what at first to use his own words was " a mere English Park
wall." Councils more to be feared than Russian walls forbade him. Counoils
that relievo medioority to shaokle genius. Having vainly urged the danger of
its ncgloct, he was shot through the heart while defending the all important po
sition of Inkerman. Cathoart dared at Sebastopol as Wolfe dared at Quebec ;
would that his daring, like .Wolfe's daring, had been immediately follpwed by
crowning victory.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 45?
tended not only against the enemy, but against the elements, and
in which Lord Cathcart lost his brother, and had throughout a
son, and a son-in-law actively engaged, we follow him into the
retirement of his house at St. Leonards in Sussex. Here he passed
the last years of his life : busied in the enjoyment of scientifie pur
suits, and happy in contemplating the advancement of his children,
and in seeing his children's children growing up around him.
" Though old, he still retained
His manly sense and energy of mind ;
Virtuous and wise he was — but not severe.
He still remembered that he once was young.
* -s * * *
And laughing eould Instruct."
On one occasion he wprote as follows : — " Although a birthday
at seventy-five can no longer be looked forward to with the same
joyful anticipations, it is not the less a subject for congratulation
because it recalls so much satisfaction in reviewing the numerous
blessings enjoyed for so long a period, and in having been permitted
the continuance of my sojourn on earth to witness my dearest and
fondly cherished hopes so fully realized." One of the last acts of
his life was to thank his sovereign for a gracious and gratifying
recognition of his public service. In the autumn of 1850, Lord
Cathcart's strong constitution gave way ; he had an illness from
which he never recovered. His clear and active mind, clear and
active to the last, went out from the now enfeebled frame. On the
morning of Saturday the 16th of July, 1859, the life that com
menced with sixteen years of nearly continuous active service in
the field, was closed in peace. So peacefully that those he loved
scarce knew the moment when Lord Cathcart ceased to be.
Thus we have sketched the bare outline of a long, a useful, and
honorable life, during which industry continually added power to
a powerful mind; a life characterised by self-denial, devotion to
public and private duty, and by a sterling modesty. But one pen-
stroke more is wanted to complete the picture, to suggest that which
cannot be described — the sunshine of familiar life — the kindly
humor sparking from a warm and generous heart proverbial wisdom
instructs those who study man. " The memory of the just is
blessed and a good example is the best of gifts."
Lord Cathcart was succeeded by his son, Alan Frederick Cath
cart, Lord Greenock (the present earl), who served many years in
Canada.

58

458 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

M. JACQUES VIGER,
A learned Canadian savant, born at Montreal on the 7th of
May, 1787; died at Montreal in December, 1808.
He held numerous local appointments under government ; and
was a colonel in the militia, having served under De Salaberry, and
was present at the taking of Sackett's Harbor. He passed a long
and laborious life in literary pursuits and historical researches,
principally relating to the history of this country; and he compiled
two voluminous and valuable works : one of which he caUed his
Saberdache, composed of twenty-eight volumes in quarto; — the
other is known by the name of Viger's Album. The former, we
understand, is to be published by the Historical Society of Montreal,
who have purchased it.

Right Rev. J. BOWEN, LL. D.
Canadians are not generally aware, perhaps, that the late bishop
of Sierra Leone once resided amongst us. But such undoubtedly
is the fact, from the following letter communicated to the papers
in 1857, on Dr. Bowen's appointment : —
"To the Editor op the Morning Banner.
" Sir, — In 1834, I was much surprised by a son of my old and
respected friend, Captain Bowen, who had served in the campaign
under the Duke of York, in Holland, where he was wounded, walk
ing into my house near Stony Creek, with a knapsack on his back;
he was then eighteen. He told me he had come out to try his luck
as a farmer in Canada. I suggested the Grand river or tfie north
shore of lake Erie. He continued his march, and eventually fixed
on the township of Rainham. There he worked hard for two years
or more, in the bush. On his father's death he was called home,
and his mother (a bas-bleu) wished him to take orders ; he having
previously received a classical education. Shortly afterwards his
uncle, who was a captain in the East India Company's naval ser
vice, died, and left a large fortune to his nephew, John Bowen, he

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 459
being his heir-at-law. The Rev. John Bowen then went out as
a missionary to Jerusalem to convert the Jews. On his return
from his mission he visited Constantinople — the chaplain to the
embassy being absent, he, at the request ofthe British ambassador
took upon himself his duties. Eventually returning to Wales,
the place of his birth he began to lecture on the Holy Land,
and the state of the Jews in Palestine. He was shortly afterwards
made a rector, and on taking possession of his living, found an old
man with a large family, doing the duty of curate. The new rec
tor being a practical Christian, continued the old man in the curacy,
and assigned him all the emoluments during life.
" This is the Dr. Bowen alluded to in your paper of the 12th
October, as the new Bishop of Sierra Leone.
"A. B  n."
" Palman qui meruit ferat."

COLONEL MOUNTAIN, C.B.
This gallant and distinguished officer was the fourth and young
est son of the late Right Rev. Jacob Mountain, D.D.., the first
bishop of Quebec, by Elizabeth Mildred Wall Kentish, co-heiress
of Bardfield Hall, Essex. He was a native Canadian, having been
born at Quebec, on the 4th February, 1797 ; he pursued his mili
tary studies in Germany, and there acquired great facility in lan
guages ; he spoke and wrote most of the European and several of
the Oriental tongues. He went out to India as military secretary
to Sir Colin Halkett ; became aide-de-camp to Lord William Ben
tinck ; and served as adjutant-general in the Chinese war, under
Lord Gough, where he received three balls through his body. He
returned to England with the wreck ofthe 26th Regiment; which
he soon made one of the first in the army, and continued to com
mand it, as lieutenant-colonel, until he went out again to India as
aide-de-camp to Lord Dalhousie, then governor-general. He was
soon after appointed adjutant-general. He commanded a brigade
at Chillianwallah, and received the warm thanks of Lord Gough
for a brilliant and gallant charge which secured the victory. On
the next day he was wounded through the left hand, by the acci
dental discharge of a pistol, when mounting his charger. After the
successful termination ofthe battle of Gujerat,he was promoted to
the conumand pf a division under General Sir Walter Gilbert, and

460 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
sent by him in pursuit of the enemy. He had been previous to
this appointed an aide-de-camp to her Majesty the Queen.
Colonel Mountain was taken ill on the 29th of January, 1854,
when on the march with the commander-in-chief from Cawnpore
to Futtyghur; and he died, of fever, when in camp at the latter
place, on the 8th February of the same year.
In a general order issued on the same day, the commander-in-
chief made the following remarks : — " Doubtless, the important
duties of the department over which Colonel Mountain has presided
through a course of five years have been discharged with equal
punctuality by various predecessors, and with equal regard for the
discipline of the army ; but rarely, if ever, exhibiting that intimate
blending of urbanity of demeanor and considerate feehng, with
unflinching steadiness of purpose and impartiality unswerving in
the performance of those not unfrequently onerous and painful
duties. The commander-in-chief has no need to record for infor
mation in India, or of her Majesty's army generally, that the able
official adviser and friend whose loss he is deploring served as head
of the same department throughout the Chinese war of 1840-2,
and held command of a brigade throughout that of the Punjaub in
1848-9 ; was with the force under Sir Walter Gilbert, in command
of a division; and uniformly acquitted himself, in each of those
important trusts, with the sound judgment and soldier-like ardour
which never failed to animate him wherever the opportunity
offered. In all the social relations of life Colonel Mountain made
himself extensively beloved and universally respected and esteemed ;
and Sir William Gomm feels well assured that his departure will
be sincerely and deeply regretted by numbers of all classes and
orders of society in India as well as at home." Had he lived longer,
there is every probability for supposing that he would have risen
to still greater distinction, and won a name in the service that could
rarely be eclipsed for brilliancy and honor.
He was twice married ; first to Jane, daughter of the Right
Rev. Thomas Lewis O'Beirne, Lord Bishop of Meath ; secondly to
Annie, elder daughter of Colonel Dundas, of Carron HUl, Falkirk.
His life has been written by the latter, and has run through two
editions.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 461

MAJOR G. S. MONTIZAMBERT, 30th Regt.
The gallant soldier whose name heads this notice, was the thiry
and youngest son of the late Honorable Louis Montizambert,
who, after bearing a commission for some years in a provincial
cprps, afterwards served long, faithfully and usefully, in various
civil offices of trust and responsibility : and brother of the esteemed
registrar of Quebec, and the law-clerk of the Legislative Council; he
was born in that ancient city in the year 1813.
After receiving a good education in Quebec, first under the Rev.
Mr. Burrage, and subsequently under a private tutor beneath his
father's roof, Major Montizambert entered the army in 1831, as an
ensign in the 41st Regiment, which he joined the following year
at Moulmein in the Arracan territory, of which we then had mili
tary occupation. There he applied himself to his duties, as those
of a high and liberal profession, and not as a means of passing
away a certain period of idle time ; and, under circumstances and
in a situation peculiarly trying to a young officer, he shewed from
the first, (as ever afterwards) steadfastness of principle and gentle
manly conduct. One of his superior officers in the same regiment,
says of the young soldier, in a letter in 1833 : " Tell his
mother (for he says she often warns himsi — you may tell her
from one who has had, as you know, some experience of what
makes or mars a man, that her son, gentlemanly and well principled,
is not likely ever to bring discredit on his family."
After accompanying his corps through various changes of station
for several years, he returned to England on furlough, in 1840,
with the hope also of being able to perfect his military education
at Sandhurst ; he then revisited his native country, and spent a
year in Canada ; but, finding on his return to England, that the
turn of affairs in the east was likely to bring his regiment into
active service, he applied for and obtained the vacant adjutantcy,
and hurried overland to rejoin his corps, which he overtook at
Candahar, though obliged, by a broken leg, to travel some distance
in a litter ; he accompanied it on its advance from Candahar to
Ghuznee, Cabul, and by the Khyber passes to Peshawur, and
across the Punjaub to Ferozepore; a march, of which it has been
said that, as far as Peshawur, almost every day's advance was
tracked in blood, and in which the 41st bore their full part in
many severe encounters ; in most of which Major Montizambert,
then still a lieutenant, was present.
He obtained his company in 1842, and returning with his regi
ment to England was stationed for some time in Ireland, where he

462 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
married the daughter of the archdeacon of Cashel, and grand
daughter of the excellent Archbishop Lawrence of Cashel. But,
eager for professional advancement and employment, he purchased
his majority and exchanged into the 10th Foot, then in India, which
he joined at Lahore, and accompanied to Mooltan, when the
disturbed aspect of affairs in that quarter, in June, 1848, rendered
necessary the advance of a part of the British force. Here he
appears to have been chosen, in a particular manner, to lead the
regiment in the repeated conflicts with the enemy, from the 5th to
the 12th of September, when he fell. On the 30th of August he
wrote a full account to his friends in Quebec, of the course of
events up to that date ; this, his last letter, was brought to Quebec
by the same mail which brought also the later letters from Lahore
(where his youthful and desolate partner was living with her child
under the roof of Sir Frederick and Lady Currie) announcing the
fatal results of the action of the 12th of September, in which he
was killed.
We cannot do better than give the circumstances of his fall,
in the feeling words of the surgeon of his regiment, to Lady
Currie. But while it appears that he bore himself in the " current
of the heady fight " with that courage which belongs to the two
gallant races whose blood was mingled in his veins; there are
expressions, we learn, in all his last letters, which shew that his
was not a mere animal courage, reckless of life, and unmindful of
its endearing connections, but that manly and reflecting firmness,
which looks up through the perils of the fight to Him who can
alone " cover the soldier's head in the day of battle." The surgeon
says : —
" On the night of the 10th instant, he lead four companies of
the 10th Regiment, in a night attack against an outpost of the
enemy, under a frightful fire, with such dauntless gallantry and
coolness as to excite the admiration of all who partook the dangers
with him, and to the delight of all returned uninjured. You
are, I dare say, aware that the attack failed, and was renewed again
yesterday morning, with a successful result. My poor friend,
while bravely leading in front, was shot through the lungs, and
never afterwards spoke. I was in the field and had him conveyed
under cover with the least possible delay ; but, alas, no art could
save him ! I did all in my power to revive him, if but for a few
moments, without avail, he ceased (o feel either pain or pleasure,
and shortly after breathed his last, without suffering, I believe, and
hope. I then sent him back to camp; his remains will be interred
this evening by his brother officers and fellow soldiers; and if
their deep and unaffected sorrow for his death, and sympathy with
his widow, can soothe her mind when it becomes more calm, pray
convey it to her. The very men who fell wounded near him, and
were waiting to have their wounds dressed, shed tears over their

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 463
sunburnt cheeks, and refused all assistance until his fate was
determined." Monuments have been erected by his family to his memory,
both over his grave in India, and in the English cathedral of his
native city.

Rev. JOHN COOK, D.D.
The Reverend John Cook, D.D., the distinguished minister
of St. Andrew's Church, Quebec, is a native of Dumfriesshire,
Scotland, was educated at the university of Edinburgh, where he
studied under Dr. Chalmers, and came to Canada in 1836. He
has ever since that time taken a most prominent part in the affairs of
the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of
Scotland. In the year 1844, when those who sympathized with the
secession from the Church of Scotland in 1843, withdrew from
the Canadian church in connection with the Scottish establish
ment, Dr. Cook was, for the second time, elected, after the departure
of the Free Church party, Moderator of the Synod. He opposed
the division of the Canadian church, maintaining that without
regard to the divisions of the church at home, it was the
duty of Canadian Presbyterians to remain united in upholding
the general interests of Presbyterianism in Canada. While
Dr. Cook has steadily labored to promote the extension of the old
branch of the Presbyterian Church, he has always remained con
sistent to his opinions in 1844, and at the session of the Synod
in 1861, he proposed a resolution, the effect of which was to pro
mote the union of all the Presbyterians of the province — a
union which is manifestly desirable, and which must ultimately
be achieved, however long it may be retarded by mutual preju
dice, and the remembrance of past differences. In connection
with the church Dr. Cook was one of the delegates sent home to
obtain a royal charter for the university of Queen's college, Kingston,
of which he has been a trustee since its foundation. In 1855 when
the clergy of the Church of Scotland in the province, nobly sacri
ficing their own interests for the benefit of the church, created with
the proceeds of their allowances, a general endowment fund, Dr.
Cook acted for his brethren, and it was through him that the com
mutation was effected with the government. Urgently requested
by the Synod to accept the office of principal of Queen's college, he
agreed in 1857, in the absence of a principal, to accept the post till a

464 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
persons hould be found to perform its duties, considered to unite the
various requisites for the office, and during the session of 1857-58
he presided over the college, and taught the divinity class. Dr.
Cook's great ability and energy, have enabled him to render the
highest services to the church. He has had a large shcre in all
the branches of church work, and no clergyman is better known,
or more respected, throughout the province.
While zealously supporting the cause of the church of which he
is a minister, Dr. Cook has been an eminently useful and publie
spirited citizen of Quebec — taking part not only in purely religious
affairs, but in many others of a public nature. In 1845, memorable
in the history of Quebec for the two great fires by which the suburb
of St. Roch and the suburb of St. J ohn were consumed, Dr. Cook, as
a member ofthe relief committee, took an active part in the aid of the
sufferers ; and the masterly defence of the committee, at the close
of its labours, in answer to the charges of the London com
mittee, was from his pen. At many public meetings he has elo
quently advocated what he deemed to be for the public good.
But it is perhaps in the matter of education that Dr. Cook has been
most useful to Quebec. The High-School, justly regarded as one
of the best schools in the country, was established mainly through
his exertions in 1843, and he has ever sinee that period, as chair
man of the board of directors, identified himself with its struggles,
and its success. Dr. Cook was named by the late Dr. Morrin as princi
pal of the college, about to be established in Quebec, with the funds
given by him for that purpose. His counsel will be of the greatest
value to the college ; and it is to be hoped that he may be long
spared to render in connection with it fresh service to the cause of
education. Dr. Cook labors among a large and warmly attached congregation,
the members of which feel him to be a friend to whom in all
trouble or distress, they can look for sympathy, and if necessary
for active exertions. His preaching accords with the straight
forward energy of his character. His sermons — several of which,
preached on occasions of interest, have been published — are dis
tinguished by close adherence to the special point under considera
tion, by logical precision, and by practical earnestness. They
contain also many passages marked by beauty, as well as power.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 465

Rev. MICHAEL WILLIS, D.D.
The Rev. Dr. Willis, principal of Knox's college, and pro
fessor of divinity in the same institution, has been in this province
since 1847 ; having previously been above twenty-five years a min
ister of the gospel in Scotland. His professional course, combining
his pastorate and his academic services, now exceeds forty years.
He is the son of a worthy minister, whose faithful labors extended
to near half a century, the Rev. William Willis, of Greenock, first,
and latterly of Stirling. Another son of the same parents is the
Rev. Jamieson Willis, of Kirkpatrick, Durham ; the maternal name
of the family being in him united to the common surname. Dr.
Willis, now of Toronto, was educated partly under the late Profes
sor McGill, of Glasgow, whose good opinion and favor he obtained,
receiving at his hand, more than once, high prizes for distinction
as a theological student. His successful course of study no doubt
the more disposed that revered individual, and the other members
of the faculty of the university of that city, to confer on him the
degree now belonging to his name. This honor was accorded to
him some time subsequently to the union of the old branch of the
Scotch secession and the established church ; and some years pre
vious to his translation to Canada. His father was a leading mem
ber of the former of these bodies, and for a considerable time its
professor of theology, so that the subject of this sketch had the
advantage of a double training ; having been brought up at the
feet of a secession Gamaliel, as well as of an eminently evangelical
professor of the Scotch kirk. By a unanimous vote of the Colonial
Board of the Free Church of Scotland, he was offered the situation
of professor of divinity in Knox's college, and his acceptance of it
was especially urged by the late Dr. Bayne, whom the synod had
sent to that country as a delegate on the express business of select
ing a professor for their young collegiate institute. The local
papers of that day record the very interesting proceedings of the
presbytery of Glasgow, when Dr. Willis was loosed from his pasto
ral charge, and it was remarked by many present, that seldom had
a more cherished tie been severed than that which united the min
ister and people of Renfield church. His large flock clave to him,
not more for his eminence as a preacher, than for his unwearied
kindness in visiting the afflicted, whether in the abodes of poverty
or in dwellings on which comfort had been wont to smile. Princi
pal Willis is the author of several valuable publications. The
earliest of these is a funeral sermon, on the occasion of the death of his
father, from the text, " Enoch walked with God," &c. In 1829,
59

466 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he published an able discourse on the subject of popery; in 1833,
a powerful work in defence of church establishments ; and in 1840,
a masterly pamphlet in support of the rights of a Christian people
in the election of their pastors, and on other cognate matters, in
reply to a tract full of gross misrepresentations, which had been
issued bythe dean of faculty, respecting the union of the established
church with the associate synod, a body of covenanting sentiments
and sympathies. He has also written a most attractive biography
of " Two Brothers" Bnt the production whieh perhaps more than
any other has had the effect of bringing him into permanent notice,
is a speech which he delivered in the General Assembly in 1845, on
the case of a minister named Scott, who was ejected from the Free
Church for having adopted semi-pelagian tenets. This eloquent
address on a subject which Dr. Willis was so well qualified to han
dle with a master's tact and power, was, together with others on
the same question, printed at the request of the presbytery of Glas
gow. So telling an effort in the cause of a pure gospel, had no
little weight in bringing about his appointment to the honorable
and responsible position which he now occupies. The Rev. Dr.
Guthrie, of Edinburgh, pronounced this oration magnificent. The
Witness and the Scottish Guardian represented it as " universally
admired for its clearness and elegance." Ministers of various
evangelical denominations sent letters congratulating him on the
noble stand he had made for sound doctrine. Among these was
the late Rev. Dr. Marshall, of Kirkintilloch, whom he had con
scientiously opposed in the course ofthe "voluntary controversy;"
and when he was on a visit to Ayrshire, an aged pastor, taking
him by the hand, thanked him ardently for his effective speech,
remarking that on reading it he had said, " Dr. Willis has not for
gotten the principles he learned from his good old father." Besides
these monuments of his independence, energy and usefulness, many
of his more transient writings and unprinted pleadings for Uberty
are widely remembered. Yet, he is no leveller; being on the con
trary an earnest advocate of national education and religion, but
not an opponent of the voluntary principle for its simply repudiat
ing a civil endowment of the clergy, or an appropriation of public
funds for the support of the religion merely of the state. He has
also advocated a legislative provision for the poor, and siding with
the late Professor Alison, he contended for a revision of the exist
ing poor-law of Scotland, instead of assenting to the theory of Dr.
Chalmers. He has lived to see his views carried largely into effect
in the amended law ; and it is not unlikely from present appear
ances, that he may also have the gratification of seeing his principles
in favor of the abolition of slavery triumphant on this continent.
With uncompromising fidelity and unwearied zeal, he has struggled
for this great cause, both in his native country and in the land of
his adoption; and it would be an ungenerous reserve, not to say

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 467
that the excellent lady who is his wife, has, amidst other good
works, congenial to her benevolent disposition, greatly aided and
encouraged her worthy husband in this enterprize of philanthropy.
Mrs. Willis is, most befittingly, treasurer of the Ladies' African
Refugee Society, a charity which the heart of many a destitute
stranger has blessed. The sympathies of Dr. Wallis are with the
down-trodden and oppressed everywhere, especially with the poor ;
and with the degraded and brutalized African. He sees in the
enslaved " children of the sun," the lineaments of a noble nature.
To him they are brethren in kindred, in destiny, in immortality.
He has no smooth words to varnish the foul stains of a fearful sin.
He must lift up his voice against the iniquity of crushing a fellow-
creature, whatever be his color or his clime. In the face of many,
of high Christian names, he has protested in eloquent and indignant
terms against the betrayal of the rights of the oppressed, as an
abnegation ofthe spirit and and precepts ofthe gospel.
' With the co-operation of his able colleagues in the theological
institute, Dr. Willis has already trained a large proportion of those
who are cow the clergy of the Canada Presbyterian Church, and
this important field of usefulness has been much enlarged by the
recent union of the Presbyterian and United Presbyterian Churches ;
the education of the students of the coalescent body having been
devolved on the officiating professors of Knox's college.
Principal Willis, though associated with Dr. Bayne and others
who wished to have a more decided recognition of national religion
and responsibility expressed in the basis of union, has been no fac
tious dissentient; but has from the beginning favored correspon
dence and negociations not only with the United Presbyterians, but
with the representatives of the established church of Scotland.
He is a thorough theologian and biblical scholar, and is com
pletely at home in stating, explaining, and vindicating the cardinal
doctrines of the Christian faith. In a manner peculiarly happy he
depicts the harmonious bearings of tliese great truths of holiness,
and hope, and heaven. The philosophical discrimination with
which he describes the things of the believer's experience, makes
many of his pulpit remarks very precious to those in whose hearts
they find a living echo. His casual exegesis abounds with scintil
lations of force and freshness, which are prized by every searcher
of the scriptures. As his conceptions fill with the lofty themes of
the gospel, his delivery warms into a masculine oratory that sets
resistance at nought; though sometimes the cadence of his sentence
keeps the eager listener from fully apprehending the pith of a
remark. He does not ambitiously aim at refinement of style, and
yet, an easy-flowing literature enriches his language. He well
represents the massive intellection of a theological school that is
passing away, and at the same time takes an influential place in
sustaining and encouraging the real improvements of the age that

468 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
is succeeding. While chary of innovation, he does not identify
himself with any cause merely for its antiquity, and it would be
well for many younger ministers, were they as accomplished as the
venerable professor in the subsidiary elements of publie address,
and in the very useful amenities of social life.
Dr. Willis is no sectarian. His heart is open to every lover of
" the truth as in Jesus." Hebreathes largely the spiritof that gospel
whose provisions are as wide as the wants of man ; and he has never
been backward to combine with other servants of the Redeemer,
in enterprises for spreading, through the circulated Bible, and
the living missionary, the knowledge which makes wise unto salva
tion . Both before and after the disruption of the Church of Scotland,
he acted as one of the secretaries of the Glasgow Bible Society, with
a catholicity of spirit which was of much avail to the interests of
that important institution. Subsequently to his removal to Canada,
the association was rent asunder by the entrance of party jealousies,
and on reluctantly quitting his connexion with it, the Rev. Dr.
Hill, theological professor of the university of that city, an old
and faithful friend of the cause, said, he was glad his " last act was,
joining in a record of grateful acknowledgment of the services of
Dr. Willis." This compliment was worthy of the characteristic
honor and courtesy of that estimable man, and it was not less cre
ditable to the person on whom it was so justly bestowed.
The man of whom so many pleasing and honorable reminiscences
linger in the scenes of his youth and usefulness, may well feel
cheered amidst the weighty duties which, in another sphere, are
now engaging his energies. May he yet mould the minds of a
numerous ministry for the future service of the church, when their
venerated preceptor shall have been taken from their head.

CHIEF-JUSTICE Sir J. B. MACAULAY, C.B.
Sir James Macaulay was the son of James Macaulay, Esq.,
M.D., formerly of the 33rd Foot, who soon after the formation of
the government of Upper Canada, in 1792, emigrated thither from
England, and with his regiment, the Queen's Rangers, was quartered
at Niagara. He afterwards was appointed deputy-inspector-general
of hospitals. When the seat of government was removed to Toronto,
Dr. Macaulay accompanied it, bringing with him his family. His first
Son wag the late Colonel, Honorable John Simcoe Macaulay, who

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 469
served in the Royal Engineers, and afterwards became a member of
the Legislative Council of this province. His second son, James,
and the subject of this notice, was born at Niagara, on the 3rd
December, 1793. He was educated in Cornwall, by the present
bishop of Toronto, and afterwards entered the army as ensign in
the 98th Regiment. When the war broke out in 1812, wishing to
fight for his home, he joined the Glengarry Fencibles, raised for
the special defence of the upper province, and received a com
mission as lieutenant, and afterwards was appointed adjutant in the
same corps. At Ogdensburg, Oswego, Lundy's Lane, and at the
siege of Fort Erie, he was distinguished for his gallantry, never
shrinking from the severest conflict ; always ready to do his duty,
into whatsoever dangers it might lead him. Though he was in
the midst of the hottest fights which took place during the war,
and suffered many privations in the several campaigns, he escaped
without a wound, and without injury to his health. When peace
was concluded, the gaUant corps, in which he had served was dis
banded. Lieutenant Macaulay, however, was not the man to re
main idle ; his mind, ever active, sought some new field in which
to distinguish himself. Turning his attention to the law, in 1816
he entered his name on the books of the Law Society. The
next few years of his life were passed in the study of the profession
he had chosen, and in 1822 he was called to the bar. Here his
abihties had full room for development ; he rapidly rose to the head
of his profession, won the respect of all who knew him, and attained
considerable influence in the province, so much so, that he was
during the administration of Sir Peregrine Maitland, an Executive
Councillor, an office which he held until appointed in 1829 a judge
of the Court of Queen's Bench. In December, 1849 the Court of
Common Pleas was constituted. Thither he was transferred, and
as chief-justice, continued on the bench until 1856. In that year
he retired. Although his general health continued as good as could
be expected for a man of advanced years, his hearing had become
defective, and he therefore resigned his high and honorable office.
We believe there are no two opinions as to the way in which he
discharged the many duties incumbent upon him. As a laborious
and painstaking judge, none exceeded him. His knowledge ofthe
law was extensive ; the experience he had gained was great, and
ever desirous of rendering justice to the utmost of his power, he
laboriously studied everything appertaining to the cases with' which
he had to deal. Many gentlemen, too, who now stand high in the
legal profession, acknowledge with gratitude the assistance they
received from him while they were yet students. It was his con
stant aim to assist those whom he saw were really desirous of mak
ing their way. Nothing that he could do for their good did he
neglect. When he had retired from the bench, his active mind
found no comfort in a cessation of labor. He had worked all his

470 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
life, and could not then cease. As the consolidation of the statutes
was about being commenced, he was appointed chairman of the
commission, and twelve months before his death the arduous task was
completed. As a retired judge, he received a pension of £800 per
annum, but refused any compensation for the valuable service just
mentioned. A short time previous to his death he accepted an
appointment as tenth judge of the Court of Error and Appeal,
with precedence after the two chief-justices. The arduous
duties appertaining to this office, he discharged, as he did all others
entrusted to him, with zeal and ability. His motto through life
would appear to have been — " Whatever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might." In 1859 the honor of knighthood was
conferred upon him by her Majesty the Queen.
On the death of the Honorable Robert Baldwin, he was elected
treasurer of the Law Society, a body in which he took the greatest
interest, and among whose members he was destined to spend the
last active moments of his career. On the day of his death, (26th
November, 1859,) he attended a meeting of convocation, and was
re-elected to the office of treasurer.
Sir James was sixty-seven years of age. John Simcoe Macaulay,
his elder brother, George Macaulay, a barrister of Bath, and the
Rev. Allen Macaulay, two younger brothers, are all dead. Lady
Macaulay, who survived her husband, was a member ofthe Gamble
family. Three daughters survive him, and are still living —
Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. R. Mitchele, LL. D., of York Mills ;
Kate, wife of B. Homer Dixon, Esq., K.N.L., of Toronto, and
Louisa, wife of H. E. Bennet, Esq., eldest son of the Rev. Henry
Bennet, of Sparkford Hall, Somerset, England.

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE CHABOT.
Thlj estimable gentleman and celebrated politician was born at
St. Charles, Bellechasse, in 1807. In common with a large number
of our public men of Lower Canada, he was educated at the seminary
of Quebec; and afterwards studied law under the Hon. Judge Elzear
Bedard. He made his debut as advocate at the bar of Quebec in
1834 or 1835, and soon rose to a high rank in his profession. In
1843, he was elected to represent Quebec in Parliament, by acclama
tion ; and in 1844, and again in 1848, he had the good fortune tobe
re-elected without opposition. Towards the close of 1849, nearly

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 47l
two years after the formation of the Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet,
M. Ohabot was appointed chief commissioner of publie works,
when he was again elected for the city of Quebec, Before the
government left Toronto, he ceased to hold his office in the public
works department. At the general election of 1851, he was
elected for his native county, Bellechasse ; and on the 23rd Sep
tember, 1852, he was re-appointed chief commissioner of publie
works, in the Hincks-Rolph administration. On the 4th of the
nextjnonth he was re-elected for Bellechasse, which he continued to
represent till the 23rd June, 1854. It was under his administra
tion of the public works department that the fine piers in the
lower St. Lawrence were constructed. The estimates were largely
exceeded, as too often happens in the case of public works, and a
large amount of unauthorized expenditure had to be made good.
The government was exposed to severe attacks on account of this
occurrence ; as is always the case when any considerable expendi
ture, not provided for in the estimates, takes place. From the
20th November, 1852, to the 17th December, 1854, M. Chabot
was one of the directors of the eastern section, of the Grand Trunk.
At the general election of 1854, after the Hincks-Rolph govern
ment had been defeated on a motion of the late Mr. Hartman, in
reference to their clergy reserves policy, M. Chabot was re-elected
both for Bellechasse and Quebec, on the 10th August. But he
did not sit for the former place He held his seat till the 19th
September, 1856. In December, 1854, he was appointed govern
ment director of the Grand Trunk Railroad ; and about the same
time was appointed one of the seignorial tenure commissioners,
under the law of 1854, providing for the abolition of the feudal
system of land holding.
It was on the 26th September, 1856, that M. Chabot was appointed
judge of the superior court of Lower Canada. At first, he resided
at Montreal, but latterly at Quebec, where he died.
As a parliamentary debater, M. Chabot never acquired any pro
ficiency in English. The explanations which he gave, on some
occasions, as commissioner of public works, failed to produce the
desired effect on the English speaking portion of the house, partly
from the defective manner in whieh they were given. He was,
however, a man of varied information, and spoke with considerable
force and animation in his own language. As a judge, we helieve
he discharged his duties with satisfaction to the bar, by whom he
was much esteemed, and the public. About two months previous
to his death, (which took place on the 27th May, I860,) his medi
cal attendant with, a conscientiousness which might be imitated
with advantage, assured him that he was laboring under a fatal
malady, which might, at any instant, terminate his existence. " It
was in the middle of the night," says Le Courrier du Canada,
" when the adorable sacrament of our altars was taken to him. In

472 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
spite of his extreme feebleness, he was raised up and had desired
to appear in a new dress, such as the judges wear. ' I could not,'
he said, ' better wear this dress for the first time than on this occa
sion, since I am going to receive God, the Judge of judges.' "

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE CARON.
Honorable Rene Edouard Caron was born in the parish
of St. Anne, Cote of Beaupr£, where his family resided at the end
of the year 1800. His father, M. Augustin Caron, a farmer of
easy circumstances, was also born at the same place, and represented
the county in two parliaments.
M. Caron was educated at the seminary of Quebec, and at the
college at St. Pierre, Riviere du Sud. At the latter place he re
ceived his classical education, and met there several persons who
have since distinguished themselves in the history of Canada.
Having terminated his studies in 1821, M. Caron entered upon
the study of the law in the office of M. Andre Hamel, and was ad
mitted to the bar of Lower Canada, (district of Quebec) in 1826.
At this time many of the prominent members of the legal pro
fession had either passed away or been raised to the bench, and
young Caron being exceedingly clever, succeeded to the practice of
a great many. His clients were both numerous and influential,
and mainly through them, he was elected to the City Council of
Quebec, at its first election, in 1832. In 1833, he was eleeted to
the mayoralty, a post which he occupied until the incorporation act
expired in 1837. Previous to this (1834) he was returned to Parlia
ment for the upper town of Quebec, and continued to sit therein,
until a demonstration gotten up by a part of the electors in 1836,
which he had reason to suppose reflected on his conduct as their
representative, caused him indignantly to resign his seat.
Under Lord Gosford, he was nominated a member of the Legis
lative Council of Lower Canada, but the union of the provinces
taking place shortly afterwards, he never took his seat.
When Quebec was again incorporated, Lord Sydenham appointed
M. Caron mayor of the said city for two years, after which he was
annually elected to that office until 1846.
In 1841, when the new legislature met, he took his seat in the
Legislative Council. From 1843 to 1847, he was speaker of that
body ; when the office became political, and the Honorable Mr.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 473
McGill was appointed. In 1848, he was again installed as speaker,
and continued as such until 1853, being also a member of the
Lafontaine and Hincks administration, when he was raised to the
bench as one of the four judges of the Superior Court at Quebec ;
afterwards to that of the Queen's Bench, and in 1859, was named
one ofthe commissioners for the codification of the laws of Lower
Canada, conjointly with Messrs. Morin and Day.
Judge Caron married a Miss DeBlois, of Quebec, by whom he
has a large family.

Hon. Sir ALLAN NAPIER MACNAB, Bart.,
M.L.C., AND AlDE-DE-CAMP TO THE QUEEN.
Beyond all doubt, the distinguished subject of this notice is
one of the greatest men that Canada possesses, or has produced.
One need only look to the honors which he has attained in the
just recognition of his services to be assured of this. It is a sub
ject of profound gratification to every Canadian heart to know that
Canada has given birth to such a distinguished soldier and states
man ; and more especially, that our country should be indebted to
him, a Canadian born, for the preservation of this fine dependency
to the crown.*
Colonel, the Honorable Sir Allan Napier MacNab, Baronet, of
Dundurn, Hamilton, Canada West, was born at Niagara in 1798,
and is of Scottish extraction. His grandfather, Major Robert
MacNab, of the 42nd Regiment, or Black Watch, held the post
of Royai Forester in Scotland, and resided on a small property
called Dundurn, at- the head of Loch Hearn. His father entered
the army in her Majesty's 71st Regiment, and was subsequently
promoted to a dragoon regiment. He was attached to the staff of
General Simcoe during the revolutionary war ; after its close he
accompanied General Simcoe to this country. He married the
youngest daughter of Captain William Napier, commissioner of
the port of Quebec. When the Americans attacked Toronto, Sir
Allan, then a boy at school, was one of a number of boys selected as
able to carry a musket ; and after the authorities surrendered the
* Speaking of the capture of the Caroline, Sir Archibald Alison, in his " History
of Europe," says, " This bold act, which reflected equal honor on the judgment
and courage of Colonel MacNab, was decisive of the present fate of British
North America."
60

474 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
city, he retreated with the army to Kingston, when through the
instrumentality of Sir Roger Sheaffe, a friend of his father, he was
rated as midshipman on board Sir James Yeo's ship, and accom
panied the expedition to Sackett's Harbour, Genesee, and other
places on the American side of the lake. Finding promotion
rather slow, he left the navy and joined the 100th Regiment, under
Colonel Murray,, and was with them when they re-occupied the
Niagara frontier. He crossed with the advanced guard at the
storming and taking of Fort Niagara. For his conduct in this
affair he was honored with an ensigncy in the 49th Regiment.
He was with General Riall at Fort Erie, and crossed the river with
him when Black Rock and Buffalo were burned, in retaliation for
the destruction of Niagara, a few months previous. After the
termination of this campaign, Sir Allan joined his regiment in
Montreal, and shortly after marched with them to the attack of
Plattsburg. On the morning of the attack, he had the honor
of commanding the advanced guard at the Sarnac bridge. At
the reduction of the army in 1816 or 1817, he was placed on
half-pay. He then commenced the study of the law, and during this time
was employed as copying clerk and clerk of the journals in the
Legislative Assembly, and when the Parliament of Upper Canada
was extinguished by the act of union, Sir Allan was speaker. He
was subsequently elected speaker of the united legislatures. He
was called to the bar in 1825, and commenced the practice of his
profession in Hamilton, where he was for many years a most suc
cessful practitioner, having all the most important business in that
district. He was then appointed Queen's counsel, the first appoint
ment of the kind in Upper Canada. He was first elected to Par-
iament in 1829, we believe along with the Honorable John Wilson,
for the county of Wentworth, and after serving in three parlia
ments, was returned for the city of Hamilton, in opposition to Mr.
Harrison, the government nominee. He was from that time
opposed successively, to the period of his retirement from the
representation of the city, by Messrs. Tiffany, Freeman, and
Buchanan. Sir Allan's zeal and efficiency as a militia officer, especiaUy in cut
ting out the Caroline steamer on the Niagara river, during the trou
bles of 1837-8, are fresh in the memories of all. He did not wait
for the insurrection to reach Hamilton, but went with the " Men
of Gore " first to Toronto, afterwards to the west, and then to the
frontier, during which time he commanded the militia. His time
and means were liberally given in defence of his country ; the
speedy termination of the troubles in Upper Canada was due to
his activity and zeal. His services were duly appreciated, not
only in his native country, but by her Majesty, by Lord Seaton,
and the two parliaments of Canada, (he being speaker of the lower

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 475
house.) He also received the thanks of the legislatures of the
sister provinces.*
Sir Allan MacNab, though always consistent, proved himself to
be more liberal than many of his opponents have been inclined to
give him credit for. It is generally known how ably he battled for
the retention of the clergy reserves ; yet finding that the country
was averse to the continuance of the reserves, he gracefully
yielded to the wishes of the people, and finally effected a settlement
of the vexed question, after the boasted champions of its abolition
had failed to carry out their oft-renewed pledge. He was in the
House of Assembly for nine successive parliaments, and was never
absent from his place for a week, except during the last two sessions,
previous to his retirement, when illness confined him to his house.
*" Government House, 3rd May, 1838.
"In giving publicity to the following despatch, the lieutenant-governor avails
himself of the opportunity it affords him, of expressing his high sense of the
important services reported to him as having been tendered by Colonel MacNab,
during the period, in which the body of the militia of Upper Canada, of which
he had the command, were employed in suppressing an unnatural and unprovoked
rebellion, and in repelling the foreign outlaws and brigands, who had attempted
its invasion.
" His excellency much regrets that his honor the chief-justice has, from mo
tives of the most peculiar delicacy, declined the honor intended to have been
conferred upon him, as the lieutenant-governor feels assured that it would have
afforded all classes of her Majesty's subjects in this colony the greatest satis
faction, that a mark of royal approbation had been bestowed on a public
officer, whose long and arduous servioes, and whose eminent abilities and in
tegrity in the discharge of his official duties, so fully entitled him to any dis
tinction, which his sovereign might graciously deem it proper to confer on him.
" By command of his excellency, "J. Joseph."

" Downing Street, March 14, 1838.
" Sir, — I have had the honor to receive Sir Francis Head's despatch of the 1st
February, (No. 14,) calling the notice of her Majesty's government to the im
portant services of Colonel Allan MacNab, and Mr. Chief-Justice Robinson,
during the late iusurrection in Upper Canada, and suggesting that the honor of
knighthood should be conferred on those gentlemen.
" In my despateh of the 30th January last, (No. 16,) I have already conveyed
to you the Queen's gracious approbation of such of Colonel MacNab's services,
as had, at that time, been brought under her Majesty's notice. I have received
her Majesty's command to express her high satisfaction at the courage, spirit
and ability, which he has displayei in tho transactions which have been since
reported to me.
"Her Majesty will not fail to take into her favorable consideration Sir F. B.
Head's suggestion that some public mark of her approbation should be bestowed
on Colonel MacNab. ¦ •
" I have laid before the Queen Sir Francis Bond Head's report of the services
of Mr. Chief-Justice Robinson ; and have at the same time had the hono'if to
submit to her Majesty, that gentleman's letter declining the honor solicited for
him by Sir Francis Bond Head. I have received her Majesty's command, to
express through you, to Mr. Robinson, her approbation of his long and valuable
servioes to the crown, and her sense of the disinterested motives by which his
letter of the 8th ultlimo, was dictated. I have, &c, " Glenelg."

476 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
When Sir Allan first took his seat in the united parliament
as the representative of the city of Hamilton, Canada West,
at the period the Lafontaine-Baldwin party were firmly united
in that union which only exists in opposition when people have
every thing to object to and nothing to do. There was one ques
tion, however, which had to be settled, and that was the university
question. Lord Metcalfe and Mr. Draper, it was well known, were
favorable to a liberal settlement of that question which had troubled
the colony almost from its origin. They had given pledges, private
if not public. Lord Metcalfe was a whig of the most liberal
school, and Mr. Draper was a very respectable reflection of Sir
Kobert Peel. The question was, in what proportion the power
should be divided between the high tory compact party and the
moderate Metcalfe-Draper party. The arrogant pretensions of the
former it was impossible to sustain, though they had perhaps
the larger share in determining the issue of conflict. The com
promise come to was this : Sir Allan MacNab was nominated by
the united party for speaker of the House of Assembly, and was
opposed by M. Morin, whom he h^at by a majority of three. It
was reasonably objected that Sir Allan could scarcely understand,
and certainly could not speak, one word of French, while it was
urged, on the other side, that M. Morin's knowledge of English
was only a shade more extensive than Sir Allan's of French, and
that he wanted Sir Allan's vigor and decision.
In the time of Lord Cathcart, there was an intrigue, of which it
may be said as of most Canadian intrigues, that Lejeu ne vaut pas
le chandelle, that is, it is not worth throwing a light on it, and that
it will speedily pass into the oblivion which we have no wish to
disturb. Sir Allan was to have been made adjutant-general, but
for some reason or other (nobody believes that the true one was
alleged) he altered his mind, and preferred to stick by the speaker
ship. The question was, whether he had vacated his seat, and,
with that the speakership. Lord Cathcart positively asserted that
he had accepted the office, and had discussed with him the subsi
diary arrangements. Sir Allan has positively asserted that the
arrangements were preliminary, and that his acceptance was on a
condition which was not fulfilled. He remained speaker ; with a
curious unanimity, the French Canadians supported his view of
the case, along with the ministry whom they wished to overthrow,
but which durst not make the compact their enemy. This confirmed
an opinion of the truth of which the well-informed had pre
viously abundant proof, that the Upper Canada high tories were
intriguing to join the Lower Canada French, and throw overboard
the Upper Canada radicals and the Lower Canada British, for the
purpose of securing the temporalities of the Churches of Koine
and of England, and of strengthening their ascendancy in their
respective sections of the province. This intrigue seems to have

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 477
been abortive ; for, when the radicals came in with a majority, they
put M. Morin into the chair, and Sir Allan took his seat among
the few faithful on the opposition benches.
He was born and brought up in Canada, and entering public
life while but a very young man, he was identified with every public
movement for the forty years previous to his retirement. He became
prime minister in 1854, and during his administration the clergy
reserves question was set at rest; the reciprocity act was passed;
the seignorial tenure difficulties were adjusted ; the munificent
appropriation made to the patriotic fund ; and the militia act was,
we believe, Sir Allan's last measure, the admirable results of which
are now generally admitted. Sir Allan was knighted in 1838, and
was created a baronet on his retirement from the office of premier
in 1856. Had he exerted himself as zealously for his own interests
as he has for those of the public, there is no doubt that Sir Allan
MacNab would have been one of the wealthiest men in the province.
In October, 1857, he retired from public life in Canada, issuing
to his constituents the following feeling address : —
"To the Free and Independent Electors or the Citv of Hamilton:
" Gentlemen, — I deeply regret that the state of my health is
such that I am unable longer to discharge my duty in Parliament
with justice to you, or satisfaction to myself. I therefore feel that
the time has arrived for me to retire from a position that it has
been the pride of my life to enjoy. I would have taken this step
at the close of the last session, had I not believed there would
have been a general election, and I was unwilling to give you the
trouble and annoyance of a second contest ; however, from the best
information I can obtain, I am inclined to the belief that there will
not be a dissolution of Parliament. I have, therefore, transmitted
my resignation to the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, that
you may have ample time to select a member in my place. Most
sincerely do I thank you, gentlemen, for the kind and cordial sup
port you have accorded me during nine successive parliaments in
which I have had the honor of representing either the county or city.
The best portion of my life has been spent amongst you ; and I
can say, with truth, that during this long period my best energies
have been devoted to the interests of my constituents and the
honor of my country.
" One word before we part, and that is : if, in times of trial and
great excitement, I have erred, I trust you will kindly ascribe it
to an error of the head, and not the heart.
" Believe me, gentlemen, I shall ever remain, your very greatly
obliged and very faithful friend,
"Allan Napier MacNab."
" Dundurn, October 24, 1857."

478 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
On this occasion the public press of Canada and many journals
of the neighboring republic vied with each other in their remarks
to do the gallant and honorable baronet honor. On all sides there
was but one feeling as to his retirement from the country, and
that was of regret that we were about to lose the services of a
man, who had proved himself worthy of the highest honors which
his country could confer, — had studied and advanced our interests,
and had been the " saviour of the upper province."
We produce the parting remarks elicited from the Spectator of
Hamilton : —
" With feelings such as must have been experienced by all who
are about to be separated from an old and valued friend, we to-day
record the retirement from public life of one who for upwards of
twenty years has been the acknowledged leader of the party for
whose interests we have battled ever since the establishment of
this journal. For nearly thirty years Sir Allan MacNab has occu
pied the most prominent public position of any man in Canada.
During all that time he has served his country faithfully, both in
the council and the field, and now retires into private Ufe, only
because he feels himself incapacitated, through ill-health, to per
form with justice to his constituents and satisfaction to himself the
important duties devolving upon him as a member of the legislature.
In thus yielding up the trust reposed in him by the electors of this
city, Sir Allan carries with him into his retirement the respect and
good will of all. No man ever enjoyed a larger share of the con
fidence of the people of this country than he has done ; for, not
withstanding his thorough party views and fearless expression of
them, he has ever shared the respect of the majority of those from
whom he conscientiously differed in opinion. His opponents have
been neither few nor insignificant, yet he feared not to stand up
boldly in defence of the principles he advocated ; while some of
his bitterest antagonists have been compelled, by a sense of justice,
to own that he was not actuated by unworthy motives in contending
for the interests of his party. There are many, it is true, who
have condemned both his motives and actions unsparingly ; fortu
nately, however, this outburst of displeasure was but the ebulli
tion of the moment, and when the excitement died away, the
wrath of the gallant knight's aspersers was silenced, or at least
greatly mollified, and the abuse now heaped upon him is solely con
fined to the mere mouthpieces of a fanatical clique. His long con
nexion with parliamentary duties gave him a decided advantage
over his brother members, and he was frequently appealed to in
matters of difficulty and dispute, alike by friends and foes. As a
party tactician he had few, if any, equals, and struggled against
difficulties which others would have succumbed to, or feared to
encounter. This will readily be acknowledged by all who have
closely watched Sir Allan's political career. His absence from the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 479
Assembly will cause a void not easily to be filled, and his loss will
be equally regretted by the country and electors of this city. To
Sir Allan MacNab, Canada is indebted for its preservation as an
integral portion of the British dominions ; and to him Hamilton
owes a lasting debt of gratitude for having by his exertions, placed
it in the proud position of the third commercial city in the pro
vince. Some of his opponents have attempted to rob him of the
credit of having accomplished anything for the benefit of the place
in which he has resided ever since it was a mere hamlet ; but his
works speak for themselves, and we need only point to that noble
monument, the Great Western Bailway. He has now retired from
the arena of publie life to enjoy that repose so necessary to his
health, and we fondly indulge the hope — in which we feel confident
all his friends will join us — that he may be long spared to look
back with pleasure upon his past eventful career.
" As we have already said, Sir Allan carries with him into his
retirement the hearty good will and esteem of his many friends ;
and while they cannot but regret to lose him as their representative
in Parliament, they feel that he has taken the only course which
a sense of duty to his constituents, as well as to himself seemed to
point out. Their only consolation is in the hope of finding a compe
tent successor to Sir Allan, to fill the void his retirement has caused."
At the general election in England in 1859, Sir Allan ran in
opposition to Admiral Pechell, for the town of Brighton, but
without success — at least as to being returned, but certainly other
wise with great success, considering him to be, but by reputation
and name, an entire stranger to the electors. He polled a large
number of votes, and ran his opponent very closely.
But Sir Allan was not destined to leave the country of his birth,
which had witnessed his glorious achievements. Having recovered
his health, and being what may be called an elderly man entirely
reinvigorated. He returned again to Canada, in 1860, and a
vacancy having occurred by the appointment of Colonel Prince tb
the judgeship of Algoma, in the western division of the Legislative
Council, he was returned a member of that honorable body ; and
last session, took his seat among the "lords" of Canada.
Sir Allan married, first, on the 6th of May, 1821, Elizabeth,
daughter of Lieutenant Daniel Brooke, by whom, who died in 1825,
he had one son and one daughter; the former died in 1834; the
latter (Anne Jane) married in 1849, Assistant Commissary-General
Davenport. Sir Allan married, secondly, in 1831, Mary, eldest
daughter of Mr. Sheriff Stuart, of the Johnstown district, by
whom, who died in 1846, he had two daughters, the eldest of
whom (Sophia) married in November, 1855, the Eight Honorable
Viscount Bury, M.P., eldest son of the Earl of Albemarle; the
youngest (Mary Stuart) married in 1861, a son of the Honorable
Sir Dominick Daly, governor of South Australia.

480 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

ADMIRAL BAYFIELD, R.N.
None can be ignorant of the name and services of the above
distinguished officer, and as in everything but birth he is a
Canadian, and one to whom we are deeply indebted, we herewith
present to our readers such facts relating to his history as we have
been enabled to gather.
Henry Wolsey Bayfield is descended from a very ancient family,
the Bayfields, formerly of Bayfield Hall, county Norfolk, England.
He entered the royal navy, on the 6th January, 1806, as a
supernumerary volunteer, on board his Majesty's ship Pompey,
eighty guns, bearing the flag of Sir William Sydney Smith.
Proceeding from Dover, in the Atalanta, tender to the Pompey,
he was present when she beat off a French privateer, after a brief
but sharp action. Having arrived in the Pompey off Cadiz, Mr.
Bayfield was transferred to the Queen, ninety-eight guns, the flag
ship of Admiral Lord CoUingwood ; and from her to the Duchess
of Bedford, hired arm ship, fourteen guns ; in which vessel,
commanded by Lieutenant F. B. Spilsbury, he was slightly wounded,
when after a severe action in the Gut of Gibraltar, she beat off two
powerful Spanish fellucas, manned by more than double the
number of her crew. For his conduct in this action, Mr. Bayfield
was transferred to the Beagle, eighteen guns, as first class volunteer,
on the 29th September 1806, under the command of Captain
Francis Newcomb. Mr. Bayfield was present, when the Beagle, by
her superior fire, compelled the enemy to abandon an English
merchant vessel, laden with naval stores, and which had been
stranded under the sand-hills, on the Atlantic coast of Spain. —
And on the 28th October, 1808, 24th January, and 13th February,
1809, at the capture of the French privateer and luggers Hazard,
Venguer, and Fortune, carrying in the whole forty-four guns, and
one hundred and fifty-five men. Under the same command, Mr.
Bayfield shared in Lord Cochrane's celebrated attack of the
French fleet, in Aix Roads, on the 11th and 12th April, 1809, and
and also on the 18th April, when the Beagle, with several ¦ other
vessels, was anchored in the mouth of the Chasaute, and engaged
for five hours under a fire of shot and shell, from L'Isle d'Aix
L' Ocean, one hundred and twenty guns, a two decked ship, and a
frigate. In the autumn of the same year, he was present at the
siege of Flushing, and other operations on the Scheldt : and having
previously attained the rating of midshipman, he rejoined Captain
Newcomb, in April 1811, on his appointment to the command of
the Wanderer, twenty guns, and during the three following years,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 481
was employed in the West Indies, the coast of North America,
Portugal, and the north coast of Spain. In the autumn of 1814,
he volunteered for service on the lakes of Canada, where he
commanded a gunboat, towards the close of the American war ;
and having attained the rank of lieutenant, 20th March, 1815, he
assisted Captain W. F. W. Owen, in the survey of lake Ontario,
the river St. Lawrence from Kingston to Prescott, and the
Niagara river. In June 1817, Lieutenant Bayfield became an
admiralty surveyor, and was appointed to the survey of the lakes
Erie and Huron, in which great work, with means altogether
inadequate, namely two open boats, and one young midshipman,
be persevered until the spring of 1823 ; when he commenced the
survey of lake Superior, for which service the schooner Recovery,
of one hundred and fifty tons, and the only vessel at the time on
that immense lake, was hired from the Hudson's Bay Company, at
whose principal establishment, Fort William, the naval surveying
party wintered. Towards the close of the year 1825, Lieutenant
Bayfield returned to England, after ten years of incessant toil and
exposure, iu that severe climate, the shores of lakes Huron and
Superior, being at the time uninhabited, except by wandering
Indians, and a few fur-traders. On his arrival in England,
Lieutenant Bayfield was employed at the Admiralty, completing the
charts of the lakes, and on the 8th November, i826, the Lords
of the Admiralty signified their approbation of his service, by
promoting him to the rank of commander. In the following
summer, 1827, the lord high admiral, the Duke of Clarence, as
a further mark of approval, appointed him to the survey of the
St. Lawrence. In this last great work, which has been extended
so as to include the whole of the river and gulf of St. Lawrence,
from Montreal through the Straits of Bellisle, to Cape St. Lewis,
on the coast of Labrador ; the great river Saguenay, and all other
tributary streams, as far as they are navigable ; the islands of
Anticosti, Mingan, the Magdalens, Prince Edward, Cape Breton,
&c; the coast of Nova Scotia westward to Halifax, inclusive;
Sable Island, &c, Captain Bayfield was employed until the 21st
October, 1856, when he attained the rank of rear-admiral — hav
ing previously been promoted to the rank of captain, for his
services, as a maritime surveyor, on the 4th June, 1834.
From the foregoing statement it will be perceived, that Admiral
Bayfield's connection with Canada commenced at an early period
of his career, in the year 1814. He was a resident at Quebec,
from the close to the opening of the navigation, for fourteen years,
from 1827 to 1841. In this last named year, the survey being
extended to the southeastern parts of the gulf, it became necessary
to change the head-quarters of the survey to Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island, where it has since remained. During Admiral
Bavfield's residence in Canada, he formed many friendships, which
61

482 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
death has in many instances severed, but the remembrance of
which will never cease to be cherished with pleasure. He took
an interest in all measures having for their object, the advancement
of science, the relief of the poor, &c. On his departure from
Quebec, he received the thanks of the Trinity Board, 20th May,
1841, and on the 6th May, 1854, of the Canadian Legislature, for
services rendered to Canada, &c. He is an honorary, and one of
the original members of the Literary and Historical Society of
Quebec, and of the Canadian Institute, Toronto" ; a correspond
ing member of the Natural History Society of Montreal, and of
the Kingston Mechanics' Institute ; a member of -the Astronomical
Society of London, and of the Societe' Geologqiue de France.

J. G. BARTHE, Esq.
This gentleman, well known as a journalist of some standing
and celebrity in Lower Canada, is descended from an old and well
connected French family, which misfortune drove hither during
the French occupation of this province. His father was reduced
to the necessity of trading between the Baie des Chaleufs and the
Antilles, in a small vessel, which he had purchased, and it was on
one of these voyages that the subject of this notice was horn,
exactly forty-four years since.
M. Barthe, at the early age of five years (after his parents had
sustained a series of misfortunes), was entrusted to the care of his
uncle, who resided at Three Rivers, to receive his education, and
after remaining there for a short time, was removed to the college
of Nicolet, where he remained until 1832, studying very little, and
dreaming very much, when on the breaking out of the pestilential
cholera, he was moved again to Three Rivers, and entered as a
student of medicine, at Dr. Kimber's. At this time he Uterally
knew nothing, having as before mentioned, idly passed the pre
cious time allotted for his education, in writing poetic effusions,
which were destined hardly to live the hour. For fourteen or
fifteen months he remained with Dr. Kimber, until disgusted and
sick at heart with the bloody scenes he had to witness in his
profession ; he on the advice of Judge Vallieres de St. Real, gave
it up, and adopted that of the law. Finding himself deficient in
learning, and advised by some persons of distinction, whose friend
ship he had contracted, he studied diUgently, and made himself

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 483
master of all things necessary for a good sound practical education,
and such a one as would enable him to pass his examination cre
ditably. The events of 1837 arrived, and young Barthe was1 arrested on
suspicion of having written an ode to Papineau and "the exiles,"
and confined in prison, from which he was only liberated, on the
arrival of the Honorable Poulett Thompson (Lord Sydenham.) He
immediately passed his examination, became an advocate of Lower
Canada, and proceeded to Montreal, to establish himself in his
profession. There he became editor of L'Avenir des Canadas,
a position which he occupied for five years.
In 1841, he was returned to Parliament, for the county of
Yamaska, but was defeated on presenting himself in 1845, through
the influence of a strong party, whose censure he had incurred;
since then he has not sat in Parliament.
When the commission on the rebellion losses indemnity was struck,
Mr. Barthe was attached to it, and afterwards was appointed Clerk
of Appeals for Lower Canada, and held this situation for four
years ; afterwards he was connected in a great measure with the
French Canadian press, and whilst in that capacity conceived the
idea of an emigration to this country from France, which has since
been adopted by the government, but without any benefit to M.
Barthe; and in 1853, he proceeded to France with his family, pro
duced his book, while there, entitled " Canada Reconquis par la
France," and returned after residing at Paris for three years.
He was an unsuccessful candidate last year, for the Legislative
Council division of Stadacona.

ADMIRAL BOXER, C.B.

Well-known in Canada during the time he filled some public
offices at Quebec. Rear-admiral Boxer was a native of Dover, where
he was born in 1783, and the younger brother of Captain James
Boxer, R.N., and of Commander William Boxer, R.N. who died in
1842. He entered the service in 1798, on board the Doris, 36 guns,
Captain Lord Viscount Ranelagh, and continued to serve in her
until January, 1802, when he accompanied Captain Brisbane, then
her captain, into the Trent, 36, and afterwards served with him for
three years in the Goliath, 74, and Arethusa, 38. He subsequently
served in V Uniti, on the Mediterranean station ; the Ocean, 98, the

484 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
flag-ship of Lord CoUingwood, off Cadiz ; and as acting lieutenant
ofthe Sophia, 18, and Tigre, 80. During the expedition to Egypt
in 1807, he commanded a detachment of seamen landed to co-ope
rate with the army ; and, on the 31st October, 1809, he commanded
a division of boats, which captured, in the bay of Rosas, the
French storeship Lamproie, the bombards Victoire and Grondeur,
the armed xebec Normandie, and a convoy of seven merchant
vessels. From the Tigre, in October, 1811, he removed to the Malta, 84
guns, with Captain Hallowell, who then hoisted his flag as a rear-admi
ral ; and he continued employed by that officer as first lieutenant
until appointed, in October, 1814, tothe acting command ofthe
Wizard, brig. In 1813 he had the direction of all the gun-boats
under the orders of Rear-Admiral Hallowell at the seige of
Tarragona. He was made commander, March 1, 1815; and from that period
remained unemployed uniil appointed, 6th September, 1822, to the
Sparrowhawk, 18 guns, on the Halifax station, whence he was
superseded, on his promotion to the rank of captain, 23rd June,
1823. He became an inspecting commander of the Coast Gluard in
July, 1824. From February, 1827 until July, 1830, he served as
flag-captain at Halifax to Sir Charles Ogle, in the Hussar, 46 ; and
from August, 1837 to August, 1841 he commanded the Pique, 36,
on the North America, West India, and Mediterranean stations.
In 1840, on the coast of Syria, his active exertions materially con
tributed to the operations against Caiffa, Jaffa, and Tsour ; and
together with Captain H. J. Codrington, he superintended the
soundings made in the channels leading to the batteries of St Jean
d'Acre, previously to the bombardment of that fortress. For these
services he was, nominated a companion of the Bath on the 18th
December, in that year, and presented with the Turkish gold medal.
On the 24th August, 1843, he was appointed agent for transports
and harbor-master at Quebec, where he remained for several years.
He attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1853.
After his employment as admiral-superintendent at Balaklava,
some reflections had been passed upon him on account ofthe crowded
and dirty state of that inconveniently narrow and contracted
port during the Russian war ; but a letter thus spoke of his exer
tions : —
"Admiral Boxer, to whom exclusively is due the credit of filling
up the waste of filth at the head of the harbor, and of creating in
its stead a spacious quay and landing-place, is certainly most ener
getic. He is afloat all day long, from an early hour in the morn
ing looking after the vessels ; and nothing escapes his notice. He
has instituted an admirable harbor police — the men have handsome
uniforms, and are provided with a fast-pulling cutter; and at night
the silence which prevails on board the ships is a great contrast to

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 485
the noise and riot which existed a short time ago. A wire cable is
drawn across the mouth of the harbor every night, and boats row
guard as usual inside."
Rear-Admiral Boxer died on board the Jason, outside the harbor
of Balaklava, after a short illness, of cholera, on the 4th June,
1855. He was removed to the ship in the hope that the pure sea
air might prove beneficial to him ; but this expectation was not
fulfilled. His nephew died of cholera in the preceding week, and
this melancholy event so deeply affected him, that his health at
once gave way, and he sunk under the same disease. The late
Lord Raglan, in reporting his death to the secretary of the war
department, thus described his merits : —
" It is well known that this officer devoted his whole life to the
public service. Since he undertook the appointment of admiral-
superintendent of the harbor of Balaklava, he has applied himself
incessantly to the discharge of his arduous duties, exposing himself
in all weathers ; and he has rendered a most essential service to the
army, by improving the landing-places and establishing wharfs on
the west side ofthe port, whereby the disembarkation of stores and
troops has been greatly accelerated, and communications with the
shore have been rendered much easier."
Admiral Boxer became a widower on the 25th of June, 1826,
and had a numerous family. His eldest son, James Fuller, a mas
ter R.N., married Mathilda Mary,' eldest daughter of T. Sturdee,
Esq., of the naval yard at' Portsmouth. Edward, his third son,
married, in 1843, Eleanor, daughter ofthe late Lieutenant-Colonel
Payne, R.A. Of his daughters, one married C. E. Levey, Esq.,
of Quebec, and another, Captain Thompson of the 54th Regiment.

Dr. ANDREW F. HOLMES.
Dr. Holmes, the dean of the faculty of McGill college, was
one of the most talented savans as well as one of the most estima
ble gentlemen in this country.
In the year 1797, the father of Dr. Holmes was on his way to
Canada with his wife, when the vessel in which he sailed was cap
tured by a French frigate, and taken as a prize to Cadiz. There
the doctor was born, and was baptized at the church of St. Jago
by the name of Andrew Fernando. The family reached Canada in
1801. In 1811 he was articled to the late Dr. Arnoldi, with whom

486 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he studied for several years, after which he went to Edinburgh
to complete his studies, and thence to Paris. In 1819 he returned
to Canada with the diploma of M.D., and began the practice of his
profession as a partner of his former patron. This partnership
being subsequently dissolved, he continued to practice alone up to
the day of his death. After his return, in 1824, with the late Drs.
Caldwell and Robertson, he founded the Montreal School of Medi
cine, known afterwards as the " Montreal Medical Institution,"
which when the university of McGill college was set in operation
in 1828 or 1829, was merged in the medical faculty of that insti
tution. This school has long ranked among the foremost on this con
tinent, and has been a boast of Montreal. Up to the year 1836 he
filled the chair of materia medica and chemistry. In that year
the duty was divided, he taking chemistry alone, which he held
till 1842, when he succeeded Dr. Robertson in the chair which he
held up to the day of his death. A t the reorganization of the faculty
in 1854, he became and continued to his death dean of the faculty,
discharging the duties of his office with a zeal, diUgence and alac
rity beyond praise, also holding the chair of the theory and prac
tice of medicine. He was, we believe, the oldest professor in
Canada. Dr. Holmes was also the founder, with a few others, of
the Natural History Society, and pursued for many years the study
of the natural sciences with great zeal and success, winning for
himself reputation as a naturalist, in days when students in those
fields lacked the many aids and incitements to diligence possessed
now. His herbarium, consisting of a very complete collection of
the plants of Canada, he presented, a few years ago, to the museum
ofthe university. He died at Montreal, in September, 1860.

Rev. JOHN BAYNE, D.D.
We present the following sketch from the Toronto Globe, which
appeared at the period ofthe death of this eminent Presbyterian
divine, an event which took place in November, 1859 : —
" ' Dr. Bayne, of Gait, is dead,' is a statement which, as it falls
on the ear, or meets the eye, will awaken painful emotions in
multitudes in this couutry ; and the reply will be, ' Yes, and a
great man is gone.' It is even so, for he was no ordinary man.
Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since the writer of these
lines met with Dr. Bayne. He had just then come to the province,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 487
and, although but a young man, no one could be an hour in his
company without being struck with the force and originality of his
mind ; for his stock of information was even then very great, and
his power of expressing his thoughts so clear and comprehensive,
that you felt at once in the presence of a man of a well-stored
memory and a highly cultivated intellect. As he continued to be
a hard student, he was constantly adding to his mental wealth, so
that, many years before his death, his stores of knowledge were
uncommonly great. It was, however, in theological learning that
he chiefly excelled ; for, although far above the ordinary run of
even learned men in certain departments of secular knowledge, yet
it was the learning of his profession on which his heart was mainly
set, and on which his intellectual powers were ever most vigorously
exercised. No man knew better the vast difference in value
betwixt the best of human learning and the knowledge of the
gospel ; and few men could turn to better account secular know
ledge, in making it subservient, so far as it could go, to the illus
tration of sacred truth. From his fine taste and sound judgment,
he could not only fully appreciate the labors of men in the various
walks of literature, but could wisely employ these to throw light
on his grand topics in the pulpit.
" It was, indeed, in the pulpit that this eminent servant of God
appeared to the highest advantage. There were those — perhaps
not a few — who thought his discourses were heavy, but they were
heavy with thought ; and if somewhat longer than modern custom
sanctions, it should be known that this was not through a want of
taste or prudence in the preacher, but from burning zeal to benefit
souls. He appeared to feel that his message was so momentous, and
the present opportunity so important, that he did not know well
how to stop while there were unconverted sinners before him, and
souls that needed the consolations of the gospel. And yet, when
one thinks how rich his discourses were in matter — how clear the
reasoning was that ran through them — with what simple and noble
diction the great truths were clothed, and with what natural and
forcible majesty they were delivered — he cannot but wonder that
Christian men should have thought them unreasonably long. The
truth is, that to men of vigorous intellect and healthy piety, Dr.
Bayne was ever an acceptable preacher. It is not saying too
much to affirm, that on all the topics he carried to the pulpit, he
ever spoke so as to interest and edify. Yet, those who have heard
him frequently will readily admit that it was when he came to
speak of his Saviour's love, and his Saviour's sufferings, that his
discourses partook of a grandeur and beauty quite peculiar. On
these highest of all themes — the themes unspeakably dearest to
his heart, he was in the best sense truly an eloquent preacher. It
need scarcely be observed that his eloquence, neither on these, nor
on other occasions was at all of the sort so much in vogue with

488 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
many that run after a certain kind of pulpit orators. The genius
of his eloquence was eminently intellectual. Hence it dealt mainly
with the understanding and conscience, and was intended to reach
the feelings only through the conscience. This it often did with
singular force. The church to which he so long ministered — per
haps the largest in the province — is composed of a people whose
good sense, solid information, and simple manners eminently fitted
them to appreciate the high and varied talents of their gifted
pastor. What a loss that church has sustained !
" It maybe naturally inferred from what has been already stated,
that Dr. Bayne was a man of the old school. In some respects
he was peculiarly so. It is well known that on certain points in
the line that separates the sacred from the civil, or the church
from the state, he held strong, and in our times what are regarded
as peculiar notions. There is no intention in this brief notice to
enter on these matters. It is enough to say, that some of his
theories, as to the power of the civil magistrate in things sacred,
were the same as have in speculation sorely perplexed the wisest
of men in different ages, and have still more sorely perplexed good
men at certain periods, when they have striven to reduce these
theories to practice. And if many who highly esteemed his
talents and revered his spirituality of mind, thought his theories
on these subjects sometimes obscurely stated, and his reasonings
frequently inconclusive, yet no one ever questioned his sincerity,
or the high motives from which he acted. He was indeed a man
of simple honesty of purpose — hence, if his tenacity to certain
ecclesiastical views was often annoying, and sometimes painful to
those who differed from him ; yet, even those who differed most
were ever ready to admit, that this tenacity could not be traced to
vanity, but to a deep conviction that what he supported were great
principles. " The man who is only distinguished in pubUc, has some grounds
to suspect that his claims to greatness, are on the whole rather
equivocal. If Dr. Bayne was a distinguished preacher and a
leading man in church courts, he was a still more remarkable man
in private. Indeed, it is hardly saying too much, to affirm, that
those who have only known him in public, can hardly form any
just notion of the richness of his mind, or the gentleness and
humility of his heart. Like all good men, he was eminently social
— but he possessed, what some good men do not possess, conversa
tional powers of the highest order. As is was said of one of our
greatest poets — " that whatever he uttered had something in it" —
so may it with truth be said of Dr. Bayne, that all that he
uttered had either something genial in it, often something grand,
and always something good. Men who understand of what
materials high minds are made, will not wonder to hear that he
was a man of genuine wit, and that his wit often overflowed into

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 489
natural and pleasing humor. The conceited, the stupid, and those
who are harrassed with the dread of their hollowness being detected,
were apt to suppose him not only severe, but cruel in the play of
his wit. No supposition could be more unjust. He was not only
a Christian gentleman in principle, but a most accomplished gentle
man in his whole demeanor. He would, indeed, have shuddered
to have uttered a word that could have given causeless pain to the
humblest of his fellow creatures. No one who has ever witnessed
him talk, with his earnest voice and look, with the young, whether
cheerily or solemnly, by the fireside, can ever doubt either the
depth of his piety or the tenderness of his affection ; and surely
the man of mature years, who ever left Dr. Bayne's own fireside
without regret to go, must have had but little social affection,
while he could leave it without having made addition to his
wisdom, and having had all his best motives strengthened, must
either have been an exceedingly wise man or pitiably foolish. He
was, indeed, take him all in all, an admirable specimen of what
the ministers of Christ ought to be — learned, laborious, zealous,
and humble. Canada sadly misses such a man, and yet it is even
more painful to think that the province can at present lose but few
such men.
" But this brief notice, which has aimed at no full portraiture of
Dr. Bayne's character, must now be drawn to a close. Before,
however, doing this, it may not be improper to remark, that he
had descended from a family, that for several generations had been
distinguished for respectable talent, and eminent' piety. Dr.
Bayne's father, the Gaelic minister of Greenock, was truly a man
of God ; his mother is also said to have been a woman of excellent
mind and of most ardent piety. The labors of these parents
were not in vain. Several of the daughters werenotonly eminent
Christian women, but labored with extraordinary ability, and
gave a display of grace in its most beautiful forms, as missionaries
in heathen lands. Mrs. Wilson, of Bombay, one of Dr. Bayne's
sisters, was one of the loftiest and purest spirits that ever toiled in
the conversion of the heathen. But these godly parents who
trained up these noble children have gOne — and the children are
gone too. Yet all of them appear to have lived for the mighty
purpose of honoring Christ in the salvation of souls. ' Their
works do follow them.' ' Blessed are the dead that die in the
Lord.'"

62

490 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Sir GEORGE SIMPSON, K.B.
This book of Canadian celebrities would be incomplete if we
omitted to notice the distinguished individual, whose name graces
the head of this page ; and whose fame has extended over both
continents. Sir George Simpson was born in Ross-shire, Scotland, where he
passed his youth. In the year 1809 he removed to London, and
was engaged in commercial pursuits for the succeeding eleven
years. He was there brought into communication with the late
Earl of Selkirk, then the leading spirit of the Hudson's Bay
Company. This was the period (1819) of the bitter rivalry between
the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company of
Canada. It was at this period, too, that Lord Selkirk engaged in
the scheme for colonizing the territory, and undertook the task of
founding the Red River settlement. Sir (then Mr.) George
Simpson was selected to take a leading part in conducting the
operations of the company, which required then men of unusual
energy and capacity. He sailed from England for New York in
the early part of 1820, and, in May of that year, left Montreal for
the far north-west. His first winter was spent at lake Athabasca,
where he endured much privation, and carried on the competition
with the North West Company with the energy and success that
characterised all his undertakings. This competition — involving
losses to both companies — was terminated the following year, hy
their coalition, when Mr. Simpson was appointed governor of the
northern department, and subsequently governor-in-chief of
Rupert's Land, and the general superintendent of all the Hudson's
Bay Company's affairs in North America. On attaining this
position, the peculiar talents of the governor became conspicuous ;
he reconciled conflicting interests, abated personal jealousies, and
established a controlling influence which he retained to the last
Sir George Simpson took great interest in the cause of geographi
cal discoveries on the northern coast of this continent ; and, to his
admirable selection of leaders and skilful arrangements, are due
the successful expeditions under Messrs. Dease and Simpson in
1834-5 ; Dr. Rae, in 1845 and 1853 ; and Messrs. Anderson and
Stewart, in 1855. For these services, and as a mark of general
approbation, her Majesty was pleased to confer the honor of knight
hood on Mr. (thenceforward Sir) George Simpson. Soon after, he
set out on his celebrated overland journey round the world, of
which he subsequently published a very interesting narrative. Sir
George latterly resided almost altogetner at Lachine, near which

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 491
village is situated the beautiful Isle Dorval, from whence came off
the canoe expedition, given by the Hudson Bay Company, to his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in 1860.
The last public act of Sir George Simpson's long and active life
was, to receive as a guest, the heir apparent to the throne of
England, and it must be gratifying to his family and friends, to
know that the prince graciously acknowledged the attention shewn
to him by Sir George, and that the noble duke, who presides over
the colonial department, availed himself of the opportunity afforded
by personal communication, to express the high opinion entertained
by himself and her Majesty's imperial advisers, of the skilful and
successful administration of one of the most extensive provinces of
the British empire.
He was for many years connected as a large shareholder with
our leading monetary institutions. He was, for many years, a
a director of the Bank of British North America, but transferred
his services at the annual meeting in 1859, to the Bank of Montreal.
Some time before his death, he was visited with an attack, said
at the time to be of paralysis or apoplexy, but he soon rallied from
it, and seemed te be in his usual health. He was, however, later
obliged to turn back from his spring expedition to Red River, on
account of bodily infirmity. The bustle and anxiety connected
with the royal visit, no doubt, disturbed the even tenor of his life
again. On the Saturday previous to his death, he was again
attacked with apoplexy while driving out from Montreal to Lachine,
and, after six days of much suffering, he closed his long and active
life on the 7th September, 1860, surrounded by his family and
immediate friends.
His death caused a great sensation, and was heard of with deep
regret by the great number of his friends in Montreal and the
province, and by large numbers in Britain and the United States :
for the governor of the vast dominions of the great fur company
had obtained an almost world wide reputation. His funeral was
one of the largest that was ever seen in Montreal. All who
followed his remains seemed affected with profound and unfeigned
regret. Montreal lost in him a distinguished man, whom she could
call her own, — one that had helped to raise her, in a great measure,
to her present enviable postion, as the commercial capital of British
America. Sir George Simpson married in the year 1830, the daughter of
Geddes M. Simpson, Esquire, of London ; she died in this country
in 1853. His family consists of one son and three daughters.
The heir to the large fortune left by Sir George is at present in
England. Of the daughters, one is married to Angus Cameron,
Esquire, of Toronto.

492 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE BADGLEY, LL. D.
Mr Badoley is essentially a British Canadian in birth and
principle. His maternal grandfather came to Montreal from
Britain in 1764, where he settled, and died after"a residence of
upwards of seventy years. His mother was born in Montreal, and his
father was English by birth ; the latter was for several years an emi
nent merchant in our mercantile metropolis, and served in Parliament
as one of the city members, having defeated the late Mr. B.
Viger in the election contest of 1801. He died in Montreal, some
years ago, after a residence there of upwards of sixty years.
The subject of this notice was born in Montreal, in 1801, and
adopted the law as his profession, after a few years service in
mercantile affairs. He was called to the bar in 1823 ; but, in 1830,
was compelled by serious indisposition to proceed to Europe,
whence he returned in 1834. At that time the political atmosphere
of Lower Canada began to be overcast, under the influence of Mr.
Papineau and his friends and supporters in the Assembly. There
was an evident tendency at this period to something beyond the
solution of questions of mere Canadian constitutionality or party
politics, manifestly involving a severance of the colony from the
empire, until at last in 1836, nothing remained for concealment in
the views of the Canadian party. Believing that the imperial con
nection was of vital importance to the province, Mr. Badgley
connected himself with the opposition raised to the dominant party ;
but, whilst participating with the movements against that party,
his efforts were constantly devoted to necessary reforms, amongst
others, to the establishment of registry offices, which he strongly ad
vocated in a series of letters published in one ofthe Montreal papers.
These attracted considerable attention from the public at the time,
and afterwards from the government commissioners, Earl of
Gosford, &c. The honorable Mr. Moffatt, having desired to intro
duce such a measure into the Legislative Council, invited the
co-operation of Mr. Badgley at Quebec, where he framed a bill,
which was passed through the' Council, but, not suiting the views
of the party in the Assembly, was there rej ected. Whilst in Quebec,
upon that occasion, he prepared the report of the committee of the
Legislative Council, to whom was referred the education bill from the
Assembly, the report with its accompanying resolutions was adopttd
by the Council, which caused the rejection of the bill. This bill,
great in its educational object, was, in effect, intended to perpetuate
aud extend the exaggerated pretensions of the dominant party in
the Assembly, and tended to a gradual absorption of the entire

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 493
provincial revenue, placing the appropriations for the purposes
in the uncontrolled and irresponsible distribution of the eounty
members individually. The rejection of this bill with the establish
ment of registry offices in Lower Canada, were at the time considered
as matters of great importance, the Canadian party objecting to the
latter, because they viewed it as introducing British capital as they
declared for the ejection of the parish Canadian land-holder; the
British party objecting to the former, because it was in fact placing
the provincial funds in the hands of the Canadian party, to subserve
their mere political schemes. It is matter of history that the
party violence exploded in 1837, and again, in 1838 ; but, during
1836, and the two following years, and until after peace was
restored in the province, Mr. Badgley was always more or less con
nected with the public matters of Montreal, and with the public
journals which sustained British interests. Foreseeing, in 1836,
the natural result of the reckless and unchecked influence of M.
Papineau and his party. He assisted in the reorganization of the
constitutional association of the Montreal district, as the exponent of
the British party, an example which was shortly afterwards followed
at Quebec. The principal labors of the association here, first under
the chairmanship of the Honorable G. Moffatt, until his departure
for Europe, and, subsequently, under that of the late Honorable P.
McGill, were performed by him as secretary, and by these efforts,
Upper Canada and the neighboring colonies were effectually raised
to - extend their active sympathy to the British inhabitants
of Lower Canada, and to give them substantial assistance, if it should
be needed. .The great volunteer movement of 1836, owed much of
its origin to Mr. Badgley, and was fully carried out in opposition to
the refusal of the governor, Lord Gosford, at first to permit it to be
adopted. The constitutional association was organized as well for the
self-defence of the British inhabitant, as for the exposition of their
views and sentiments upen the state of the country, being almost
entirely excluded from the House of Assembly, and for the maintain-
ance of British connection; but none of these objects would have
availed had the Canadas continued separate provinces. The reunion
ofthe Canadas became a political necessity, as the sole means at hand
for the restoration of confidence to all parties, and to give to all the
inhabitants the full and free exercise of constitutional rights, so
soon as peace and order should be restored. It was the duty of
Mr. Badgley, as it had long been his desire, to have that measure
adopted, and his mind and pen were indefatigably employed for
its attainment. By public and private correspondence, by writings
in the public journals, and by addresses from the association itself,
that great object was kept prominent before the public at home
and abroad, and at last, an elaborate address from the association,
prepared by Mr. Badgley, was published in pamphlet form, and
most extensively circulated in the Canadas and Britain. The

494 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
association, impressed with these views, finally determined to place
them at the foot of the throne, and before both branches of the
Imperial Parliament, and for this purpose Mr. Badgley prepared
the address which was adopted by the association, and afterwards
presented. Mr. Moffatt and him were also selected by the associa
tion as its delegates, and to take charge of the addresses, from the
Montreal district, with instructions to urge our grievances upon
the consideration of the home authorities, and especiaUy to bring
under their favorable notice, the re-union of the Canadas at the
end of 1837. He accordingly proceeded to England, where,
in conjunction with Mr. Moffatt, he at once commenced the
duties of their mission, Mr. Andrew Stuart, the delegate from
Quebec, not arriving till some weeks after. The previous appoint
ment of the Earl of Durham, as lord high commissioner for the
British provinces in America, with almost unlimited powers, as was
supposed, prevented, to some extent, the full object ofthe mission
intrusted to Mr. Badgley and Mr. Moffatt. The addresses to
both houses of Parliament were, however, duly presented, and that
to the Queen, was received very graciously by her Majesty. Lord
Glenelg and Sir George Grey, the colonial secretaries, placed
those gentlemen in immediate and direct intercourse with Lord
Durham, who received their communications and heard the expres
sion of their views and opinions upon Canadian difficulties, and
particularly upon the re-union of the provinces. At his request,
elaborate written statements were prepared and submitted to him,
explaining and expressing the grievances complained of by the
British inhabitants of Lower Canada, and urging upon his favorable
consideration the great object of their mission. He also received
from them a statement in detail of the composition of the Legisla
tive Council at the time, as well as of the partial representation in
the Assembly. In addition to these labors, drafts of bills were
prepared and submitted to the colonial secretary for imperial
legislation for the abolition of the seigniorial tenure, in the island
of Montreal, — for its abolition also in the seigniories generally
of Lower Canada, and for other objects which were deemed to
require the action of the Imperial Parliament from the effect of
previous legislators. None of these matters were adopted by the
colonial office, but they were transmitted to Lord Durham for his
adjudication, as well as a written resume of subjects for his lord
ships executive as well as legislative action in Canada. Mr.
Stuart did not reach England until these matters had been accom
plished, but having been directed by their respective associations
to delay their departure for some time longer, Mr. Badgley
had frequent opportunities of communicating with the colonial
secretaries above mentioned, as well as with Sir J. Stephen, then an
under secretary in that department, to whom all colonial details
from the colonies generally were first submitted, before they received

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 496
the final determination of Lord Glenelg and Sir George Grey.
During that period, the delegates availed themselves of their
opportunities, and did not fail to urge upon the department objects
of public advantage for their constituents.
Among other objects of importance, having applied to Lord
Glenelg, to carry out the intentions of George III., for the grant
of a tract of wild land from the crown reserves in Lower Canada,
for the establishment of a university for the higher branches of
education, Mr. Badgley prepared for his lordship a paper upon
the educational establishment of the province, which he caused
to be printed as a pamphlet at the expense of the association. Mr.
Badgley and Mr. Stuart also interested some eminent public
men in London, in another application to Lord Glenelg, upon the
subject of learning in the colony, and their deputation was heard
by the present chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Gladstone, assisted
by Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. (now Sir John) Pakington, and others,
members of the Commons. Lord Glenelg, unfortunately, did not
feel himself justified in interfering at the time, owing to the extra
ordinary powers given to Lord Durham, but promised to urge the
subject upon the high commissioner's favorable consideration. Mr.
Badgley might have remained permanently in England at that time,
having been offered a place in the colonial office, where his lordship
said he thought Mr. Badgley's services would be very useful, but the
expense of a family could hardly be supported on the salary pro
posed, and which could have been only gradually increased; he there
fore returned to Montreal early in the autumn of 1838, and resumed
the labors of his profession, taking but little further interest in
politics, after reporting to the association the extent and result of his
labors, and receiving their unanimous approbation for his conduct.
The re-union of the Canadas did take place, and Lord Durham did
finally recommend it, although as well at the time of Mr. Badgley's
intercourse with him in England, as at a hurried interview with
him at Quebec, after his return to Canada, and shortly before his
lordship's final departure from Quebec, he appeared to be indis
posed to the measure.
Mr. Poulett Thompson's arrival having quieted down every
thing politically in the province, the association ceased to
exist, and Mr. Badgley again established himself in a lucrative
and increasing practice, when he was surprised by the unsolicited
offer from the governor-general, of the offer of a commissioner
of bankrupts for the district of Montreal, and which he accepted
in 1840 He performed the duties of the office, after two
or three months, as sole commissioner until July, 1844, when the
amended bankruptcy act came into operation, and he was induced,
against his inclination, to take the office of circuit judge, in con
nection with that of commissioner of bankrupts. He continued to
perform the duties of these offices with impatience, until his resig-

496 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
nation of them in April, 1847, a few days after which, he was again
surprised by the unsolicited offer of the attorney-generalship for
Lower Canada, in succession to Mr. (now Mr. Justice) Smith, upon
his and Mr. Draper's retirement from their respective offices of attor-
nies-general for Lower and for Upper Canada. Although personally
unacquainted with even an individual member of the ministry which
he was invited to join, he did not hesitate to accept the offer, believ
ing that he could have no personal difficulty in performing its duties,
and also knowing that it would serve gently to break any descent,
and, in an honorable and favorable manner, from his former position
on the bench, to his then present return to the bar. A warm election
contest awaited Mr. Badgley in the county of Mississquoi, in which
he was successful, and, in May, 1847, he first took his seat as a
member of the provincial Parliament, since which time, he continued
in Parliament until the general election of 1855, having gained a
second election in Mississquoi in 1848, and his fourth election
for the city of Montreal, in 1851 ; in the last, he defeated the
ministeriaUst, M. Larocque, and the Rouge candidate, M. Papineau,
as fifty years before, his father defeated M. Papineau's friend, the
late Mr. B. Viger, for Montreal.
The conservative feelings and sentiments with which Mr.
Badgley had regulated his political notions from the first, accom
panied him into office, and into the House of Assembly, and have
remained unchanged, always wishing him to avoid oxtreme and
violent means, and rather to adopt and support such as promised
advantageous improvement in legislative, or increase provincial
prosperity, from whatever source, liberal reform or conservative
measures might come. The short tenure of his office was marked
by but few additions to the stutute books, but the laws for sum
moning jurors, the establishment of county municipalities, in
stead of parish municipalities, the commutation of the seigniorial
tenure and the crown seigniories, and others may be referred to for
practical objects of importance. No delay was allowed to interfere
with the claims of the public generally, or of individuals to official
consideration, and, at his departure from the council table, no
arrears were left of his own references, nor of many which had
descended to him from his two predecessors. Mr. Badgley was
the last attorney-general in lower Canada, who himself conducted
the business of the criminal terms. In his place in Parliament, he
never failed to support honest and just measures, but captious or
deceptious ones were invariably opposed From the first, he opposed
the financial schemes of Mr. Hincks, and especially the connection
of the province with his friends, Messrs Jackson & Co., in the
Grand Trunk Railroad contract, which he was disposed to consider
with much disfavor and dread, although he was most friendly dis
posed to the establishment of a Grand Trunk Railroad under
proper management and efficient contract. His intercourse with

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 497
his fellow members of the Assembly, of all parties, was cordial on
his part, and he only lays claim to the merit, such as it is, of
maintaining his own opinions, without harshness or unnecessarily
wounding the feeling of others. During several sessions of Parlia
ment, he was chairman of the committee of private bills, an office
in which temper and patience are frequently tested, but he main
tained the rules of Parliament, and, though the rights of parties
were closely scrutinized, and the demands of some were rejected,
he was not aware that any one had cast blame upon him. At the
close of the session of 1854, in which he took his part with Sir
Allan MacNab, Honorable J. A. Macdonald, and others, with whom
he had long acted, he determined to withdraw from public life
altogether, the time and expense required being more than he
could justifiably withdraw from the protection and support of his
family, and he intimated to his friends his purpose, especially as
he perceived that party ties were breaking up, and others would
be formed in which he could not altogether concur ; but upon their
remonstrance, he again contested Montreal without success, but
without disappointment, and refused the offer of a county, in
which he would have succeeded. In January, 1855, he was
placed upon the bench of the Superior Court for Lower Canada, in
which capacity he still remains. He has been elected to the pre
sidentship of the Natural History Society two or three times, and
as often to that of the St. George's Society, of Montreal. This was
some years since, when he was much mixed up with the public.
He is a doctor of laws of McGill and Lennoxville universities,
and has been for some years, Grand Master of Masons for Montreal.

Right Rev. G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D., D.C.L.,
Lord Bishop of Quebec
His Lordship the bishop of Quebec, was born on the 27th of
July, 1789, at Norwich, England. He early accompanied his
father, the first AngUcan bishop in Canada, to this country in 1793,
and thus his name is associated with the earliest period in the his
tory of the church in this province. He did not, however, remain
long in Canada, but returned shortly after to receive his education,
and pursue his studies at Cambridge, where he graduated at Trinity
college, in 1810. Being destined for the church, he entered holy
63

498 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
orders, and was ordained deacon on the 2nd of August, 1812, and
priest in 1813.
His first services, in connection Jwith the church, were directed
to this diocese, where he officiated as evening lecturer to the
cathedral, in 1814. In the same year he received the appointment
of rector of Fredrickton, New Brunswick, and continued in admin
istering there, until the year 1817, when he was appointed rector of
Quebec, ?nd bishop's official. His career henceforward was cer
tainly a brilliant one. His high talents were apparently fully
recognized and appreciated ; for, in 1821, he became archdeacon,
and in 1825 was deputed to proceed to England on church busi
ness. During this mission, we believe, he received the degree of
D.D. Shortly after he returned he was made examining chaplain to
his lordship, Bishop Stewart ; at whose desire he again proceeded
to England, in 1835, on business connected with the great clergy
reserves' question, and while there he was, on the 14th February,
1836, consecrated bishop of Montreal ; this high honor, however
his lordship would have declined, had it not been for the earnest
and repeated solicitations of Bishop Stewart. The most active
part of his clerical career now commenced. He had the entire
ecclesiastical charge of Lower Canada under his control, Bishop
Stewart retaining only Upper Canada, so that all the labors in
Canada, appertaining to the Church of England, fell on Bishop
Mountain's shoulders. He had hardly been settled in his new
bishopric, when Bishop Stewart, long subject to ill health, retired
from Canada altogether, and Dr. Mountain administered both the
bishoprics or Quebec and Montreal, as also of Western Canada, and
the north-west district, as far as Red River settlement, and that
which at present constitutes Ihe bishopric of Prince Rupert's Land.
He continued tiius situated from 1836 to 1839, when the diocese
of Toronto was established, and the Right Reverend John Strachan
appointed thereto. He then continued bishop of Quebec and
Montreal until 1850, when the Right Reverend Dr. Fulford was
appointed to the latter diocese. Thus it will be seen, what a large
tract of country was under his jurisdiction for a lengthened time,
and some judgment may be formed of the magnitude of his cares
and labors, and how excellently he managed all. Indeed, his ac
tive mind was always occupied with his ecclesiastic charge, and
his attention was continually engaged with the great responsi
bilities imposed upon him. Few will dispute that scarcely ever
has it fallen to the lot of a colonial bishop to have so extensive a
diocese. How exceedingly laborious must have been the travelling
east and west, and far west, when steamboats or railroads^were not
known. In 1850, when the diocese had become actually too large to admin
ister under his unaided hands, and when Dr. Fulford was ap
pointed to Montreal, Bishop Mountain assumed his present title of

AND persons CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 499
bishop of Quebec, and his present diocese is still a very consider
able one, seeing that it runs from the Eastern Townships down to
the extreme end of Gaspl, on the southern shore of the St. Law
rence, and to Labrador on the northern.
In 1844 his lordship visited Red River, which was a long and
toilsome journey in those days. On his trip thither he was inspired
by the beauty and solemnity of the picturesque scenery abound
ing on his way, and it was on that occasion that he wrote mary of
those admired pieces contained in his Songs of the Wilderness, pub
lished in London, 1846.
In 1853, he visited England to meet the bishop of Australia and
confer on subjects of synodical action in colonial churches. On this
occasion he received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. He visited
the Magdalen Islands in 1850-3-6-9 ; and in his present advanced age
of seventy-two, this year, we find the venerable old gentleman travel
ling down to the cold and rigid regions of Labrador, for the good
of his church, furnishing significant proof of what he has done,
and how much he has the welfare of it at heart.
He is well and deservedly remembered by many for the active
part he took in ministering to the fever-ttricken emigrants at Grosse
Isle, in 1849, where he served, taking the place of his son (Rev.
A. W. Mountain,) as also during the fearful time of the cholera of
1832-4. To him disease had no terrors, no dangers. In the admin
istration of his holy office he was regardless of all things save his
duty. Bishop Mountain is also the founder of Bishop's college, Len-
noxville, and of the Church Society, organizations for the comple
tion of which he had to labor long and faithfully. He must be ex
ceedingly gratified to see them in their present flourishing condition,
and compare them with what they were a few years since.
We may mention here as an exemplification of what noble and
endearing qualities his character, his piety, and his zeal are consti
tuted, that ambition or longing for worldly distinctions or emo'u-
ments does not essentially belong to him. He has spent a large
portion of his income in behalf of our Canadian church, and in
relieving the distressed. When the Metropolitan See of Canada
was offered to him a short time since, he respectfully declined the
honor ; he was advanced in years, and he would not acc3pt the office
when he could not be able to perform the duties appertaining to it.
He is acknowledged to be most learned and highly gifted, as his
numerous charges, sermons and addresses will prove. And it is al
most needless to add that he is much loved and venerated throughout
his diocese. When his venerable and slightly bended figure ascends
the pulpit, a circumstance now less frequently witnessed than for
merly, he attracts universal attention, and during his discourse is
listened to by all.' His earnest and pathetic voice and manner
impress a deep conviction of hi# zeal and earnestness,

500 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS

Right Hon. The EARL OF ELGIN, K.T., G.C.B.
The Right Honorable James Bruce, Earl of Elgin and
Kincardine, Baron Bruce of Kinloss and of Torry, in the peerage
of Scotland, and Baron Elgin of Elgin, in that of the United
Kingdom, is of the noble house, which is chief of the Royal
Scottish family of Bruce. Of his immediate progenitors, the first
peer was Sir Edward Bruce of Kinloss, who was appointed a Lord
of Session, in 1597, and was accredited by James VI. in 1600 to
the court of Elizabeth, to congratulate her on the suppression of
Essex's rebellion, and, by his excellent diplomacy, did so much to
pave the way to a peaceable succession by the Scottish Monarch
to the English throne, that on his return he was created a peer of
Scotland, in 1601, as Baron Bruce, of Kinloss, in the county of
Elgin. Accompanying King James to England, on his accession,
Lord Bruce was made a privy councillor and master of the rolls.
He was succeeded one after the other by two of his sons, the latter
of whom, Thomas, the third baron, was created in 1633, Earl of
Elgin, and an English peer, as Baron Bruce, of Whorlton, in the
county of York. The fourth earl died, without surviving male
issue, in 1747, and the family honors reverted to his relative and
namesake, Charles, Earl of Kincardine, a descendant of the third
son of Edward, Lord Bruce above mentioned, in whom the two
dignities were united. He was succeeded on his death, in 1771,
by his eldest son, William Robert, who died in a few months, and
whose Countess filled the office of governess to the Princess
Charlotte of Wales. The title devolved on his brother, Thomas,
well known as the nobleman, who, while ambassador extraordinary
in Turkey, collected and transported to England the series of relics
of ancient sculpture, now forming part of the treasures of the
British Museum, under the name of the Elgin Marbles. His
lordship married, secondly, in 1810, Elizabeth, youngest daughter
of James Townsend Oswald, Esquire, of Dunnikeir, Fifeshire, of
which marriage the present peer was the eldest son, having heen
born in 1811. He completed his education at Christ church,
Oxford, where he was first class in classics in 1832, and was sub
sequently a fellow of Mereton college. In 1841, he married
Elizabeth Mary, only child of Charles Lennox Cumming Bruce,
M.P., who died in 1843. In 1841, he was elected member for
Southampton, but did not long occupy that position, as in
November of that year, owing to the death of his father, he suc
ceeded to the title.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 501
In March, 1842, the Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley, and
secretary-of-state for the colonies, appointed him governor of
Jamaica, and he carried on the government of that colony with
great success during a very critical and troubled period of its
history. In 1846, Lord Elgin was promoted to the governor-
generalship of Canada, succeeding Lord Metcalfe, whom he had
also followed at Jamaica. The admirable manner in which he
conducted the affairs of this great dependency, is well known and
fully recognized, both in England and this country, Lord Elgin
having obtained the credit of having consolidated and united the.
somewhat discordant political and social elements of the two
provinces, of which this country is composed, eradicated many
evils and abuses, and placed the affairs of the province in the most
perfect and prosperous condition. Indeed, his lordship is justly
recognized as one of the best and ablest of the governors that
have guided the destinies of this great country. His services here
entitled him to a large share of our gratitude, and his name to be
enshrined on the brightest page of our history, if we were only to
speak of the great benefits of the reciprocity treaty with the United
States, which assuredly owes its existence to his great genius and
abihty, but almost everything we witness in Canada of any
greatness, bears some impress of his fostering care and management :
the public works, the post-office, the clergy reserves, the navigation
laws, the normal and model schools of the country, agriculture and
agricultural societies, and exhibitions, all these have been in some
way connected with his lordship's government, are the productions
of his noble mind ; or we are indebted for their existence to the
powerful party which Lord Elgin called into office to administer
the affairs of the country. As to the rebellion losses bill, which
unhappily caused such deep and bitter feeling to be displayed,
we are confident, that at this present day, the very men who were
loudest in condemning him for the course he pursued, would now
that time has intervened, and they have been enabled calmly and
dispassionately to survey the bearings of the case, be the very first
to applaud his resolution and determination in carrying out a
measure, which had been resolved on by his ministry, and demanded
by a large portion of the people of the country. This was the
only time and the only measure, that caused Lord Elgin to be at
variance with any part of the community. The result has proved
that he was right ; his policy was supported by the Imperial Govern
ment and the Queen, when he tendered his resignation, in conse
quence of the riots and scenes which took place, and the public
feeling exhibited against him, they desired him to remain and
govern the country for a short time longer. He did remain, he
obeyed the call of his country, and conformed to the Queen's
command, and his remaining produced the happiest results for the
country's welfare, and the people's good ; so much so indeed, that

502 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
on his departure, the whole population of the province expressed
a general regret that he could not remain always with us. A high
sense of duty, and a prompting that his services would before long
be required in a higher and more important capacity, and perhaps
the thought of future honor and preferment induced him to leave
us in the latter part of the year 1854, and return to England.
Lord Elgin took no prominent part in public affairs at home ; on
one occasion he addressed the House of Lords with very great
ability and power, during a debate of interest and importance.
The selection of Lord Elgin as ambassador extraordinary and
plenipotentiary for the arrangement of the controversy between
Great Britain and China, was what might have been expected,
his lordship's talent for dealing with troublous and complicated
exigencies having been twice tested and approved. The course
taken by him in sending the troops, destined for the Chinese
expedition to Calcutta, on his learning of the outbreak of the
mutiny in India, and his proceeding thither himself, to afford
his aid and counsel, have been fully appreciated. His subsequent
management of the diplomatic proceedings, which terminated
in a treaty with China, was quite equal to the occasion, and
would have had a different result if one of the contracting parties
had been governed by the rule of conduct which prevails in
almost every country in the world, except the Celestial Empire.
His subsequent proceedings (after signing the Chinese treaty), in
proceeding to Japan, and boldly entering the harbor of Jeddo,
from which foreigners had always been rigidly excluded, and
obtaining important commercial privUeges for his countrymen by
the treaty which he concluded with the Japanese on August 26,
1858, is deserving of the highest praise and honor, and drew forth
the encomiums of the whole people. He returned to England, in
May, 1859, and a short time after, Lord Palmerston, being called
on for the second time to form a government, Lord Elgin became
a member of the cabinet, holding the somewhat incongruous
office, considering the antecedents of his public life, of postmaster
general. This however he vacated in the beginning of 1860, to
proceed a second time to China as our plenipotentiary; in the passage
out as such, he and Baron Gros, had a very miraculous escape in
the Malabar, which was wrecked when near India, losing all their
personal effects, besides their credentials, &c.
His late services in the east, and the vigorous and determined
manner in which he proceeded to conclude a second and more
lasting treaty with China, are too highly appreciated and known
for us to recapitulate. Let it suffice, that the whole nation rang
with praises of his name, which was extolled and eulogized in
the highest degree. He returned to England, only a short time
since, and does not as yet hold any public appointment ; but it is
generally believed, nay it was publicly announoed, only a short

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 503
time since, that he would succeed Earl Canning, as the next
governor-general of India.
Lord Elgin is a knight of the Thistle and a civil grand cross
of the Bath. In 1846, he was married, for the second time, to
Lady Maria Louisa, eldest surviving daughter of the late Earl of
Durham, and has issue several children.
We append to this brief sketch of this great nobleman's career,
the speech of the Lord Provost of Glasgow, delivered in 1856, on
the occasion of the noble earl being presented with the freedom of
that city. It is a just exposition of his services : —
The Lord Provost occupied f?e chair. On rising he was received
with great applause. He spoke as follows : " My lord and gentle
men, — It is only, I believe, because of the exigencies of the public
service that the citizens of Glasgow have missed the opportunity
of welcoming, about this time, and enrolling among themselves as
an honorary member, a gallant general — a native of this district —
whose ability and important services are connected with events
that have affected various countries in Europe, as well as our vast
empire in Asia. I am sure, gentlemen, you feel as I do, tha-; no
sword of honor was ever more worthily won by a commander than
that one will be, which, as a candid homage on the part of this
community, will soon be sent to Sir Colin Campbell. May the
veteran still have long life to wear it ! It will never be drawn
from its scabbard without advantage to our common country. But,
my lord, inasmuch as the extensive dominion, to which it is our
privilege to belong, has many and very various exigencies, so does
she open to her sons various modes of usefulness, and divers paths
to renown. I am not here, certainly, to institute comparisons, nor
to weigh in a balance the merits o" services, each of which can
boast of a long succession of illustrious names, who have never
stood toward each other in an attitude of jealousy, but have been
rather all spurred on by the honorable emulation to deserve well
of the state. Nevertheless, gentlemen, you will permit me, as a
civilian, to say, that I would not myself be disposed to r.'ank even
the perfect commander — the man who has done the most to widen
the limits of the British Empire — above him who, by precept and
example, has taught us the difficult art of governing with
beneficence. Of this, my lord, at least, I am sure, there is not a
man in this large assembly — there is not an intelligent man in ovv
community — who does not heartily join the corporation in offering
homage to services like yours — services which, in every respect,
have thrown so much light on the true principles of colonial
government, which in both instances were given to your country,
on very critical occasions, which are associated in the one case
with the only gleam of prosperity that has recently visited our
principal island jn the West Indies, and which, in the other case,
issued in rescuing one of the most important possessions of the

504 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
British Crown, from confusion and disaffection — in implanting
loyalty where you found faction and distrust ; and in establishing
that security for the future, which, in countries belonging to the
Anglo-Saxon race, can only be obtained from the consolidation of
sound constitutional government within, and the establishment of
generous and just commercial relations with foreign states. If I
take occasion, in this meeting, gentlemen, to enter somewhat in
detail, on the special character of Lord Elgin's services, you will
not suppose, I am sure, that I imagine these services to be unknown,
far less that I indulge the presumption of attempting to utter some
mere eulogy on his lordship. I shall trespass on your time and
attention with a widely different object. 1 wish the whole country
to be aware what those principles of government are which this
second city of the empire has seen fit to stamp with the highest
approbation it can bestow; and I wish it further to be understood,
on the part of our colonies, how their permanent connection with
Great Britain may (in the present circumstances of the world) be
made practically to comport with their own highest welfare. At
the period when Lord Elgin — then a very young man — was named
governor of Jamaica, the British West Indies had in no way escaped
from the uncertainties and embarrassments inseparable from negro
emancipation. His lordship had to contend, indeed, with two
causes of evil — one of which had become almost chronic; while
the other, as we all trust only temporary, was also very serious.
The first of these causes lay in the very peculiar constitution of
the Legislative Assembly of Jamaica. You are probably aware,
gentlemen, that so far from the power of the colonial legislature
being confined within the sphere of duties occupying our House
of Commons, it engrossed a large share of what belongs at home
to the executive ; and the consequence has always been, in times
of financial and commercial pressure, disastrous collisions between
the assembly and the governor — antagonism instead of co-operation
and confidence — and on occasions, a state of affairs so grievous, that
at a recent period, a British ministry thought itself justified in
going the perilous length of proposing to suspend the Assembly's
functions. Now, I shall say that if this case had always been met
by the prudence and sagacity manifested by Lord Elgin, no such
remedy would even have been thought of, for no crisis so painful
could ever have occured. It appears from his lordship's despatches
that from the moment he set foot on the island he had resolved
that no conceivable exigency should induce him to strain any
attribute of his office one hair-breadth beyond the line of clear
and recognized legality. Be the limitations of that office incon
venient as they might, or however unworkable and prejudicial, the
unwonted functions of that Assembly, it was enough for him that
the existing condition of things had been recognised by imperial
statute, and he determined that, as long as he ruled, no fear or

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 505
distrust should excite the Assembly, that directly or indirectly, he
would encroach by one iota on its privileges. I need not say
gentlemen, that the maxim I have now alluded to ought to be
revered as a golden rule, by every administrator within our whole
empire. It is the only maxim on the ground of which we can
demand in return the confidence of our colonists, and their aid in
removing what is defective from their peculiar institutions. It is
not a maxim inconsistent with every necessary firmness on the
part of the governor, in asserting the rights and the dignity with
which his office has been surrounded by British law — a truth
most fully established by Lord Elgin himself, when, after his
transference to a higher and still more arduous position, he showed
that no responsibility laid on by law, would find him inadequate
when resolution was necessary — I mean when in our great North
American dominions, through a rare combination of wise boldness
and firm moderation, he conducted a large state through the throes
of a virtual revolution, without requiring to overlook or abridge
the constitutional liberties of a single man. The success, gentle
men, of this policy in Jamaica was complete ; confidence between
governor and assembly became the order of the day, instead of
the old distrust; and his lordship obtained thereupon the full
influence due to an enlightened man, in his high station, to aid by
his counsel, and even to guide indirectly, those all-important
movements required to constitute anew the industrial relations of
the West Indies. I am not disposed certainly to enter now on the
vexed and difficult question to which I have just referred ; but I
think I shall be borne out in my assertion, that a statement of
every sound principle, on which as a basis their relations can be
reconstructed — that every temperate warning against confidence in
schemes alike impracticable and delusive may be found in the
despatches of Lord Elgin. The period of his government, I have
called a gleam of prosperity to Jamaica. Truer conceptions as to
the way in which they could work together for their common good
were taken possession of both by planter and negro ; the exports of
the island were accordingly gradually but steadily increasing, and
I believe the progress would have been uninterrupted, had not
commercial interests there been obliged to undergo so soon that
other serious, but, I believe, inevitable, overturn, occasioned by
the famous sugar bills. This fine colony has indeed been severely
tried. But, for one, I shall not distrust the elasticity of her
resources. Through the energy of the system so auspiciously
commenced before 1848, she must revive again ; and she will
revive, as the noble lord believed and predicted, through the
influence of capital in economising labor, and through the influence
of the demand for skilled labor in elevating the station, by
increasing the reward, and stimulating the best ambition of the
laborer. But, gentlemen, I must hasten to Lord Elgin's career in
64

506 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Canada, — a career which, even in times much more prolific of great
men than ours, would have made the reputation of any statesman.
I have no hesitation, gentlemen, in venturing the assertion, that
the period of Lord Elgin's administration of our greatest North
American dependency, must rank in history, as the epoch of the
establishment there of constitutional practices and law. I need
not, I am aware, recall to the audience I now address either the
fact of that unhappy Canadian rebellion, or those remarkable
efforts, by an illustrious nobleman, towards whom the affections of
the city of Glasgow are not now expressed for the first time — I
mean the late Lord Durham — efforts to discover and explain
principles, by which all rival interests in that extensive territory
might be conciliated, and disaffection finally destroyed. The social
disorganization consequent on the rebellion, rendered it impossible,
however, for a time to bring those principles into action. Lord
Durham's successor, the late Lord Sydenham, shrank from the
effort; and even Lord Metcalfe, the next governor, was obliged to
trust for the support of his authority to his alliance with one
political party. The honor of proclaiming practically to the
Canadas that, as the Crown of England knows nothing of party
within the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, so it desires to
bear itself with impartial sovereignty through all its empire — this
high privilege, gentlemen, was reserved for Lord Elgin. I
consider it extremely fortunate that our colonial secretary at the
time was Earl Grey. We may think Earl Grey has erred some
times ; but it is impossible to doubt that, in his integrity and zeal
to uphold uninjured the cause of British constitutional liberty, the
son has never been unworthy of his renowned sire. Sustained,
unwaveringly, by this nobleman, Lord Elgin boldly threw off the
shackles which had confined the sympathies and impaired the
influence of all former governors. He emphatically told the
people and politicians of Canada, that, as has , long been the
case here, they must fight for ascendancy in their free Assembly ;
and that, for himself, he had to look to Canada, as a whole,
and not to any section or division of it. You recollect, gentle
men, that famous saying of Sir Robert Peel — ' The battle
of the constitution must be lost or won in the polling booths.'
For the first time this was effectively proclaimed in Canada.
Well, as we all remember, the old party — the former ascendancy
party — was placed in a clear minority in the Canadian Assembly,
Lord Elgin did not attempt, as his predecessors would have done,
either to bolster up the minority, or to overlook their defeat; but
acting as Queen Victoria has ever acted, he formed a new ministry
out of the party that had prevailed. I shall not go, my lords, into
statements concerning the painful discontents that ensued, aggra
vated, unfortunately, by the concomitance of a terrible commercial
crisis ; but you will permit me to offer my humble tribute to the

And persons connected with Canada. 507
manly forbearance, and that high confidence in the ultimate success
of right and justice, which then animated you. Riots, than which
many less ones have been the occasion of coup d'etat, your lordship
quelled by the efficacy of the ordinary law. . And your triumph
as been such as few statesmen are privileged, within so short a
space, to realize or enjoy. You had the gratification to receive
afterwards from the mayor and chief citizens of Montreal, the most
impressive testimony they could bear to the wisdom of a course
which resulted at first in what they esteemed a deep humiliation ;
and you realized yet more — you felt entitled to say, on bidding
farewell to the provinces, that there was no longer a British party,
or a French party, no longer a party of patriots and a party of
annexationists, but a great, prosperous and united population,
gladly acknowledging the benefit secured to them by their con
nection with a parent state, which neither seeks nor can retain
authority, unless through the influence and diffusion of her own
beneficent institutions. But, gentlemen, it fell to Lord Elgin to
accomplish yet more. Not only was he the instrument of what I
may justly call nationalizing the Canadas, but he also had the
good fortune to bestow on their external relations that established
security, without which internal progress is not possible in any
state. The only country with which our North American colonies
were likely to come into collision is, of course, that powerful
republic now stretching from the southern bank of the St. Law
rence almost to the Isthmus ; and I dare say, I need not quote
multitudes of facts to convince you, that when a quarrel with
neighbors can be picked, our trans-atlantic cousins are pretty apt to
find out the way of doing it. The fact in this case is, that a sort
of smouldering hostility had existed so long between the two states,
as to have become nearly permanent — their peace being little more
than an armed suspicion ; and Lord Elgin may tell us, as he has
already done in his despatches, how fatal was such a condition of
affairs to the progress of order and industry in Canada, how it
encouraged the disaffected, alarmed the timid, and impaired upon
'change, the security of investment. Gentlemen — thanks to our
noble visitor — this condition if irritation has passed for ever, the
true questions that gave occasion to its activity, having received
at his hands their definite settlement. The dispute about the
boundary exists no longer ; and the other cause of perpetual
uneasiness, and which even more than the former menaced collision,
our ever-recurring quarrel about the fisheries — has been removed
by a commercial treaty, reciprocity, conceived and carried out, on
our part at least, in the spirit of the best and most liberal policy.
Is it any marvel, then, that travellers are now telling us of the
recent astonishing strides of the Canadas in every line of social
improvement ? Is it astonishing that, instead of a sluggish and
distracted country, that used to offer a humbling contrast to the

508 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
stir and energy of the States, we find a territory teeming with
enterprise, augmenting in wealth at a rate at least equal to the
highest known with the Union ? External dangers annihilated,
internal animosities removed, constitutional liberty confirmed, in
its broadest acceptation, what remained for our hardy colonists but
to turn their energy to the culture of their inexhaustible soil, to
that extension of a trade now secured from the influence of
fluctuating laws, and to build up a state which, for order and every
element of high civilization, shall be worthy the parent from
which it sprung — that parent whose greatest glory is, that on no
spot of its wide domain has slavery a resting place for the sole of
its tainted foot ! Happy for our countrymen in Canada that, when
they entered on a career so auspicious, they had among them a
nobleman like Lord Elgin to counsel and hie them on ! No agency
of any value in furtherance of moral and material progress appear
to have escaped his attention or to have grown feeble for want of
countenance at his hands. If I were to inform you of his practical
efforts to improve agriculture, of his earnest encouragement of
canals and railroads, I shall only weary you. Canada likewise
owes to his administration a boon we have not succeeded in gaining
for ourselves, viz., a system of public education that in nowise
intermeddles with the rights of conscience ; and all those vexing
ecclesiastical questions, which ever and anon start up under
various 'forms to perplex and trouble us, have, in the settlement of
the clergy reserves, received their quietus. ' When' says his
lordship, in one of his last despatches, the "irritation with which
transitions are unhappily attended shall have entirely passed
away, it is not improbable the Canadians will acknowledge the
advantage they have derived from the steady application of sound
principles to the administration of their affairs, and that they will
look back with satisfaction to the period at which they began to
feel that the practical interests they have in common are more
important than those which divide them, and that faithful
allegiance to the crown is not inconsistent with the exercise of
those faculties and the indulgence of those aspirations which, in
communities as in individuals, are proper to maturity.' We,
gentlemen, shall not repeat this modest hope, we shall rather, with
one voice, assure his lordship that services like his are already
recognised on both sides of the Atlantic, and entitle him to be
called a lasting benefactor of his race. I trust, Lord Elgin,
that I shall not be thought chargeable with the presumption
of supposing the bare outline I have now given of the events
characterising your lordship's administration amounts to a full
representation of what this country owes to you. But, gentle
men, I am sure I have stated enough to entitle me to ask
from every one now present a most candid approval of the step
taken by our corporation. My lord, it is an old saying — I trust

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 509
not quite a true one — that gratitude, in the common acceptation,
means to some extent thankfulness for favors that have been
received, but also, and much more, the expression of an expecta
tion that many more favorable are to be received. I do not like the
moralist who gave this definition ; neither do I like his morality.
Nevertheless, I cannot conceal from your lordship that part of the
enthusiasm which, welcoming you as an honorary Glasgow burgess,
rests on the conviction that you are destined to perform other and
still greater services to the British empire, whatever may be the
occasion or the theatre of these services — whether as ruler of some
wide and more important domain than even our North American
possessions, whether as a colonial minister, with the power to enforce
the general adoption of principles whose value you have proved,
or in whatever capacity it may seem advisable to the crown to
require your efforts — we are confident that these efforts will be
most ably given and expended, in promotion of the great cause of
progress and liberty It is impossible, gentlemen, on an occasion
like this, to avoid all reference to the momentous crisis in which
we find at present European affairs. The contest, as I understand
it, on our parts, is on a great scale ; and, with a few necessary
differences, virtually that in which Lord Elgin fought and
triumphed in Canada. We are not seeking to interfere with the
internal affairs, or the natural powers of any state ; but we are in
arms to declare that the overwhelming ambition of Russia must
cease to weigh as an influence on other countries, to check the
advancement of popular rights there, and to paralyze their energies
in commerce. I confess I am beginning to be doubtful if the
period of settlement has yet arrived ; but of one thing I am very
sure, that the enlightened and recent governor-general of the
Canadas will be found one of the men who will not counsel the
laying down our arms, unless the treaty of peace will justify the
war, unless security for the future shall become part and parcel of
the public law of Europe. My lord and gentlemen, I have too
long detained you. I have now only to request, in the name of
the corporation, that your lordship will accept the box and the
burgess ticket it contains. You will not value it slightly, seeing
that it is a tribute paid to you by a city which may fairly rank as
the second in the empire — a city whose interests in all that con
cerns the prosperity of the empire is therefore very great, and
which, as I trust I may be permitted to add, has intelligence
enough to enable it to estimate rightly the services of men who,
in their efforts to promote that prosperity, have labored with good
effect, and deserved well." (His lordship, during the delivery of
his speech, was frequently interrupted by bursts of applause.)

510 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

ANDREW STUART, Esq.
The following notice of this distinguished jurist is from the
Quebec Gazette, of 13 th Mareh, 1840 :—
The decease of the late Andrew Stuart, Her Majesty's solicitor-
general in this province, has left a blank so difficult to be filled up
in the public mind, that it is humbly conceived, some further
tribute than has yet appeared to his memory, will meet with a
willing reception.
Mr. Stuart was the son of the late Reverend John Stuart, D.D.,
and minister of Kingston, Upper Canada, a gentleman well known
and highly respected in these provinces, and particularly noted for his
generous patronage of humble merit, and his zealous efforts to promote
the cause of education . His son, who is the subj ect of these remarks,
was born at Kingston in 1786. He received his classical instruc
tion under the Venerable Archdeacon Straehan, then residing at
Cornwall, now bishop of Toronto, with whom he held a most
friendly corresponden6e to the period of his death. His proficiency
in his studies, if we may judge by the correct habits of thinking,
to which it was the prelude, must have been conspicuous. He
afterwards continued to prosecute his studies at Union college,
Schenectady. His commencement of the study of the law took place in 1802,
and his admission to the bar, on the 5th of November, 1807. He
rose almost immediately into extensive practice, his success being
secured by three of the greatest qualities a lawyer can possess,
extensive knowledge both of the principles and of the practice of
the law, convincing and overpowering eloquence, and the strictest
regard to the interest of his client. In 1810, he defended Mr.
Justice Bedard, then exposed to a state prosecution. From that
time to the period of his death, his assistance was sought for in
every difficult and important case that occurred.
His pleading was conducted with great eloquence, sometimes
highly impassioned. He was remarkable for the use he made of
general principles. It was a maxim with him, and which he
professed to have derived from Aristotle, of whom he was an
enthusiastic admirer, " that all knowledge consists in universals."
Having once established his general position in some undeniable
principle of reason, he seemed to come to his conclusion with
irresistible conviction, as to a corollary of necessary and unavoid
able consequence. Yet on proper occasions he had the happy art
of introducing those clear and palpable topics, that rivet attention
and touch all hearts. His argument in 1832, against the rights of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 511
colonial assemblies to commit for breach of privilege in Case of
libel, is a beautiful specimen of forensic eloquence.
His jurisprudential studies were not confined to the laws of the
country, or to those which regulated the decisions of its courts.
He studied law as a science, founded in reason and governing man
in all stages of civilization ; and took delight in tracing the princi
ples that have directed the various systems of legislation that have
prevailed in different periods.
Among the legal objects extending beyond the usual limits, that
claimed his attention, was the boundary question, so long the
qusestio vexatissima between the British and American governments.
His pamphlet on this subject evinces great research, and exempli
fies those extended views with which he contemplated every
subject to which he at any time bent his attention. It was first
published in Quebec in 1830, and again in Montreal, in 1839.
His attachment to justice, and consequently to establish consti
tutional law, was ardent and invariable. He could not be drawn
aside from that sacred path, as far as his judgment could mark its
course, either by the authority of men in power, or by the preju
dices, threats and murmurs of those who happen to bethe dispensers
of popular applause. He considered that to be the only free state
in which law was the supreme power, and in which its authority
was uncontrollable.
In October, 1838, he was nominated solicitor-general of the
province, by his Excellency the Earl of Durham. Upon receiving
this appointment, he removed his residence to Montreal ; but was
prevented by ill health from taking any very conspicuous part in
the business before the courts. On this occasion he may be said
to have terminated his professional career.
Mr. Stuart entered public life in 1815, when he was returned as
one of the members for the lower town of Quebec. He represented
the same respectable constituency in two succeeding parliaments.
He afterwards represented the upper town, and continued to do so
in every parliament, except one, till the suspension of the constitu
tion in 1838. To one of these, he was elected in his absence.
During the course of his public life, he took part in the discussion
of every important question that arose, in a period of peculiar
interest and pregna'nt with important consequences to the future
prosperity of this province. He sat on every committee, in which
any important topic was to be discussed, or any difficult question
to be investigated. His vast and varied information furnished
assistance in all these inquiries, and he in no case shrunk from
the communication of his ideas, either from the inconvenience of
long and tedious attendance, or the obloquy it might raise against
him amongst those who differed from him in opinion.
Mr. Stuart's views were, on all occasions, those of a liberal mind.
He delighted to unfold them to the attention of others, both from

512 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the thorough conviction which he entertained of their truth, and
still more from the enthusiastic persuasion that they were insepar
able from the best interests of society. His arguments were
founded on those extended principles which ever are, and ever must
be true. He raised his voice with equal fervor and equal sincerity,
against the abuses practised by men in power, and the encroach
ments of popular violence. To neither would he yield the slightest
deference, beyond that which was sanctioned by justice and consti
tutional right.
At the time of the general election in 1834, he made at the
hustings a candid and manly avowal of the principles which had
uniformly guided his public conduct. His speech on that occasion
is accurately reported in the Quebec Gazette, of the 22nd of
October of that year, and well deserves a perusal, from the inde
pendent spirit which it not only breathes, but proves by a reference
to his past conduct. After a modest, yet dignified apology for
speaking of himself, unavoidable on such an occasion : " Never,"
says he, " when the property or the liberty of the subject had been
infringed by men in power, have I shrunk from giving my entire
energies, such as they were, to the defence and , relief of the
sufferers." He then proceeds to remind the electors of his labors
in the house, in regard to the abuses that had existed in the grant
ing of lands, to the improper combination of the legislative, execu
tive, and- judicial functions in the same persons, and to the
protracted diversion of the Jesuits' estates, from their justand legiti
mate objects. He states his determination to be, what it always had
been, to pursue the same course by just, lawful, and constitutional
means; but at no time by violence or passion. "Much," he
further states, " as I esteem the good opinion of my fellow citi
zens, and the honor of representing them in provincial parliament,
I will not purchase even these boons at the cost of ceasing to
deserve them."
In 1832, he published in Montreal an octavo volume, under the
title of " A Review of the proceedings of tlie Legislature in the
Session o/1831." This work is replete with profound views of
government, and contained ample warning of the perilous encroach
ments of the misguided democratic influence then evidently
drawing to a crisis.
The election of 1834, already mentioned, led to the rejection of
almost all the candidates favorable to the constitution as it then
existed, and to the connexion of these provinces with the United
Kingdom. Such a state of things naturally led the friends of these
important privileges to consider what was to be done to preserve
them. A public dinner was given at Quebec, in honor of Mr.
Stuart, and other candidates who had been rejected, for their
constitutional and loyal conduct. The interchange of sentiments
which took place on this occasion, gave rise to the formation of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 513
the constitutional association, an institution fraught with many
important results in the future history of this country. Mr. Stuart
was elected the first chairman of the association, and took a prominent
part in all the proceedings in which it engaged. A similar associ
ation was formed in Montreal, and by the spirit which pervaded
both, much was successfully done to defeat the virulent domination
of the opposite party.
In the spring of 1838, he was sent to England at the instance of
the association, for the purpose of forwarding the re-union of
the provinces. He returned in September of the same year, thus
concluding the last public mission in which he was engaged.
Mr. Stuart's literary attainments were of a high order. His
taste in the fine arts, just; his acquaintance with the literature
of the day, extensive. He possessed an intimate acquaintance with
ancient learning, especially with the works of the great model of
Roman eloquence. To peruse and digest the rhetorical works of
Cicero, was his greatest amusement. He had thoroughly con
sidered both the precepts which they contain, and the principles
in humau nature on which those are founded.
It is natural for every one, possessing such a taste and such pre
dilections as his, to desire not only to know, but to inspect societies
of different forms and attainments, and to view the venerable
remains of ancient art and grandeur. Accordingly yielding to this
very reasonable inclination, he left Quebec in July, 1824. After
visiting the most noted objects in the United Kingdon, he spent the
winter in the south of France, and in Italy, and returned to Quebec
in January, 1826. It is easy to see, that such a tour must have
yielded him infinite gratification ; and those who knew him, knew
that it added another charm to his conversation, which had, at all
times, been highly attractive.
The attractions of his conversation formed, indeed, one of the
marked features of his character. To pass them over in this place,
would be unpardonable, His habit of theorizing accompanied his
observations, even in his freest and most unguarded moments, the
moments when all effort is felt to be unnecessary ; and, being
always on the side of humanity and good feeling, inevitably
fascinated every heart. His observations were founded on the
universal principles of human nature, and found an echo in every
mind. To all institutions promoting literary purposes, Mr. Stuart was an
ardent friend, and among others, to the Literary and Historical
Society of Quebec. He entertained an earnest and a kind of
paternal solicitude for its advancement. Besides promoting its
interest, by his personal influence, he communicated to it, or
read before it, a great number of interesting papers, and exerted
himself with great zeal to forward the publication of its transac
tions. He found the means of obtaining those funds from the
65

514 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
legislature, which have enabled it to publish several original
documents, procured from various quarters in Europe and America,
illustrative of the previous history of this country.
The papers which he supplied to the society's transactions, are
indicative of an original, and in some degree, a romantic mind.
The first is to be found in the first volume, page fifty-two, and is
entitled " Notes on the Saguenay Country." His mind had been
long impressed with the magnificent scenery of that portion ofthe
province, and anticipating its future usefulness as a resource for
emigration, he delighted in recalling to the view of the existing
generation, the purposes to which the first settlers of the country
had found it capable of being applied. His next contribution is
in the same volume, page one hundred and sixty-seven, on the
" Ancient Etruscans." It indicates a vast extent of reading, and
acquaintance with authors seldom to be met with, and views that
are familiar only to an expanded mind. The last is in the third
volume, page three-hundred and sixty-five, entitled "Detached
Thoughts upon the History of Civilization." It indicates, like that
just mentioned, great comprehension of thought, and a vast extent
of reading. Though not finished according to the evident inten
tions of the author, and rather the opening up only of the subject,
it has the effect of fixing the readers attention upon a number of
the most important peculiarities of ancient manners.
After what has been said it is almost unnecessary to add, that in
private life, he was most strictly honorable, sincere, kind-hearted,
generous and friendly. The public life which has been described,
could never have arisen out of the opposite disposition. It was the
fruit of his prevailing temper of mind, of his constitution and
habit of thinking.
In conclusion it is gratifying to add, that Mr. Stuart was a
sincere friend to religion. He spoke at all times with the highest
respect of its ministers, its institutions, and its code. He contem
plated the truths which it teaches, with the deepest reverence ; and
looked forward to the closing scene of human existence, with
mingled sentiments of reasonable anxiety and enlightened hope.
He died on the 21st February, 1840. His funeral was foUowed
by a vast concourse of persons, who feelingly deplored the loss they
then sustained.
A very numerous meeting of the citizens of Quebec, took place on
22nd April, following, in the reading room of the Exchange, for the
purpose of devising means to perpetuate the memory of Mr. Stuart.
The meeting was composed of nearly all the influential men of Que
bec, of British and Irish origin, then in town, and the greatest un
animity prevailed in a determination to erect some tribute of respect
to the memory of one who, for upwards of thirty years, had been
the uncompromising advocate of constitutional liberty, and in his
private character had endeared himself tp a large circle of friends.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 515
James H. Kerr, Esquire, was called to the chair, and William Petry,
Esquire, acted as secretary. The meeting was addressed by the
chairman, on opening, by William Price, Esquire, the Rev. D.
Wilkie, H. Lemesurier, Esquire, W. Bristow, Esquire, and
Joseph Bouchette, Esquire, surveyor-general of the province ;
but we have only room for the following beautiful address delivered
by the Rev. D. Wilkie :—
" Mr. Chairman, — It is the duty of survivors to remember deceased
merit. It is their indispensable duty. On earth, the merit of those
who are gone lives in the memory only of the living. If they
remember it not, it is gone. The tomb covers it. Oblivion takes
possession of it. It is the same as if it had never been.
" It is the duty of surviving contemporaries to prevent it from
thus being forgotten. It is our duty to keep alive the remember
ance of exalted minds. It becomes us to think how painful it is
thus to pass away from the rememberance of those in whose
thoughts we have long lived. How unjust, how ungrateful, to
allow the memory of those to perish, whom we have had before us
during most of our lives. We cannot feel conscious of having
acted with justice or with fairness, if we suffer those to be forgotten
who can no longer raise their voice to call our attention, who can no
longer find their way into our thoughts, by instructing our under
standings or animating our exertions.
" Mankind, however, are too generous to allow any such oblivion
to take place. Every gentleman in the present meeting, I am sure,
is too generous and too just to allow it. Indeed, during the lives of
those who lived with the deceased, that is impossible. Mr. Stuart
will never be forgotten, while any of us are alive, while any who
knew him remain. But we cannot forget that we are passing away
as he did. It becomes us to provide something that shall outlive our
selves; something that shall call him to rememberance when we too
are gone ; something which, striking the common eye, shall lead it
to consult the less perishable records, in which his thoughts will be
found impressed, and his suggestions blended with the reforms he
effected, or the improvements to which he gave birth, or the useful
institutions which he supported.
" It is particularly becoming, that those who possessed generous,
liberal, and disinterested minds, should receive some such mark of
respect as that which this meeting contemplates. Their indepen
dent minds, negligent of personal consideration, are ill adapted to
obtaining those tangible and grosser rewards, which far inferior,
but more compliant minds, find no difficulty in procuring. By
pursuing a less disinterested course, it is known to every one, that
Mr. Stuart might have realized a splendid fortune. By aiming
invariably at the public good, by thinking little of himself, and of
personal interest, but much of justice, honor, and the happiness of
the country, he missed a great deal of the less noble rewards of a

516 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
worldly prudence; but procured for himself a lasting seat in every
generous and honest mind. Of that seat it is fitting that death
should not deprive him. Of that seat let not the exit of the genera
tions to which he was known deprive him. It is right and becoming,
that his virtuous exertions should be conveyed to the memory of
another age at least ; it may be hoped, to many remote ages. Indeed,
they can never be entirely forgotten. They Are impressed on the
annals of the age through which he passed. It is for us to embody
tbem, to group them, in some visible shape, such as may strike even
the vulgar eye, and concentrate in one view, the sentiments which
must otherwise be collected from many hundred pages of multifarious
reading. It is fit that we erect a monument to the friend of justice,
to the advocate of truth, the constant, the unwearied promoter of
education, of emigration, of constitutional government, of every
thing useful and ornamental to the country." (The reverend gentle
man, on resuming his seat, was loudly cheered.)
The following resolutions were carried by acclamation : —
On motion of Willian Price, Esq., seconded by the Hon. J. M.
Fraser : That the character, talents, and public spirited conduct
of the late Andrew Stuart, Esq., solicitor-general of the province,
were so conspicuous as to demand the adoption of means to obtain
some lasting tribute to his memory.
On motion of H. Lemesurier, Esq., seconded by W. Bristow,
Esq. : That to serve this important purpose, it will be advisable
to erect a tablet or monument, with an inscription expressive of the
esteem and admiration in whieh he was held by his contemporaries.
On motion of Andrew Paterson, Esq., seconded by John
Gilmour, Esq. : That the following gentlemen be named a com
mittee to carry these resolutions into effect, and to obtain subscrip
tions for the purpose — with power to add to their number : —
Hon. G. Pemberton, Hon. W. Walker, Hon. J. M. Fraser, Hon.
J. Neilson, Rev. D. Wilkie, D. Burnet, J. B. Forsyth, James Gibb,
John Munn, H. Atkinson, Peter Patterson, William Phillips, James
Rodger, Robert Wood, Henry Black, John Jones, William Patton,
James Hunt, R. H. Gairdner, Alexander Simpson, Thomas Paton,
Noah Freer, Charles Gethings, William Atkinson, J. G. Heath,
H. Gowan, John G. Clapham, J. Bonner, Robert Shaw, Ebenezer
Baird, Jer. Leaycraft, H. J. Noad, II. E. Scott, John Brooke, R.
Wainwright, George Black, J. H. Kerr, Wm. Petry, Wm. Price,
H. Lemesurier, W. Bristow, Andrew Paterson, John Gilmour,
Joseph Bouchette.
The chairman then left the chair, and thanks having been voted
to him for his able conduct in presiding, the meeting dispersed.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 517

COLONEL GUGY
Is emphatically a gentleman. Of his origin and kinsmen, as
connected with Canada, conspicuous notice ought to be taken.
Conrad Gugy, an officer in a regiment, which took part in
the conquest of Canada, the eldest son of a Swiss officer in the
Dutch service, was born at the Hague. At the instance of the
authorities of the day, disposing of his commission, he settled in
Canada. Educated for the Engineers, and being an accomplished
linguist, he was found useful in various ways. At an early period
he served as a medium of communication between the Canadians
and their British conquerors, who were not so familiar with the
French language as their descendants of the present day. His
position was one in which he enjoyed the confidence of the
government, and possessed considerable influence. He was em
ployed in providing accommodation for the United Empire loyal
ists, including many Germans and Dutchmen, who fled from the
then British provinces at the period of the revolution. He became
secretary to the government for one of the divisions of Lower
Canada, as well as a member of the Executive and Legislative
Councils. He gave proof of his zeal, activity and attachment to
English institutions by travelling upwards of a hundred miles, in
the wretched roads of that day, to vote in favor of the ordinance
for trial by jury in certain cases. His death was the result of his
zeal. To build the houses and barracks then instantly needed, a
Captain Twiss had been directed to cause a quantity of timber and
plank to be floated down the river Machiche. A mill dam had
been constructed across the river, and on being consulted, Conrad
Gugy repairing to the spot, saw that the obstacle might be
surmounted. The timber accordingly reached its destination ; and
the officer charged with the service left the country. Conrad
Gugy remained; and, an action being brought against him for
damages, he was proved to have raised his hand, and was under
stood to have thus indicated the spot at which the difficulty could
be overcome. It was the first trial by jury in Lower Canada, and
the jurors (it was then said to punish him for siding with the
English in the introduction of their institutions) assessed the
damages at an enormous and ruinous amount. This verdict was
subsequently set aside, but too late to save the life of the defendant.
The verdict was no sooner announced than he gently made his way
through the crowd, and, going to his lodgings, without speaking
one word, entered his room and locked the door. On its being
burst open next morning, his cravat was found neatly folded upon

518 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
an arm of the sofa, upon which he lay in a reclining position, stone
dead. He had not committed suicide; but, proud and sensitive,
he was absolutely killed by the humiliation of such a verdict.
He was a man of a large heart, and hospitable to a fault. In
those days neither steamers, stages or taverns existed, and in his
house travellers, almost without distinction, were received and
hospitably entertained. Like Alfieri, he loved horses, and oc
casionally made a present of one ta mark the pleasure which he
had taken in the society of an occasional guest.
He had chosen the English service, but Bartholomew Gugy,
his younger brother, entered that of the French king's. He
acquired some distinction, was knighted, and, at the breaking out
of the revolution, was colonel commandant of the second regiment
of Swiss Guards in the French service. In Paris, he married a
French lady of a Huguenot family, who eventually died at an
advanced age in Montreal. His son, the late Mr. Sheriff Gugy,
of Montreal, was a lieutenant in his father's regiment. Both were
offered advancement in the revolutionary army, and most brilliant
prospects were held out to them. With the proverbial fidelity of
the Swiss, they declined those offers, and the colonel had the
honor of marching his regiment through a great part of France
into Switzerland without losing a man. Considering that his men
were disarmed, exposed to all manner of seductions, supplied with
wine and allured by women, this feat certainly indicated
the respect and regard in which he was held. On reaching the
Swiss frontier, finding himself penniless, he resolved to sell his
horses, and requested a non-commissioned officer of his regiment
to enquire for purchasers. One of them, as it happened, a French
officer of cavalry, wished to buy. At this juncture the late
sheriff, then on, the spot, knowing the temper of his father, com
municated to the latter the name and antecedents of the French
captain. " He shall not have my horse," said Colonel Gugy ; and,
to make certainty doubly sure, he shot the animal. This French
captain was " Jerome," the servant at the inn at Varennes, who
had recognized and betrayed the king, Louis XVI. This act, by
which Colonel Gugy deprived himself of the price of the horse,
was the result of his loyalty, and a sudden outburst of detestation
for the character of a traitor.
Mrs. Gugy was old enough to have conversed with some of the
victims of the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; and she described
with great feeling the various modes of persecution to which the
unhappy Huguenots were subjected.
Conrad Gugy had acquired some property in Canada, the life
interest in which he left to his brother. The latter, on leaving
the French service, embarked at London for this country, and died
here. His son, born in Paris, (the late Mr. Sheriff Gugy) then
took possession of the estate ; and eventually became sheriff of the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 519
district of Three Rivers. In the war of 1812, he resigned this
office to resume his original profession ; and he commanded the
third battalion of incorporated militia. He was a most efficient
officer, much respected, and even beloved by the men under his
command. On the restoration of peace, he obtained a seat in the
House of Assembly. Then, like his uncle, he became a member of
the Legislative Council, and eventually sheriff of Montreal. Un
happily, unable to resist the instincts of his race in the domestic
dissensions of Canada, he took the royal side. It was then the
avowed policy of M. Papineau's party to expel the English, whom
he called intruders and foreigners. Actuated by this design the
French Canadian population of Montreal, upon the 21st of May,
1832, on the occasion of an election, encountered the troops, and
some lives were unavoidably sacrificed. Colonel Mackintosh and
Captain Temple, who commanded the detachment of the 15th
Regiment which fired on the populace, were apprehended on a
charge of murder, and a bill of indictment for that crime was
subsequently laid before the grand jury. Mr. Sheriff Gugy was
not sufficiently alive to his interest to summon a jury disposed to
hang those officers. Unhappily for him the bill was ignored.
This offence against the ruling majority was never forgiven or
forgotten. Colonel Gugy then, feeling that he had lived too long,
gradually declined, and expired in July, 1840. He was amiable,
generous, hospitable and confiding to a fault. He was highly
educated, and spoke four languages fluently. Tenacious on the
point of honor, educated at the French Court, he was a refined and
accomplished gentleman, of a school now admired with the
melancholy reverence excited by the ruins of the Colosseum
Early in 1813, during the war with the United States, Thomas
Gugy, then scarcely fifteen, obtained an ensigncy in the Glengarry
Regiment. This corps, commanded by Colonel Battersby, an officer
of the highest merit, had the good fortune to perform many im
portant seryices and brilliant actions. From the opening to the
close of the campaign, in presence of the enemy, it was often
engaged; and, although no historian has recorded its deeds, it
deserves to occupy a distinguished page in the annals of British
valor and triumph. In these events Thomas Gugy had his full
share ; and he reaped the reward usually granted to the soldier too
poor to purchase, whose services are no longer required. On the
disbanding of his regiment, he studied law under that remarkable
man, the late Andrew Stuart. He soon became skilful as a practi
tioner ; and, entering into partnership with the then Attorney-
Geijeral Ogden, eventually attained great eminence at the bar. As
an orator, he stood in the very first rank, and is yet affectionately
remembered by many survivors, who admired him for his talents,
and loved him for his virtues. But he had entered the army too
young, and at twenty-eight he fell a victim to consumption, a result

520 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of the hardships which he had endured in the service. He died
at Leghorn, and was buried in the grave adjoining that of the
celebrated Tobias Smollet.
" Those whom the gods love die young."
In this place two anecdotes of his mother's father may be fairly
related. That mother (an English lady with an Irish name) was
brought to Canada by her father, an officer who had also served in
Wolfe's army. Present at the unsuccessful attempt to force the
French lines on the Beauport shore (not far from the residence of
the present Colonel Gugy), this gentleman witnessed the retreat of
the British troops, and the approach of the French and Indians.
The yells of the savages necessarily reached the ear of a soldier
wounded in the leg, and unable to walk. " I shall be scalped,"
cried he. " No you shan't," replied Dr. Connor, and taking the
soldier in his arms he carried the man in safety to the boats.
Again, in Montreal, the troops in the garrison were turned out to
lend their assistance at a fire. A house was burning ; the flames
issued from the windows, and ladders were unavailable. There
was a woman in an attic window, apparently abandoned to her fate
by the multitude. Not so, thought Dr. Connor ; but promptly
ascending to the roof tree of a neighboring dwelling, he crept
along until he reached the house on fire. Thence he descended
to the window in which the woman stood, and bore her upwards
to a place of safety. It may be added he was a tall man, possessed
of strength, with activity.
The present Colonel Gugy, in his own opinion, neither so highly
gifted nor so popular as his brother, has more versatility and very
much more physical strength and constitutional cheerfulness and
buoyancy of character. He is apparently a genuine Englishman,
combining in his person the accomplished " town" and the homely
" country " gentleman. He is fond of horses, and is given to
manly exercises of all kinds. He is endowed with great mental
and bodily activity, and, in danger, with rare presence of mind,
and he addresses both crowds and courts with effect. In a family in
which all the men had for many generations been soldiers, it was
natural that the eldest son should be destined for the army ; and
he was originally intended for the engineers. He received his
education with Mr. (now Lord Bishop) Strachan, at Cornwall ; and
speaks in terms of the most perfect respect, admiration and attach
ment of that good man. Owing to the decease of a nobleman,
who had promised to facilitate his admission into the military
college of the day, he entered the line ; and, upon the disbanding
of his regiment, he too studied the law. He was eminently suc
cessful, and in a short time accumulated a large fortune. He,
however, had become security for his late father, and, having
signed bonds for £41,000, upon his fathers sudden removal from

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 521
office, he found himself called upon to make good some £22,000.
Devoting himself to the task, selling several houses, parts of
seigniories and mills, he eventually, after some twenty-eight years
of anxiety, accomplished the onerous duty. Excepting, perhaps,
in the family o? the late Duke of Buckingham, more filial regard
for the rame of a parent and the honor of a family has never been
exhibited. Previous vo that event, he had with characteri tie
zeal, in accordance with the Earl of Dalhousie's desire to organize
a corps of volunteers, formed a troop of cavalry much admired in
its time. Independent and bold, he resisted the insolence of office,
then prevalent; and, oppressed by Judge Kerr, he petitioned
Parliament for redress. He was shortly afterwards elected, and
succeeded in bringing about the dismissal of the judge. Invariably
siding with the weak and the poor, against the strong and the
rich, he complained of several functionaries who had been guilty
of malversation in office, and ensured their removal. While he
was a member, no officer of the government, however powerful,
could with impunity abuse his authority. His habits, always
temperate and frugal, enabled him to pursue that course, for he
had no taste for luxury, and dinners held out to him no temptation.
Eating no more than is necessary to support life, having no' im
proper relish for wine, Colonel Gugy was quite indifferent to such
temptations ; nor did he want place, or propose by complaisance
and truckling to obtain it, nor is his name connected with any job
or the suspicion of any job. He was, however, firm and consistent
in his efforts to preserve British connection — true in his attach
ment to and preference for British institutions. As we said before,
a true Englishman, his standard of excellence was thoroughly
English. He speaks French with fluency and ease, and in that
language he resisted in the Assembly of Lower Canada the French
proclivities of M. Papineau and his associates. It was a long
conflict, and an unequal one. Papineau's majority was composed
of eighty French members. Gugy (at one time single handed)
resisted this force at the head of nine members who spoke no
French ! He was then called the " organ of the townships ;"
and his public demeanor and temper were so good that he obtained
and has preserved the respect of those against whom he contended.
He predicted the rebellion, and endeavored both by suggestions
to the government of the day and to the French Canadians, to
avert it. He was only so far successful as to entail upon himself
the animosity of both sides, and though by no means repentant, he
is said to comprehend, at present, the utter inutility of moderation
in politics. When the rebellion broke out, however, he was
not moderate, but plunged headlong into the contest with a
promptitude, spirit, zeal, and perseverance, which though unre
warded, can never be forgotten. The troops, which on the 14th
of December, 1837, marched to the attack of St. Eustache will not
66

522 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
forget his gallop alone from shore to shore, to prove that the ice
would bear them. The river had been open two days before, and
he was the first thus to cross it, a feat in the performance of which
both man and horse were expected to be engulphed at every bound.
The walls proving so thick and strong that the artillery could
make no impression on them, Colonel Gugy thereupon sought
and found a weak point at which the building could be assailed, and
it was thus taken. As is recorded in the official report, Colonel
Gugy led the troops to the assault of St. Eustache. Naturally sur
mounting every obstacle more quickly than the heavy armed soldier,
he was the first to enter the church, in which he was severely
wounded. Whatever may be the cause, he benefited little by his gallant
conduct. After the fall of St. Eustache, he was invited to forego
his professional prospects, and to occupy the post of commissioner
of rural police. This appointment involved great personal labor,
constant exposure on horseback, and considerable danger. He
performed his duties satisfactorily, and was instrumental in
inducing the habitants in the disturbed districts to return to their
occupation and homes. But when every difficulty had been over
come,' he was supplanted by a gentleman from the old country. It
was however afterwards thought that he might be useful in another
capacity, and the office of adjutant-general of militia being offered
him, he accepted it. At that time the militia was in a state of
great confusion ; some persons had pretensions to rank, who had
never been either in the militia, or the volunteers. Some militia
officers had joined the volunteers, some volunteer officers had
never been in the militia.
Some militia officers had been true, many had been disloyal,
some had been traitors engaged in armed conflict with the royal
forces ; some had been merely passive. Each nevertheless insisted
upon his right to precedence, and it was impossible to give satis
faction to all. While he was engaged in the task of reorganizing
the force, a violent political struggle was taking place ; and it was
sought to make the appointments in the militia subservient to the
personal interests of ministers. Lord Metcalfe was adverse to this
course, and the tangled web was, so far as depended upon Colonel
Gugy, disengaged without reference to politics. Shortly afterwards
a bill was brought into the house to abolish his office, and, in 1845,
he was necessarily deprived of the income upon which he had
reckoned. The office has been since revived ; but as the gallant
colonel belonged to neither of the classes deemed worthy of
patronage, having no aptitude for conciliating the favor of the
great, he has ever since lived in retirement, as best he could.
During the rebellion Colonel Gugy was employed in the task of
pacification, and it would seem with discretionary powers. Accord
ing to the testimony of his very foes, he used it well, manifesting

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 523
much humanity and sensibility in dealing with the defeated insurg
ents and their families. He appears to have moderated the not
unnatural resentment and love of revenge of the loyalists, many
among whom had been insulted, injured and despoiled. They
naturally desired to exercise the right of reprisal ; and to restrain
them, and to protect their defeated enemies, was an unpopu
lar, a difficult, and a dangerous task. But according to the con
curring testimony of priests and laymen, it was performed, and well
performed.* His personal activity was such as to confer on him a
sort of ubiquity, and protestant though he be, he extorted praises
from the Roman Catholic priesthood.
At a subsequent period the British population had in its anger
assailed the legislature, and burned the buildings in which the As
sembly was sitting. The popular feeling roused to madness by the
memorable bill, then understood to be intended for the reward of
treason, threatened the integrity of the empire, and caluminated
in the famous annexation movement. Men of all ranks then
invited the interposition of the Americans. It was seriously and
openly proposed to sever the connexion with Britain, and to annex
Canada to the United States. A perspicuous and taking writer,
Colonel Gugy wrote a pamphlet deprecating that course. The com
munity which he represented being to a man annexationists, this
pamphlet cost him his seat in Parliament. He also exerted him
self in calming the multitude. His personal popularity and influ
ence were productive of excellent results, and he several times
succeeded in dispersing dangerous assemblies. The writer of
these lines was an eye witness of the extraordinary power which
Colonel Gugy had acquired over the British population of Montreal.
Having worsted the police, and defying the troops, the populace
assembled round the parliament house, bent on taking it by storm,
and killing Lord Elgin who was in it. Without Colonel Gugy
the attempt would have been made, but walking cooly up and down
he soothed the multitude, and persuaded them to desist. So happy
was he in his manner of dealing with them that, notwithstanding
his opposition to their wishes, they carried him home on their
shoulders in triumph. Neither the police or the troops produced
any effect on the infuriated multitude. The administration there
upon put muskets into the hands of a body of French Canadians
who were drilled and intended for the repression of the British
population. The latter arming themselves, marched in a sort of
military array to attack the French, and a terrible night conflict
was about to take place in the streets of Montreal. To prevent it,
.* To exclude all doubt the names of living witnesses are subjoined: — Mes
sieurs Amiot, Theberge, Mignault, Manseau, Hudon, Primeau, and Chiniquy,
Priests. Messieurs Wolfred Nelson, (at one time mayor of Montreal), Fre
chette, Leblanc, Patenaud, Hebert, Bourassa, Singer, Cormier ; Doctors Allard,
and Davignon : messieurs Ouimet, Pranohere, and Soupras.

524 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
a wing of the 71st Regiment, and two guns loaded with grape, were
drawn up, with orders to fire with effect on the advancing multi
tude. The latter had nearly reached the lir"it assigned them by
the officer commanding, and the troops were about to fire, when
Colo lei Gugy met the crowd and threw himself into its midst.
Ascending a lamp-post, he addressed them for upwards of two
hours without faltering, eventually induoing the multitude to dis
perse. It was like a man tied to the guillotine, making a speech
with the axe pendant over his neck. If it be true, as it is true,
that but for his intervenfon, four or five hundred natives of the
British Isles might, or would on that occasion have been slaughtered
by the troops, it is manifest that the connexion with Britain must
have been severed.
The inhabitants of the United States have always been and
are perhaps still ready to interfere in Canadian affairs, and to over
run Canada. In 1837-8, affeeting to lament the wrongs of the
Canadians, they were called " sympathisers." They early organ
ised a society under the name of " Hunters," for the invasion and
annexation of Canada. Hundreds of lodges had been formed on
the frontiers, and during the rebellion, as well as during the
annexation movement consequent on the passage of the " rebellion
losses bill," hosts of sympathisers hung like a cloud on the slopes
of the mountains of Vermort. They then waited for the occurrence
of any disaster to the British arms to furnish the occasion for
invading Canada, and would during the rebellion have been joined
by the French population, during the annexation movement by the
English. Had the British troops been defeated at St. Charles, as
they had been at St. Denis — had those troops massacred a consider
able number of the British population in the streets of Montreal ou
the above mentioned well known memorable night, the expected sig
nal would have been given, and a propitious moment forthe invasion
of Canada would have arrived. Those who believe that annexa
tion could have been prevented, must admit that in the effort,
torrents of blood would have been shed. But the provinces
might have become part and parcel of theAmerican union. Tak
ing the first view of the case, the writer of these lines, feels it to
be due to Colonel Gugy to ascribe to him the saving of hundreds,
perhaps thousands of lives, and all the horrors consequent upon a
state of war. But those who are of opinion that in the contingency
which Colonel Gugy averted, Britain could not have retained
Canada, cannot over estimate the services of that gentleman.
During the struggle, and for several years, Colonel Gugy had
been induced to abandon his professional prospects, to serve in the
royal ranks, and the then governor had, by way of compensation,
offered him the office of adjutant-general. The prejudice against
natives militated against him, and he was not appointed. He
was employed in the rural police, as commissioner or head of the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 525
establishment, as we have before stated. In that situation he did
not belie his antecedents, but on the contrary, was so fortunate as to
discharge his arduous duties in a satisfactory manner. But peace at
length obtained, Colonel Gugy was summarily removed to mako way
for a gentleman from the British Isles ; a lower position was then
assigned him, that of police magistrate in Montreal. His efforts
in this office elicited from an official eye-witness the following des
cription upon oath : " Colonel Gugy gratuitously discharged the
duties of chairman of the quarter sessions, at a time when no
other officer or person connected with the commissions of the
peace, would or could perform them, and he was indefatigable
therein, as he had been in the office of superintendent of police.
Colonel Gugy throughout, behaved in a just, upright and honor
able manner. No political or religious bias could ever be
detected in any of his actions ; he was influenced neither by race
or colour ; he was energetic and fearless, and his judgments
gave great general satisfaction ; his mode of delivering his
judgment was so admirable, that crowds were daily attracted to
the office for the purpose of hearing and receiving instruction
from him. The course he pursued while in office, was so
excellent, as to have produced permanent effects still felt in the
amended conduct of many."
From this position, Lord Sydenham transferred him to the office
of adjutant-general. The prospect of war with the United States,
incident to the Oregon difficulty, was then viewed according to the
political bearings of individuals with regret, — with indifference
or exultation, and the re-forming of tho militia, broken and disor
dered1 by the rebellion, and many years of disloyalty and tumult,
was a difficult task. In accomplishing that task, a man who knew
the opinion and , merit of every applicant for rank as well as the
degree of dependence whieh could or could not be reposed in his
fidelity and ability, would have great difficulties. Nevertheless,
the task was performed, when the administration of the day, being
unable to prefer any complaint against Colonel Gugy, introduced a
bill, avowedly intended for his removal from office. During the
debate, several members vindicated him, and one exclaimed that
" in the then state ofthe cour try an angel from heaven could not
have given general satisfaction." Thebilland the causes assigned,
were however, mere pretexts. The passing of the bill was an
iniquity to which a reluctant assent was extended from several
members by a solemn promise that ample amends would be made
to Colonel Gugy. Accordingly, to have a pretext for breaking
their promise, the ministry of the day tendered for his acceptance,
the office of police magistrate of Quebec. The then incumbent, Mr.
McCord, was allowed a salary of £500 ; but to ensure Colonel
Gugy's rejection of the offer, the salary was lowered to £300. It
is said that he received the official letter in the street, and with

526 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
characteristic promptitude, he is understood to have stepped into a
shop and penned a laconic rejection of the insulting offer.
Nevertheless, the bill passed, and Colonel Gugy therefore now
lives in great privacy upon his farm. A prophet hath no honor in
his own country, but we are bound to give a description ofthe man,
and for obvious reasons we borrow from the annals of another
country. Having gone upon some mission to Boston, he is repre
sented in one periodical as a "tall, majestic-looking gentleman,
who expressed himself in a beautiful manner." In another paper,
adverting to him as a member of the provincial Parliament,
he is described as " one of the mo3t eloquent, accomplished and
thoroughly educated men bers of the house, and as speaking
French and English with equal grace, fluency and force." Having
thus to avoid the imputation of partiality, borrowed from other
sources, we may speak of what we saw. During the discussion on
the rebellion losses bill, the ministry were anxious to insure the
immediate passage of the bill, while the opposition desired to gain
time to afford the people of Upper Canada an opportunity to
petition against the bill. At this period we saw Colonel Gugy
contend single handed against the majority, actually on one
night speaking during seven hours, in order to obtain the desired
delay. During the debate, Lord Elgin took the precaution to pursue a
course of hospitality, extended with unusual prodigality to the oppo
sition. Two prominent members having repaired to the govern
ment house, at some distance in the country to dine, were asked how
they could afford to leave their places on such an occasion : " Oh,"
said they, " it's all right, for we've left Gugy there." The writer
remembers the singular scene which presented itself when the
ministry, having collected their forces, and sent for their night
caps, resisted for a long time, but at length capitulated at eight in
the morning.
It is related of him, that when the mob having set fire to the
building, rushed up to disperse the members, and complete the
work of destruction, he was the only man who resented the insult,
and ou that occasion he collared and flung down the stairs a fellow
who laid hold of the mace. On that occasion, too, he protected the
speaker, and adhered to him until that functionary reached a place
of safety.
To mark the character of the man, one anecdote will suffice.
An eminent official of Guiana was both the personal and politi
cal enemy of Colonel Gugy. The first number of a newspaper
of which that official was editor, when he preached and pub
lished exciting appeals to the Irish, and " hoped that the
orange and green would never unite," contained a libel on Colonel
Gugy. That number was brought to his house, and he turned out
the carrier boy who delivered it ; for this act, Mr. Hincks caused

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 527
the colonel to be prosecuted, and an exciting trial took place.
But ou the night of the destruction of the parliament buildings,
Colonel Gugy was informed that the mob had gojeto set fire tothe
house of his enemy. The colonel thereupon instantly started at
a rapid pace, taking with him a sub-division of the 71st Regiment,
and reaching the premises in time, protected them effectually dur
ing that terrible night.
As a proof of his moral courage, his defiance of what is con
ventionally called the press, may be cited. The Herald newspaper
is understood to have been the first to give publicity to the domestic
difficulties and sorrows of Colonel Gugy. The fact is that, owing
to causes not now of any moment, his father had become involved,
and owing to the weakness of age, had not taken the measures
necessary to exculpate his son, who was his surety. The latter
felt it to be a point of honor to keep his father's secret, and
found himself charged with the offence of injuring his parent.
He thereupon brought a series of suits against the press ; he con
ducted them himself, and in despite of all the talent arrayed
against him, he triumphed signally.
Subsequently, during the administration of Lord Metcalfe, a
hostof Irish navvies, employed in improving the Lachine canal,
undertook to regulate the elections for Montreal. On one occasion
they marched into town in force — armed and prepared to do
battle under the command of a sort of Hercules. They numbered
from two to three thousand, and being determined to ensure the
election of one of the candidates, who was their countryman, filled
the whole space from Wellington to McGill street. As they
approached the poll in the latter street, Colonel Gugy, who had
been placed there by the returning officer to preserve the peace,
rode alone to the head of the column, and forcing it open, laid
hold of, and dragged out the ringleader. It would seem that there
was no second in commaud, for the multitude alarmed by the cap
ture of their chief, dispersed in all directions. This bold act,
requiring both presence of mind and a firm seat on horseback, thus
saved many lives, as also doubtlessly the burning and sacking of a
part of Montreal.
While a coroner's jury were enquiring into the causes of the
death of one Mason, protected by a guard of some thirty soldiers
with fixed bayonets, a cry of fire was heard ; the jury, guard,
witnesses, and spectators, filled the upper story, and the miserable
staircase afforded but slight means of exit. As the fire, how
ever, approached, the crowd was seized with a panic, and all
were flying regardless of consequences. It is evident that many
would have been transfixed by the bayonets ; but fortunately
Colonel Gugy, in the sharp order which soldiers instinctively
obey, cried, "Soldiers, halt — unfix bayonets." Thus was the
danger averted.

528 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Since that period, Colonel Gugy has written many able papers
both on military subjects and on the abuses of the law; and he
has invariably insisted on the perfect equality of men of colonial
birth to metropolitans. He may not live to witness the adoption
of his views, but the subject is likely to produce great results
here, as it has done south of latitude forty-five.
It is not too much to say in conclusion, that the subject of this
notice might have achieved distinction in any country, but he is a
provincial, unconnected by birth or religion with the dominant
party, but on the contrary, always opposed to their principles
and policy. So Washington — now immortal — was in his colonial
condition exposed to many petty annoyances, and we know that
the hero, Dundonald, lived and died the victim of a calumny.

Hon. JOHN YOUNG.
The Honorable Mr. Young was born at Ayr, in Scot
land, in 1811. He left school at the age of thirteen; and, for
eighteen months, kept school in a country parish near Ayr. He
arrived in Montreal in 1826 ; and, during nine years, was clerk
with Messrs. John Torrance & Co., and of this firm he became a
partner in 1835, at Quebec ; where he remained for five years,
during three of which he did business on his own account.
It was during his residence here in 1837, that he first took part in
any public matters. He, with others, became satisfied that there
would be an attempt at rebellion against the government, and was
instrumental in having a memorial presented to the then governor-
general, Earl Gosford, pointing out the danger, and petitioning
that corps of volunteers might be enrolled. This the governor-
general refused to do at the time, but promised that the memori
alists would be called on to support the government, if their
assistance should be required. Iu about three weeks after, this
became necessary. Mr. Young got command of a company in a
regiment of light infantry, which was made up in twenty-four hours,
and was the first to receive arms. During the winter, the Quebec
Light Infantry did regular duty, in keeping night guard on the
citadel. In 1840, he returned to Montreal, joining Hairi^on Stephens
in business. It was part of his duty to travel every winter in

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 529
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, &c, and it was by the experience
thus acquired, and the intimate knowledge of tho various routes to
the seaboard for interior productions, that Mr. Young became so
thoroughly acquainted with the great advantages of the St. Law
rence route to the ocean.
Mr. Young's first public act in Montreal, was to oppose the
expenditure in feasting of a large sum of money raised to celebrate
the birth of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. He recom
mended that the money should be applied in the purchase of three
hundred acres of land near the city, where an asylum for the poor
could be secured, and to connect it by name with the occasion.
But although his motion was carried, it was afterwards reconsidered,
and an adverse decision adopted.
In 1844, Mr. Young was called on to act as returning officer,
at the Montreal general election. Party spirit at that time
ran very high, and the elections throughout the country were
remarkable for the violence of those who were for or against
the policy pursued by Lord Metcalfe. In Montreal, this was
especially the case; and it became necessary to take the most active
means to prevent the destruction of property and bloodshed. It
was ascertained that on the morning of the election (which lasted
two days), there were upwards of four thousand armed strangers in
the city from various parts of the country, intent on taking part in
the election. The troops were called out ; and a great number of
persons sent to prison. By the most energetic efforts on the part
of Mr. Young, and in consequence of his admirable arrangements,
public peace was preserved ; and the election terminated without
loss of life. For these services, Mr. Young received the thanks
of the colonial secretary, and of the commanders of the forces in
Canada, Sir Richard Jackson and Sir James Hope.
In 1846, he was instrumental in organising a Free Trade Associa
tion in Montreal, of which he became president. This association
published the Canadian Economist during aperiod of sixteen months,
and this publication did much to reconcile the opponents of the
mother country in inaugurating free trade, and withdrawing the
protection, which the products of Canada had previously enjoyed
in her markets.
In the same year, Mr. Young took part in the discussion
then going on, as to whether the government had adopted a
correct policy in making a new channel through lake St. Peter,
instead of deepening and improving the natural channel. He went
down to the lake, and with pilots, spent some days in sounding the
various channels, and reported against the government plan, in
making a new channel. He advised the immediate abandonment of
all that had been done, and the necessity of commencing the
improvement of the natural channel. The whole work was aban
doned by order of Parliament. Mr. Young did not, however, cease
' 67

530 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
to urge on the government and his fellow citizens, the importance
of the improvement of the lake and the river between Quebec and
Montreal ; and, on being appointed a harbor commissioner in 1849,
he at once suggested to his colleagues a plan by which the improve
ment of the lake and river could be accompUshed. This plan was
submitted to the government, and an act passed to enable the
commissioners to carry it into effect. The plan was found to work ;
the commissioners obtained the necessary funds on the security of
the harbor trust, which has been so managed by Mr. Young as
chairman, that its bonds have always been at a premium, while the
channel for navigation has been deepened from eleven feet to
eighteeu feet throughout, with a breadth of three hundred feet in
the lake. The work is now progressing, so as to secure a depth
of twenty feet ; the importance of which, to the port of Montreal,
and the province in general, it would be difficult to estimate.
He also suggested the propriety and justice of the government
assuming the costs of this work, and for several years persistently
urged this principle, and was at last successful.
In 1845, he took part in originating and urging forward the con
struction of the railway to Portland, so as to connect the St. Law
rence with the Atlantic, and he also suggested the propriety of the
construction of a railway from Montreal to the west — obtained
several surveys of the road to Kingston; and, in connection with
others, procured a charter for prosecuting the work. He became
president of the road, and agreed with the engineers, that the best
route for the same was some ten or fifteen miles back from the St.
Lawrence, so as to secure the shortest line ; and, at the same time,
the best position to connect with the Ottawa. Mr. Young's fellow
citizens were so satisfied with his exertions, that they presented
him with a handsome testimonial of their esteem.
It was about this time too that Mr. Young suggested and
advocated the necessity of a bridge across the St. Lawrence. He
advanced the necessary funds to Mr. Thos. C. Keefer for his survey
and plan of that work, and urged its importance on every occasion.
Suggesting that its construction should be the basis of the Kingston
and Montreal Railroad Company, waiving the rights of their charter
in favor of the Grand Trunk Company, the proposal was adopted
and the present Victoria Bridge is erected at the site surveyed by Mr.
Keefer. In 1846, Mr. Young suggested that a canal, to connect the St.
Lawrence with lake Champlain, should be constructed; and he
declared that unless this was done the Canadian canals would
fail, when opened in 1849, to attract to the St. Lawrence route any
considerable portion of the inferior trade. The government had
this canal route surveyed by different engineers, all of whom
strongly advised its construction. The various boards of trade also
urged on the government its importance ; but, it has not yet been

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 531
begun, although the fact of the St. Lawrence route being able to
attract only about seven per cent of the interior trade, while
ninety-three per cent flows through the Erie canal, might seem
to afford sufficient evidence of the necessity for the construction of
such a canal. In 1851, Mr. Young was asked to join the Hincks
and Morin administration, as chief commissioner of public works ;
and was elected to represent the city of Montreal, though his elec
tion was opposed on the ground of his free trade opinions, his
advocacy ofthe Caughnawaga canal, and ofthe importance of con
structing the Halifax railroad. As soon as the elections were over,
he, with Mr. Hincks and the Honorable Mr. Tach6, proceeded to
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to advocate the railway to
Halifax, but differed from some of the deputation as to the line
surveyed by the Imperial Government, and thus suggested that it
should pass over the St. John river to St. John, and thence to
Halifax. In the same year, Mr. Young recommended to the government
the necessity of establishing a Canadian line of ocean steamers for
the St. Lawrence ; and boldly advised that, to secure their being
immediately established, a subsidy should be paid by Canada alone.
Tenders were invited for establishing a fortnightly line to the St.
Lawrence, and a monthly line to Portland ; and, after much difficulty,
Mr. Young's colleagues consented to grant nineteen thousand pounds
per annum, provided five thousand pounds additional was secured
by Mr. Young otherwise. This he succeeded in obtaining from
the Atlantic and St Lawrence, and St. Lawrence and Atlantic
Railway Companies ; and the line was commenced, the beneficial
results of which, to the country, are too well known to require
notice. As commissioner of public works, he examined a great number
of pilots and shipmasters as to the merits of the route through the
straits of Belleisle, and concerning the improvements necessary
on the lower St. Lawrence. Inhis Public Works' Report of 1851,
he advised the immediate construction of various light houses ;
most of which have since been built, and insurance has been
reduced more than one-half in consequence. Mr Young, while
commissioner, suggested and opened up the various water powers
at Ottawa city, and recommended that a minister of agriculture
should be a member of the Executive Council. He differed
from Mr. Hincks on the plan by which the rai'ways of the country
should be constructed ; and was in favor of waiting to asce-tain,
whether it was possible to obtain the Imperial Government's
security, by which means money for construction of the whole
road from Windsor to Halifax could be obta::ed at a very low rate
of interest. This plan was over-ruled, and a private company
obtained a charter from Parliament, under the style of the Grand
Trunk Railway Company. Mr. Young opposed the demand for

532 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
government aid towards this undertaking, to the amount of four
thousand pounds sterling per mile, and this sum was in conse
quence of his opposition reduced to three thousands pounds per
mile. The government having determined on charging a higher rate
on American vessels passing through the Welland canal than on
Canadian vessels, Mr. Young resigned his office of commissioner
of public works, and became instrumental in preventing these
differential tolls against American shipping.
Mr. Young also originated the idea of having Canada represented
in the Exhibition of All Nations, in London, in 1851, and organized
the committees throughout the province, to carry it into effect.
Again in Parliament, in 1855, he carried a motion to have Canada
represenedt at the Industrial Exhibition in Paris. Those exhibi
tions, all will admit, did more to bring Canada creditably before the
notice of the world than anything before or since.
In 1854, Mr. Young was again returned member for Montreal,
having been mainly supported by the mercantile interest. He was
an active member of the committee of public accounts, while W.
L. McKenzie acted as chairman. In 1855, he again was on that
committee, and acted as its chairman, and made numerous sug
gestions on the erroneous system of keeping the public accounts,
most of which have been since adopted. Mr. Young declined to
come forward again to represent Montreal at the election of 1857,
in consequence of ill health ; but he has not ceased take to an active
part in every public measure affecting the public interests of the
city, where he resides.
Mr. Young's advocacy of the proposition for docks at Montreal,
and for making available the enormous water power of the river
Saint Lawrence, by the fall of its water, from the Lachine
canal, has been constant, and although very much opposed, yet
there has been a great change in public feeling as to the impor
tance of these works (vast as they appear) to the interest of the
province, and especially of Montreal. It is evident, however, that
the rapid extension of the interior trade will, sooner than is
expected, fully justify Mr. Young in so strongly advocating im
provements upon which the future trade of the St. Lawrence
depends. It was owing to Mr. Young's exertions, that the limits of the
harbor of Montreal were extended ; and he has been unremitting
in aiding the extension of the river and harbor accommodations in
all directions.
Mr. Young was chairman of the committee of citizens, who so
successfully entertained the Prince of Wales, on his late visit to
Canada. He is a member of a Unitarian society, which he did much to
establish, and is admitted to be a most liberal and public spirited

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 533
citizen. He has raised himself, by his own exertions ; and has
done as much for the benefit of the people of Montreal as any
other man living. His conceptions are grand, and many of these
have been realized ; to them, and to his indefatigable energy, is
the present high and distinguished position which our mercantile
metropolis holds in the estimation of Europe and America, as well
as much of the prosperity in store for it in the future, may be fairly
attributed.

Sir WM. E. LOGAN, F.R.G.S., F.R.S.
Sir William Logan, the eminent and distinguished geologist,
and one of the most scientific men that Canada can boast of having
produced, is a Canadian bred and born. He first saw the light in
Montreal in 1798. He pursued his studies at the High School of
Edinburgh, Scotland; and graduated at the university of that city.
In 1818 he entered the mercantile office of his uncle, Mr. Hart
Logan, of London, and after a time became a partner in the firm.
After returning to Canada for a short time, where his attention was
drawn to the geological characteristics of this country, he again
crossed the Atlantic in 1829, and took up his residence in South
Wales, Swansea, as manager of copper smelting and coal mining
operations, in which his uncle was interested ; but he left this
situation soon after the death of the latter in 1838. During his
seven years' residence in South Wales, Mr. Logan devoted himself
to the study of the coal field of that region ; and his minute and
accurate maps and sections were adopted by the ordnance geolo
gical survey, and published by the government, under Sir Henry
de la Beche's superintendence. He was the first to demonstrate
that the stratum of under clay, as it is called, which always
underlies coal beds, was the soil in which the coal vegetation grew.
In 1841 Sir ^William visited the coal fields of Pennsylvania and
Nova Scotia ; and communicated several valuable memoirs on the
subject to the Geological Society of London. At this time he began
an examination of the older palaeozoic rocks of Canada; and the
celebrated geological survey of Canada having been commenced,
he was appointed and still continues at its head, a trust which
sufficiently indicates the high opinion entertained of his great
abilities and attainments by the government. This preference is,
however, nothing more than he is entitled to, considering the
immense sacrifice which he has made to remain in, and confine his

534 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
studies to, a country endeared to him by all the ties of birth and
station. It is a well known fact that he has refused several offers
from other governments for his services, including India, where a
princely fortune is to be made by the geologist. In the course of
his investigations upon the rocks of the Eastern Townships, which
are the continuation of those of New England, Sir William has
shown that, so far from being, as had been supposed, primitive
azoic rocks, they are altered and chrystallized palaeozoic strata; a
fact, which, although suspected, had not hitherto been demon
strated, and which is the key to the geology of North-Eastern
America. He found the rocks, which form the Laurentide and
Adirondac mountains, previously regarded as unstratified, to be
disturbed and altered sedimentary deposits of vast thickness,
equal perhaps to all the hitherto known stratified rocks of
the earth's crust. In 1851 Sir WilUam represented Canada
at the Great Exhibition in London; and had charge of the
Canadian geological collection which had been made by himself or
under his immediate direction. It was exhibited with great skUl
and judgment, displaying to the best advantages the mineral
resources of Canada. The labor of arranging the specimens was
very great, and so enthusiastic was he that frequently he
sallied out at eight or ten in the morning, and would work for
twelve hours without waiting to take refreshment. He had the
satisfaction of knowing that his countrymen appreciated his services.
Medals in profusion were allotted to Canada, and the Royal Society
of London elected Mr. Logan a fellow, the highest attainable
British scientific distinction ; he was also a commissioner from
Canada at the Industrial Exhibition at Paris in 1855, when he
received from the imperial commission the grand gold medal of
honor, and was created a knight of the Legion of Honor. He
received the honor of knighthood from the Queen's hands, in
1856 ; and in the same year was awarded by the Geological Society,
of which he has long been a member, the Wollaston Pal
ladium medal, for his pre-eminent services in geology.

Rev. EGERTON RYERSON, D.D.,
Chief Superintendent op Education, Canada West.
This celebrated divine and public servant whose name has been
mixed up in various ways with the history of the country, but
principally in developing the admirable educational system of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 535
Upper Canada, is the son of the late Colonel Joseph Ryerson, a
United Empire Loyalist of New Jersey, who came from New
Brunswick in 1793. He was born in Charlotteville, county of
Norfolk, Upper Canada, in 1803 ; entered the Wesleyan ministry
in 1825 ; was editor of the Christian Guardian (which he estab
lished) in 1829; principal of Victoria college, Cobourg, C.W., in
1841 ; appointed chief superintendent of education for Upper
Canada in 1844 ; made a tour of enquiry in Europe in 1844-5 ;
and founded the present perfect and excellent system of public
instruction in Upper Canada in 1846-50, which he has ever since
maintained. He received his degree of doctor of divinity we believe from an
American university. He is the author of many Canadian works
and pamphlets, principally relating to matters of church and state

The Most Rev. Dk. PIERRE F. TURGEON,
Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec.
This distinguished prelate was born at Quebec on the 12th
November, 1787 ; was ordained priest on the 29th April 1810 ;
appointed secretary to Bishop Plessis in December 1808 ; and
continued in that office until October, 1820; was for many years a
member of the seminary of Quebec, until he became bishop and
coadjutor cum futur a successione ofthe then archbishop of Quebec,
by appointment and bulls of the late Pope Gregory XVI, bearing
date the 28th February, 1834. He was consecrated under the title
of Sidyme, in the Quebec cathedral on the 11th May, 1834, an
appointment he mainly owed to his bright abilities and efficiency
in the service of his church. M. Turgeon was administrator of
the diocese from November, 1849, to October, 1850, when by the
death of Dr. Signay, he became archbishop, and was vested with
the sacred pallium on the 11th June, 1851. He resigned his office
of administrator of the diocese in 1855, in consequence of ill-health,
when Dr. C. F. Baillargeon was appointed to the latter office.

536 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. Mr. JUSTICE C. MONDELET.
Charles Joseph Elzear Mondelet, assistant-judge of the
Court of Queen's Bench, was born at St. Charles, river Chambly,
on the 27th December 1801 ; he was the son of Jean Marie
Mondelet, notary, and grandson of Dominique Mondelet, who was
born in France and came to Canada under the French government,
as assistant army surgeon.
Judge Mondelet was educated partly at the college of Nicolet
and partly at the college of Montreal, where he finished his edu
cation in 1819 ; he was then employed, as an assistant, by the
astronomical commission appointed to ascertain the position of the
boundary line between the United States and Canada under the treaty
of Ghent. He studied the law, first with Mr. O'Sullivan, who
afterwards became chief-justice ofthe then Court of King's Bench
at Montreal, and completed the period of study with his brother,
Dominique Mondelet, Esq., now judge of the Superior Court. He
was admitted to the bar in 1822, and followed his profession, first
at Three Rivers, and next, from 1830, in Montreal, in partnership
with his brother, Dominique, and subsequently with Mr. Cherrier,
till his (Mr. Mondelet's) appointment in 1842 as district judge for
Terrebonne, L'Assomption and Berthier. He was appointed
circuit judge at Montreal in 1&44 ; judge of the Superior Court in
1849; judge ofthe Seigniorial Court in 1855 ; and assistant-judge
in appeals (Court of Queen's Bench) in 1858, in the room of Judge
Caron, who was appointed one of the commissioners for codifying
the laws of Lower Canada.
From 1822 to 1842 Mr. Mondelet took an active part in the
politics of the country, and was twice arrested for political offences,
first in 1828, and afterwards in 1838, but was never put on his trial.
He and William Walker, Esq., barrister, defended Nicholas and
three other individuals, charged with the murder of Chartrand,
during the political troubles in 1837; he also, along with Mr.
Walker, defended Captain Jalbert, who was charged with the
murder of Lieutenant Weir during the troubles.
Mr. Mondelet published in 1840 his Lettres sur F Education, the
suggestions contained in which are said to have been embodied in
the school law passed in the first session after the union in 1841.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 537

Hon. J. S. MACDONALD, Q.C., M.P.P.
Through the whole of the youthful days of the Hon. John S>
Macdonald there is to be found a dash of romance. Born at St.
Raphael, in the county of Glengarry, Upper Canada, on the 12th
December, 1812, on the property owned and entailed by his grand
father, a Scottish Highlander and Roman Catholic, who settled
there in 1786, the subject of this notice left the paternal roof at
the age of eleven, resolving to become the master of his own actions.
Discovered many miles from home, he was taken back against his
will, and he soon took an opportunity to start off a second time.
This time, as he was bargaining with an Indian at Cornwall to
paddle him across the river to the United States — the Indian
demanding half a dollar and the juvenile fugitive having only half
that amount in the world — his father came up, and for a second
time the truant was carried back. But neither persuasion nor force
could detain him at home, and he soon again set out, hiring himself
at a considerable distance from home to a store-keeper for three years,
at a sliding-scale salary — £10 for the first year, £12 10s for the
second, and £15 for the third. He remained two out of the three
years. He afterwards made a similar engagement with a store
keeper in Cornwall, but only remained a few months, when he re
solved to abandon commerce for the law. A lawyer who was in
the habit of visiting the store used to address arguments of this
kind to him. Suppose, he would say, you owned all this store,
with the goods, and that a fire burned them up, — it would be years
before you could commence again. How different it is with me who
has a profession; come what will, no accident can deprive me of
that possession. After the budding merchant had been nearly
convinced by arguments like these, a little incident occurred to
decide his wavering mind. One day while out in the streets, he
was pelted with snow-balls by urchins of too tender years to ren
der it possible that he could resent the insult by chastising them,
and was at the same time contemptously called a " counter-hopper."
It was not for the snow-balls that he cared, although these, when
hard, may sometimes do mischief, but he was stung by the thought
that the calling he was following could be reproachfully thrown
into his teeth. He went to the store, saying that he could not
remain there any longer, and, recounting what had happened, de
clared that he had resolved to study law. He inquired how long
it would take him to study to enable him'to pass the Law Society as
student-at-law. He was told that it might be done by hard study
in three years. Accordingly, in November, 1832, he went to school

538 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
at Cornwall, and under the tutition of Dr. Urquhart — not one of
whose students was ever rejected by the benchers ofthe Law Society
— he was found to be ahead of all his school fellows at the exami
nation which took place two years after his entrance. It was at
this school also that the Hon. Philip Vankoughnet, commissioner
of crown lands, received his education. In1 the early part of 1835,
young Macdonald passed the Law Society as student-at-law, only a
little more than two years after he had entered Dr. Urquhart's
school. He was articled in 1835 to Mr. McLean, then a practising barris
ter at Cornwall, with whom he remained for two and a half years,
when Mr. McLean was appointed judge of the Court of Queen's
Bench, having previously been speaker ofthe Upper Canada House
of Assembly. Our student then went into the office of Mr. Dra
per, now chief-justice of the Court of Common Pleas, with whom he
finished his term of legal studies in 1840. In June of that year he
was called to the bar; having for some months previously practised
as attorney at Cornwall. He has continued to practise his pro
fession in that town to the present time ;^ and having, at an early
period, built up a lucrative practice, he has, contrary to the usual
rule with Canadian politicians, managed to retain and increase it;
so that it is now larger than at any former period. He has by this
means been able to maintain a position of pecuniary independence,
(while several of the prominent lawyers in the country are
embarrassed with debt,) as he never sought the sUghtest accommo
dation from banks — a circumstance that has conduced as much to
his political as well as personal independence.
He was first elected to Parliament after the union in March, 1841,
and is the only member now in the House of Assembly who has sat
since the union. In the last Parliament there were two beside him
self, Sir Henry Smith and the Honorable W. H. Merritt. Lord Syd
enham had been sent out to carry the union into effect ; and with
that view too many ofthe Lower Canada elections, where the peo
ple had been opposed to the union, were carried by violence. Mr.
Cuvillier, the nominee of the government, was elected speaker, in
opposition to Sir Allan MacNab. And here it may be remarked
that, in Canada, a speaker seldom retains his seat, as such, more
than one parliament. Every new House of Assembly elects its
own speaker ; so that there are often several ex-speakers in the
prime of political life, who return, contrary to the English practice
to the floor of the house. The government was a mixture of poli
ticians of different shades of opinion. The legislature was notfree
from placemen ; and the government was not conducted by heads of
departments who possessed the confidence of the representatives
of the people. Neither the head of the crown lands office nor
the surveyor-general was a member ofthe Executive Council. Fam
ily-compact toryism had acquired a subdued tone in official circles,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 539
in consequence of the despatch of Lord John Russell, sent out in
1839, in which the alternative of supporting the government or
retiring from their places was held out to the officials who had
seats in either branches of the legislature. The manner in which
the union was forced upon Lower Canada and the violence which
had been used at the elections, caused men like the late Honor
able Messrs. Neilson, D. B. Viger, and Morin to take their places
in the ranks of the opposition. Mr. Macdonald was opposed to the
government ; but he was an Upper Canadian, and was far from
being cordial with Sir Allan MacNab, the opposition leader for that
section of the country. The rebellion, of which the effects had
not passed away, had reduced everything to a question of loyalty
and allegiance, especially in that part of central Canada which Mr.
Macdonald represented. His position was a peculiar one. He voted
with the Upper Canada conservatives and the Lower Canada
French leaders against the government ; but he never attended
a tory " caucus," as party meetings are called in America, much
less had he any intimate alliance with the Lower Canada opposi
tion. It was in the first session of this Parliament that the resolu
tions establishing responsible government were passed. Lord
Sydenham accepted the principle with as good a grace as possible,
but with manifest reluctance. The resolutions proposed on the
subject by Mr. Baldwin were set aside for those of Mr. Harrison,
provincial secretary ; and thus the establishment of the principle of
executive responsibility was made to appear to come from the
government itself.
In November, 1843, Sir Charles Metcalfe attempted to subvert
the principles thus established; and the elections which took place
next year turned upon a contest between the governor-general and
his late Council. The marrow of the whole dispute lay in his hav
ing asserted a right to make appointments to offices without con
sulting them, and there having denied it. In this election, Mr.
Macdonald espoused the cause of the ex-ministers. It was a
somewhat perilous experiment to make among the Highlanders of
Glengarry, who were proverbial for their loyalty. At a public
meeting in that county, the course ofthe ex-ministers was sustained;
and the effect in other parts of the country was very great. This
famous meeting was held at Cornwall, the head-quarters or rather
the birth-place of family compactism. It was called by that party,
but the yeomen of the county resolving that Cornwall should not
speak in their name to misrepresent them, went to the meeting and
out-voted the party with whom it originated. From that day, no
family compact meeting has ever been held in Cornwall. When
the election came, Mr. Macdonald was returned by a larger majority
than before. Of the 18,000 inhabitants of the county, 19-20ths
are of Highland Scotch descent. Among them there were, when
the census for 1851 was taken, no less than 3?242 Maedonalds, all of

540 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
whom speak Gaelic. The proverbial loyalty of the Highlanders of
Glengarry is due to the same cause that gives a more subdued and
conservative tone to the politics of central Canada than what pre
vails in the western peninsula, its original settlement by United
Empire loyalists. After the close of the American war of inde
pendence, the Royal Yorkers were disbanded at Laprairie ; and
being unacquainted with the French language, they went higher
up the banks of the St. Lawrence to settle. In the same year,
many of them settled in the counties of Glengarry and Stormont,
as well as on the frontier of Leeds and Grenville, and sooner or
later, loyalists of the American revolution went as far west as the
Bay of Quinte, west of Kingston. These original settlers in Stor
mont were a mixture of Scotch and Dutch; in Glengarry they were
chiefly Highland-Scotch. They had all served in Sir William
Johnston's corps of Royal Yorkers. The republican element has
never been infused into this part of the population; whatever there
is of it in Upper Canada, is in the western peninsula. As an in
stance of the complete absence of the invasion of American habits
into central Canada, may be mentioned that dollars and cents were
never spoken of there as a currency ; and it will take three years to
familiarize that part ofthe population with the new coinage. When
the annexation cry was raised, in some parts of the country, in
1849, there was hardly an annexationist from Belleville tothe fron
tier of Lower Canada. The descendants of the U.E. loyalists take
a natural and hereditary pride in showing their preference of mon
archical over republican institutions. The most reliable loyalists
of Canada are the settlers in this district of country. In the elec
tion of 1844, the Highlanders of Glengarry showed theirs was a
reasoning loyalty which sees the best safeguard in British supre
macy in upholding the British principle of executive responsibility.
In 1848, 1852 and 1854, Mr. Macdonald was elected without a
contest in his old constituency. :In the latter part of the year
1849, he was appointed solicitor-general under the Lafontaine-Bald
win government, which office he held till the breaking up of that
government in the autumn of 1851. He was elected speaker in
Quebec in 1852, and held that position till the dissolution in 1854.
In 1858 he was attorney-general in the Brown-Dorion government.
In 1857 he was elected for Cornwall, his brother D. A. Macdon
ald, succeeding him in the county, and this year was again
returned for that town. Except to the Lafontaine-Baldwin govern
ment, in which he was solicitor-general, Mr. Macdonald has been
in opposition ever since he has been in Parliament, except lately
when he left the ranks of the clear grit party,' and is now what is
called " an independant member." He is one of the few Upper
Canadians who have been persistently opposed to representation by
population ; and although a Roman Catholic, he has never been an
advocate of separat esohools. His opposition to them has brought

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 541
down upon him the censure of the priests ; but although they have
from the altar recommended the electors to vote for Protestant
candidates in preference to him, that recommendation has been
disregarded by the Highlanders.
In 1840, Mr. Macdonald married a lady from Louisiana, the
daughter of a United States senator, who owned a large plantation
of negroes, and who was shot in a duel in 1843. Mr. Macdonald's
ancestors were not U. E. loyalists, but came directly from Scotland.
He is a tall man of slender make, and has for some time been an
invalid.

Hon. JAMES MORRIS, M.L.C.
The Honorable James Morris, M.L.C, of the town of
Brockville, C. W., was born at Paisley, in Scotland, in 1798. He
came to Canada in the year 1801, when a child. His father, the
late Alexander Morris, Esquire, of Montreal, and afterwards of the
township of Elizabethtown, Brockville, having then emigrated to
Canada with his family. As a historical contrast to the present
expedition of transit between Britain and Canada, it is worthy of
record that sixty-three days were occupied in the passage from
Scotland to Quebec.
Mr. Morris received the latter part of his education at the
academy of the late Mr. Nelson, of Sorel, the father of Dr. Wol
fred Nelson, of Montreal. On leaving school, Mr. Morris devoted
his attention to mercantile pursuits in Brockville, in connection
with his brothers, the late Alexander Morris, of Brockville, Esquire,
and the late Honorable William Morris, of Perth, and latterly of
Montreal. He early devoted a portion of his attention to public
matters. In July, 1837, he was returned to the Upper Canadian
House of Assembly, as one of the members for the county of Leeds,
and has ever since continued to be a member of one or other of the
branches of the legislature.
In 1838, he was appointed a commissioner for the improvement
of the navigation of the river St. Lawrence, and served as such
until the completion of the St. Lawrence canals.
In 1841, he was again returned for the county of Leeds to the
Parliament of United Canada, the government being then adminis
tered by Lord Sydenham.
In 1844, he was called to the Legislative Council, under the
administration of Lord Metcalfe. In 1851, Mr. Morris was called

542 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
to a seat in the Executive Council, under the administration of
Lord Elgin, and was also appointed postmaster-general, being the
first incumbent of that office after the transfer of the department
from imperial control to that of Canada. Immediately upon his
appointment he proceeded to Washington, and there negociated
with the American government a postal treaty with the United
States. He also introduced a uniform postal letter-rate of five
cents, the average rate previously having been sixteen cents or
thereabouts. In 1853, Mr. Morris vacated the post office depart
ment, and was appointed speaker of the Legislative Council, which
office he held until the retirement of the Hincks-Morin administra
tion, in the autumn of 1854.
In 1858, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council
and speaker of the Legislative Council, on the advent to office ofthe
Brown-Dorion administration, and retired with that administration
on the governor-general (Sir Edmund Head), refusing to dissolve
the house. Mr. Morris has not since been in office, but has con
tinued in the discharge of his duties as a member of the Legislative
Council, acting in concert with the reform party, with which he
has always been identified.

Hon. P. B. DE BLAQUIERE.
And now, we think, we cannot do better than present a notice of
the late Honorable Peter Boyle de Blaquiere, who, for many years,
was a member of the Legislative Council of this province, and a
gentleman of high social and political standing. Mr. de Blaquiere
held the title of " honorable " in his own right independently of
his position as a member of the Leglislative Council, being youngest
son of John, Lord de Blaquiere, of Ardkill, county Londonderry.
Mr. de Blaquiere was the descendant of a noble French gentleman
who emigrated from France in consequence of the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, and settled in London, as a merchant, where he
died in 1753. In 1772 his fifth son, Lieutenant-Colonel John
de Blaquiere was appointed principal secretary to the lord-lieutenant
of Ireland ; and in 1774, as a reward for his services, was invested
with the order of the Bath. In 1784, he was created a baronet,
and was sworn in one ofthe Irish Privy Council, and appointed great
alnager, an officer whose duty it was in olden times to measure
and examine woollen cloth, and fix upon it the royal seal. The
post was abolished by an act of WiUiam. At the death of Sir

AND PEftSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 543
John de Blaquiere, the title devolved upon his eldest son,
(brother of Mr. P. B. de Blaquiere,) who in the year 1800 was
elevated to the peerage as Baron de Blaquiere of Ardkill. The
title is now held by his grandson, John. So far as regards the
honorable gentleman's descent and ancient lineage, they are
among the least of his claims upon our regard. He was born
in Dublin, on the 27th of April, 1784. When very young, he
entered the navy and served as a midshipman under the cele
brated Captain Bligh, of the Bounty, at the battle of Camper-
down. He was also present at the mutiny of the Nore. Leaving
the navy, however, at an early age, he devoted himself to more
peaceful pursuits, and emigrated to Canada in 1837 ; here he
soon attained to the highest honors. In 1838, he was selected
as a fit person for a seat in the Legislative Council, which he
continued to hold until the time of his death. On the re
modelling of the Toronto university, he was appointed to the
honorable office of chancellor, but subsequently resigned it. He was
also a member of the Anglican Synod, where he commanded great
respect. By that body his loss was severely felt. The Globe
said of him on his decease : —
" There are few men of whom we can speak in higher terms of
respect. As a member of the Legislative Council, although it was
our fortune frequently to differ from him in his political views, yet
we ever recognised the fact that he did that which in his own eyes
he thought best for his country. He was a man of strictest honor.
He never sought by a trick to keep the letter of the law while
manifestly breaking through its intent. During the first year that
he occupied a seat in the Legislative Council, he did not take a very
active part in its affairs, but of late he had become the leader of a
large section of the house. Whenever he rose to speak, the strict
est silence was observable, he was listened to with the greatest
respect and attention, and no matter how heated the debate, how
severe the contest, no opponent thought of using a harsh word
towards him — the sentiment of the house would not have tolerated
it. His courtesy was of that character which can only be mani
fested by the thorough gentleman and sincere Christian. Prudent,
of a kind Ifeart, and a well cultivated mind, he was an exception to
the rule applicable to most men, that as they increase in years the
more conservative opinions they hold. Although nominated by
the crown, he was one of those who voted for the bill rendering the
speakers of the upper house elective, and it is probable that had he
lived he would have been elevated to the chair. The respect in
which he was held would have ensured the utmost deference to his
decisions. In the Synod, he at least twice moved for the abroga
tion of the episcopal veto, but not with very great opposition. On
the day of his death he was to all appearance in good health.
Although so old a man, he was remarkably agile, and appeared

544 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
much younger than he really was. The immediate cause of his
decease was undoubtedly apoplexy."
The legislative career of Mr. de Blaquiere is one that might
be cited as exhibiting the real and proper nature of conservative-
ism : steadily and consistently maintaining our constitutional sys
tem, faithful to its spirit, liberal in its interpretation, he was ever
ready to assist in judicious and necessary reforms, but strenuously
opposed to all speculative innovations. Never extreme in his
views, nor impassioned and importunate in his declaration of them,
his remarks were always received with the utmost deference by his
colleagues of the Council, and exercised on every occasion a salutary
influence. He never had occasion to fluctuate in his opinions or
to abandon them, for the simple reason that they were not the
result of hasty adoption or conceived in the rancor of party enmity,
but from well considered and long premeditation. Possessed of a
well cultivated understanding and good powers of observation, his
conclusions were usually correct. He was not remarkable for any
great oratorical talents, but possessed a dignified and fluent persua*
siveness, whose mildness often effected more than the most ardent
rhetorical declamations ; often indignant, he was never resentful,
and generally the object of his indignation retired from it with a
sense of self-reproach. One of his best public traits was his tem
perate and persistent advocacy of measures that he considered
beneficial to his country, and, no matter by what class of opponents
surrounded, for his never deviating from the course of rectitude to
obtain them. He was at once the philosopher and the philanthro
pic statesman — above the cabals of faction and uninfluenced by party
considerations, when the commotions of angry debate ebbed and
flowed through the Council Chamber, his serenity and composure
fell upon its turbulent spirits with such effect that one silently
recalled to mind the divine invocation to the troubled waters :
" Peace, be still !"
It may not here be inappropriate to mention, that as chancellor
of the university of Toronto, and as an enlightened legislator, he
always felt a deep interest in the education of the people, and in
the success of the operations of the educational department for
Upper Canada. When that department was unjustly' assailed in
1858, he expressed his warm sympathy with its efforts to promote
the intellectual improvement of the country, and his readiness to
defend its operations in his place in Parliament, should a favorable
opportunity offer for his doing so.
Mr. de Blaquiere married, firstly, in 1804, Eliza, daughter of
Denis O'Brien, Esq., of Newcastle, county Limerick ; she died in
1814; secondly, in 1818, Eliza; second daughter of W. Roper,
Esq., of Rathfarnham Castle, county Dublin, by both of whom
he had large families.
He died at Yorkville, near Toronto, in October, 1860.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 545

Hon. P. J. 0. CHAUVEAU, LL. D.,
Superintendent of Education for Lower Canada.
Politics and literature, if we except journalism, (with two or
three exceptions) have seldom been united in Canada, except in the
person of the Honorable Pierre J. 0. Chauveau. This distin
guished and honorable exception deserves especial notice. A
colony is very prone to dwarf journalism into a mere instrument of
individual ambition ; and instances are not wanting of men covering
themselves with fulsome and disgusting eulogy, either under their
own proper names or behind a mask so thin that it served no pur
pose of deception. Rancorous pamphleteers, too, have written and
lied their way to office. But Dr. Chauveau is the only public man
that Canada has produced who united the novelist, the poet, and
the politician. While others have confined themselves to the
prosaic side of life, and have exhausted themselves in the struggle
to secure or maintain office, he has risen to the dignity of the true
artist, and made his pen sketch with lively colors the manners of
the people of which he is one of the worthiest representatives in
Canada. It is a relief to find a worthy representative of literature
among the motley herd of colonial politicians, in whom, in spite of
our excess of good nature, it is seldom easy to find anything on
which to fix one's admiration. For this reason we take up our
pencil with more than common pleasure to draw a faint outline of
the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this notice.
Dr. Chauveau was born at Quebec, on the 30th May, 1820, where
his father was a merchant. The progenitors of his father had been
among the oldest settlers of Charlesbourg, near Quebec. His father
dying when the son was but a child, the latter was brought up by
his grandfather, Mr. Joseph Roy, one of the wealthiest and most
influential citizens of Quebec. Still having the advantage of his
mother's care, he also experienced much tenderness from his uncle,
Judge Hamel. He was educated at the seminary of Quebec, where
he went through a complete course. He studied law, partly under
his uncles, Messrs. Hamel^and Roy, and partly with G. Okill Stuart,
Esq., Q.C., andhere we may stop to remark that he regrets, in a novel
entitled " Charles Guirin" the limited career open to educated
colonists. He may be a doctor, notary, advocate or priest, and he
must be one of these or nothing. Outside these professions there
is no career for him. If any one has an invincible repugnance for
all these professions, there are two'things for him if he is poor, one
69

546 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
if he is rich ; in the latter case, to do nothing, in the former, to
expatriate himself, or die of starvation. Such is the theory of Mr.
Chauveau as to the choice of profession in a colony where the army
is closed to him ; but this complaint has partly ceased to be true
since the formation ofthe 100th Regiment, if ever it was. There
are no extensive manufactories, and not much chance to become a
" merchant prince." Whether from choice, or the necessity of the
case, Mr. Chauveau chose the profession of an advocate, but leaving
the law on the first opportunity, would seem to show that he had
no great or abiding love for it.
The talents of Dr. Chauveau first attracted attention by some
political effusions that appeared in Le Canadien, from 1838 to
1841. After this, he glided gradually into politics, by descanting
upon Canadian affairs in Le Courrier des Etats- Unis, published at
New York. These letters were regularly copied into the Canadien,
and sometimes into the French papers, and they may be said to have
formed the stepping-stone by which he walked into public life.
They made him known as one who had bestowed a good deal of
thought on Canadian politics ; and he was, in fact, already a poli
tician. It was in 1844 that he was first elected to Parliament, the
county of Quebec having preferred him to the Honorable John
Neilson, one of the oldest politicians, and the most respectable man
in the country, who had long been a member of the legislature in
Lower Canada prior to the union, and who was still editor of a
newspaper in Quebec, founded by his family in the previous cen
tury. Mr. Chauveau's majority was over a thousand, aremarkable
victory for a young man to achieve over such a veteran as he had
for an opponent. Nor was this success due to one of those fleeting
freaks of popular humor which in a short time leave the idol of
to-day a neglected and despised man to-morrow. At the next elec
tion, in 1848, Dr. Chauveau was re-elected by acclamation. On
entering the house, he was no idle spectator of its proceedings, but
at once took an active part in the debates. The position that he
took was that of a steady adherent of the Lafontaine-Baldwin
opposition. In 1846, Mr. Caron was disposed to listen to overtures
from the conservatives, and entered into a long correspondence* with
Mr. Draper, then premier, about how many offices could he got in
the cabinet in return for the support of the French Canadians,
who were then unanimous in opposition. Mr. Caron counted with
out his host, for his attempt to wrest the leadership of the French
Canadians from the powerful grip of Mr. Lafontaine was an inglo
rious failure. During this attempt, Dr. Chauveau remained faithful
*" Correspondence between the Hon. W. H. Draper and the Hon. R. E. Caron;
and between the Hon. R. E. Caron nnd the Honorables L. H. Lafontaine and
A. N". Morin, referred to in a recent debate in the Legislative Assembly (contain
ing! many suppressed letters.)" — Montreal :• Desbarats & Derbishire.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 547
to Mr. Lafontaine. The election of 1848 was a keen contest ; there
was much at stake. Lord Metcalfe had governed the country for
nine months by a single minister, a secretary to record his will.
The temper of the public mind was sorely tried, and indignation
reached a high pitch. On this occasion, the most momentous in
the history of Canada, Dr. Chauveau was elected to write the mani
festo of the reform committee of Quebec, a document which formed
the poUtical creed of his party at the hustings. The result of the
election was a signal victory for the liberals.
Before Mr. Lafontaine was called upon to form a cabinet, in
connection with Mr. Baldwin in 1848, he had made up the quarrel
with Mr. Caron. Feeling himself strong, he made his arrange
ments without consulting the members for the district of Quebec.
It has always been understood that Dr. Chauveau resented this; at
all events, he assumed a position of independence. He was, how
ever, led further than his judgment would now be likely to approve,
in joining Mr. Papineau in his demand that the representation of
the people be based on the population alone. No one, we believe,
would be more ready than Mr. Chauveau to admit that this was the
political error of his life. When the rebeUion losses bill was under
discussion, in 1849, he took strong ground against the exclusion of
the Bermuda exiles, who had been illegally banished, and who, for
that reason, were to be denied what he considered common justice.
In the same year Dr. Chauveau obtained a committee to enquire
into the causes of the emigration of French Canadians to the United
States, and many of the suggestions which he then made have since
been acted upon. This emigration is due in part to the same
causes as that from the eastern to the western states ; so true is
it that " westward the star of empire takes its way."
Dr. Chauveau was appointed solicitor-general in 1851, and pro
vincial-secretary in 1853, He resigned the latter office on the
resignation of Mr. Morin, in 1855, and was appointed superinten
dent of education in July of the same year. For the office he now
fills, Mr. Chauveau is by universal consent the fittest man in Lower
Canada. He is a well educated man, of cultivated literary tastes. His
greatest work is " Charles Guirin, Roman de Mceurs Canadiennes,"
a work of 359 pages, which gives a graphic picture of French
Canadian life and society. It was the first French Canadian
novel ever published, having been issued in 1853 ; and, strange to
say, a publisher was found to take the risk of the enterprise, and
pay the author a certain stipulated sum in addition.
As superintendent of education for Lower Canada, Dr. Chauveau
has given general satisfaction. Under his administration — for he
is, to all intents and purposes a minister, though not liable to be
turned out of office by an adverse parliamentary majority — the nor
mal schools have been established in Lower Cwada; and much has

548 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
been done for the cause of education in various ways in that section
of the most important province of the empire.
Dr. Chauveau married in 1840, a Miss Moss, of Quebec, by whom
he has had seven children, one of whom (a beautiful chUd) died
prior to his departure from Quebec, in 1855.

JEAN BLANCHET, Esq., M.D., M.R.C.S.
This justly celebrated medical practioner was born at the Parish
of St. Pierre de la Riviere du Sud, on the 17th of May, 1795 ;
and was the son of an humble but respectable and well to do farmer
of that place.
His early years were spent at home, and his education was
received at the seminary of Quebec, which he left at the age of
seventeen, to study the medical profession with his uncle, the
late Dr. F. Blanchet, (a notice of whom appears elsewhere.)
For this profession he had a great predilection. In 1818, when
twenty-two years of age, not feeling satisfied with the course of his
studies in this country, although pursued under so able an instruc
tor as his uncle, he determined to pass a short period in Europe
under the great masters in surgery and medicine. In company
with Doctors Parent and Mercier of Quebec, therefore, he studied
at London during a portion of that year, then proceeded to Paris,
where he followed, at the Hotel-Dieu, the courses of Dupuytren ;
and at the Hospital du Gros Caillou, the fHiSoue chirurgicale of
Larrey. Retiring to London, he enjoyed the instructions of Sir
Astley Cooper, Sir Wm. Blizard ; of Curry and Blundell. In
1820, he obtained a diploma, after passing a satisfactory examina
tion before the Royal College of Surgeons, London. A short time
afterwards, having satisfactorily accomplished the object of his
journey, he returned to his native country.
And here he at once raised for himself a great reputation in
surgical skill. And his position in the profession was considerably
enhanced on his succeeding, in 1830, to the practice of his uncle.
He speedily rose to wealth as well as eminence. In the two great
visitations of cholera which affected this country, no medical man
labored more arduously in behalf of his fellow creatures than
did Jean Blanchet. fie braved every danger to come to their
succor, and vgas eminently useful and successful in his endeavors.
He was the friend of the poor, kind and charitable in his relations

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 549
towards all under him ; earnest and persevering in his endeavors,
he never gave up a subject until the last, and he hardly ever failed.
He rose, destined by his own merits to become one of the most
talented professional men in the country. He became visiting
physician to the Marine and Emigrant Hospital at Quebec, as well
as a member of the various medical bodies, as also a member of the
Board of Examiners. The former he reluctantly gave up in 1848,
on account of the great increase in his practice.
On the founding of the Laval university in 1853, he was named
president of the faculty and professor of medicine and physiology,
posts which he held up to the day of his death.
In 1834, he entered the Parliament of Lower Canada as member
for the county of Quebec; and continued to sit until the rebellion.
Again, in 1854, he was returned as one of the members for the
city, but sat only for a portion of the Parliament ; ill health and
press of business compelling him to resign.
The latter years of his life were to a great extent embittered by
the disease, the gravel, which he had contracted, and he shewed not
a little courage and fortitude in submitting to an operation, which
is described by medical men to be most terrible. This disease, to
gether with his great labors, which he continued to the last,
eventually carried him off on the 22nd April, 1857, to the regret
of all who knew him. He never married, and left a large fortune
to his nephew, the present Dr. Blanchet.

LIEUT.-GENERAL Sir W. ROWAN, K.C.B.
This gentleman, a gallant and experienced military officer, who
served here, firstly, as commander of the forces, and secondly as
administrator of the government, deserves to be honorably men
tioned in a work of this description.
Sir William is the eighth son of the late Robert Rowan, Esq.,
of Mullens and Garry, county Antrim, Ireland, by the daughter
of Hill Wilson, Esquire, of Purdysburn, county Down ; brother
ofthe late Sir Charles Rowan, K.C.B. , commissioner of metropoli
tan police. He was born in 1789, and married in 1811, the third
daughter of the late John Spong, Esquire, of Mill Hall, Kent.
He first entered the army as ensign, in the 52nd Regiment, in 1803 ;
he served twenty-five years with that regiment, in Sicily, Portugal,
.Spain, France, Belgium, (at Waterloo) and North America; was

550 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
civil and military secretary to Lord Seaton, in Canada, from 1832,
to 1839 ; attained the rank of major-general in 1846. In 1849, he
was appointed to command the forces in this country, which he
did until 1855, and during a portion of that period, administered
the government, during the absence of the Earl of Elgin, in
England. In 1854, he was made a lieutenant-general and colonel
of the 19th Foot.

Right Hon. Sir E. W. HEAD, Bart., K.C.B.
The family of our late esteemed governor-general, is one of the
most ancient and honorable in the United Kingdom. According
to Burke, it is of antiquity in Kent, (where the family seat is,)
and derived its surname from the Kentish district, now called
Hythe, but formerly known as Le Hede. The first baronet was
Richard Head, Esquire, upon whom that honor was conferred, on
19th June, 1676. This gentleman " represented Rochester in
Parliament, and resided in that city ; received King James upon
his abdication, and was presented by that monarch with a valuable
emerald ring." Three of the following baronets entered the
church, indeed the one who immediately preceded Sir Edmund,
his father, Sir John Head, was in holy orders. He died on the
4th of January, 1838, and was succeeded by the subject of this
notice, who was an only son, and had but one sister, now the
Baroness de Milanges.
Sir Edmund W. Head was born in 1805. He was educated at
Winchester, and entered as a gentleman commoner of Oriel college,
Oxford ; a position which, independent of giving him the right to
wear a silk gown, afforded him immunity from the rigid routine
and compulsory lectures of the college — a gentleman commoner
being regarded as a personage whose fortune is already made, and
whose sojourn at the university is for the purpose of obtaining
every advantage but that of literature. The collegiate curriculum
is three years, and after passing about half this period in the usual
easy manner, proper to his position, his associates were surprised
to find young Head devoting himself with the closest application
to the study of Aristotle, and deep in ethics and rhetoric — such
sciences, in fact, as were necessary to the attainment of the highest
classical honors. At the expiration of his term he was awarded,
after a brilliant examination, first class in Uteris humanieribus.
Almost immediately after, a fellowship of Mereton coUege becoming

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 551
vacant, he tried for it, was elected, and was offered after a short
time the tutorship — an office which he accepted and sustained for
five years. His acceptance of a situation honorable to his talents,
but considered to be beneath his position as a gentleman commoner
of Oriel, and heir to an ancient baronetcy, explained in some
measure, perhaps the secret of his sudden laborious assiduity.
Pecuniary losses in his family had, in fact, told him clearly that he
must depend for his promotion in life mainly on his own exertions.
His constant access to the continent had early given him a taste
for the acquisition of languages, and he has the reputation of
being one of the first linguists of the age. While tutor of Mereton
an article of. his in the Foreign Quarterly Review, attracted the
attention of the Marquis of Lansdowne, the great English
Macsenas, to whose judicious discrimination England is indebted
for the early rise of the late Lord (then plain Thomas Babington)
Macaulay, the historian.
The Marquis found out the author, and the result of the
interview was, that Mr. Head resigned his tutorship, an appoint
ment worth some six or seven hundred pounds a year, in order to
devote himself to the study of ecclesiastica] law. He had, how
ever, scarcely taken the preUminary steps before the government
made him an offer of a poor-law assistant-eommissionership, with
a thousand pounds a year, and travelling expenses. In this
situation Mr. Head acquitted himself so well, that on a change of
administration, though opposed to him in politics, the late Sir
James Graham, then minister of the home department, promoted
him to be chief commissioner, with a salary double the former
one. Now, however, there occurred a change in his tide of
fortune ; he had succeeded to the family title, and shrewd men
of all parties were unanimous in supporting him, in the difficult
administration his office devolved upon him ; but there arose such
a clamor — principally urged on by the Times newspaper — against
the new poor law, that committee after committee, and parliamen
tary inquiries without end, were brought to bear upon it : and
though the closest scrutiny could find no hole or rent in the con
duct of the chief commissioner, the ministry of the day were
obliged to give way, and reconstruct the whole administration.
The government of New Brunswick, was then given to Sir
Edmund Head, and knowing his great talents, it was a matter of
surprise to his friends that his services had not long before been
summoned to a higher sphere. It is not impossible that the
presence of Sir J. Graham in the coalition ministry of that day
may have had something to do with his promotion to the govern
ment of Canada in 1854. It must be recorded to the honor of Sir
Edmund Head, that on conscientious motives he refused to enter
the profession of his father — that of the church — in which some
of his ancestors had risen to the highest eminence. It was

552 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
intimated to him at an early period, after the credit he had done
himself at Oxford, that the House of Lords should be opened to
him at the earliest opportunity, if he took holy orders. But Sir
Edmund, with that firmness which is so distinguishing a feature
of his character, one which he certainly did not inherit from his
otherwise exceUent father, was deaf to the Syren voice which
wooed him to an early career of purple and fine linen. His
private character has throughout been unblemished, and the same
fixed will which enabled him to break through the luxurious sloth
of his natural position, to refuse every pecuniary assistance from
his father, and to carve out a line for himself. Throughout life
he has shown a character for firmness and determination, in any
thing which he undertakes or conceives that will prove beneficial.
His whole course during his administration in this colony, clearly
demonstrates this. He possesses a good judgment and a fine
discrimination, which were also shewn here, in an eminent degree.
" No one can serve two masters," is an old and a trite adage, and
in a country like Canada, with a mixed community, and a variety
of parties, it is totally impossible for a governor to please all.
Sir Edmund maintained a good polity ; he shewed what a good
judgment he possessed of character and worldly matters, when he
would not allow the leader of a party to take an advantage of him,
cunning though he were, and endowed with all the blandishments
of a man desirous of entering into office. Because Sir Edmund
would not accede to his demands, and allow the name of his
sovereign to be insulted, by not carrying out her commands in the
seat of government question, he was branded with calumny and
vituperation, and called everything but a gentleman. This his ex
cellency resisted with exemplary patience, and either laughed at the
calumniator who uttered it, or held him in too much scorn and con
tempt to deign to notice his conduct. But mark his good judgment ;
the party he called into power, was strong and most effective, and
did more in the country's welfare than would have been done by the
other. Thus, like the immortal Duke of Wellington, Sir Edmund
did not aim at " glory," but " duty," that sacred word which it
is the honor and boast of every Englishman to regard as a primary
consideration. In his private and social life here, Sir Edmund Head being an
ardent scholar, was a little retired, and not sufficiently " lavish"
to please some persons. This must be ascribed to the proper motive,
a love of retirement, accompanied with family affliction — the loss
by drowning of his only son, a youth of excellent attainments, in
the bloom of life, who undoubtedly would have risen to distinction
as a scientific man, had it pleased an all wise Providence to have
spared him. This was ordained otherwise, and although Sir
Edmund has borne up manfully under the affliction, there are
moments, when the most powerful, brought in remembrance of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 553
those who have been called away from them, cannot restrain the
falling tear. " We are all mortal." It is said that a peerage will
be conferred upon him, for his services in Canada ; but like Burke
when offered that honor, after the death of his son, it will perhaps
be declined by him.
Sir Edmund has contributed to the periodical literature of the
age ; and an article on Canada, written some time since, in a
celebrated London magazine, is ascribed to him. He has written
" Shall and Will ;" " A Handbook of Spanish Painting," in two
vols., both published by Murray, and " The Temple of Serapis
at Pozzuoli," published by J. B. Nichols, & Co., London, 1858,
works which are highly thought of, especially the two latter.
He married in November, 1838, Anna Maria, daughter of
the late Rev. Philip Yorke, grandson of the first Earl of Hard
wicke; and by her has had one son and two daughters, both
the latter living. Lady Head is a kind and charitable woman,
and much esteemed in Canada ; she will long be remembered
with gratitude for her many kindnesses by the poor of Quebec
and Toronto.

ISAAC BUCHANAN, Esq., M.P.P.,
Was born at Glasgow, N.B., on the 21st July, 1810, and is the
fourth son of the late Peter Buchanan, Esquire, of Auchmar, an
ancient seat of the Buchanans, on the banks of Loch Lomond,
Stirlingshire, on the confines of Dumbartonshire, a spot historically
interesting, being the very gateway between the highlands and
lowlands at the pass of Ballmaha, through which the robber Mc
Gregor herded such cattle as were unprotected by black mail.
Mr. Buchanan's father was a merchant of high standing in Glas
gow. The estate, comprising an area of fourteen hundred acres, and
including the hill immediately south of Ben Lomond, the last of
the Grampian range, was sold to the Duke of Montrose in 1830, by
Peter Buchanan, Esq., the younger, recently deceased, who afterwards
joined his brother, Isaac, and put the money got for Auchmar into
his extensive Canadian business. This beautiful property had been
long coveted by the noble house that now possesses it, not only on
account of its romantic situation and fine shooting, but for its con
tiguity to Buchanan House, the ducal seat, and because Auchmar
was the only spot in the whole parish of Buchanan which oom-
70

554 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
prised the entire eastern iside of Loch Lomond, not then included
in the duke's magnificent domain.
Mr. Buchanan was carefully educated, passing from the Glasgow
grammar school to a preparatory training for the Glasgow col
lege, under the celebrated scholar and antiquary, the Reverend
Dr. Graham, of Aberfoyle, who assured the pupil's father that his
son would take the highest honors at the university. Mr. Buchanan,
however, was not destined to undergo the university ordeal, having
met with an incident, when on his way one day about the begin
ning of October, 1825, to purchase his college gown, which pre
sented to his view an entirely new career.
Meeting in the street a friend of his father, John Leadbetter,
Esq., he was informed by that gentleman that he could secure for
him a rare opening in the house of William Guild & Co., West
India and Honduras merchants, and was then on his way to men
tion the thing to his father. The boy immediately caught at the
proposition, having formerly observed how many sons of the first
families in Glasgow had failed to obtain desirable openings when
prepared for them. Though his father was absent at Auchmar,
and would not return for a month, he resolved at once, on his own
responsibility, to accept the proffered appointment for a short period,
urging upon Mr. Leadbetter, who showed some hesitation, that if
the father disapproved, he could still go to college.
He had been a month with Messrs. Guild & Co. before his father
became acquainted with this change in his son's destiny, who
though feeling much disappointment of the hopes he had cherished
of his boy's literary success, however yielded to his incUnations, and
Isaac became permanently fixed in business at the early age of 15.
Within three years he was in a position of great responsibility,
from an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, leading to
an almost unparalleled rapidity of advancement. Before he was the
age of 20, he was taken in as a partner, and in 1833, the Canadian
branch of the business was wholly transferred to him.
Previous to his coming to Canada, in 1830, Mr. Buchanan had
distinguished himself by dispensing with all the nonsense of intri
cate book-keeping, and by instituting the most valuable reforms or
simplifications in the book-keeping forms of statements, &c, wliich
are still in use throughout the extensive ramifications of his former
and present business connections. In his boyhood, Mr. Buchanan
had been surrounded by the happiest influences, his father being
an elder in the Church of Scotland, and his mother being one of
those loveliest spirits who in life and death experience and illustrate
" the peace that passeth all understanding :" anu he has carried
the fruits of his early prepossessions with him into the world, for in
a recent election address, we find him uttering the following manly .
declaration : " My more immediate friends can understand how, with
such favorable views of the prime minister [the Honorable John A.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 555
McDonald], I could be the independent member I have been. I
hope this arises from my being possessed of enough of the Scottish
character to have the fear of God, and to have no other fear — to
be able to realize myself as being perpetually in a higher presence
than that of statesmen or kings."
And those alone who know the man best can testify how fearless
is his conduct in the presence of the mere face of clay.
So intense were his physical and mental labors in the early career
of his manhood, and while laying the foundation of his since emi
nent house, that his health became endangered, nor was the relax
ation he sought such as youth generally flies to, the only diversion of
mind he allowed himself being an attendance on the medical and
philosophical classes of the Glasgow college. At no period of his
life has he been heart or brain idle, a sound constitution enabling
him to perform an amount of work almost incredible.
THE PIONEER OP THE TRADE OP UPPER CANADA.
Upper Canada is indebted to Mr. Buchanan for the early develop-
mentof that immense wholesale trade now carried on in thatprovince.
In the fall of 1831, he established a branch of his business in
Toronto; his brother merchants of Montreal, laughing at his pre
sumption. Had that course been a prudent and profitable one, was
it to be supposed that the old fathers in the trade would not have
adopted it ? In vain they laughed, in vain they warned and fore
told Mr. Buchanan's speedy discomfiture and return from the
" far west" with his unbroken shipments of goods unsold. But
the supposed folly of to-day proved the wisdom of to-morrow. The
house of Buchanan & Co. flourished in the wilderness. His timid
competitors found that a march had been stolen upon them, and
one after another followed as they saw how well the ice bore. The
pioneer, however, kept the lead. A branch of their business
was subsequently pushed on to Hamilton, and from thence to
London, where a magnificent building has been erected by his firm
there, Adam Hope & Co., forming at once an ornament to that
rapidly improving young city, and a monument of the enterprise
and success of the house of the Buchanans and their business
associates. To be the pioneer of a great trade, in a great country, necessarily
involves his being a party to the originating of all those institutions
which mark the difference between civilization and barbarism —
churches, educational systems, hospitals, asylums, news rooms and
commercial exchanges, boards of trade, national and immigration
societies, insurance offices, banks, trust and loan companies, steam
navigation, telegraphing, &c, &c, &c, and last, though not least,
raUroading. Mr. Buchanan's and Buchanan, Harris & Co.'s early
and successful efforts, both in Canada and Britain, for the Great

556 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Western Railway are universally known and appreciated as having
been quite essential to its construction. He moved the first reso
lution at the public meeting at Hamilton, when it was resuscitated
in 1845, and with his brother and Mr. Atcheson, organized the sub
sequent meeting in Manchester, which secured the railway's con
struction. STATE OF CANADIAN POLITICS THIRTY VEARS AGO.
Very soon after coming to Canada, Mr. Buchanan became satis
fied that two matters, affecting vitally the peace and prosperity of
the Canadas, were wrong. Lower and Upper Canada were both
ruled by oligarchies, which, even if they might be the best mono
polies possible, from the individuals being the best men in the pro
vince, must pass away before there could be political quiet in the
country. In Lower Canada it was a mercantile oligarchy not un
like the present " Manchester School" in England ; each governor
being expected to see through the eyes of the Quebec and Montreal
merchants, whose interest was diametrically opposed to those of
the great mass of the people ; the interest of the latter being to
have high not low prices for their productions, just as it is the in
terest of the weavers in England to have good, not bad wages. In
Upper Canada, on the other hand, it was a Church of England
oligarchy, whose most fatal blunder was in insisting that the Scottish
Church Establishment was a dissenting church in Canada. It was
the Scotch, being left in this injured and degraded position, that
made the conspirators of 1837 see any chance for rebellion.
CLERGY RESERVE QUESTION.
The first proposition for a settlement of the Clergy Reserves in
Upper Canada, without secularising them, was made by Mr.
Buchanan. In 1835 he published, as an extra of the Toronto
Albion, which was widely circulated, a plan for the settlememt of
" this vexed and difficult question," in which he startled people
by asserting that there was no difficulty in understanding and set
tling it, only that they took this old idea for granted, and would not
apply their minds to it. There was then no common school system,
and his plan was simply to establish one by compulsory tax or as
sessment, having a column for each Christian sect in the schedule,
and having thus ascertained the field for usefulness of each reli
gious body, to give them for religion the same sum as they are
respectively assessed for education, or a sum in exact proportion to
this out of the clergy reserve fund.
Mr. Poulett Thompson on his coming to Toronto in 1839 sent for
Mr. Buchanan. Very shortly before, while in Scotland, Mr. Buchanan
had drawn out the petition from the city of Glasgow to the Queen,
stating that such an appointment of a man chiefly known as con-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 557
nected with Russia and the interests of1 the Baltic, and an enemy
ofthe colonies, like Mr. Thompson, would throw paralysis into every
British interest abroad, and praying her Majesty "to reconsider ihe
appointment and to select for this important dependency a governor
not known to be inimical to the great interests which he is sent to pro
tect^ and promote !" The London Times had devoted two leading
articles to it, and had declared that had equally strong remonstrances
come from other great places, Lord John Russell, the then colo
nial minister, must have kept Mr. Thompson at home. Mr. Bucha-
,nan mentioned this to the secretary, Mr. Murdock, who brought
to him the governor-general's summons, and made Mr. Murdock
promise to make a point of having it mentioned to his excel
lency before the interview, as he declined sailing under false colors.
It was about the clergy reserve question that the governor-gene
ral desired to see Mr. Buchanan ; and his excellency afterwards,
when he visited Hamilton the following summer, indicated to him
that his plain declaration that the Scotch could not be expected to
be loyal to " a government that made them dissenters by act of Par
liament," had greatly affected Lord John Russell and the home
ministry. The following year the term "a Protestant clergy" was de
clared to include the ministers of the Scottish establishment, and
danger No. 1 was thus got over ; but still the peace of the country
was threatened by the state in which the question was left.
The province seemed worse pleased with a two, than it had been
with a one, headed monster ! And after it had for a dozen years
been the stock-in-trade of the political agitators, who really did not
desire its settlement, the question was at length brought to the
hustings in 1854. Having proposed an anti-clergy reserve league
which should never be let down till equal justice was done to all
sects, Mr. Buchanan allowed his name to be used against Sir Allan
MacNab, to enable parties, by their votes, to record their view that
the peace of the province required an immediate settlement of the
clergy reserve question, and to save his election, Sir Allan at
last promised his friends that he and his political allies would no
longer stop the way. Fifteen years previously Mr. Buchanan had
given evidence before the Commission ofthe General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland, and during a much longer period had kept
up constant communication on the subject with Principal McFar-
lane, Dr. Welch, and other leaders of the churoh, as well as with
the Marquis of Bute, her Majesty's Commissioner to the Church,
whose friendship Mr. Buchanan enjoyed. The intimacy, especially
with Dr. Welch, which he had kept up (his family having been
members of Dr. Welch's congregation when in Glasgow,) was of
material public benefit as increasing the doctor's interest in the
Canadian church question, and in giving him greater confidence in
making his magnificent report as convener of the Colonial Com-

558 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
mittee, which may be said to have settled the question. Dr. Welch
had one of the finest minds of the day, and a man whose friend
ship was a great honor as well as privilege ; he was moderator
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, when the dis
ruption occurred in 1843, and having seceded, he was the first
moderator of the Free Church. Mr. Buchanan was one of twenty
friends whom Dr. Welch asked to endow the Free Church college,
in Edinburgh, by giving a thousand pounds each. Mr. Buchanan
replied, that he would give the amount, but that he felt it
would be more natural that his subscription should be applied to
assist the Free Church college and churches in Canada — and so
the money was applied.
SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS IN 1837.
For the first ten years after coming to Canada, Mr. Buchanan
used to visit the British markets nearly every year, and he arrived
out at New York in the spring of 1837, to witness a dreadful financial
crisis. The evening he landed, he was in company with eleven of
the first merchants of New York, nine of whom had suspended, and
on the apparently solvent two being twitted as unfortunate " men
still in the body," one of them whispered to Mr. Buchanan, "just
till Monday." The streets were full of an enraged populace
threatening the banks, and his fellow passengers lost not a moment
in getting on board the north river steamer leaving New York.
Mr. Buchanan, however, remained in New York for many days,
and mingling with all sorts of people, satisfied himself that the
then patent facts entirely corroborated the views of money he had
always held ; he then came into Canada, and being president of
the Toronto Board of Trade, moved successfully in getting Parlia
ment called together in June, which passed a bank relief bill that
saved the trade and industry of the province from overthrow.
The bill enabled the banks to suspend if necessary without forfeit
ing their charters. The simple argument Mr. Buchanan used
with " the members" and people in general was this : The banks of
the United States have suspended specie payments, and every silver
dollar taken from Canada will for the Americans who take it, pay
a debt of a dollar and a quarter, from specie having gone to a
premium. It is clear then that to possess themselves of our specie
they can bring over their commodities and undersell our farmers
and other producers twenty per cent, so that unless our banks in
Canada get the power also to suspend, our producers will be seri
ously injured :
1st. By reducing their prices.
2nd. By depriving them of their home market.
3rd. By [removing the basis of the circulation — thus still more
lessening prices and reducing the markets of the farmer, preventing

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 559
the importers paying their British creditors, and causing incal
culable distress unnecessarily to every class in the province.
Himself seriously impressed on the importance of the subject,
Mr. Buchanan has at every returning panic entered the field of
explanation in the New York and Canadian newspapers. He be
lieves that (while also a great evil to the working classes in Eng
land) the principle of money law which both the United States and
Canada have borrowed from England, decrees that the American pro
ducers must for ever remain " hewers of wood and drawers 'of water"
to middlemen in Europe ; that in a word, while the foreigner for our
paper money can get, at a price fixed by law, the portable article gold
which he can lay down on the other side of the Atlantic at a cost of one
per cent, he cannot be expected to take in lieu thereof any Ame
rican commodity except at the price thereof in Europe, less the
charges to take it there and a very full margin. So that to the
extent there is any inflation here, through paper money, or through
prosperity from any other cause, the foreign importer gets the ad
vantage over our home producers as getting the increased price for
his wares, without paying any increased, price which he should do
if the law of supply and demand were allowed equally to affect gold
for his foreign exchange, that being a convertible term for gold, the
article whose price is fixed by law !
It may here be remarked that Mr. Buchanan considers the ill suc
cess hitherto of the British currency reformers to have arisen from
their ignorantly attacking Peel's bills of 1844 and 1845, measures
for the mere regulation of banking and for the security of the
bank note circulation ; while the bill that they should attack is
Peel's bill of 1819, this being the measure embodying Peel's
" science" of money which is so suicidal.
HIS GREAT NERVE AND INDOMITABLE PERSEVERANCE.
Possessed of an active and powerful brain, of benevolent and
liberal instincts, wealth that buoys him harmlessly over tbe malig
nant buffetings of a sea of factions, the fury of which can only be
realised by those experienced in the ways of a colonial democracy,
it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Buchanan, while pursuing his
own course of ameliorating our social and political evils, should
come in for his share of that virulent abuse and misrepresentation
that is meted out to all our publie men in proportion to their pro
minence. But with the well fortified subject of our sketch it is,
indeed, like biting ihe file, and there is no greater treat to the
reporter's gallery in our House of Assembly than to witness the
manner in which these petty assaults are received and turned. The
imperturbable good temper, the quaint and witty retort, followed
by that well known and peculiar hollow sounding and derisive
laugh from the chest, which leaves the muscles of the face unmoved

560 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
like the mask on the " chorus" of a Greek play, are irresistibly
droll, and always throws the house into a fit of uncontrolable
laughter at the assailant's expense.
It is, however, in his writings, his public addresses, letters and
pamphlets, that the force and disinterestedness of Mr. Buchanan's
mind is best seen ; they are not, perhaps, models of style, for they
are thrown off in great haste from a brain teeming with valuable
and practical ideas, and often with too little time to reflect whether
all the lower links of his argument are as self-evident to his hearers
or readers as a quarter of a century has made them to his mind ;
but they are ample to show what such a mind could accomplish if
freed from the shackles and cares of an overwhelming mercantile
business, and devoted entirely to the instruction of his fellow-men.
His retorts upon some of his newspaper assailants are often excel
lent. On one occasion he replies as follows, to what may be called
the N. Y. Herald of Canada : —
" Even when an unmitigated falsehood is not told by this newspa
per, its statements regarding me, and all those whom it sees its in
terest in opposing, have j ust as much truth in them as to make a good
lie," adding the following quotation from Tennyson : " A lie that
is all a lie, may be met and fought with outright. A lie that is
part a truth, is a harder matter to fight. A lie that is half a truth
is ever the blackest of lies."
On another occasion, he says : " This newspaper talks of me as
having stated that I would prefer failing in large transactions to
succeeding in small ones, while all the time well knowing that
my remarks were to quite another point, having been made at the
opening of the Great Western Railway. Referring to the local
enemies of the railway, and to those who had done little or nothing
for this great enterprise, I expressed my contempt for smaU men,
faithless and unbelieving, who busy their minds with small mat
ters, in which success is little honor, and failure disgraceful ;
while my course had been to associate my name with great and
worthy objects, in which, even in failure, one is associated with
greatness, as well as what in his own mind at least is goodness."
Much cheering, says the newspaper from which we quote, fol
lowed this happy explanation.
And the following, from another hustings speech, is admirably
put, but can only be fully appreciated by those acquainted with
our Canadian politicians : —
" I do not appear before you as an aspirant for your future
suffrages, for these I trust a truly British and patriotic local can
didate will deserve and get, but as a common soldier in the army
of the Party of Order, formed of those, Uke myself, of the old
Liberal party, who are willing to be called " conservative-liberals,"
and of tho^e who, liLe many of the best men in the country, whom
experience of the province have made " liberal conservatives."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 561
" From these hustings at the nomination, I told you that my ex
perience of the opposition is, that their leaders will not reply to
or allow their elections to rest upon questions as to their princi
ples or policy, seeing that they have not any ! They remove
the question or issue to the character of their opponents. They
have borrowed their tactics from Robespierre and the French
revolutionists. The latter, to get quit of their opponents, guillo
tined their heads ; the former (our Clear Grit chiefs) try to guillotine
the characters of their opponents by means of their mercenary
press." (Hear, hear.)
The following too, from Mr. Buchanan's speech at the declaration
ofthe poll at Hamilton, in 1857, as placing character and princi
ple beyond the mere accident of success, deserves to be recorded : —
" To return to our immediate position this day, I should have
stood as the head of a minority, with as proud a mind as I now
stand at the head of my vast majority. (Cheers.) Our success
is most valuable at this crisis to the province, as well as to
Hamilton, in securing us the power of doing much good, and in
preventing our opponent being used as the instrument of infinite
harm. (Cheers.) But still I shall never, either in private or public
matters, consent that my character be dependent on my success ; for
in that case no success would mean no character. The character
we care for is the mere expression of our principles, and of which
no want of success can deprive us." (Great cheering.)
It is but too evident that without character, principles and
ability, and these in the highest degree, such success as has fol
lowed Mr. Buehanan in his mercantile career, could not have been
achieved. As a merchant and political economist, his reputation
is at once European and American. Since the death of his widely
lamented brother, Peter, than whom no man in any country ever
stood higher as a merchant or as a gentleman, Mr. Buchanan is
senior partner in the firm of Peter Buchanan & Co., Glasgow; Isaac
Buchanan & Co., New York ; I. Buchanan, Harris & Co., Mont
real ; Buchanan, Harris & Co., Hamilton, C. W. ; and Adam Hope
& Co., London, C. W. His connexion with the trade of Canada is
now of thirty-three years' standing, the house being established in
Montreal, in 1828, and it will be a happy day for Canada when she
can boast the existence of a larger class of the same stamp.
And yet there are in our strangely constituted society, men
whose sole stock in trade consists only of a few reams of paper
and a box of pens, the beginning and end of whose exertions seem
entirely devoted to driving such men as Mr. Buchanan from the
political arena altogether ; a system copied from the adjoining
states, and to the success of which their public writers are now
attributing all the evils which that unhappy country is suffering
from. Had the same kind of politicians succeeded here, precisely
the same results would have followed. Impudence and public.

562 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
swindling would have been the order of the day. Worth, truth,
and a zealous and persistent course in the path of public duty,
would have been disqualifying ingredients in a politician's char
acter, while the possession of ample means would at once mark the
owner as one who could neither be trusted in the concoction of a
scheme of public plunder, or hushed by the tender of a share of it.
Undoubted as has been the success of the moderate policy adopted
by Messrs. Macdonald & Cartier for the last few years, it is impos
sible to overrate the strength of that moral support which the
attachment of such men as Isaac Buchanan has brought to them.
But it must be admitted that he had little choice.

THE QUESTION OF LABOR OR OF OUR OWN PEOPLE S
EMPLOYMENT.
Of the many subjects which seem to have occupied Mr. Bu
chanan's mind, the great cause of labor is that to which he has
devoted the greatest amount of thought and effort. He maintains
that mere production, or the mere existence of food, is not the
first necessary of life, under a state of civilisation. He says that
employment is the first necessary in our state of society, seeing that
it in no degree relieves the poor man to know that all the granaries
of the neighborhood are full of breadstuff's, if he is without the
employment, which is the only key to these granaries. He holds
the question of our home labor to be unspeakably more important
than the question of our external trade ; the labor being the neces
sity, the trade the incident. He has striven that men should really
eat and be satisfied with the bread they may earn by the sweat of
their brow or of their brain, and not be perpetually offered up as
a holocaust at the shrine of mammon, or become a mere part of
the machinery which he oils and drives, and be looked upon by his
employers with as little interest as the cranks and wheels of the
world's great power loom, in the din of which all uncertain sounds
are drowned, together with the moans of the toil-worn. Mr.
Buchanan differs from the free traders and political economists not
only as denying that theirs is in truth a system of free exports,
while it certainly is a system of free imports, but in this, that their
heartfelt interest is in the web, while his is in the weaver ; theirs
in the produce ; his in the producer.
One of the greatest compliments (according to his own estima
tion) paid to Mr. Buchanan in Britain, was by the working classes
whom he had assisted against the free traders, in their successful
struggle for the " ten hours' bill," on which occasion he was waited
upon by a deputation representing a hundred thousand men, at that
time mostly unemployed in London, with their tribute of thanks.
A proposal was at the same time made, to purchase, if he would
agree to become a party to it, a London evening daily newspaper,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 563
for sale, the Courier, to advocate their common views, which then
they proposed, in his honor, to call the Currency Reformer. Mr.
Buchanan's reply in declining was similar to the following explana
tion given to those who offered to procure him a seat in the British
House of Commons : —
" A hundred friends nf labor like me eould do no good in the
House of Commons while the question of the church remains ' the
first question in the politics of England,' and is, without the
smallest apology, put seemingly, as a matter of course, before that
great subject, ' the employment of our own people af home and in
the colonies,' which should even be ackowledged to be of more
vital importance that what are called ' constitutional questions,' as
the question upon the proper settlement of which depends the
safety and permanence of our revered form of government, and
every other blessing we, as a nation and empire, enjoy.
There can be no chance, I have long been thoroughly satisfied,
for the working men in England, or for ' the question of labor,'
till after the carrying of some great change in the constitution
of the British Parliament, making it possible for the question of
'the people's employment' to become ' the first question in the
politics of England,' which at present the church question is, and
always has been — the question at the election of the members for
the English counties, or two-thirds of the House of Commons, not
being what the candidate's views are upon ' employment,' the peo
ple's question, but whether the candidate's decoction of church
views suits the particular neighborhood."
Nor has Mr. Buchanan hesitated to give his view as to what
this constitutional change should be. He adds : —
" And to save our institutions generally, it is the highest duty
of the patriot to endeavor to suggest the least change that
would effect this greatest purpose of benevolence. After the sad
experience of America, even the greatest chartist, if an honest
man, would no longer desire to see the House of Commons elected
by universal suffrage. The great object, too, is rather to draw to
gether the extremes of English society, and between them to form
a strong united phalanx to upset that odious middle class monopoly
of political power, under whose miserable influence the British
Government has abdicated all its paternal functions and come to
care no more for its own subjects than for foreigners industrially —
has abdicated, in a word, all its functions except that of a mere
police ! Some years ago, when ruminating on this all important
subject, an idea struck me which, at the time, seemed to my mind
rather revolutionary ; I now, however, see that it would be the
most conservative one which England could adopt, as popularizing
the House of Lords, and making it, in fact, the people's house.
Leaving the House of Commons untouched, as some property,
qualification is no doubt proper for a house representing the pro-

564 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
perty of the country, the House of Lords might be elected by uni
versal suffrage from among the enobled class. The restriction or
safeguard in the House of Commons being in the electors; the
restriction or safeguard in the House of Lords would be in the
elected, just as a probationer of a church becomes a safe man to
elect as minister on account of his having been licensed as a
preacher by the church-court or bishop ; and in such a house
there might be some representation of the more remote parts of
the British empire greater than can be introduced into the House
of Commons, unless the inhabitants of the colonies were able and
willing to bear their share ofthe national debt of England and pub
lic burdens generally."
Mr. Buchanan's views, in 1848, were expressed in these words :
" If Peel's plan will give more employment to the people of Eng
land, he is right, but if it should give less, they cannot afford this,
distressed as they now are, and he will cause a revolution, not from
disloyalty, but want of employment or starvation." He never
yielded an inch to the arguments of the free traders, but (denying,
of course, that Lord George Bentinck or those with whom he
agreed, would be a party to raise the price of the people's food by
duties), he explained by what he named " the theory of a full
market," that it is not true that the consumer would pay the" im
port duty except at a time of scarcity, when no party desired the
existence of a duty.
" Suppose," said Mr. Buchanan, "that the price indicative of a
full market for wheat is 45s. per quarter, and the import duty 8s.,
as proposed by Lord John Russell, the importer would not get 53s.,
any more than a slovenly farmer whose wheat takes him 8s. more
than it takes his neighbor to grow, would get 8s. more on that
account; but on the contrary, the importer would get less than
45s. to the extent his lot of wheat depressed the market, so that
it is clear that the foreigner would have to pay the duty, not the
consumer."
THE QUESTIONS OF LABOR AND MONEY ONE QUESTION, THE SOLU
TION OF THE ONE BEING THE SOLUTION OF THE OTHER.
With a devotion equally ardent, Mr. Buchanan pursues the
question of " money," which he very properly treats as only another
branch of the same question — the question of labor or of our own
people's employment. In support of this view, he states the unde
niable fact, among others, that " the solution of the labour question
would be the solution of the money question; and vice versa" ; and
one of his illustrations of the incalculable importance of the money
question may here be given : —
" Harvey's exposition of the circulation of the blood, to which no
physician over forty years of age dared to give his assent till after the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 565
public had adopted it, has not had results in favor of humanity so mo
mentous as would flow from the public adoption ofthe correct theory
regarding the circulation of money, the legal life blood of each coun
try's internal orindependentindustry, andrecognisingthis as thefirst
question in the politics of every people ! In the one case, the cir
culation went on before, as now, without let or hindrance, in spite
of defective science ; but in the other, that of the body politic,
blundering ignorance has tampered with and impeded the circula
ting medium, to the endangerment of the health, and even the
life, of its industry."
In 1846, we find him battling the watch with the free traders
and hard money men in England. The following is from one of
his publications of that day : —
" A reduction of p rices, the result of foreign competition, is
just another way for expressing a want of employment. For
when prices and wages, and freights, are reduced one-half, the
evil is not only that we And ourselves paying the fundholders and
annuitants double the amount of British industry, that we before
did, for the money due them each half-year, but under free imports
falsely named free trade (or when the reduction in the price of
our labor flows from foreign competition) we shall be subjected to
the infinitely greater calamity, that the industrious classes of this
country, in addition to paying the annuitant, or man of money,
as much labor as formerly, (seeing that the price in money is only
one-half) will have, out of gold, the basis of our currency, to fur
nish the capitalist with at least half the amount of his claim in
hard cash to send abroad in payment of foreign labor. We shall
thus foster and increase that foreign industry, to compete with
which is impossible for us under our national burdens, or (even
though freed from these burdens) till our population is reduced
below the circumstances of the foreign serf or slave, for the actual
wants of the latter must ever remain fewer than those of a people
with habits such as ours, and living in so much more rigorous a
climate as that of Great Britain."
Mr. Buchanan was always and still is hostile to the free trade
principles of Sir R. Peel, viewing the principle (or absence of prin
ciple) of free trade as the contrary principle to that of empire as
well as of patriotism. On this subject, we give extracts from those
letters which he published during the sittings of the political con
vention which met at Toronto in 1859 : —
" In her farmers, Canada has a great class, the prosperity of
which secures the prosperity of all other classes ; so that the true
commercial policy for Canada is to promote the prosperity of the
Canadian farmer. And how this is to be done is the simple
political question of the Canadian patriot. Yet, to the shame of
British statesmen be it said, a question so momentous to Canada
was known to have had no consideration in England, when she, in

566 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
1846, diametrically altered her policy and repealed all the old
/listinctions between Canadian and American produce in her mar
kets. The direct and immediate effect of this precipitate intro
duction of free imports (for it is not free trade) into the mother
country was most disastrous to Canada, and was more likely to
prove subversive of her loyalty than any thing that could have been
anticipated ; for it left the Canadian farmer (on the north bank
of the St. Lawrence) only the English market for his produce, in
which he has to compete (after paying all freights and expenses
across the Atlantic) with wheat of countries where labor and money
are not worth one-third what those are in Canada, while it gave to
the American farmer (on the south bank of the St. Lawrence)
this English market to avail of whenever it suited him, in addition
to the American market. — Happily the British government saw
in time the error committed in bringing about a state of things in
which it would have been impossible to retain, upon British prin
ciples, the Canadas — British principles always involving the idea
that the object of Britain in acquiring or retaining territory is to
bless, not to blight it ; and Lord Elgin bribed the Americans hy
sharing with them our fishery and navigation rights, to give us
the reciprocity treaty, which, while it exists, removes the Cana
dian farmer's cause- of complaint. Now, therefore, the preserva
tion of this reciprocity with the United States is shewn to be not
only the interest of the farmers, and through them, of all others in
Canada, but of the British government, as without it, Canadians
are left in a position to be much benefitted by Canada being
annexed to the United States. I speak plainly, viewing him the
most loyal man who speaks most plainly at such a crisis.
"And this reciprocity treaty can only eventually be secured and
rendered permanent by the British government adopting an
enlarged and just imperial policy, which would allow of the decen
tralizing tbe manufacturing power of the Empire — a principle
which would aggrandize the British Empire, and be an incal
culable benefit to the working classes in England, Ireland, and
Scotland. — To preserve the empire, Britain has to yield the
selfish principle of centralizing, which has ruined Ireland and
India, so far as such countries could be ruined, and cost us the old
American colonies. The principle of decentralizing the manufac
tures of the empire is a principle which would secure for the
empire an enormous additional trade and influence. — Through the
instrumentality of some one or other of her dependencies, (which
might be called England in America — England in Australia —
England in India, &c.,) she could secure for all her mechanics that
chose to go to these favored localities, freedom of trade with coun
tries that could never agree to free trade direct with England,
without giving a death blow to their comparatively comfortable
populations. For instance, England could never get free trade

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 567
with the United States, in manufactured goods, but no doubt the
United States would be prepared to extend the reciprocity treaty
with Canada, thus throwing down all interior custom houses
between Canada and the United States, which done, the English
man, by coming to Canada, and manufacturing his goods at our
endless water powers, will be able to save the 25 per cent charged
on the same goods going direct from England to the United States,
and hundreds of mill-owners now in uneasy circumstances in Eng
land, would, under such an arrangement, immediately transfer to
Canada their machinery and hands, to the infinite benefit of the
population thus removed, and to the aggrandizement of the empire.
And this is the main thing wanted by the Canadian farmer, per
manently, as giving him a market on the spot for his roots and
spring crops, thus rendering rotation of crops possible, while it
would give him also that which is so valuable to him in the present
(until he gets his rotation of crops established) the superior market
for his white wheat furnished in the United States by the reci
procity treaty.
"To the United States, and more especially to the western states, as
making the St. Lawrence the great highway of America, free trade
and navigation with Canada would give great development, would
give, in a word, all the commercial advantages of annexation.
" The natural policy of Canada is seen clearly therefore to be the
establishment of an American Zollverein, such as exists among the
German states. Under this, the United States and Canada would
neither of them levy any customs taxes on their interior frontiers,
but only at the seaports from Labrador to Mexico — the same duties
being levied, and each country getting its share in the proportion
of its population.
" Let it be therefore resolved, that for our commercial system, the
principle should be adopted by Canada of an American Zollverein,
or, in other words, free trade with America, but not with
Europe. And this will be a fair compromise between the views
of the two classes of friends of the Canadian farmer, one of which
holds that our farmer is to be most benefitted by general free
trade and direct taxation, and the other by keeping our money in
the country through the restriction of importations and indirect
taxation. ,
" This would terminate our present unprincipled position of politi
cal parties in Canada. By setting up a policy of Canadian patriot
ism, we should have, as the opposition to us, whether government or
parliamentary opposition, the foreign, or foreign trade party, and
that the aims of such a party never has had more than mere per
sonal selfishness in view is clearly enough shown in this, that
while in England it is in favor of local manufactures, because there
the party are manufacturers, here, in Canada, they are against local
manufactures, because here they are merchants, and in fact repre-

568 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
sent an English local paction, instead of a great British
interest."feel's outrage oh the constituencies. — HIS free trade is a mere des
potism OF CAPITAL, WHICH DECREES FREE PURCHASES BY US OF FOREIGN
LABOR, BUT NOT FREE PURCHASES BT FOREIGNERS OF BRITISH LABOR.
Mr. Buchanan being in London in 1846 when Peel's violation of
the constituencies was consummated, the following were his impres
sions on the moment, as they still are his feeling on this painful
subject : —
" The premier has left us in a condition worse than political
chaos, as having robbed us of our principles. Even the principle
that self-preservation is the first law of nature has been repudiated ;
and British politics have been reduced into the two original ele
ments of all national politics — the labor-power and the money-
power. The labor-power must come to be represented by social
economists, or practical men, or patriots, the character of whose
legislation will be that it takes the circumstances of our own society
into account ; the money-power being represented hy political
economists or cosmopolitan theorists, who would have this country
legislate for the world, while they view political science as a system
of pure mathematics, or, at best, one for the creation of wealth, with
out any regard to its distribution. Indeed, to my mind, it never
appeared that the permanently important question was whether it
was a right or a wrong thing, per se, that Peel did in 1846. His
impolicy, however great, appears to me to stand, in relation to his
repudiation of moral and constitutional principle, just as a misfor
tune does to a crime. I myself, for instance, am opposed to estab
lished churches, even if these were the best churches possible,
viewing partiality to any class of her Majesty's subjects an impedi
ment to general confidence in the crown and law of the land ; but
give me the power to injure the church, or any other vital interest
by a side wind, would I, as a minister, or even as a legislator do it ?
If the constituencies do not wish the church demolished, dare I,
their servant, put it down ? And if the constituencies do wish it
put down, what need is there for me to interfere unduly ? It has
always seemed to me to be the duty of a minister rather to try to
find evidence in favor of a respectable existency; and a state of
things does not deserve the name of constitutional or of moral, un
less it is one in which a great interest can repose with even more
safety in the hands of its avowed enemy, seeing that he, as an
honorable man, would require the greater evidence for its over
throw, to leave no shadow of a suspicion, even in his own mind,
that his personal predilections had influenced his conduct as a publio
man. The reverse ofthe picture is a very humbling one. Behold
the constituencies ofthe empire, standing in the position of trustees
of the entire people, employing, as agent under the trust, the man

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 569
of Tamworth, who immediately turns round and repudiates. all obli
gation to abide by the terms of the trust deed, or even to act on
any principle whatever ! And what are we to think of our con
temptible trustees in submitting thus to be bullied ? What are we
to think of the honor of our constituencies in delegating, by their
ex post facto assent to Peel's conduct, an omnipotence or arbitrary
power to Parliament which they had not to give ? My own view
has always been that we have in this transaction so gross a violation
of our legislative constitution as to amount (whatever may have
been Peel's intention at the time) to a virtual abdication by the pre
sent constituencies. Their only possible excuse is, that their cir
cumstances are too desperate, and that, now that without appeal to
them the change has been precipitated, it is the safest course to
give it a fair trial. But the immediate importance of Peel's unprin
cipled proceeding is what we have chiefly at present to do with,
and that arises from the act done being in itself vitally
WRONG, as tending to lesson instead of to increase the employment
of our masses, at home, at sea, and in the colonies — thus containing
in it the seeds of revolution, both at home and in our foreign de
pendencies, whether done constitutionally or unconstitutionally."
PAPER MONEY*
No man is more impressed with the vital importance of a
country's having emblematic money instead of money containing
in itself intrinsic value than Mr. Buchanan; and no man probably
ever has turned his mind more to the subject, except, perhaps,
that greatest philosopher of money, and most amiable man, John
Taylor, of London, whose modesty will leave the next generation
to know, better than his own age appears to do, how great a mind
we have had amongst us. Mr. Buchanan describes him as " the
earliest and most able denouncer of Sir Robert Peel's heartless or
unprincipled monetary legislation." Mr. Buchanan held his own
patriotic views on " money" previous to having heard of Mr.
Taylor, whose views are in theory much the same, but so far
different in practice that, like the Birmingham school, Mr. Taylor
declines to yield to the popular prejudice in favor of the yellow
metal, and make gold the security of his proposed paper money.
Mr. Taylor's proposal, in fact, just amounts to this, that the money
of a country should be paper " Tallies" or evidences to be issued
of the taxes voted each year by Parliament. Government would
simply pay them to its creditors, and take them back from its
debtors — :so that the security to the public is perfect. While the
PRESENT PAPER MONEY IS A REPRESENTATIVE OF A DEBT DUE

* Mr. Buchanan distinguishes between "paper money" and " paper currency."
By paper money he means paper made a legal tender, and by paper currency he
means bank notes which we are not bound to take in payment unless we please.
72

570 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
BY THE ISSUER TO THE HOLDER, THE PAPER MONEY (on thft
principle of which Mr. Buchanan agrees with Mr. Taylor) would
be A REPRESENTATIVE OF A DEBT FOR TAXES DUE BY THE
HOLDERS, THE PEOPLE, TO THE ISSUER, THE GOVERNMENT. This
is what Mr. Buchanan calls " Pitt as opposed to Peel money."
From the foregoing sub-section it will have been gathered that
Mr. Buchanan's long held view is that " money" should be A
THING OF, AND BELONGING TO, THE PARTICULAR COUNTRY AND
Its internal trade, having no necessary reference to the out
side world, and with no peculiar fitness to circulate there, beyond
what the laws of other countries may encourage, or its character
as "a commodity" (not as " a money,) may lead to. According to
Mr. Buchanan, in fact, money is " the creature of our local
legislation," created for the purpose of facilitating the exchange
between man and man of commodities bought and sold in our "home
market." Money should therefore (says Mr. Buchanan) be
the mere handmaid of labor. One of John Taylor's happy
illustrations is that money is the " measure" or ell-wand (yard
stick) by which our people's labor is sold. If the law (as Peel's
legislation does) declares that cloth can only be sold by yard-sticks
made of gold, or any article valuable as a commodity for foreigners
to take away, the practically unhappy result is that this is a worse
state of things for the labor or industry of the country, than if we
had still a state of pure barter. The yard-sticks are taken away in
consequence of the necessity for gold of some other country, and
business is brought to a stand in our country without anything
being wrong among ourselves at all !
" Peel's principle of money," says Mr. Buchanan, " involves
" British subjects in all the distresses, without giving them the
" advantage of any of the blessings, of every country in the world.
£< As a destroying angel or agent, it is like death, when suddenly
" it strikes down the young and beautiful and brave in the full
" and vigorous possession of every faculty and every promise."
And if any apology is required for the great length of this
explanation of Mr. Buchanan's opinions on the vital subject of
" money," it must be found in the fact that some portion of his
enthusiasm can not fail to be imparted to every mind which takes
the trouble to peep so far into the vast field of discussion in which
he battles with the preconceived prejudices of the public, as to be
able to appreciate his perfect sincerity and entire disinterestedness.
" In season and out of season," for the last thirty years, he has
announced his doctrine that "the question of labor and the
question of money are in reality one question," and has
invited those around him to prove this for themselves by their
taking the trouble to go into the detail of the reflection that " THE
solution of the one is the solution of the other." He
has thus prosecuted sleeplessly a reform, which, though contrary

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 571
to his own interest as a capitalist and his prejudices as a merchant
in the foreign trade, he believes to be essential to the wellbeing of
the masses, and to the reasonable independence in the circumstances
of those who labor, whether they do so with their hands or their
heads. Though Mr. Buchanan has always been an efficient opponent
of communisms, organizations of labor, and all the silly isms which
would make it appear that there is a distinction between the in
terest of fixed property and labor, he has always held and shown
that our law makes "money" a foreign commodity, having no
interest in common with either ; and he hopes and believes that
by removing out of the way, (as we require with the knife to
remove a tumor from the body physical), the impediments set up
by Peel's legislation to the natural course of things, to the healthy
circulation of the body politic, we may enable the working classes
INDEPENDENTLY TO COIN INTO MONEY THEIR INDUSTRY, TEM
PERANCE AND OTHER QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS.
At the end of this volume we shall give copies of the title page
of Mr. Buchanan's late pamphlet " Britain the Country, versus
Britain the Empire," and of the two engravings it contained, to
illustrate what Mr. Buchanan denominates, in true Saxon phrase,
" National unthrift, or the cup of Britain's prosperity as it is,"
showing that at present there is a syphon or waste pipe in our
national cup, which prevents prices and wages becoming more than
pleases the annuitants and money-mongers; and "National economy,
or the cup of Britain's prosperity as it ought to be," shewing that
when they have removed the waste pipe or "tantalus" feature from
our national cup, it will only be its overflow (as ought to be the case)
that will go to irrigate and vivify other lands and foreign industries.
We may here mention that to Mr^uchanan it is owing that
both attempts failed to establish ins, t'anada a government bank of
issue. He does not object to a government bank of issue per se,
but, on the contrary, considers the coining of paper equally the
privilege or prerogative of the whole people, as represented by
the crown, as the coining metal, the giving up of which to banks
or private individuals can only be justified if more for the benefit
of people in particular circumstances. In 1841, when Lord
Sydenham introduced his bank of issue, Mr. Buchanan, who,
being then member for Toronto, was on the special committee of
the Legislative Assembly; and he shewed that the proposed
measure would reduce the paper money circulation of the province
one-half, and render it impossible for the trade and the people
generally to pay more than ten shillings in the pound of their
debts, such debts having been contracted under the calculation of
there being double the money in the country. And in 1860,
when Mr. Gait introduced his bank of issue, Mr. Buchanan shewed
that in such a society as ours A government bank op issue is
IMPRACTICABLE WITHOUT AN EMBLEMATIC LEGAL TENDER.

572 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" Paper circulation," says he, "that would keep out, must be in
process of perpetual distribution by banks interested in making ihe
issue, but government or bank notes, the evidences of gold in the
treasury or vaults, are wanted as a basis, as, in fact, a legal tender."
In the circumstances of Canada, which has a magnificent system
of the safest possible banks chartered by the provincial legislature,
with a capital of twenty-four millions of dollars, all paid up, Mr.
Buchanan thinks that, for the present at all events, the best
substitute for a government bank of issue is to put a second pad
lock on the vaults of our banks, the key of which to be held by
the government, and to authorize the banks to issue as a legal
tender, equally with gold, yellow notes, countersigned by
THE government, leaving their present notes in their pre
sent position, if not being a legal tender. No man has con
sidered more anxiously the one grand objection that may be
made to this. It may be said, suppose a man to invest a thousand
dollars in a mortgage, with three years to run, he now gives two
hundred sovereigns or a certain weight of gold, amounting to fifty
ounces (supposing each sovereign a quarter of an ounce,) what
would he get back in case of Mr. Buchanan's plan being in
operation at the end of the three years on payment of the mort
gage ? Mr. Buchanan replies, except by special bargain stipulating
for the return of a certain weight of gold, the mortgagee would
only legally be entitled to a thousand dollars in ihe yellow notes of
any chartered bank ; and these would procure for the holder two
hundred sovereigns or fifty ounces of gold, if our provincial
" money" is at the time at par, i. e., if our exports of provincial
produce and imports of money combined balance our imports of for
eign goods and exports of money combined — the demand for foreign
exchange being to such an e^oten* as keeps i* a*" Par- If> however,
the value of foreign exchange \Which is a convertible term far the pre
cious metals) is less than par from excessive exports, he would get
just so much more than two hundred sovereigns, while if it is higher
in value or rate, he would get just so much less than two hundred
sovereigns for what, at both periods, is nominally one thousand
dollars, and commanding a thousand dollars worth of any com
modity in the province.
The following was published when he was in Glasgow in 1848,
and in one of his innumerable explanations in Great Britain during
the monetary panics in Britain of 1847 and 1848. A great many
of the members of both houses of the British Parliament con
sulted Mr. Buchanan on the dreadful position to which Peel had
brought matters previous to Californian and Australian gold beiDg
discovered, and the following is the substance of a reply which he
made to the late Lord Ashburton (once Chancellor of the Exchequer
and who was her Majesty's plenipotentiary to settle the boundary
line between the British provinces in America and the United

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. . 573
States) in answer to a letter to him from his lordship, asking what,
with the gold of the bank of England reducing every day, he
would suggest. In this letter Lord Ashburton pays Mr. Buchanan
the compliment of acknowledging that he had received great
instruction on the subject of money from Mr. Buchanan's writings.
" JUSTICE OR INJUSTICE TO FIXED PROPERTY AND LABOR, OR IN OTHER WORDS,
SHALL WE HATE PITT OR PEEL MONEY?"
" Those who affect to scoff at the legislation of Mr. Pitt should
recollect that when a foreign war occurs, we must as a matter of
necessity, at once revert to his monetary system; and it were well
did the political economists condescend to enlighten us on the dif
ference between the extirpating effects — on the country's industry,
and banking facilities — of a foreign war, and of a foreign trade,
if both drain us of our precious metals. Sir Robert Peel's vital
error is, that he has -based the foreign, as well as the home, trade
on money; whereas, the latter ought to be on the principle of
barter. But we can yet arrange to get back Pitt's principle of
money, by repealing Peel's bill of 1819, and, at the same time,
retain all the present security for the bank note circulation, by
perpetuating the principle of restriction embodied in Peel's bill of
1844. This arrangement must, however, be made before the Bank
of England loses its gold, otherwise a want of confidence will
be sure to occur, whose fearful effects cannot be predicted. To
UNFIX THE PRICE OF GOLD AS A STANDARD OF VALUE, is really
all that at present is required to make this country (deep as is now
its social wretchedness and misery) at once prosperous and content
ed, which shows that the wretched position ofthe British producer
and artizan does not arise from a natural but from an artificial or
legislative cause. The detail of this operation, which we advocated
in the former articles, would be as follows : —
" 1st. — The Bank of England's note — being a legal tender at its
own counter, as well as everywhere else to the extent of
the fourteen millions which it has in the hands of government,
and also of the specie in its vaults, — would be redeemed at the
Pitt, or London market price of gold, instead of at the Peel, or
foreign price of gold. Under no other arrangement can we deprive
the foreigner of the undue advantage over our home industry, which
he enjoys whenever we have prosperity or remunerating prices,
seeing that while he gets a higher price for his commodities, in
consequence of the amount of money being increased by paper
issues, he pays no higher price for our gold, which therefore he pre
fers to take rather than British labor which is enhanced.
" 2nd. — The foregoing would be the rule, but in order to guard
the commerce ofthe country against the want of confidence
which has existed since the beginning of last year, we would not

574 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
PERMIT THE BANK'S SPECIE EVER TO GO BELOW TEN MILLIONS.
When it falls to ten millions we would not permit the bank to pay
specie even at the market price, until it again gets up to, or
beyond, eleven millions. In this way — as enabling the Bank of
England to keep twenty four millions of paper always in the
hands of the public — we have not the least doubt we can guard our
trade from money panics, caused by the state of the foreign ex
changes, such as that of 1847, as effectually as Sir Robert Peel by
his bill of 1844 secured the holders of bank notes against money
panics originating in local derangement, such as that of 1825. Of
course our readers are well aware that though we would perpetuate
the principle — of some restriction — of Sir R. Peel's bills of 1844 and
1845, in a word — we would gradually -extend the amount of the
issues allowed to the Joint-Stock Banks, enabling these to keep
pace in some degree with the increase of the country's business
which at present they do not ; while our plan would enable our
Scotch banks to hold Bank of England notes instead of specie.
" But it may be said with seeming plausibility, that if the 25s of
Pitt money buys no more commodities than the 20s of Peel money,
the working classes would not be advantaged by the monetary
change. We answer that there will be a direct advantage to the
laboring men, because they could nay our fifty millions of national
taxes — not to talk of the local imposts — with four-fifths the num
ber of days labor under the Pitt plan, that they do under the Peel
plan ; and, besides this, there is the most manifest indirect advan
tage to the working classes through the greater certainty of employ
ment, and through the gradually increasing wages, arising from the
bidders for labor being increased — which is ihe only possible cause
of any permanent increase of wages, as many former disciples of
communism now happily discover. It should be borne in mind,
however, that the reform wanted is simply the getting quit of a
great public wrong. All that is wanted is that we get the free
operation of natural causes in expressing the price of gold, and
reconciling this to its value in this country.
"The chief direct benefit of our plan may seem to be to the holders
of property, and such capital is not money, but the working man's
wages will be bettered, as we have said, by the inoreased number
of bidders for his services, and by our plan he will be guaranteed
against that interference with the constancy of his employment, which
now flows from every 'derangement of the foreign exchanges.'
The working classes, in their sinking condition, have eagerly
caughtat such absurdities as organizations of labor, communisms, and
associationisms, from wbich the capital classes were excluded, just
as sinking men catoh at straws ; but straws they have found these
delusions to be (however well intended), and our laboring masses
will no longer permit their reason to be insulted by the silly doc
trine that labor is a separate interest. The working men now see

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 575
that the only possible cause of increased wages is increased employ
ment, which can only arise from improving the condition of the
employers of labor ; and the working men's distresses having led
them into a much better knowledge of the money question (which
is in reality the question of labor) than is possessed by the middle
classes, they see that to increase the number of bidders for their
labor, the only means of raising their wages permanently, such an
alteration of our money laws must be made as will permanently
REDUCE THE EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY, SO far as this
could be done by setting it free from the influence of the foreign
exchanges, as when less property and a smaller quantity of commo
dities come to stand for the same amount of money, it is evident
that less of the working man's time and labor will do the same
thing. It is evident, in a word, that raising the exchangeable
VALUE OF FIXED PROPERTY AND LABOR is a CONVERTIBLE TERM
FOR REDUCING THE EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY. THUS
THE INTERESTS OF ALL CLASSES EXCEPT THE OFFICIALS, ANNUI
TANTS, AND MONEY-MONGERS, ARE SEEN TO BE THE SAME AND
INSEPARABLE. "At present our paper as increasing the amount of money, and in
the same ratio increasing the demand, and consequently the price,
for labor and commodities appear at first sight greatly to alleviate
the effect of the bill of 1819 or the fixed Gold Standard — which
has for its object to reduce the price of British commodities and
labor by making money dear, this being a convertible term for mak
ing ihe commodity gold cheap nominally, and at the same time
making British commodities and wages low or worthless in exchange
able value. But this happy and natural influence of paper money
is nearly altogether lost to the industry of this country by the
malign influence which Sir Robert Peel's monetary legislation
causes our foreign trade to exert as the dictator or regulator of
prices, and consequently of wages, besides being the great lessener
of employment through lessening ihe circulating medium, through
removing gold, its basis. The anomaly of Peel's principle or
bullionism is this, that while it in name makes gold and money
synonimous terms, the low price of gold makes each ounce thereof
an equivalent for a proportionately greater quantity of other com
modities, and we all know that British commodities (or in other
words, British wages), being low, is just another way of stating
the purchasing power or price of money, to be high, so that low
gold means high money, although these are synonimous terms !
It is only, therefore, when prices are down to a ruinous level —
which unfortunately they usually are under Peel's system — that the
remark of the ' Economist ' holds true that the foreign trade is now
carried on practically in the same way as if we had a barter system,
or if there was no paper money. Under a barter system the
FOREIGNER WOULD GET A LOW PRICE FOR HIS COMMODITIES,

576 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
BUT HE WOULD GET OUR GOLD AT NO LOWER A PRICE THAN
AT PRESENT !
" The object of our measure, as currency reformers, is to do away
with the influence ofthe foreign exchanges on the circulating medium,
while it will prevent the price of commodities and wages — AS
MEASURED BY PAPER, WHICH WILL REPRESENT, AND ALWAYS
BE CONVERTIBLE INTO, GOLD AT ITS BRITISH PRICE — being as
at present not permitted to rise above the level of the low foreign
price of £3 17s 10 Jd per ounce for standard gold.
"We see clearly that what the trade of the country wants is con
fidence, which is liable to be unhinged in three ways — 1st, by the
want of perfect convertibility in the local bank notes — the chief
object of Sir R. Peel's bill of 1844 being to secure this, andin which
he may, all things considered, be said to have succeeded. 2nd and
3rd, commercial confidence must also be impossible either when the
bank is actually being drained of gold as in 1847, or when there is
the anticipation of a drain of our precious metals as at present"
and, as it thus is evident that it is the assured presence
of A certain amount of gold that is required, we there
fore propose, as above, to prevent the Bank of England parting
with any more specie when its stock gets down to ten millions.
It is obvious that when the foreign exchanges get more against
us, than this point indicates, the country's industry is unnecessa
rily sacrificed, and our object is to save the country's
industry, even though the moneyed classes should suffer from ihe
absence of bad times, a high rate of discounts, and low prices and
wages ! — which are all only different ways of expressing the same
thing, the necessary effect of the Peel principle of money. We
shall extend this no farther than to repeat two sentences from former
articles — ' The remedy for this state of things is, that we make up
our minds to retain gold only as ihe security of our bank note circu
lation, doing away with gold as a standard of value.' And again,
' The true principle of monetary science is only another way of ex
pressing the full employment of our national industry free from the
disturbance of any foreign or external influence' We must, before
the opening of our ports in March next, draw this line of demar
cation between foreign interests and home or British interests,
otherwise — between the operation of the conflicting principles of
Peel's currency bill of 1819, which hangs all confidence and bank
facilities on gold, and Peel's free import bill of 1846, which gives
away our gold to foreigners — the trade and industry of this country
must necessarily be ruined, and we shall have the most dreadful
social convulsion." WHY FREE TRADE AND BULLIONISM COMBINED HAVE NOT LONG
AGO RUINED ENGLAND.
These effects, which Mr. Buchanan thus anticipated free trade
to have on England, he holds were only prevented by the unex-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 577
pected flow of gold from California and Australia. He denies that
free trade has succeeded (to the extent it has in England) from its
own merits ; but believes as firmly as ever he did that revolution
in England, not from disloyalty, but from want of employment,
must, but for these discoveries of gold, have been the result of
Peel's measures — the first of which, his money bill of 1819, made
all confidence and paper money circulation depend upon the
presence in England of gold, and the last his free trade bill of
1846 — by opening England's ports to importations of foreign
goods DUTY FREE, PROVIDED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT LEGIS
LATION COULD DO THIS, THAT GOLD SHOULD BE SENT AWAY.
He some years afterwards writes as follows : —
"Should gold continue to come from California and Aus-
" tralia as it has come, so unexpectedly since 1848, the yellow
" metal may become less valuable to Britain, for the time at least,
" than British labor, when of course it will be a benefit rather than
" an injury to export it. But should this flow of gold not continue,
" and Peel's principle of currency be attempted to be sustained, the
" most fearful social convulsions flowing from want of employment
" could not fail to be the result, as above explained. And no less
" terrible effects would flow from any successful attempt in Parlia-
" ment to perpetuate the principle of Sir R. Peel's money law of
" 1819, by so changing its detaUs as to lower our fixed price of gold
" down to the value to whieh gold may fall abroad ; for we deceive
" ourselves if we suppose that the working classes in Britain still
" remain so ignorant as not to know that the lowering of the price
" of gold is an equivalent term for raising the purchasing power of
" money — or, in other words, for lowering the exchangeable value
" of property, commodities and labor. The working classes have
" been taught by long and most cruel experience, that the principle
" of the money law of 1819 practically denies to British labor the
" reward which the law of supply and demand would naturally
" award to it, by leading to the export of gold, which upsets the
" country's banking facilities, and contracts the currency whenever
" the foreigner prefers taking gold. This, he of course does,
" unless the prices of British manufactures approximate in cheap-
" ness to that of gold — even although that same foreigner did not
" import into this country gold, or other commodity sold at the
" cheap rate, but had availed of a paper or prosperity price for the
" foreign commodities in payment of which the imbecility of our
" law puts it in his power to take gold at a cheap fixed price.
" They now see clearly, that the fact of gold being absurdly
" FIXED AT THE SAME LOW RATE WHEN IT IS IN THE GREATEST
"DEMAND AS WHEN IT IS IN THE SMALLEST DEMAND FOR
" exportation as A commodity necessarily fixes down, as the
" general rule to the same low untaxed and profitless standard the
" remuneration to the producers of British commodities, which
73

578 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
a have to be sold against gold as a commodity to foreigners, as well
u as into gold as a money to our own people in the same market !
" Our official and annuitant classes thus participate in the mons-
"trously undue advantage which the bill of 1819 gives to the
" foreigner over the British artizan, and this sacrifice of our
" working classes operates a permanent reduction in the price of
"British products, by so prostrating the British producer hjm-
" self that he ceases to be a consumer of other than the merest
"necessaries, a large proportion of which, being eatables, now
"are (under our irreciprocal free-trade system) the product of
" foreign labor, in payment of which the foreigner will never take
" anything but gold till compelled to do so by the price of gold
" IN THIS COUNTRY BEING AT AN ADVANCE OVER THE PRICE
"ABROAD, EQUAL AT LEAST TO THE AMOUNT OF THE ADDITIONAL
" TAXATION PAID BY OUR ARTIZAN, AND THE FAIR PROFIT WHICH
a THE free AND UNRESTRICTED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL
"REGULATOR OF PRICES (THE INFLUENCE OF THE LAW OF
"SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN HIS PARTICULAR TRADE) WOULD
" AWARD HIM." THE REBELLION OF 1837.
Mr. Buchanan was incidentally thrown into a very active part in
the suppression of the Upper Canada rebelUon of 1837, and he
relates, with his usual raciness, many anecdotes connected with
it, but there is no room for them here ; we may however, notice a
very characteristic incident. Being at Toronto when the rebelUon
broke out, it suggested itself to his mind on the following morning
that the rebel chief, William Lyon Mackenzie, who had not ventured
to enter Toronto on the previous evening, would way-lay the mail in
search of information. He had therefore recourse to a clever
stratagem for preventing the rebels being induced to advance by
the letters of alarmists. He wrote two letters, one to an old aunt
in Scotland, Mrs. Buchanan, Auchmar cottage, Roseneath, who
still retains the letter, (which, next day, was found by the
government among McKenzie's papers that fell into its hands, and
forwarded to its destination), and the other to his partner, Mr.
Harris, who was westward, on business. In these he wrote in the
highest spirits, confidently assuring them that Toronto would, during
the afternoon, be in an excellent state of defence, and fully prepared
to receive and defeat the rebels. Mr. Buchanan's conjecture was
correct; the mail was duly seized, the letters opened and read.
Those of certain members of the government, were found to be
full of despair, but were most flatly contradicted by those of Mr.
Buchanan. Which were they to believe ? They hesitated, and
lost their only opportunity of success. We have heard Mr. Buch
anan say that this was to him a great lesson always to use the
means in your power, however desperate a ease. And certainly

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 579
his character is, as Lord George Bentinck used to say of Mr. Buch
anan, " never say die," under whatever influences it may have been
formed. A FEW HURRIED REMARKS IN CONCLUSION.
Mr. Buchanan left the Niagara frontier soon after the evacua
tion of Navy Island, and went to England at the end of January
1838. He did not return till 1839 ; he then made it clear as
already shown to the governor-general, Mr. Poulett Thompson,
that unless the clergy reserve question was settled, rebellion after
rebellion must be the sad experience of Canada. Though not* ap
proving of Mr. P. Thompson's peculiar or domestic politics, Mr.
Buchanan, fearing another rebellion, unless responsible govern
ment was yielded, carried Toronto, then the metropolis, for the
government party in 1841, on its being found that Mr. Baldwin,
the solicitor-general, could not get the votes from all classes of the
reformers. On the address to the government, in reply to his
speech opening this first Parliament,' being moved, Mr. Buchanan
stood up and objected to its being discussed till the ministry
declared themselves in favor of responsible government, pure and
simple. This his excellency wished his government to shirk, but
after ten days' debate, it was yielded. Mr. Baldwin's prominence
in this matter was, two months afterwards, when the resolutions
were brought in as a sort of supplement to the constitution of the
province. Mr. Buchanan's being in Parliament at this time, gives
him the honor to have been a party not only to securing responsi
ble government for the people, but to the carrying through all the
greatest reforms of the province, such as the erection of our great
municipal machinery, which does more than half the business
formerly done by Parliament ; the education system, the greatest
boast of the province ; the control of our provincial trade, formerly
wielded by the colonial office ; the systemizing the finances of the
province and creating a sinking fund ; the originating the geologi
cal survey, the results of which so astonished foreigners at the
world's fair in 1851, and will astonish them still more at the world's
fair of 1862, &c. He co-operated with the Hon. William Hamil
ton Merritt, in securing from the colonial office the reduction of the
duty on Canadian wheat to a merely nominal sum, and, being in Eng
land, in 1843, was the last person who gave his testimony at the colo
nial office before the granting of this, which was then thought a great
boon. Lord Stanley (now Earl Derby) had been called away un
expectedly, but he left a written question with Mr. Hope, the
under-secretary ofthe colonies, for Mr. Buchanan, which he seemed
to think could not be answered. How, asked his lordship, is it that
you should be so anxious to get the duty taken off Canadian wheat
when you scarcely export any ? Mr. Buchanan's reply was, that
the districts which he represented, the Home, the Gore and the

580 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
London districts, all shipped on lake Ontario large quantities of
wheat, and they could not be held responsible if much of it did not
reach England, but was eaten in Lower Canada or went to the
lower ports. The plea of these districts was, that, as taking pay
ment in British manufactures, and not in specie, they were entitled
to the English price for their wheat, less the cost of transportation.
Mr. Hope indicated that the answer entirely met the objections
that had been or could be raised.
Mr. Buchanan, on his return to Canada, in 1843, sided with the
great and good Sir Charles Metcalfe in the great quarrel which his
ministers picked with him. On this subject there has been a
great deal of misrepresentation, and we therefore think it well to
say that of the forty-two elections in Upper Canada, thirty-eight
went in favor of the friends of the governor-general.
Of all the leading statesmen in England, he seems to have.
conceived the greatest respect for Lord George Bentinck. Their
views on patriotism accorded, and he found Lord George more
single minded than others of our statesmen of the present day.
He wrote an eloquent obituary on his lordship's death, which ap
peared in the Glasgow Examiner.
Mr. Buchanan married in January, 1843, Agnes, second daugh
ter of Robert Jarvie, Esq., an eminent merchant in Glasgow, and
they have a large family. Mrs. Buchanan's amiability and active
charities are well known in and about Hamilton. She takes the
deepest interest in all her hasband's undertakings, and resents with
all the warmth of an affectionate and devoted wife the ribald attacks
of his political assailants, by throwing herself the more heartily into
all his elections. Her success was thus gracefuUy alluded to from
the hustings by her husband's opponent at the last general elec
tion : " Gentlemen, the gallantry of our electors has contributed
largely to our defeat."
They have a beautiful seat called " Auchmar," on the mountain
overlooking the city of Hamilton and the blue expanse of water at
the head of lake Ontario, one of the healthiest spots in all America.
Auchmar is situated in Clairmont Park, a property laid out by
Mr. Buchanan for villas. His children were mostly born there,
and Mrs. Buchanan's partiality to Canada encourages an inclina
tion on her husband's part to be an exception to the rule too
prevalent with our wealthy mercantile men, of retiring to spend
their means in the mother country, leaving their children to enter
upon the battle of life unaided by the vantage ground which in
the colony the standing and experience of the parents would have
given them. The only other surviving member of his father's family
is Jane, his youngest daughter, wife of Major Douglas, who resides
at Adamton, Ayrshire, Scotland.
In conclusion, we have to admit that this is rather a slight glance
at Mr. Buchanan's character than a full sketch of his life. To

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 581
write a history of his thirty years' life of ceaseless activity, with
more than half of his time devoted to the business of others and of
the public, would be to write a history of Upper Canada. It would
be to do more in Mr. Buchanan's case — it would be to write a his
tory of that more practical philanthropy which the peculiar state
of a new society calls into operation.
The hospitalities of the Canadian are as proverbial as were those
of the Scottish Auchmar. In a word, we need only in regard to
pioneers of a young country, like Mr. Buchanan, exclaim : —
" Si monumentum quoeris, —
Circumspice !"
Indeed, if we take away the things in which such men have
had a hand, Upper Canada will have very little history remaining.

Hon. JOHN A. MACDONALD, M.P.P.,
Attorney-General, West.
The Honorable John Alexander Macdonald, attorney-
general of Upper Canada, is the eldest son of the late Hugh
Macdonald, Esq., of Kingston. " Much can be made of a Scotch
man," said Dr. Johnson, " if caught young." This was the case
with the future attorney-general — his father, a member of a
respectable family in Sutherlandshire, having come to Canada in
the year 1820, when his son, who was born in 1814, was not six
years of age. Mr. Macdonald established himself in business in
Kingston, and sent his son to the royal grammar school of that
place, taught by Dr. Wilson, fellow of Oxford, and subsequently
by Mr. Baxter. At this school, as many of his school-mates
testify, he gave promise and earnest of those abilities which were
to be subsequently so useful to the province. He was a good
mathematical, as well as classical scholar. A great reader, he
early acquired a large stock of general knowledge, which a good
memory rendered serviceable to him. When fifteen years of age
he left school to commence the study of the law. This he pro
secuted vigorously under George McKenzie, a barrister in large
practice at Kingston, and when little over twenty-one years of age
he was called to the bar.
In consequence of the death of Mr. McKenzie a short time
before, he succeeded at once to a practice which soon became one

582 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of the largest in the country, and which after some years he oarried
on in partnership with Mr. Alexander Campbell, now a member of
the Legislative Council. In 1839 Mr. Macdonald was appointed
solicitor of the Commercial Bank of the Midland district, an office
which he still retains. But it was not merely in the practice of
civil law that Mr. Macdonald, while still a very young man, dis
tinguished himself at the bar. In 1839 his professional services
were engaged on behalf of the so-called General Von Schultzz, one
of the most prominent of the American sympathizers at that
troubled period in the history of Canada. Von Schultzz paid the
forfeit of his life for the insane attempt to revolutionize Canada,
in which he had been an active partizan. But the tact and ability
with which Mr. Macdonald defended him were subjects of general
observation at the time. We have before us a Montreal newspaper
which contains* an account of the trial, to which is appended the
editor's opinion, that the defender of the unfortunate " General"
would be ere long recognized as one of the first men in the
country. His good nature and affable manners made Mr. Macdonald
a favorite with the bar as well as with the public. His knowledge
of law and shrewd common sense became daUy better known and
appreciated. He was retained in all cases of importance, while
many public institutions had the benefit of his counsel. In con
nection with his practice at the bar must be mentioned his services
to the Trust and Loan Company of Upper Canada, which owes
much of its success to his exertions.
Mr. Macdonald early turned his attention to politics, and in
1844 he was elected member for Kingston in the second Parliament
of United Canada. His election affords proof of the estimation
in which he was then, as now, held by the citizens of Kingston.
As soon as he came forward, his election was regarded as a
certainty, and his return was hailed with enthusiasm. The year
in which he entered Parliament was one of great political excite
ment. In 1843 Lord (then Sir Charles) Metcalfe's reform
ministers, differing from that most able and excellent man as to
the power of the Executive Council in the matter of public
appointments, retired from office. A political interregnum followed
their retirement, and the country was divided into two parties,
one of which stood for the governor-general, and the other for
his late advisers. It would be scarcely just now to accuse the
retiring ministers of encouraging the virulent and often outrageous
attacks upon Lord Metcalfe, which disgraced the greater part of
the reform press, and which were repeated at the polls and at
public meetings by so many outside supporters of the reform
cause. " The only feeling," wrote Mr. Hincks, in reply to a
letter of Mr. Isaac Buchanan, " that I or any of my late colleagues
can entertain towards his excellenoy is one of gratitude for the
uniform courtesy with which we were treated by him up to the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 583
last moment that we held office. Mr. Buchanan must not, there
fore, hold me up to the public as responsible for newspaper
paragraphs, of which, if personal to the governor, I do not
hesitate to say, I disapprove." But, at the time, the con
servatives and the conservative press were unwilling to acquit the
ex-ministers of blame, and Mr. Buchanan and other reformers
united with the conservatives in denouncing them. The views of
responsible government entertained by the reformers of that period
have ultimately prevailed, and are now accepted as constitutional
and just. At the time, however, many able politicians doubted
their applicability to a subordinate government, and to a public
officer, responsible not to the province, but to the crown. And
assuredly there was much to commend Lord Metcalfe to the
sympathy of generous minds. His great virtues, his eminent
public services, his personal sufferings, united with respect for his
station, to insure for him the support of a large party in the
country — a party strengthened by the adherence of those who
were opposed to responsible government even in its mildest and
most restricted form. Among the moderate conservatives may be
placed Mr. Macdonald, who, if moderate in his conservatism, was
strong in his regard and veneration for Lord Metcalfe.
The Parliament to which Mr. Macdonald was elected met at
Montreal on the 28th November, 1844. The first vote was a
triumph for the conservative ministers who had replaced the former
administration, and Sir Allan MacNab was elected speaker by a
majority of three. Mr. Baldwin moved what was equivalent to a
vote of want of confidence in the ministry. A long debate fol
lowed, but the motion was finally rejected by a majority of six.
Mr. Macdonald took no part in the debate ; but it is needless to
say that he supported the ministry. The division shows the
strong feeling for Lord Metcalfe whieh prevailed in Upper Canada.
The general election had resulted in the return of a large ministerial
majority from that section of the province; and with the ministry
the great majority of the Lower Canada British also sympathized.
But the French, headed by Mr. Lafontaine, stood almost to a man
by the Upper Canada reformers; and it was evident that the
conservatives had a hard struggle before them. It does not enter
into our plan to describe in detail the stormy contest which ensued.
Suffice it to say, that although supported often by very small
majorities, the ministry contrived to hold its ground, and that in
doing so it received the consistent support of the member for
Kingston. It was long, however, before Mr. Macdonald took a
prominent part in the debates of the House of Assembly. The
conservative party, to which he had attached himself, was led by
men of ability and experience, and although regarded as a rising
hope of his party, Mr. Macdonald did not often address the house.
In this he gave proof of good taste, and of the tact and shrewdness

584 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
which had proved so useful to him at the bar. A young member
of known ability is not less likely to be highly esteemed because
he does not often present himself tothe notice of the house. There
is greater danger in saying too much than too little. Mr. Macdonald
had not been more than two years and a half in Parliament when
he was appointed a member of the cabinet. The post assigned
him was that of receiver-general, to which he was appointed on
the 21st May, 1847. Mr. Draper was the head of the government,
and Mr. Macdonald had for colleagues Messrs. Daly, Wilham
Morris, D. B. Papineau, Cayley, Badgley, and J. H. Cameron.
He did not long hold the office of receiver-general, being appointed
in lieu thereof commissioner of crown lands. In no office under
the government are the duties more perplexing than in the crown
Lands. Numberless cases of more or less difficulty are constantly
lying over for adjudication. It was said at the time that no one
of his predecessors had ever disposed of them with such promptitude
and sagacity as Mr. Macdonald. Great changes had taken place
in the political world since Mr. Macdonald's appearance upon the
stage. Lord Metcalfe had gone home weighed down by the mortal
disease against which he had long borne up in the performance of
his duty, with the courage of a martyr. Lord Cathcart had suc
ceeded him, and he was replaced by the Earl of Elgin. Lord
Elgin first met the Canadian Parliament on the 4th June, 1847.
During the session which terminated on the 28th July, the ministry
met with several defeats, and on the 6th of December Parliament
was dissolved. The greatest exertions were made by the reformers
to secure a majority in Upper Canada, and things had altered
materially with the conservatives since the former election. The
French remained, as before, determinedly opposed to alliance with
the conservatives, and the conservatives had by no means such a
support from Upper Canada as at the preceding election. The
new Parliament met on the 25th of February, 1848. The state of
things was soon tested. Mr. Cayley, seconded by Colonel Prince,
moved that Sir Allan MacNab be elected speaker. Mr. Lafon
taine, seconded by Mr. Baldwin, moved the election of Mr. Morin,
who was chosen by a large majority. The governor addressed the
houses on the 26th, and stormy debates immediately followed on
contested election returns. Early in March, the ministry resigned,
and Mr. Lafontaine and Mr. Baldwin were sent for by the governor
to form a new one. Mr. Macdonald, whose political reputation was
now high, became, of course, an opponent of the new administra
tion. Sir Allan MacNab was the recognized, but Mr. Macdonald
the really efficient, leader of the opposition. Between 1848 and
September, 1854, he upheld the opposition cause, and enunciated
the views of the conservative party. The session of 1849 is
specially prominent in the history of the province. The rebellion
losses bill had caused great excitement throughout the country,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 585
although a large majority in the House of Assembly were in favor
of it. Petition after petition called upon the governor to refer the
measure to her Majesty for approval or disapproval; but Lord
Elgin was advised by his ministers to sanction it himself. When
he did so, a furious mob threatened the ministerial members, and
set fire to the parUament house. In the debates upon the bill Mr.
Macdonald ably but temperately opposed it. The excitement which
followed the burning of the parliament house was boundless, and
many who had in the rebellion taken up arms for the crown were
so disgusted by the turn which affairs had taken as to talk about the
peaceful annexation of the province to the United States. But Mr.
Macdonald allowed no political misdeeds to interfere with his steady
loyalty to the crown, and his unwavering attachment to British
connection. Opposed to the government, he contented himself
with constitutional opposition to its measures. At Toronto, to
which after the burning of the parliament house, the government
was removed, the Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry broke up, Mr.
Baldwin having resigned on the Court of Chancery question, and
Mr. Hincks was placed at the head of the new cabinet, which met
with the same determined opposition from the conservatives. But
it was not merely conservative assaults which Mr. Hincks had to
encounter. A large section of reformers, headed by Mr. George
Brown, who was elected to Parliament in 1851, denounced him
with still greater bitterness than the conservatives did. Mr.
Hincks, however, passed triumphantly through the sessions of 1852
and 1853, which were held in Quebec; but early in 1854 it became
evident that the strong opposition of the conservatives, and the
still more violent opposition of the supporters of Mr. Brown, were
telling heavily against the ministry. Parliament did not meet till
the 5th of June, almost the last day permitted by law. A strong
coalition opposed the ministry. Mr. Brown, with whom there
already acted several reformers, Mr. Cauchon, who had long been
opposed to them, Mr. Sicotte, and some of the French members,
Mr. Langton and several members who acted independently of
party ties, united — though from different points of view — with the
conservatives in denouncing the administration. No allusion was
made in the speech from the throne either to the clergy reserves
or seigniorial tenure questions. This was dwelt upon in various
amendments to the proposed reply. It was said that the conduct
of the government in promising constantly a settlement of these
questions, and constantly postponing it was grossly reprehensible ;
that it destroyed altogether the confidence of the people in their
rulers ; that it was causing the greatest excitement both in Upper
and in Lower Canada. A division was taken upon an amendment
of Mr. Sicotte's, affirming : " That this house sees with regret,
that his excellency's government does not intend to submit to the
legislature, during the present session, a bill for the immediate
74

586 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
settlement of the seigniorial question, or one for the immediate
settlement of the clergy reserves." The debate upon the reply to
the address was a fierce one ; and the ministers were assailed on all
sides. Mr. Sicotte, Mr. Cauchon, Mr. Langton, spoke against
them warmly. Mr. Brown called upon the house in the name of
the people of Upper Canada, and in the name of political honesty,
to agree to the motion. When earlier in the debate, Mr. Mac
donald addressed the house, the galleries were crowded with
spectators, many of whom had come from different parts of the
province. His able and eloquent speech, told with tremendous
effect against the government. In reply to a threat of Mr.
Hincks, that the government would not allow any legislation
that session which they did not think convenient, he said, " What !
had it come to that ? Were they a free parliament or were they
not ? Had they to be told by the minister in that house that they
must do only that which he would allow them, and no more, and
after that be sent away to their homes ? Might not the honorable
gentleman go a step further and say, ' take away that bauble !'
pointing to the mace. The honorable gentleman surpassed even
himself in audacity, when he ventured so to express himself. The
majority of the honorable member was becoming small by degrees
and beautifully less, and it might be very convenient for him to
have a short session, which would only pass such bills as he wanted.
He believed that the announcement of the inspector general (Mr.
Hincks) was an unconstitutional one, and that they might search
in vain in the annals of the British legislature for such an announce
ment from the mouth of a minister. He knew the answer that
would be made on the part of the government. He would be told
that he (Mr. Macdonald) did not want to have the clergy reserves
secularized this session or any other session. That was quite true ;
but it did not alter the position of ministers. Every member of
the house had an interest in insisting that the pledges and pro
mises of the government should be kept ; and that the public mind
should not be debauched by the moral wrongs of the government.
They had an interest that the public mind should not be contami
nated. It was immoral that the government should occupy their
places upon the strength of violated pledges, and the grossest cor
ruption, while they enriched themselves by speculations in public
property." Mr. Macdonald proceeded to deny that the govern
ment should listen with indifference to the charges of gross corrup
tion which were made against tham ; but though they did not as
it was their duty to do, press themselves for an investigation of
these charges, it was the duty of the House to sift them thoroughly,
and to see whether they were not breaking their promises the bet
ter to work schemes of corruption. William Pitt, careless as
he was of other slander, when he was accused by a London news
paper of speculation in public property, thought it his duty to

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 587
bring the slanderer to justice. Why did our ministers show no
such feeling ? The division upon Mr. Sicotte's motion took place
on the night of Tuesday the 20th, when it was carried by a
majority of thirteen ; the vote standing forty-two for, to twenty-
nine against. On Wednesday, the greatest excitement prevailed,
but people could hardly bring themselves to believe that after
a vote taken under such circumstances, the governor-general would
stand by his ministers. Such, however, was the case. On the
22nd, Lord Elgin dissolved the refractory Parliament in a curt
speech, which gave great offence to the majority. His course was
protested against by the speaker, Mr. Sandfield Macdonald, in an
address which was at the time attributed to the subject of our
memoir. " It has been the immemorial custom for the speaker ofthe
House of Commons," said the speaker of the House of Assembly,
" to communicate to the throne the general result of the delibera
tions of the house on the principal subjects which may have engaged
its attention during the session of Parliament. On the present
occasion, however, I have no such communication to make to your
excellency, inasmuch as there has been no bill passed or other pro
ceeding adopted since your excellency in your very gracious speech
from the throne, honored us with reasons for whieh you had convoked
this Parliament. The passing of a bill through all its stages, according
to the laws and custom of Parliament (solemnly declared applicable
to the parliamentary deliberations of this province by a decision of
the Legislative Assembly in 1841,) is considered necessary to con
stitute a session of Parliament. We could not perform such a
duty in consequence of the order of your excellency to us commu
nicated, to meet you this day in order to be prorogued." A few
formal expressions of respect closed the " protest" as it was justly
called, which was greatly commended. This arbitrary and uncon
stitutional dissolution did much to increase the strong feeling which
existed against the administration ; and Lord Elgin came in for a
large share of censure. Vigorous preparations for the general elec
tion were made by all parties. The ministerial party in Upper Canada
maintained that if the reformers deserted the cabinet, they would
lose the Lower Canada alliance, and groan under a conservative
domination : on the other hand, Mr. Brown and his followers
maintained that it was the duty of reformers, in defiance of conse
quences to put down corruptionists who had broken faith with the
people, and who by'pandering to the Roman Catholic hierarchy, had
even been false to the Protestant religion. The religious element
was indeed largely intermixed with the election. Denunciation of
corruption, and the upholding of what he called " broad Protes
tant principles," were the two great weapons of Mr. Brown ; and
the religious disturbances which had taken place in 1853, in Que
bec and Montreal, did much to aid his endeavors to excite religious
antipathies. The congervatives, though without the violence of

588 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the recalcitrant reformers, set to work actively to start candidates,
and their strength, always very great in Upper Canada, was proved
by the return of a large number of members. In Lower Canada,
also, an active opposition canvass resulted in the return of some
French members partaking more or less the views of Mr. Cauchon,
who had been long a bitter opponent of Mr. Hincks' ministry, as
well as of a number of "rouges." Mr. Macdonald was returned
triumphantly for Kingston. The new Parliament met at Quebec
on the 5th of September. In the course of a few days, Mr. Hincks
found it necessary to resign, and Sir Allan MacNab became the
head of a cabinet, consisting partly of reformers, and partly of
conservatives. Thus was formed the Coalition of whieh Mr. Macdonald, as
attorney-general, west, has been the life, and which, though it has
met with much opposition and calumny, has been eminently ad
vantageous to the country. From its very commencement, it had
to encounter the assaults of parties agreed on nothing but the
hatred of it. Extreme tories not seeing that it was absolutely
necessary, in accordance with the demand of the country, to make
a final settlement of the clergy reserves question, denounced the
unholy alliance of Sir Allan MacNab and Mr. Macdonald, with
supporters of secularization, such as Mr. Ross, and Mr. Spence-
Extreme radicals, who hated the very name of a conservative with
frenzied bitterness, did not hesitate to declare that they would
neither parley with conservatives, nor accept from them any
measures whatsoever. But if from the outset, the coalition has been
unjustiy and irrationally opposed, it also met from the beginning
with a large share of rational [support. Moderate conservatives
and moderate reformers in the country, as well as in ParUament, saw
that a ministry was wanted, composed of moderate and reasonable men
who would dispose for ever of questions which, rightly or wrongly,
had been the cause of endless trouble and vexation. That such
politicians were right in supporting the new ministry the history
of the last seven years amply proves. Not only has the Queen's
government been carried on, but it has been carried on wisely and
honorably. The few charges of corrupt speculation which an un
scrupulous press has not hesitated to make against members of
the government have been disposed of to the avowed satisfaction of
vehement but candid opponents. Wise measures have been the
result of moderate legislation ; and with these measures the his
tory of the province will for ever connect the name of Mr. Mac
donald. The first step of such of the new ministers as were members of
the House of Assembly was to secure the seats which they had
vacated by accepting office. Notwithstanding a violent opposition
both from ultra-tories and ultra-radicals, they were all re-elected.
Mr. Macdonald, who candidly and forcibly explained to the electors

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 589
of Kingston his views and those of his colleagues on the state of
public affairs, and the intentions of the new ministry with regard
to the great questions before the country, was triumphantly
returned without opposition. When the new ministers took their
places they found that an opposition to their government had been
duly organized. The clear grits, headed by Mr. Brown, the
rouges, led by Mr. Dorion, and aided by Mr. Sandfield Macdonald
and several moderate reformers, who considered that consistency
with old reform traditions required them to refuse to act with
moderate conservatives about to pass reform measures, had banded
themselves together with a view to undiscriminating opposition.
Although the seat immediately to the left of the speaker was by
common consent accorded to Mr. Mackenzie, it was evident from
the first that Mr. Brown was the real leader of the party. The
task which the new conservative ministers had taken up was
certainly not an easy one, although precedents for the course they
pursued are to be found in British politics. Yielding to the voice
of the country, expressed too distinctly to be disregarded, they
had determined on the clergy reserves question, to take a course
which they had hitherto constantly and vehemently opposed.
For years the clergy reserves had been the grand subject of
contention in Upper Canada. Claimed at first as the exclusive
property of the Church of England, the members of the Church
of Scotland maintained their right to a share in them — a claim
which was finally admitted after much agitation, and a decision
of the tiwelve judges of England in its favor. Ultimately, in
the distribution of the proceeds of the lands, still less exclusive-
ness was shown, and a large portion of the proceeds of them was,
by an imperial act, placed at the disposal of the governor-
general for the clergy of any denomination willing to receive
public aid. But the agitation which had been at first raised against
the exclusive claims of the Church of England had hardly ceased,
when it was succeeded by another, which had for its object the
entire alienation of the lands from religious uses. A large number
of Presbyterians, who, sympathizing with the Scottish secession of
1843, withdrew in 1844 from the Canadian church in connection
with the Church of Scotland, had discovered that public aid,
however unreservedly and unconditionally it might be granted,
was injurious to the cause of religion. The same persons who had
hitherto only claimed what were considered to be the rights of the
Church of Scotland, now cordially united with the party which
had from the beginning opposed any application of the public
property for the support of religion. As the Roman Catholics
took no active part in the struggle which ensued, the contest
was chiefly between members of the Church of England and
the Church of Scotland, and a portion of the Wesleyan Metho
dists on the one side, and those who dissented altogether from

590 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the religious establishments of the mother country on the other.
The agitation was fiercely carried on ; and although Mr. Baldwin,
the excellent leader of the reformers, was well known to be adverse
to secularization, the great body of his party were strong sup- ,
porters of it. The conservatives, on the other hand, whose strength
lay principally with persons who could see no wrong in the state's
making some provision for the religious education of the people,
vehemently denounced secularization. The result of the agitation
was, as might have been expected, violence and bad feeling. The
country became divided between secu'arizers and non-secularizers,
and at elections riots and disturbances of all kinds were not
unfrequent among the supporters and the enemies of the endow
ment. Whether those on principle opposed to the clergy reserves
outnumbered those on principle in favor of them is, perhaps,
doubtful. But, be this as it may, there arose in the country,
among many who were decidedly in favor of religious endowments,
a strong conviction that in some way or other the vexed question
should be set at rest. Many members returned in 1854, who had
no radical or clear grit leanings, shared in this conviction ; and
Mr. Macdonald and his colleagues had resolved to act on it.
Whether history will record with approbation the alienation of the
clergy reserves, from the purpose to which they had been origmaUy
set apart, is a question which need not now be discussed. But it
can scarcely be doubted that the public feeling, and the view
generally taken of the public interest at the time, rendered it
necessary for the conservative portion of the ministry to surrender
their own predilections. Not only did the country demand a
settlement of the question ; it must also be remembered that the
new ministry was a coalition ministry, and that several of the
Upper Canadian members of it had been always advocates of
secularization. Mr. Macdonald, though he had long been an
eloquent opponent of secularization, ably defended, in the House
of Assembly, the course agreed on by his colleagues. They who
judge such a course inconsistent with public duty, must equally
pronounce sentence against such men as the Duke of Wellington
and Sir Robert Peel.
On the 17th of October Mr. Macdonald introduced the bill
which finally secularized the clergy reserves, and declared that
there was to be in future no connection in Canada between church
and state. The bill became law, and thus an agitation raised by
reformers was settled by a partly conservative ministry. But in
one respect the bill met in its progress with strong opposition.
When the Imperial Parliament granted power in 1853 to the
provincial legislature to deal as it thought proper with the clergy
reserves, it added a proviso, that the rights of incumbents should
be respected. To this, in dealing with the question, clear grits
would have themselves been compelled to yiela. But it occurred

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 591
to Mr. Macdonald that it would be well to commute on just
principles the claims of incumbents, and thus to erase for ever
from the books of the province an account which had been the
cause of so much trouble. To do so it became necessary to obtain
the consent of the individuals and religious bodies interested. The
whole proceeding caused great alarm to Mr. Brown ; and, although
most will be inclined to rejoice that in accordance with Mr.
Macdonald's plan commutation was effected, the reserves handed
to the municipalities, and the account for ever closed, it must be
admitted that the clear grit chief was not mistaken when he
expressed his appiehension that a foundation would thus be laid
for a new endowment. Thanks to the liberality of the clergy, the
amount of the commutation was applied by both churches to the
formation of funds, to supply in some measure the place of the
endowment which had been applied to secular purposes.
The new ministry did not confine its labors, in dealing with
great questions, to the western section of the province. While
Upper Canada had been agitated by the clergy reserves question, a
conviction had become stronger in Lower Canada of the hard
ship, and injurious tendency of the tenure under which the greater
part of the lands was held in that section of the country. That tenure
was indeed a serious grievance. Lower Canada was the only part
of the American continent in which, even in a modified form,
there existed an imitation of the feudal system of the middle
ages. Anxious to establish an aristocracy in Canada, the French
kings, had on the early settlement of the country, granted large
tracts of land to cadets of ancient families of France ; and the
patents under which they held their lands confirmed to them many
of the privileges of the French noblesse. It was long before these
privileges caused much annoyance to the censitaire. From the
peculiar circumstances of the country, they were not at first
felt to be oppressive. But although the charges upon the lands
themselves were never high, the heavy payments due to the seigniors
on the transfer of property, and the repression of industry caused
by monopolies in trade, enjoyed, in some cases, by the seigniors,
were sufficient to excite a people becoming daily more enterprising
and energetic. Had the grievance been in itself only a trifling
one, had seiginorial rights been merely nominal instead of
actually burdensome, even then the vestiges of a past system
would have been just subject of complaint. As it was, the
strongest feeling prevailed on the matter in the rural parts of Lower
Canada; and the neglect of the wrongs of the censitaires had been
made at the general election, a matter of bitter reproach to Mr.
Hincks's government. This great source of agitation and trouble
was destined, as well as the clergy reserves, to be settled by the coali
tion ministry. The seigniorial tenure bill, was proceeded with pari
passu with that for the secularization of the clergy reserves ; and,

592 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
while Lord Elgin had the satisfaction of sanctioning the day before
he resigned the government, the act which disposed finally of
the clergy reserves question, the cause of so much trouble in
Upper Canada, he also gave his sanction to a measure pro
viding for the abolition of the real grievance of the seigniorial
tenure. Five years later, it was attempted in Upper Canada to
rouse sectional , feeling, by vehement protests against the payment
of any portion of the legal rights of the seigniors from the public
chest of the province ; but it was at the same time proved to the satis
faction of all candid men, that the very parties who attempted to raise
this clamor, had themselves in the beginning of August, 1858, when
in the momentary possession of the reins of government, agreed to
follow the very course for which they so bitterly reproached their
opponents. On the 23rd of February, the houses re-assembled. Sir Allan
MacNab announced the retirement of Mr. Morin, who had been
the leader of the Lower Canada section of Mr. Hincks'-s ministry.
His successor was Mr. Cauchon. On the same day, the govern
ment was strengthened by the acquisition of Mr. Cartier, the
present premier, who accepted office as provincial-secretary.
Two important measures distinguished the second half of the
first session of the new Parliament. Sir Allan MacNab proceeded
with the militia bill ; and Mr. Cauchon took charge of another,
which was not, however, passed till the next session, the object of
which was gradually to render the Legislative Council elective. In
this matter, Mr. Macdonald and his conservative colleagues had
also felt it to be their duty to yield to the demands of the people.
It had never been the desire of the conservatives, that the Legisla
tive Council should consist of any persons but those nominated
to it by the crown. This too, had always been the feeling of Mr.
Baldwin and that section of the reformers of Upper Canada, whose
views of politics may be said to have been formed after the model of
the English Whigs. But an agitation originally begun in Lower,
had extended to Upper Canada, in favor of an elective Council.
With this agitation many throughout the country sympathized ;
and if the plan of two legislative bodies elected by the same people,
seem to be of doubtful expediency in theory, it must be admitted
that the old Legislative Council had come to be of little practical
account. To suit the exigencies of ministers, not a few appoint
ments had heen made to it of at least doubtful utility ; and for
some years previous to the passing of the bill which provided for
its being ultimately rendered elective, it had, in ordinary matters
at least, almost ceased to act as a check upon the House of Assem
bly. Formerly, when chief-justices, prelates, and high permanent
officials were wont to take part in the debates ofthe two Legislative
Councils, they had exercised powers which the Houses of Assem
bly of the two provinoes made ground of complaint. But since the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA^ 593
union, the Legislative Councilliad rapidly declinedininfluence. Able
men, became, for the most part, unwilling to join it ; and the best
friends of the crown appointing principle found it difficult to
defend a body which rendered such little service to the country.
There was a general impression that the proceedings of the House of
Assembly should be revised, but that the Legislative Council was
either unequal to the task, or unwilling to perform.it; and the bill met
with the approval of many who felt reluctant to diminish any of
the privileges of the crown. Mr. Cauchon, who introduced the bill,
had himself on former occasions opposed the principle of two elec
tive chambers ; and he, as well as Mr. Macdonald and his conservative
colleagues from Upper Canada, yielded to the demand of public
opinion. The bill became law in 1856 ; and thus the coalition
ministry was identified with the settlement of another great ques
tion. In the first session, too, the Grand Trunk Railway engaged the
earnest attention of ministers. Mr. Macdonald and his conserva
tive colleagues had disapproved of the arrangement made by Mr.
Hincks for the building of the Grand Trunk Railway, as less favor
able than it might have been to the province, and likely to prove a
source of corruption. That arrangement was, however, a " fait
accompli ;" and they now agreed, as on subsequent occasions, that
the public faith, and the public interest required that this great and
beneficial public work should be sustained, even if at a heavier cost,
than any one had at first anticipated. In recording some of the great
measures in connection with which the coalition will be ever remem
bered in the history of the country, little has been said of Mr.
Macdonald. But that he deserves much of the credit is proved by
the fact that he was made by the opposition to bear the head and
front of the offending with which they charged the government.
It is sufficient to say that he constantly and on all occasions gave
his colleagues the fullest benefit of his talents and his knowledge of
the wants and wishes of the country, and there is not one of
them who would not admit that the success of the ministry was
largely due to his exertions.
But the government had a stormy session before it at Toronto,
which had again after much debate, become the temporary capital.
Parliament met on the 15th of February ; and there were soon
indications of trouble. In the debates upon the address, the
ministers were most violently, and unreasonably assailed. Mr.
Macdonald, in a powerful speech, defended the government from
the combined assaults of ultra-radicals, and ultra-tories, of ultra-
Upper Canadians from the west, and ultra-Frenchmen from Lower
Canada. The reply in answer to the speech from the throne was
carried by a large majority, notwithstanding the most violent
opposition. On the 10th of March, Mr. J. Hillyard Cameron
moved for a copy of the charge delivered by Mr, Justice Duval,
75

594 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
on the occasion of the trial of a number of men at Quebec for
the murder of Robert Corrigan at St. Sylvester, a township not far
distant from that city. Although the proof against the accused was
generally considered to be conclusive, they were one and all acquit
ted by the jury which tried them. Corrigan was a Protestant,
and the members of the jury, as well as the judge, were Roman
Catholics. The evidence at the trial was largely copied by the press
from one end of the province to the other ; and not only was the con
duct of the jury severely animadverted upon, but the judge came
in also for a large share of censure. No trial indeed had ever
before caused such excitement in the country ; and the opposition
press of Upper Canada took advantage of it, in their attempts to
gain over the Orange party to the clear-grit cause. Mr. Cameron's
motion was opposed by the government on various constitutional
grounds, but was carried by a majority of four. It was clearly
proved, by a subsequent vote that the government notwithstanding
possessed the confidence of a large majority of the members of
the House of Assembly; and although the division on Mr.
Cameron's motion brought things to something like a crisis, it was
not followed by the resignation of ministers.
There is no doubt however that the vote on Mr. Camoron's mation
did much for a time to weaken the position of the ministry. And,
while a religious issue was energetically raised against them, other
difficulties were not wanting. Complaints had been not unfrequent
among the supporters of the coalition who had formerly acted with
the reform party, concerning the leadership of Sir Allan MacNab.
In their eyes, Sir Allan was too much identified with the old
fashioned toryism to which they and their party had been always
warmly opposed. It was said among the reform supporters of the
government that Sir Allan was under the influence of the remnant
of the compact party still to be found at Toronto ; that attempts
were being made to organize a party exclusively tory ; and that
such attempts would continue, as long as even the nominal leader
ship was in Sir Allan's hands. Nor was this cry altogether con
fined to the reform wing of the coalition. Not a few moderate
conservatives felt strongly that it was essential to the triumph of
moderate and rational views in politics, that the coalition should be
led by a man whose opinions were obnoxious to neither section of
the moderate party. It was further said that even if Sir Allan's
views were more modern than they were, the state of his health
rendered it utterly impossible for him to be the efficient leader of
a party. Mr. Macdonald long resisted these views and stood firmly
for Sir Allan ; but the complaints became louder and louder.
Although some politicians did not hesitate to say and to write the
contrary, if Mr. Macdonald's course was reprehensible in this mat
ter, it was so in that he stood too long for Sir Allan MacNab's
leadership. It pained Mr. Macdonald, than whom no man could

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 595
be a truer friend, to see Sir Allan's leadership repudiated by many.
But Mr. Macdonald had a duty to perform to his party, and to the
country, with whieh no personal feelings could be permitted to inter
fere ; and while some, with the grossest injustice, accused him of
deserting Sir Allan MacNab, others with more reason, blamed him
for a too protracted defence of what they called an effete leadership.
In the meantime old reformers and old conservatives from Upper
Canada agreed in signing an address to Mr. Macdonald, expressive
of confidence in his ability and sympathy with his political opinions,
and declaring definitely that they regarded him as their chief. On
the 23rd May, Sir Allan retired, and Sir Etienne (then Mr.)
Tach6, an old and respected politician from Lower Canada, became
the leader of the newly constituted government, which was
strengthened at the same time, by the accession of Mr. Vankough
net, in whom Mr. Macdonald had discerned the eminent adminis
trative ability which he has since displayed, as leader of the Legis
lative Council, and commissioner of crown lands. Upper Cana
dian ministerialists would have preferred that Mr. Macdonald
had become the leader of the ministry. But there had been
two Upper Canadian premiers in succession, and it was thought
that Sir Etienne Tache' was entitled to succeed Sir Allan. The
new premier being a member of the Legislative Council, Mr.
Macdonald became leader of the House of Assembly. The position
of the government was, for a time, more than critical. Ex-minis
ters united with men who had formerly denounced them with the
utmost bitterness in factious opposition to the administration ; and
the Grand Trunk Railway became again a source of trouble. But
the difficulties of the session served to bring out to the fullest
extent the great political talents of Mr. Macdonald. Violently
denounced by some of the opponents of the government, his tact
and sagacity were more than a match for them all ; and ere the ses
sion was brought to a close, there was an evident re-action in favor
of ministers, who succeeded, in carrying various useful and impor
tant measures.
The re-action in favor of the ministry, which became evident ere
the close ofthe stormy session of 1856, extended throughout the coun
try ; and the government passed triumphantly through the session
of 1857. Parliament met on the 26th February ; Mr. Mac
donald lost no time in pressing forward some of the many mea
sures of law reform with which his name is identified, and which
would of themselves be sufficient to secure him a high place among
the benefactors of the province. The proceedings of tbe session
gave on the whole great satisfaction to moderate men throughout
the country. Many wise measures had been placed upon the
statute book. The difficulties of 1856 had caused not a few to
doubt whether the province was fit for self-government. But in
1857 the tactics of the opposition had been happily frustrated.

696 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The work of Parliament was done peaceably and efficiently. Few
personal disputes had occurred; and the most doubtful looked
forward with hope to the successful working of constitutional
government. Things went on quietly during the summer ; but late in the
year it was determined to dissolve Parliament. Sir Etienne Tache'
having resigned the premiership, he was succeeded by Mr. Mac
donald, whose influence in Parliament, and in the country, natur
ally pointed him out as the most proper person to hold that high
office. In the general election which followed, the greatest
efforts were made by the opposition. To the old cry of " cor
ruption," was added that of " broad Protestant principles," which
was now made use of with greater vigor than ever. Scan
dalous newspaper articles, in which gross fabrications against the
government were disseminated throughout the country, were
followed, in the rural districts of Upper Canada, by still more
scandalous placards and pamphlets. It would be idle either to
search out or to contradict the libels which were printed in Toronto,
and circulated by thousands throughout the country. The members
of the government were held up to public odium as little better
than public robbers ; while the alleged religious issue was stated
with an effrontery characteristic of those who resorted to it. In
some counties the issue was made to lie between the Pope on the
one side, and the Queen on the other, and there was not one in
which both clear grit writers and clear grit speakers did not appeal
to sectional and religious prejudices. The result of the election
was, that while Lower Canada sustained the new government, and
turned out almost the whole band of rouges who had been elected
to oppose Mr, Hincks's administration, the opposition boasted of a
small majority from the western section of the province.
Parliament met on the 25th of February, and it was soon
evident that a stormy session was to take place. The debates on
the address were protracted and vehement ; and the alleged
triumphs of the opposition in Upper Canada were dwelt on with,
enthusiasm. But the seat of government question, which had
been left to her Majesty for arbitrament, after various unsuccessful
attempts by Parliament to dispose of it, proved to be the great
difficulty of the session. It was plain, that there was a strong
feeling against the choice of Ottawa ; and in both houses many
members did not hesitate to express themselves in favor of revers
ing it. At last, late in July, the question was tried. It was
moved in the House of Assembly that it was cause of deep regret
to the house that her Majesty had been advised to select Ottawa
for the capital of the country; and on the 28th of July the motion
was carried by a majority of fourteen.
It was clear to all that in maintaining the decision of her
Majesty, the ministry had only done what any ministry would

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 597
have been obliged to do; and the indiscretion of Mr. Brown, who
never showed any of the tact so necessary in a parliamentary leader,
made it evident, that notwithstanding this vote, the government
had the confidence of a decided majority of the House of Assembly.
After the vote was taken, Mr. Brown insisted that it was nothing
more or less than a direct censure upon the government, and to
test the confidence of the house in the policy of the government,
he moved that the house adjourn. The motion was rejected by a
majority of eleven, and thus confidence was declared distinctly in
the ministry, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction of the majority
with the Queen's decision. But Mr. Macdonald and his colleagues
thought it their duty to resign, and on the 29th, Mr. Macdonald
announced to the House of Assembly that they only held office till
their successors were appointed. In the meantime, Mr. Brown
was sent for by the governor, and on the 30th, the House of Assembly
was informed that in conjunction with Mr.Dorion he had undertaken
the task of forming an administration. It is needless to describe
the medley cabinet which succeeded that of Mr. Macdonald ; to point
out how opposed in principle, the members of it had been to each
other, on many important points, and how frequently they had loaded
one another with abuse. It is sufficient to say that the new minis
ters had been but two days in office, when the Legislative Council,
by a vote of sixteen to eight, declared in the strongest terms that
it did not possess their confidence, and on the same day, the House
of Assembly took the same standby a vote of seventy-one to thirty-
one. Mr. Brown and his colleagues demanded a dissolution ; but
the governor-general refused, and stated his reasons in an able state
paper. The conclusion of the whole thing was, that Mr. Cartier,
the present premier, the leader of the largest party in the House of
Assembly, was requested to form a new ministry. With some
exceptions it was composed of the same members as the old. Mr.
Macdonald remained attorney general of Upper Canada. Mr. Sher
wood entered the cabinet, and Mr. Gait became minister of finance.
Mr. Brown and his colleagues of the House of Assembly had, by ac
cepting office, vacated their seats, and had consequently to return to
their constituents ; while the old ministers, who had been within
a month recalled to the public service, resumed office without
re-election. This circumstance was turned largely into account in
ad misericordiam appeals of friends of the Brown-Dorion ministry;
and the " double shuffle," as the change of offices was termed,
which took place before Mr. Carrier's ministry was regularly
formed, was denounced- with savage bitterness. It was certainly
desirable that the Brown-Dorion ministry should be summarily
dismissed. It could not but be injurious to the public morals
to witness men who had assailed each other in the most violent
language, and whose opinions were so strongly opposed, unit
ing for the sake of office. It would however, have been better

598 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
had their ministry never been formed. Mr. Macdonald and his
coUeagues, possessing as they did the confidence of a decided
majority, should not have been permitted to resign ; and if they
insisted upon doing so, perhaps Mr. Brown should have had the
chance of a dissolution. But against a dissolution the governor
urged various weighty reasons ; and certainly the fact that the
House of Assembly which by a most overwhelming majority,
declared non-confidence in Mr. Brown's ministry, had been elected
but a few months before by the people, tended much to justify his
refusal to dissolve.
During thiB crisis Mr. Macdonald displayed to their fullest extent
his great political talents ; and the speech in which he defended
himself and his colleagues against the charges of Mr. McGee,
has never, perhaps, been surpassed in effect, by any delivered in a
Canadian Parliament. The session terminated on the 16th August.
Notwithstanding all that occurred, the government had succeeded
in passing many salutary enactments. For various legal measures
of importance passed during the session, Upper Canada is indebted
to Mr. Macdonald. In particular, acts were passed amending the
law in relation to the jurisdiction and procedure of the surrogate
courts, abolishing imprisonment for debt in certain cases in Upper
Canada, preventing preferential assignments to creditors, and amend
ing the jury laws. The antiquated usury laws were amended; the
customs tariff was revised ; the elective franchise was defined, and
a system established for the registration of voters. The surrogate
court act is regarded by lawyers as a chef d'oeuvre of legal ability
and skill, and has greatly perfected and facilitated the administra
tion of justice.
When the session was over, the new ministry had to encounter,
for a time, a storm of abuse such as has rarely, never perhaps,
even in Canada, fallen upon politicians. The " double shuffle,"
some foolish men ventured to pronounce to be nothing short of
perjury. When the change of offices took place, ministers had,
they said, sworn to perform certain duties without haviug the least
intention of performing them. A more absurd charge could
not have been made. It is plain that the oath which a minister
takes on assuming office is not an oath to continue to perform
certain duties, from which he may at any moment be removed,
but an oath to perform faithfully the duties of his office as long as
he holds it. That there was for a time no small measure of sym
pathy with the two days' ministers is undeniable ; but a reaction
soon set in in favor of the government. It was borne in mind that
after their resignation, the newly elected representatives of the
people had by a decided majority declared that they still possessed
their confidence ; and in returning to office without re-election,
their course, though it may seem to have been in accordance with
the letter, rather than with the spirit of the law, was approved by

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 599
the House of Assembly, and sustained by the decision of the
judges. Before Parliament met in 1859, the horrors of the " double
shuffle" were almost forgotten, except by the victims of it ; while
the reckless abandonment of principle which had been exhibited
by Mr. Brown and his colleagues, had done much to weaken the
hold of the opposition on the public mind.
Parliament met at Toronto on the 29th of January. The govern
ment was supported throughout by large majorities. Although
many measures of importance were agreed to, the debates were
comparatively quiet, and the hackneyed charges of " corruption"
were disregarded.
But one circumstance served as a cry to Mr. Brown and his
party. During this session, as during the last, the ministry had
occasionally been in a minority as far as Upper Canada was con
cerned. The cry of Lower Canada domination was vigorously
taken up. It was said that Upper Canada was at the mercy of
Lower Canada ; that even if the western section had a representa
tion commensurate with its population there would still be danger
of the influence of a people who stood so closely together as the
French Canadians. It was determined that the next agitation should
be conducted in no common manner, and a solemn convention ofthe
" liberals" of Upper Canada was summoned to meet in November,
at Toronto. It was resolved by this body that the union of Upper
and Lower Canada had failed to realize the intention of its promo
ters ; that the constitutional system of the province, a counterpart,
though it was of that of Great Britain, was defective, and that the
formation of two or more local governments, with some joint au
thority, was imperatively necessary. It was reserved for Mr. Mac
donald to put down the crude theories of the convention, and to
lead the moderate party to victory in defending the union and
parliamentary government.
The next session of Parliament took place at Quebec. On the
first day of the session, Mr. Brown gave notice of a resolution
embodying the views of the convention. It was long, however,
before he actually brought it forward. A motion declaring non-
confidence in the government was rejected three weeks after the
meeting of Parliament, by a large majority. Mr. Brown, stung tb
the quick by an appeal from Major Campbell, member for Rouville,
to retire from the leadership of a party with which he said Lower
Canadians could never act as long as he was at the head of it, en
deavored to vindicate his political course in a very able and pow
erful speech. Mr. Macdonald's reply was, however, without doubt,
the speech of the session of 1860 ; his exposi of the discreditable
means by which an Upper Canada majority had been gained by
the opposition at the general election, was most searching ; he
pointed out that Mr. Brown, superior to all his party in energy
and talent, was supported by many of them from very terror, that

600 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
they winced under his arrogant lead and followed him without
loving him.
The motion was rejected ; and while the opposition were
understood to be wrangling as to the leadership, the government
proceeded with the financial projects of Mr. Gait, and other
measures of importance. On the 30th of April Mr. Brown pro
pounded to the House of Assembly the " true remedy" proposed
by the convention. A long debate followed ; and many of the
opposition refused to commit themselves to the wild plans of Mr.
Brown and his friends. Mr. Macdonald did not reply to Mr.
Brown ; but in his former speech he had defended eloquently
the views of the government as to the political future of the
province. In that speech he had maintained that there were
two distinct parties in the province — the moderate and constitu
tional party, and the ultras of both sections, who were united
in seeking changes which would be as prejudicial to Upper,
as to Lower Canada. After defending the British system
of government from the friends of American institutions, he
declared that he was heart and soul for the union, and that
he believed that nature had intended that the people who lived on
the banks of the great lakes, should be one with the people who
lived on the banks of the great river.
But although the projects ofthe convention were scouted by Par
liament, Mr. Brown and his party maintained warmly that they were
approved by the great body of the people of Upper Canada. It
was soon found that under the lead of Mr. Macdonald the great
moderate party of Upper Canada, was determined to resist the dis
memberment ofthe province, and the overthrow of its institutions.
There had long been an earnest desire that Mr. Macdonald should
visit Upper Canada and explain to the people his views on the state of
the country. He was entreated by cities, towns, and villages to visit
them, and he at last late in the year consented. Mr. Maedonald's
tour through Upper Canada was of the greatest advantage to his party.
Toronto, Hamilton, London, Brantford, Simcoe, Dunnville, Guelph,
St. Thomas, St. Catherines, Caledonia, Milbrook, Belleville and
many other places were the scenes of triumphant demonstrations
in his honor. There was an enthusiastic desire to see and hear him.
He who had been denounced as the worst enemy of the people,
was everywhere received with the most cordial expressions of
welcome. At various, and numerously attended public dinners,
he defended his own cause and that of his colleagues powerfully and
successfully ; loyally pleaded for British connection, and British in
stitutions ; and called upon the people to oppose to the last at the polls
the enemies ofthe union of Upper and Lower Canada. It is not to
be supposed that Kingston would be behind other places in doing
honor to its representative. His own constituents, proud of their
member, received Mr. Macdonald most heartily, and he defended

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 601
to the satisfaction of them all, his course on the occasion of the
visit of the Prince of Wales. It was assuredly no fault of his, that
the citizens of Kingston had not the honor of. a visit from the heir
of the throne ; and no abuse had been able to weaken Mr.
Macdonald's hold on the affections of his constituents.
The session of 1861 was opened at Quebec on the 16th of March.
The ministry received the support of a large majority of the whole
house ; and the complaints of their carrying on the government
in defiance of Upper Canada became feebler. It was so evident
that of the parties into which the Upper Canadian members were
divided, they had the support of by far the largest, that the fact of
their being occasionally left in a minority from that section told
but little against them. The great debate of the session was
that on representation by population — a question which on the
eve of an election was taken up very earnestly by many Upper
Canadians. Mr. Macdonald, in a noble speech, gave the House of
Assembly his opinions upon the question, and did not hesitate,
even in the immediate prospect of a general election, to deprecate
the introduction of a question so likely to endanger the peace
of the province. " He hoped," he said in conclusion, " that
for ages, for ever, Canada might remain united with the mother
country. But we were fast ceasing to be a dependency and assum
ing the position of an ally of Great Britain. England would be
the centre, surrounded and sustained by an alliance not only with
Canada but Australia, and all her other possessions ; and there
would thus be formed an immense confederation of freemen, the
greatest confederacy of civilized and intelligent men that ever had
an existence on the face of the globe. We, in our sphere, should
avoid occasions of difference. Statesmen should endeavor not to
cause division but to promote union ; let them return to their
homes determined to use every legitimate means for carrying out
their views on other subjects ; but let them not make this question
of representation by population a matter of party agitation and
party strife ; let them all set aside party feeling in a matter of
such vital cousequence as this, and work in common on the princi
ple of union, and not on the principle of one section striving against
the other and seeking to annihilate it."
The general election which took place in the summer resulted,
it need hardly be said, in the triumph of the friends of the union
and the constitution. While Mr. Brown was defeated at Toronto,
and while his party lost many constituencies of which they had
always considered themselves sure, Mr. Macdonald, strongly
avowing his conservative views and his attachment to British insti
tutions, was returned for Kingston by an overwhelming majority.
" The fratricidal conflict," he said in his address, " now unhappily
raging in the United States shows us the superiority of our institu
tions, and of the principle on which they are based, Long may that
76

602 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
principle — the monarchical principle — prevail in this land. Let
there be no ' looking to Washington,' as was threatened by a leading
member of the opposition last session ; but let the cry with the moder
ate party be, 'Canada united as one province, and under one sove
reign.' " It must be admitted that the troubles in the United States
did not a little tend to increase the loyal attachment to our insti
tutions which prevailed in Upper Canada. While Mr. Brown
was defeated at Toronto, Mr. Dorion, the Lower Canada opposi
tion leader, was defeated at Montreal by Mr. Cartier. The result
of the general election gave the greatest satisfaction to the moder
ate party throughout the country.
Since the formation of the coalition ministry Mr. Macdonald has
taken a leading part in the conduct of all public affairs. In Parliament
especially, his aptitude for business, his quickness of apprehension,
his extensive constitutional learning, his promptitude in debate,
either to attack or to defend, his acuteness in perceiving the weak
points in the arguments of his opponents, his ready wit in turning
aside their attacks on the weak points of his own, his generous
temper and frank and unassuming manners, which render him a
favorite even with his pohtical adversaries, and his warm attach
ment and inflexible adherence to his personal and political friends,
all Unite to make him powerful either as a leader or a colleague.
It is understood that there has always been the bestfeeUng between
him and Mr. Cartier, who, while a genuine French Canadian, is
liberal in his views, can see advantages in British laws and institu
tions, and when he does, is willing to adopt them, not out of
serviUty to England or Englishmen, but out of love to Canada,
and an honest desire for the progress and prosperity of his
countrymen. The recent election has amply shown the estimation
in which Mr. Macdonald is held in Upper Canada, and gives
reason to expect that he will long continue to influence the public
counsels. That he is likely to do so is matter of just congratulation,
for of all the public men of the province, there is no one in whom
the country places, and is justified in placing, greater confidence,
not only on account of his eminent talent and his acknowledged
freedom from schemes of personal aggrandizement, but because of
the union in him of a conservative feeling which rejects rash in
novations, with that clear good sense which discerns, and is ready
to carry out every reasonable reform.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 603

Hon. GEORGE E. CARTIER,
Premier and Attorney-General for Lower Canada.
Jacques Cartier, or Quartier, as some of the old French
writers have it, to whom belongs the honor of having discovered
Canada, is understood to have left no issue. It is certain, however,
that some of his nephews were in the habit of going backwards and
forwards between old and new France. They finally became
residents of the colony which their illustrious uncle had added to
the kingdom of France ; and from one of them the present prime
minister is descended. George Etienne Cartier was born on the
6th cf September, 1814, at St. Antoine, on the Chambly river, in
the county of Vercheres, Lower Canada ; that parish having almost
from time immemorial been the residence of the Cartier family.
The grandfather of the subject of this notice, who bore the name
of the discoverer of Canada, was one of the first representatives of
the county of Vercheres, which, under the constitutional act of
1791, was first called the county of Surrey. He was also one of
the most enterprising and successful merchants in that part of the
country. M. Cartier received his education at the college of St. Sulpice,
in the city of Montreal ; which was founded in 1773 by the semi
nary of Montreal, and is conducted by the priests and ecclesiastics
of St. Sulpice. At this institution, he went through a regular
collegiate course of eight years. Having left college, he entered
upon the study of the law in the office of the late Mr. E. E. Rodier,
a leading member of the Montreal bar, and at one time repre
sentative of the county of L' Assomption. In 1835 our future
prime minister commenced practice, selecting the chief city in the
province, Montreal, for the theatre of his professional career,
where he must necessarily encounter the competition of the ablest
members of the Lower Canada bar. The result showed that the
young advocate had not miscalculated his strength, for he succeeded
in establishing an extensive and lucrative practice. He has had
for law partners, at different times, M. J. A. Berthelot and M.
Dummerville. Like most men who make their way to the highest
distinctions which their country affords, M. Cartier is a man ot
never-flagging industry. Scarcely of medium height and of a
light build, he possesses that strength of constitution which is best
proved by the severe test of continued labor in a profession
requiring close application and the continued exertion of mental
effort.

604 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
When M. Cartier was a law student, there was, in the abuses of
the ruling oligarchy, and especially the systematic proscription of
his race, enough to fire the generous enthusiasm of every lover of
justice and hater of misrule. Politics had for young Cartier
already a deep interest. The star of the Hon. Louis Joseph
Papineau was then in the ascendant. He was the leader, both in
and out ofthe Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, ofthe French
Canadians, who formed four-fifths of the population. Although
M. Papineau was speaker of the house for some twenty years, his
tongue was not tied ; for everything was debated in committee of
the whole, and he regularly took a leading part in the discussion.
The country was mocked with the form of constitutional govern
ment, while it was denied the substance. It had a Legislative
Assembly, elected by the people ; but that body had no control
over the executive officers by whom the government was adminis
tered. The hostile majority which it permanently presented to
the government was powerless to effect any change in the adminis
tration. The Legislative Council, whose members were appointed
by the crown upon recommendations presented by the governor-in-
chief, was the prop of the irresponsible oligarchy. It constantly
threw out bills passed by the representatives of the people, or so
mutilated them, under the pretence of amendments, as to destroy
their purport. The collision thus brought about between the two
houses became chronic. The Legislative Assembly complained to
the Imperial Government of the Legislative Council ; and the latter
replied by a counter accusation, in which the governor sometimes
joined. The oligarchy which thus ruled Lower Canada in defiance
of the wishes of the people, as expressed by their powerless
representatives, succeeded in deceiving the Imperial Government
into the belief that this mode of governing was necessary to the
preservation of British supremacy. The Canada committee of the
House of Commons, of which the present Earl of Derby was a
member, after investigating the grievances complained of by 87,000
Lower Canada petitioners, hinted that all was not right. But no
remedy came. M. Papineau, to tell the truth, had but a faint
conception of the true remedy. He did not, like Mr. Baldwin, in
Upper Canada, see that the whole difficulty was traceable to the
irresponsibility of the executive. The famous ninety-two resolu
tions passed by the Lower Canada House of Assembly, in 1834, and
which embody all the grievances, real and imaginary, under which
the country was suffering, never allude to the real source of all the
existing evils, except to object, in two lines, to " the vicious com
position and the irresponsibility of the Executive Council ;" the
members of which, whether lawyers or not, were also judges of
appeal. Papineau, who at first set out as an advocate of British
as opposed to French ideas of government, became in time soured
by long years of fruitless effort to, secure a reformed administration,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 605
and Was led or driven by degrees to prefer American institutions
to British. At that time, the great men of the American
revolution had not all passed away; and American democracy,
being made respectable in their persons, fascinated many of the
young men of Lower Canada. M. Papineau did not, however,
often push this preference to such an extent as to make it
offensively conspicuous. The chief remedy for the evils inflicted
on the country by the oligarchy he believed lay in an extension of
the democratic element — in giving greater scope to the elective
principle. This idea originated in the obstructive conduct of the
crown-nominated Legislative Council. To make that body elective
was deemed the alpha and omega of reform ; the real difficulty
being, in point of fact, in the existence of an irresponsible execu
tive. Still, whatever the errors or the oversights of M. Papineau,
he was the acknowledged champion of a proscribed race.
In 1832 the poulation of Lower Canada was about 500,000, of
whom 425,000 were of French descent and spoke the French lan
guage, while the remaining 75,000 comprised the whole English
population. Yet the latter monopolised 157 offices, while by the
former only 47 were held, and these were generally of an inferior
order, which often made the holders dependent on the race which
monopolised nearly all the principal situations. Of the judges,
only three were French, although, in the seigniories, the civil laws
of France were in force, and with these English judges Were
necessarily but little acquainted. The practice once resorted to by
James I. of interrogating the judges in private upon cases on
which they would afterwards have to adjudicate, was frequently
resorted to, and it was complained that a disposition was shown to
screen criminals who had rendered themselves conspicuous in the
service of the government. As late as 1843, only four French
judges occupied seats on the bench of Lower Canada, and one of
these, Judge Vallieres, had only been appointed second judge in
Quebec by Lord Gosford. Before then, Quebec, Montreal, and
Three Rivers districts had each but one French Canadian judge to
administer French law — Panet, Bedard and Rolland. An attempt
was made to impose upon the French Canadians the English law of
primogeniture, (which has since been abolished even in Upper
(Janada), dowry, and several other customs that were repugnant
to the great majority of the population. Lord Gosford was pro
bably, to a certain extent, duped by the pretence of the oligarchy
that the preservation of British interests required the systematic
exclusion of French Canadians from real legislative influence or
executive position, and as if he expected to conciliate the proscribed
race by the most transparent of expedients, he procured the
appointment to the Legislative Council of a few persons who had
been favorites of the people and leaders in the other house. But
when they found that the number of those who had received such

606 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
appointments was so small that they were rendered powerless by
the superior number of the props of the oligarchy, they resolved to
abstain from taking part in the proceedings of the chamber of
which they were members. The judicial and legislative functions
were united in the persons of some legislative councillors ; aliens
were, contrary to the constitutional act, appointed to that chamber;
pluralists grew fat on public plunder ; and partizan returning
officers attempted but in vain, to force unwelcome representatives
upon the people.
It was under this condition of things that M. Cartier first began
to take an interest in politics. M. Papineau, with all his errors, was
the champion of the oppressed majority, and as such he received
the support of M. Cartier, up to a certain point.
To the exertions of Lord Durham is due the change of system
which had produced such a numerous train of evils, culminating in
insurrection both in Upper and Lower Canada. His report, as
high commissioner for inquiring into the condition of the country,
dealt the death-blow to the oligarchy. In 1841, seven years before
M. Cartier entered Parliament, responsible government had been
established. In 1848 he was first elected for the county of Ver
cheres, succeeding the Hon. Mr. Leslie, whom the crown had
appointed member of the other chamber. M. Cartier continued to
represent that constituency until the general election of 1861, when
he contested Montreal with the leader of the rouge or Lower
Canada opposition party, M. Dorion, who had hitherto always been
returned for that constituency with tremendous majorities and
defeated every candidate that could be brought against him; after
a hard struggle the victory was declared on M. Carrier's side. This
has been declared the greatest election triumph ever achievecMn this
country, giving as it were the death blow to the Lower Canadian
oppositionists. At the election in 1857, he contested Montreal
as well as his old constituency, and although he did not secure his
own election for the city, his object in standing a double contest was
generally considered to have been secured in the defeat of Mr. Holton.
On the 25th of January, 1856, M. Cartier was first appointed to
a ministerial office ; he became provincial-secretary in the MacNab-
Tache' ministry. On the 24th of May, 1856, he succeeded Mr.
Drummond as attorney-general for Lower Canada, on the formation
of the Tach6-Macdonald ministry. In November, 1857, he became
leader of the Lower Canada section of the government, the Hon.
J. A. Macdonald becoming premier, and the ministry, under its new
phase, being know as the Macdonald-Cartier ministry. On the" 6th
August, 1858, a slight change in the wheel of fortune produced a
transposition of these names, and we have since the Cartier-Macdon-
ald administration.
Having given a faint picture of that state of the administration
which induced M. Cartier to support M. Papineau till responsible

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 607
government was conceded, we must now give the reason which
afterwards induced him to oppose the ancient chief. The re-union
of Upper and Lower Canada was a measure effected in opposition
to the will and the remonstrances of the latter ; and M. Papineau,
whose temper had become cynical by an opposition of twenty years,
resolved to do his best to render the union inseperative. His coun
trymen were not prepared to sustain ' him in that resolve; and a
new leader arising in the person of M. Louis Hypolite Lafontaine,
who was prepared to work the union to the best advantage, M.
Papineau, when he re-appeared in the Legislative Assembly of
United Canada, after eleven years of absence, the greater part of
which had been spent in exile, literally stood alone. His eloquent
denunciation — and even in English he was the most eloquent
speaker in the house — elicited no response ; and the most he could
do on any occasion was to find a seconder for any resolution he
might propose. It was the opposition of men like M. Cartier, who
now appeared in Parliament for the first time, that assisted to
reduce the ancient and once all-powerful leader of the French
Canadians to this position. M. Cartier is, however, essentially a
party man. He never once placed himself in opposition to his
leader, though he found it necessary to change Papineau for La
fontaine. He was not a man who could ever be suspected of
possible infidelity to party engagements ; but he was not bound to
follow M. Papineau, beyond the conspicuous failure in 1837, into
new follies, the end of which the wisest could not have foreseen.
As a legislator, M. Cartier assisted to carry the bill for abolish
ing the seigniorial tenures, that for making the Legislative Council
elective, and that for secularising the clergy reserves, as well as all
the other important measures of the governments with which he
has been connected. Of several important measures he was the
author, and to his exertions was owing their enactment by the
legislature. To say nothing of the Victoria Bridge bill, which he
carried when even the usually active and undaunted energy of Mr.
Hincks seemed on the point of flagging, M. Cartier, in 1856,
framed and carried a measure to provide for the establishment of
three normal schools in Lower Canada ; and a few months after,
the Laval normal school in Quebec and the Jacques Cartier and
McGill normal schools in Montreal were ready for the admission of
pupils. In 1857, he introduced and carried a measure to provide
for the codification of the procedure and civil laws of Lower Can
ada. In the same session he framed and carried a most important
measure, the object of which was to breakup the system of judicial
centralisation in Lower Canada, which had produced so much incon
venience. The administration of justice in criminal cases, and in
all civil matters where the amount involved was over fifty pounds,
was confined to seven places — Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, St.
Francis, Aylmer, Sherbrooke, and Gaspe, in a country exceeding

608 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
seven hundred or eight hundred miles in length. Thirteen new
judicial districts were established, in which contracts for new gaols
have been entered into. In the same session, two years after the
feudal tenures commutation bill had been passed, M. Cartier intro
duced the French civil law into the townships of Lower Canada, its
operation having previously been confined to the seigniories. In
the session for 1860, he passed the act dividing the cities of Mon
treal, Quebec and Toronto into electoral divisions, thus completely
doing away with the old inconvenient system, by which such
bloody and painful results were always sure to take place. M.
Cauchon also introduced the admirable municipal bill which the
lower province now enjoys.
M. Cartier, the present premier, is a man of unimpeachable
integrity, who, every year of his official life, submits to a sac
rifice of professional emolument which must make him a poor
minister. An avaricious grasping after money he regards as fatal
to the career of any public man. He is of an hospitable disposition.
As a speaker, his enemies have sometimes accused him of prolixity,
but it would be nearer the truth to say that he is an exhaustive
speaker. There is nothing to be said on his side of a subject after
he sits down. His enunciation of French in Parliament is, perhaps,
the most distinct of any member of the house, and he has a perfect
command of English. As a leader and a member of the govern
ment, he has been found to be one of the most honest and upright
ministers which it has been our good fortune to possess ; as a man
to conciliate the confidence of a party, he is at the present time
incomparably the strongest man in Lower Canada, having a large
majority by the recent general election in the house.
On the occasion of the late ministry resigning in 1858, when
defeated in attempting to carry out the Queen's decision in favor of
Ottawa as the seat of government, Mr. Isaac Buchanan the member
for Hamilton, paid a warm tribute of his respect and unimpaired
confidence to the ex-premier, the Honorable John A. Macdonald,
and to the Honorable G. E. Cartier, his chief associate in the
government from Lower Canada. He finally (and evidently to the
great satisfaction of the house), summed up his estimate of Mr.
Cartier' s character, as we may appropriately sum up ours in closing
this sketch, in the magnificent lines of the ode of Horace : —
" Justum et tenaoem propositi virum
Non oivium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit eolida, neque Auster
Dux inquieti turbidus Adrise,
Neo fulminantis magna Jovis manus :
Si fraotus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruince."
M. Carrier is married to a most amiable Frenoh Canadian lady,
and is the father of several very interesting children.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 609
Hon. J. CAUCHON,
Commissioner of Public Works.
M. Cauchon was born, we believe, in the city of Quebec, St.
Roch's suburb, about the year 1820, though his family, one of the
oldest in the colony, was first settled at l'Ange Gardien, a parish
on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, in the vicinity of Quebec.
He received a good classical education in the Petit Seminaire de
Quebec, after which he commenced the study ofthe law. He was, in
due time admitted to the bar, but, we believe, never practised his pro
fession. He felt, from his childhood, a strong inclination for
political life and political discussions, and was hardly twenty years
old when he began writing for newspapers. His first essays
appeared in the Canadien, the oldest French Canadian newspaper,
then under the able editorial management of M. Etienne Parent, but
soon after (in 1842) he established, in co-partnership with his
brother-in-law, Mr. Cote, the Journal de Quebec, which is still in
existence, and owes in great part its success to the talents and
ability ofthe subject of this sketch.
In 1844, M. Cauchon was elected a member of the Legislative
Assembly for the county of Montmorency, and although one of the
youngest members of the house, took at once a conspicuous part in
the debates. He at first expressed himself with difficulty, and for
two or three sessions, he was far from being an agreeable speaker.
He however never lost an opportunity of speaking, and his perse
verance gradually effected a wonderful improvement, for he is now
one of the most fluent, effective and energetic speakers of the
Canadian Parliament.
When M. Cauchon entered political life, Lord Metcalfe was
governor-general of Canada; our present system of responsible
government was in its infancy and was not even considered as fully
inaugurated. The Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry had resigned in
1843, on a most important question, and had been sustained by
the Parliament ; there had been a great excitement in the country,
and for nine months Lord Metcalfe was unable to form a new
cabinet. However, the general election of 1844 gave the governor
a small majority, and enabled him to carry on the government,
but the opposition party, led by Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin
was strong, stronger than any opposition party has ever been since.
M. Cauchon fought in its ranks, in Parliament and in his journal,
with all the ardor of his age and the vehemence of his temper.
It was during the period from 1843 to 1848 that our system of
responsible government was fully established in this province.
77

610 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
The general elections of 1847 (the Parliament had been dissolved
by the new governor-general, Lord Elgin) gave the reform party
an overwhelming majority, and early in 1848, Messrs. Lafontaine
and Baldwin were called to form a new ministry and manage
the affairs of the country, which they did till 1851, when they
both, from their own accord, retired into private life. M. Cauchon
was a great admirer of M. Lafontaine, and cordially and vigorously
supported him in the government as well as in the opposition.
In 1851, the Hon. Francis Hincks and A. N. Morin were called
upon by Lord Elgin to form a new cabinet. M. Cauchon was offered
the assistant-secretaryship of Lower Canada, with a seat in the
house, but declined the offer, and after a correspondence with Mr.
Hincks, proclaimed his want of confidence in the new ministry,
especially in Mr. Malcolm Cameron and Dr. Rolph, two members of
it, representing in the government the- extreme or democratic party
of Upper Canada, called clear grits. He, for a time, professed to
be willing to submit or withdraw in case a majority of his colleagues
should declare themselves against him — but at the opening of the
session of 1852, attempted to form a Lower Canadian conservative
opposition party, of which he was the leader. In spite of all his
endeavors, however, he never had many followers. Far from being
discouraged at his want of success, he displayed more and more
energy in his endeavors to overthrow the party then in power.
The question of the North Shore Railway offered him a good oppor
tunity of making political capital : he contended that the government
were bound to give assistance for the construction of a railway line
along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, the same as they had
extended to the south shore Grand Trunk line ; he advocated his
scheme in very strong language, and created much excitement.
In 1854 he was re-elected a member for the county of Montmo
rency, and during the ensuing session, the Hincks-Morin admi
nistration resigned, and a coalition was formed between the Lower
Canadian majority and the old conservative party of Upper Canada.
This was the arrangement advocated by M. Cauchon during the
two years he had been in the opposition. In January, 1855, he
entered into the coalition government called the MacNab-Drummond
administration, and was appointed commissioner of crown lands, an
office which he held till the end of 1857, when being pressed by
the old friends of the North Shore Railway, he tried to obtain from
his colleagues some assistance for that line, but not being able to
do so, left the ministry. Mr. Cauchon's administration of the
crown lands was energetic, aud marked by, among other things,
the publication of a very interesting report, the most extensive
published on the matters connected with that department, before
or since, accompanied with a series of maps on a large scale, of the
different parts of tho province, which maps have proved to be of
the greatest utility, and are a credit to the country.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 611
_ After leaving the ministry, M. Cauchon returned to the oppo
sition. But the formation ofthe Brown-Dorion administration, in
August, 1858, seemed to disgust him, and he from that time gra
dually became a supporter of the Macdonald-Cartier and Cartier-
Macdonald governments. During the sessions of 1860 and 1861,
he gave a frank and decided support to the Cartier-Macdonald
administration ; and is now commissioner of public works, and a
member of it.
After this brief sketch of M. Cauchon's career as a politician,
let us say something of his qualities as a man. First, as to his merit
as a public writer. M. Cauchon possesses a great power of concen
tration ; whenever he takes up a question for discussion, all the
faculties of his mind are called to his assistance. He pertinaciously
studies his subject until thoroughly acquainted with all its details,
and then his pen glides with decision and earnestness. His intellec
tual resources are most active when he is opposed and contradicted.
Contradiction seems if possible 'to double his energy. He has, as
phrenologists would speak, the bump of combativeness very largely
developed. In his daily discussions with his contemporaries in the
press he has made himself conspicuous, some will say for his power
of argumentation, others will say for his power of abuse. He has a
way of reasoning peculiar to himself If any reproach is thrown
upon him, he does not take rime to answer, but at once attacks his
antagonist with fury. He must always have the last word. He is
always extremely bitter in attack or defence. His pen is indeed a
powerful weapon. In his judgments on men or things, M. Cauchon
very seldom speaks in terms of praise, on the contrary, he seems
naturally inclined to depreciate rather than to admire. The defects
and weak parts in others always strike him more than their good
qualities and talents. Very few public men have ever found favor
in his eyes. Privately however, he is charitable and generous,
always ready to contribute from his own purse to the relief of
distress, always most kind and hospitable.
As to Mr. Cauchon's talents and capabilities, no one will think
of denying them. Besides being acknowledged as one of the most
energetic Canadian writers, every one admits that, if he had chosen
to practise at the bar, instead of being an editor, he would, after a
few years of struggle have raised himself to the first rank in the
legal profession. He would have been equally successful in the
pursuit of science, if he had chosen that field of labor. The book
which he published on natural philosophy, when scarce twenty
years old, shew in him a serious and scientific turn of mind. His
literary, historical and artistical ideas are superior to what is gene
rally found in men given to ambitious pursuits and active political
life. In politics, Mr. Cauchon belongs to that modern school of prac
tical politicians, who in all their acts and conduct, are aiming at

612 sketches op Celebrated Canadians,
success rather than at the triumph of their personal opinions or
principles; who think that circumstances alter cases. He certainly
does not belong to that small but obdurate class of politicians who
refuse to compromise or modify their views, when success is likely
to be the result of a few concessions.
From what has been said of Mr. Cauchon's characteristics, it may
be inferred that he is not without enemies. But whatever may be
said against him, a man who has worked his way through Ufe, with
so much courage amidst so many difficulties — who, in spite of all
sorts of animosities, caused principally by his vehement temper —
who in spite of all obstacles, has, with no other assistance than that
of his own intelligence, energy, industry and perseverance, raised
himself to one of the highest positions in the country, such an one
cannot be called even by his most bitter opponent, an ordinary man.
M. Cauchon is still young, not being much more than forty.
With a little more indulgence for others, and less regard for his
individuality, he may become exceedingly popular, now that the
impetuosity of youth is being changed to the sober thought of
manhood ; the number of his friends is being largely increased, while
that of his enemies is being in a corresponding degree diminished.
Those who know him intimately speak in the highest terms of his
warm heartedness. He is destined to play a very important part
in the affairs of Canada.

Hon. JOHN ROSS, M.L.C,
President of the Executive Council, &c
Mr. Ross was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland, on the
10th of March, 1818, and at the tender age of three months
embarked at Belfast, with his parents, for Quebec. Young Ross
remained under the care of his uncle, at Brockville, until he was
three years of age. His education was derived chiefly from the
district school, under the superintendence of Mr. Elms, who had
been an usher in the scholastic establishment of the celebrated Dr.
Strachan, now Bishop of Toronto. As a juvenile, the young Ross
was chiefly remarkable for the ease and expedition with which he
dispatched his lessons, his hearty companionship with his school
mates, and the stubborn pugnacity of his temper when any experi
ments at domineering were attempted over him. He became thus
a favorite with both masters and scholars, and as "the boy is father

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 613
to the man," he shews the same instincts and the same qualities in
his maturer growth. Feared, respected, and loved, he has become
the favorite of all classes -by the natural courtesy of his disposition,
and the earnestness and sincerity with which he addresses himself
to every question he is called upon to treat. But woe betide the
man who seeks to trifle or equivocate with him.
At the age of sixteen, the subject of our memoir was admitted
as a student-at-law, prosecuting his studies, firstly, with Mr. Buel,
and afterwards with Mr. George Sherwood (the present receiver-
general of the province), with whom he remained fifteen months.
Upon attaining his majority, in 1839, Mr. Ross was called to the
bar, and entering at once upon the business of life, soon became
conspicuous as a practitioner in the courts, and an energetic supporter
of the liberal school in politics. With his rapidly increasing profes
sional occupations, his personal and political influence naturally ex
tended throughout the county of Hastings, and as it became import
ant to secure the constituency to the liberal side, Mr. Ross was chiefly
instrumental in inducing the late Mr. Robert Baldwin to contest
the county, which was then regarded as the stronghold ofthe Orange
party. Mr. Murney was his opponent, and was backed by the
whole power of the conservatives. The contest was animated and
severe, terminating in the defeat of Mr. Murney by a narrow
majority, and to the judgment and energy of Mr. Ross, and the
weight of his personal character, was the victory chiefly due. The
battle was the fight for ascendancy of the two great parties in
the state. The conservatives succumbed, and have hardly ever
regained their lost footing in this county.
A more firm and lasting friendship between Mr. Baldwin and
Mr. Ross dated from this contest and triumph, to be cemented at
a later period by a matrimonial alliance between the two families.
In the interest of the political party to which he was attached,
Mr. Ross established a newspaper, which soon acquired a large and
influential circulation. He had gained the entire confidence of the
leaders of his party, and in the autumn of 1848, when Mr. Sulli
van was elevated to the bench, Mr. Ross's eminent services were
deemed essentialjto his party, and he was summoned to the Legis
lative Council. He served throughout the]session of 1849, in the
upper chamber, gaining new laurels as one of the leaders of Parlia
ment, but declined the acceptance of executive office, which was
tendered to him, on account of his largely increased business at the
bar, which he thought he could not then abandon. Not long after,
he was made Queen's counsel, and in the autumn of 1851, when
Mr. Hincks formed the government, he became solicitor-general.
In 1852, Mr. Ross was sent to England to superintend the comple
tion of the contracts for the construction of the Grand Trunk Rail
way, holding since then, the office of president of the concern.
With the aid of Mr. Gait and others who were earnest in their

614 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
desire to promote to the utmost the interests of the country, so far
as these were capable of expansion by the comparatively new
science of comprehensive and rapid inter- communication, Mr. Ross
took a prominent part in securing the construction of the Victoria
Bridge, one of the wonders of the engineering art; and, to the
honor of Canada, without a rival in the world. Returning to Can
ada in 1858, Mr. Ross received the appointment of attorney-gene
ral, Mr. Richards being elevated to the Common Pleas.
He continued to hold the office of attorney-general until the
close of the Hincks administration, in 1 854. He was then selected
speaker of the Legislative Council on the formation, in September
1854, of the coalition government, headed by Sir Allan MacNab and
Mr. Morin. Disappointment in some quarters found vent in
speech, and it soon appeared that the new speaker was not to have
an easy time of it. Where co-operation in promoting the business
of the house was expected and was due, petty but vexatious obstruc
tions were offered. This eould not last long; forbearance is a
very good thing, but has its limits, and these having been trans
cended in the case in question, the new speaker came down in his
might upon the disturbers, and in one sitting convinced all cavil
lers that he was able to maintain the legitimate authority of his
position against all comers. From this time forth opposition
shunned the encounter of wit and power greater than itself, and
the new speaker was allowed the full performance of his constitu
tional and important functions unmolested, and with the support
of all parties. In April, 1856, Mr. Ross resigned his position in
the coalition ministry, on the ground that the conditions of the
coalition had not been carried out by Sir Allan MacNab and his
followers, who, upon every test vote, went over to the opposition,
thus leaving the reform section of the government supporters with
their Lower Canada friends to carry the government through. On
th'e 18th of April, 1856, Mr. Ross fully expounded his position,
and explained the motives of his retirement in the public press.
Mr. Ross went out of the government alone, but his secession,
and the published grounds upon which he had justified it, led to
the retirement of Sir Allan MacNab a few days after, and Mr. Mac
donald was entrusted with the formation of a new government.
In the beginning of 1858, at the urgent solicitation of Mr. Mac
donald, he became a member of his government, and was appointed
receiver-general, in which office he continued to act until August,
of that year, when he retired with his colleagues on the seat of
government question. He resumed office a few days after, as
president of the Executive Council, in M. Cartier's administration,
an office which he still retains.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 615
Hon. P. M. VANKOUGHNET, M.L.C, D.C.L.,
Commissioner of Crown Lands.
Of the many eminent men that guard our destinies at the pre
sent day, Mr. Vankoughnet is considered by his own party and even
by his bitterest political opponents, as one of the cleverest and
most efficient ; and as a politician, though young in that arena, as
one of the very first water.
He is a German by descent, and his name is well known in the upper
province as belonging to a highly respectable family. His grand
father was one ofthe United Empire Loyalists of 1782; his father,
the Honorable P. Vankoughnet, was a member of the Assembly
and of the Council of the Upper Canada Legislature for a lengthened
period, although he has not taken a conspicuous part in politics
since the union. The family came originally from Frankfort, and
migrated to the British colonies. On the declaration of independ
ence, they followed the fortunes of the British flag, threw up their
occupations, and came over to Canada West. The subject of our
notice is a member of a large family, and was born at Cornwall,
C. W., on the 26th of January, 1823. He was educated under Dr.
Urquhart of that town, and was originally destined for the clerical
profession. Here, in Canada, the gentleman has no alternative or
choice in selecting his particular vocation, it must either be the
pulpit, the bar, or the counting-house, there is no other opening for
him. Mr. Vankoughnet's parents ardently wished him to enter holy
orders, fondly anticipating that in so doing, he would prove a shining
light in the sacred calling, and raise himself to distinction. He him
self, we believe, was not decidedly adverse to the choice, and perhaps,
had he entered the profession, there is little doubt that with his energy
and eminent abilities, he would have realized the bright anticipa
tions of his friends. But some will think that he was not made for
a divine ; his nature and disposition could scarcely have brooked
the silence and seclusion ofthe closet, or the church. He must be
active, constantly working, up to his very ears in business, with
plenty to do, and ready to do more. Perhaps we have not judged
his character with strict accuracy, but at any rate we have come
near the mark. Fate decreed that he should not be a clergyman.
The able writer of the sketches in the Canadian News, speaking
of this portion of his life, says that, " It was listening to a speech
from the late Mr. Justice Hagerman that decided him to embrace
the profession of the law." He entered the office of Mr. George
Jarvis, of Cornwall, as a student-at-law, and afterwards removed to
that of Messrs. Smith & Crooks, of Toronto, pursuing his studies
diligently, and through his usual zeal and energy, his exertions

616 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
were crowned with success, and he passed the bar in February,
1844. A juncture at this period of the young practioneris career,
invariably arises, if he has not previously taken the questions
involved fully into consideration. The question becomes, how is
he to settle himself, with whom and where ? Young Vankoughnet
settled this very material question judiciously, and with advantage
to himself. He commenced practice in the capital of Upper Can
ada, and after a few months, formed a coalition with two of the
cleverest lawyers in Upper Canada, Mr. (now Hon.) Justice Burns,
and Mr. (now Hon.) Oliver Mowat. From the first, it is said
he was successful. He had previously been called to the bar, and
established a good reputation for himself, and this, together with
the advantageous partnership which he had formed, "made" him.
After four years, he left the firm, and he and his younger bro
ther, Matthew, formed one themselves. Six years after he had
entered the legal arena, he was appointed Queen's counsel, and this
too on his own merits and abilities, without any political or other
influence, the appointment coming from a government to which he
was opposed in politics. It was an honorable and spontaneous
offering to the shrine of industry and genius, and says his biogra
pher, " reflects equal honor on him who bestowed, and on him who
received the honor ; proving, as it did, the impartiaUty ofthe giver
and the merit ofthe receiver." At this time he stood at the head
of his profession, in the upper province, and had reached the sum
mit of fame and fortune. He had carved for himself a name and
position in the legal annals of his country.
Being, in 1856, earnestly pressed by his old friend, Hon. John A.
Macdonald, to join his government, he accepted office in the room of
Sir Allan MacNab, who had resigned, as president of the Executive
Council and minister of agriculture. He did not, however, possess a
seat in either house of the legislature until the following November,
when he was unanimously elected as the first member for the Legis
lative Council division of Rideau. In taking this step, he made a
great personal pecuniary sacrifice ; for he had, we believe, the
largest practice in the western province, with a receipt, it is said,
of at the very least three thousand five hundred pounds per annum.
He had eighty briefs in his possession when he accepted office ; all
these he gave up for a position worth little else than the salary
attached to it, of twelve hundred and fifty pounds.
The department over which he was placed, did not involve very
arduous labor, or impose a severe task either on his time or patience.
The bureau, before his accession to office, was not as well conducted
as it might have been ; this, however, was not owing to any lack of
duty or unfitness for his post in the secretary, Mr. Hutton. _ Mr.
Vankoughnet's predecessors had not taken suitable interest in the
affairs of the bureau, and it was regarded as what is called a " sine
cure" department. To remedy this, Mr. Vankoughnet did every-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 617
thing in his power to make the office really a department, with proper
functions and duties. A thorough amelioration eventually ensued,
which placed stability in the department, and tended to demonstrate
the minister's fitness for his post. At the time that the weavil,
hessian fly, and other insects were making such ravages, and destroy
ing such large quantities of the crops, he promptly took action in the
matter, issued an advertisement of five hundred dollars, we believe,
for the best essay on the subject, so as to procure a check against
their inroads. Hence came Professor Hind's admirable essay,
which did good service, and gave the farmers an idea as to what
they should do to prevent a recurrence of the evils that had arisen.
On the forming of the Cartier-Macdonald administration, Mr.
Vankoughnet vacated the office of minister of agriculture for that
of commissioner of crown lands, which he at present holds. Here
a larger field was presented to his labors. This is one of the
working departments of government, and as Mr. Vankoughnet is
essentially one of the " working men " of the ministry, he was placed
in it. When we mention thatthere are'twelve different branches in
it, and more than sixty clerks employed, it will afford some indica
tion of the amount of public business that is transacted in the
department. Notwithstanding the many improvements effected by
M. Cauchon, the new commissioner made many changes for the
better, and thoroughly improved several branches connected with
his office. The system of selling townships en bloc was established
by him ; and also of selling lands at thirty cents per acre between
the cash and credit system, whereby the opening up of some of
our best colonization roads was effected. The so called Indian
department was likewise disposed of and added to the crown lands.
Mr. Vankoughnet, since he entered office, has been the ministerial
leader in the upper house, a post of some importance and of great
hardship, since that body became an elective one. Many will
coincide with us, when we say that hardly ever has a member of
the government done so much work and so well, and it will add not
a little to the name which Mr. Vankoughnet will carry with him
whenever it pleases him to leave the government. He has lately
been delegated to proceed to England, in conjunction with other
official gentlemen from the lower province, to confer with the
Imperial Government on the subject of the intercolonial railway.
Mr. Vankoughnet is a fluent and forcible speaker, and his man
ner of address is both pleasing and interesting. He has had many
high stations offered to him ; but, as we understand, would not
accept them, being not yet tired of public life.
He married early in life for a man of his standing, and is the
father of a young and interesting family. His wife was a daughter
of Colonel Turner, of one of the regiments of the line. His sister
is the accomplished musical composer who came before the public
a short time ago, under the auspices of the Prince of Wales.
78

618 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Hon. ALEXANDER T. GALT,
Minister of Finance.
To know something of the Gladstone or D'Israeli of Canada, the
very youngest and ablest of modern finance ministers, must be an
object of curiosity, not only in Canada but also in England. His
scale of operations is not confined to this country, but extend to
Europe, where the Canadian minister of finance has often in his
capacity created great excitement, as well as considerable admira
tion, for his sterling business and political talents. The subject of
this brief notice is a son of that celebrated author, John Gait,
Esquire, whose name is connected with modern English literature
as the talented writer of several well known biographies, novels,
&c, which in their day created " a sensation," and are still read,
quoted and admired by all. He was the friend of Byron, the poet,
and his historian, as he also was of many literary and artistic cele
brities of his day. In this country, he is well known as the
founder of the gigantic Canada Land Company; but a separate
notice of this distinguished and estimable gentleman appears else
where in our pages.
Alexander Tilloch Gait was born at Chelsea, London, on the
6th of September, 1817, and received his education in England.
A late notice of him in the Illustrated London News, says, that he
early evinced a taste for literature ; and in his early days, when
only fourteen years of age, contributed to Fraser's Magazine. But
literature was not destined to be the pursuit of his after life.
Circumstances drew him with his father and family to Canada, and
at the early age of sixteen he entered the service of the British and
American Land Company (in the Eastern Townships), as a junior
clerk; and in this office he served until 1856. But he rapidly
rose by his superior business talents and abilities from the station
which he at first held, through successive offices, to the post of its
commissioner, and subsequently resigned. There cannot be a doubt
that his efforts raised the company to the high standard which it
held at the time of his resignation, a statement which will be more
apparent by the following passage, which we quote from the notice
of his course, previously alluded to : —
" During these twenty-two years, the company underwent
various vicissitudes ; and it was when its affairs were at the lowest
ebb, that the London directors conferred upon Mr. Gait the full
management of their estates in Canada. That the selection was a
judicious one, is evident by the fact that between the period of his
appointment in 1844, and that of his retirement, the position of

AND PERS6NS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 613
the company was changed from one of almost hopeless insolvency,
to that of a valuable and remunerating undertaking."
Mr. Gait may j ustly claim a high place in our history, as having
been among the first advocates for the establishment of railways.
Indeed he was connected with almost the very first railway started
in our vicinity, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence line. This runs
from Portland to Montreal, and now forms a most important branch
of the Grand Trunk, being the only route whieh we yet possess to
gain the seaboard during the winter season. In conjunction with the
Honorable John Young, the management of this line was placed in
the hands of Mr. Gait, while its affairs were in a most embarassed
state, but together they overcame all obstacles, the line commenced
running, and they finally effected its alliance with the Grand Trunk,
since which time Mr. Gait's connection with it has ceased.
He is also entitled to praise for promoting the proposed federal
union of the British North American provinces, and an interco
lonial railway, two undertakings of momentous interest, not only
to America and Americans generally, but also to Europe and all
Europeans ; a design, too, which sooner or later will be carried into
effect. His exertions in these two particular cases have been
something more than ordinary, and deserve the highest meed of
praise from his country.
On reference to Cote's " Political Appointments," we find that Mr.
Gait first entered Parliament as member for the county of Sher
brooke, in April, 1849, but immediately after his election tendered
his resignation. In March, 1853, on the appointment of Mr. Short
to the bench, he was again elected, but this time for the town of
Sherbrooke. Ever since that period, he has continued to repre
sent this fine borough in Parliament, and has always, we believe,
been unanimously returned. It was only at the last election,
which took place this year, that any one could be found by the
opposite party to oppose him, and then the unhappy candidate was
doomed to undoubted defeat.
Mr. Gait's first entrance into the arena of politics was at a most
critical period ; at the time when the rebellion losses bill was under
discussion, and when party feeling ran very high. It was, indeed,
a time when the tug of war took place. Mr. Gait, although a quiet
man, and of a most liberal east, was strongly opposed to this
measure, which had been got up by the ministry of the day for
party purposes. He did not fail to record his strong abhorrence at
this proposal to squander the people's money in paying those per
sons who had brought so much misery on the country. Partly
from this cause, and partly from the removal of the seat of govern
ment to Upper Canada, he retired for a time from political life.
However on his re-entrie in 1853, he took an important and active
part in the measures of the day, and has continued to do so ever
since. He adhered to what may be termed the liberal opposition,

620 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
until the general election of 1857, when he could no longer place
sufficient confidence in the principles of that party, a conviction
which was fully endorsed by his constituents when he presented
himself for re-election.
Although Mr. Gait's conduct in the house is extremely unas
suming and mild, yet, through his high standing as a financier, and
his knowledge in matters of trade and commerce, he has come to he
regarded by the members of the Legislative Assembly as the highest
authority upon any question connected with these subjects.
When, in 1858, Mr. Macdonald's administration resigned office
on account of the vote on the seat of government question, and
Messrs. Brown and Dorion, who had been intrusted two days with
the power to form, if they could, a working ministry, were com
pelled to resign, from the vote of want of confidence passed on
them, his excellency the governor-general sent for Mr. Gait, as
the only man in the house who was likely to form a government.
Although he was fully capable of doing so, yet he declined the
honor ; and Mr. Cartier, the present premier, was called upon.
On the formation of the present ministry of Messrs. Cartier and
Macdonald, Mr. Gait accepted office as inspector-general, a title which
was soon after changed to that of " minister of finance." In this
responsible and arduous office he succeeded Mr. Cayley, to whose
continuance in office the whole country was opposed.
The policy of the government was greatly strengthened by the
action of Mr. Gait towards the establishment of a sound and perfect
system of finance, embracing the consolidation of the public debt,
and the redemption of various liabilities, &c. On presenting himself
to his constituents he was unanimously re-elected. In the course of
of his celebrated and lengthy address on that occasion, he thus hon
estly and candidly concludes his exposition of his future policy : —
" Gentlemen, — The views I now express on the subject of
the policy of the present government are those you know I
have always held. I have not joined the administration from
personal motives, nor by a sacrifice of principle ; but honestly and
sincerely in the hope that my services may be of some small value
to the country, in securing that which I have uniformly desired,
the remedy of existing political evils; the extension of the power
and influence of Canada ; a sound commercial policy, both in trade
and finance, with a reform of the various departments of the
government, are the objects you and I alike seek, and which I
know the present administration will do their utmost to secure."
What followed is too well known to be repeated here. The
tariff which he established was the main prop which upheld the
credit of the country ; and though at first bitter complaints arose
from the opposition, and vituperation and obloquy were cast upon
its originator, the good sense of the public overcame their previous
opinions, and Mr. Gait completed his triumph as he watched the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 621
favorable results of his endeavors. Mr. Gait proceeded to England
to effect the consolidation of the public debt, and met with com
plete success. The consolidation and Canadian loan will ever
remain a monument in the history of the country of his pre-eminent
financial capacity. In the session of 1860, appeared his gigantic
scheme for the bank of issue, which he soon after withdrew. Then
came his proposal for establishing free ports at Gaspe and Sault Ste.
Marie, accounted by many one of the greatest boons, and most
expedient, ever conferred on a country.
During his short connection with the finance and customs depart
ments, he has effected, in conjunction with its able officers, some of
the greatest improvements ; and has brought them to an admirable
state of perfection. Indeed, a person can scarcely now recognise in
those offices the system of his predecessors, so great has the change
been for the better.
But to see the minister of finance to the greatest advantage, one
should hear him speak ; and a better opportunity cannot be
presented than when he is about to unravel his annual budget.
He is then in his natural element. Although a calm and steady
speaker in general, yet, as he proceeds to unfold, one by one, his
" ideas " on the standing of the country, and his " intentions "
with reference to what he is about to do, and the policy of the
government on certain points and matters, the glow of triumph
which suffuses his features, and propels him rapidly along in his
course, imparts such animation and fluency to his language, that it
is quite a treat to hear him. Then it is when chairs are filled,
galleries and seats crowded to suffocation, and the temperature of
the house rises to an almost unsupportable degree. Breathless
silence prevails ; nothing is heard save the one voice of the
" honorable member." And when any one on the opposite side
ventures to interpose a question of explanation, or to bring forward
a notion of his own, then ensues such a castigation from the min
ister that the querist or opponent quivers beneath the retorts and
banterings, not only of the ministerial, but of his own party.
Finally, the minister having answered everybody, and satisfied all,
not detracting one word from his original statement, closes his
speech, and receives the " hurrahs of the house."
In the late general election of 1861, he was again elected for Sher
brooke, although his opponent (Mr. Felton) had been canvassing the
town and county for a length of time previous; and this reminds us of
how much gratitude exists in the hearts of some people. Last year
Mr. Gait was influential in getting redress done to a member of
this same Mr. Felton's family ; of course we all know it was just,
yet, had not Mr. Gait interceded, that justice might never have
been done, and the elder Mr. Felton would probably have died in
disgrace.

622 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. Sir HENRY SMITH.
To know something of the early life of the ex-speaker of the
Commons of Canada — of the manner in which he has fought his
way onward to success and the high honors which he enjoys, and
how he has brought his short official life to a successful issue, not
withstanding his late defeat — must, we think, occupy a part in the
minds of his fellow countrymen, and of the Canadian people in the
midst of whom he lives.
Sir Henry Smith is a true born Englishman ; and as the clever
writer of the sketches of eminent Canadians in the Canadian
News truly said : —
" Mr. Smith has every claim to be called an Englishman ; for
he was born in the metropolis of the empire, on the day of Eng
land's tutelar saint, April 23, 1812. For an Enghshman to have
risen to the position of speaker of the Legislative Assembly of
Canada is no small success, inasmuch as it indicates the possession
of great individual energy. Of all the people who go to make up
the mixed nationality of a province like Canada, there are none so
little indebted for success to adventitious circumstances as the
Englishman proper. He has none of that clannish nationality
which carries the Scotchman to success, and to which the Irish,
in spite of their division into Catholics and Protestants, are not a
a little indebted. He must stand or fall on his own merits ; and
if he rise at all, he must make his way against the sort of national
conspiracy with which he will find himself confronted. In Upper
Canada, the English population far outnumber the Scotch ; but
they have scarcely a tithe ' of the influence of that portion of the
population which was born north of the Tweed. The Roman
Catholic Irish band together for election purposes ; the Orange
Irish — and the Canadians, — although they cannot always be kept
from dividing, constitute a formidable combination ; and of the
whole Scotch population, at least three-fourths will vote for a
Scotchman, whatever his politics, if there be one among the candi
dates. The Englishman is thus an isolated being. He will not
get a single vote on national considerations ; and in this respect
his opponents are sure to have the advantage over him. In this
state of matters, the reader will easily conceive under what dis
advantages Speaker Smith must have fought his way to his present
position." Sir Henry is a very young man to have risen to the position which
he occupies at the present moment ; he is still in the prime of man
hood, and not a few of those who were accustomed to visit the House
of Assembly during the Parliament, over which he had the honor

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 623
to preside, will corroborate what we state. Every One will bear
testimony to the admirable manner in which his portly form filled
the chair — his bearing and deportment being that of a young
gentleman — rather than the father of a family ; though his voice,
which is loud and ponderous, and in tho days of yore, penetrated
to the utmost recesses of the house, would evidently belie his age.
One could not help recognising in him an indescribable something
that constitutes the gentleman and the possessor of influence and
power. But it is not our vocation to descend to eulogium, border
ing on flattery, except when the subject is absolutely deserving,
and of so high and generous a nature that we can hardly find
common words to express the sentiments that lie nearest our
heart. From Sir Henry we have experienced the greatest kind
ness ; wonder not then that we have devoted so much space in speak
ing of his many admirable qualities ; yet we can assure our readers
that it is not a tithe of what they really and honestly deserve.
When he was hardly eight years of age, his family migrated to
Canada ; and he accompanied them. He received his education
first at Montreal, in a private academy, under the superintendence
of Dr. Workman, where he remained until his father and family
removed to Kingston, Sir Henry's future home. Here he was
placed at the royal grammar school, where he completed his
studies. It was at this school where he first became acquainted
with the Hon. John A. Macdonald, afterwards his colleague in
office, now attorney-general, west. A friendship soon ripened
between the two schoolmates, which continued unsevered ever
since, until the late unfortunate difference between them on
political matters. From information at hand, we learn that it was
his family's intention, and his own, that he should become a
Canadian merchant; but how often are our projects and plans dis
solved and for our welfare ! Mr. Hagerman, afterwards the cele
brated judge, met with young Smith at his election contest for
the county of Frontenac ; the latter had taken a great interest in
the cause of Mr. Hagerman, and worked hard and with his usual
energy to secure his return. Mr. Hagerman was grateful, and
evinced it in endeavoring to promote his interests and welfare.
He advised Mr. Smith not to adopt the mercantile career, but to
take to the profession of the law, and offered to take him into his
office as a student, and to give him the benefit of his experience.
Although young Smith and his friends had already made their
determination as to what was to be his profession, yet so tempting
and gratifying an offer could not be slighted. Mr. Smith accepted
the proposal, and from that day his career was a settled thing.
He became distinguished for his professional acquisitions ; and
afterwards, on the appointment of Mr. Hagerman to the bench
went into the office of Mr. Fitzpatrick, and soon rose to rank and
honors. In 1836 he passed the bar; in 1846, just ten years after,

624 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he gained the high legal distinction of Queen's counsel. Soon
after the union of the provinces, he entered Parliament for the
fine county of Frontenac, he was strongly opposed in his candi
dature, it is true, but proved triumphant, remaining so, until the
general election contest of 1861, when he was defeated by Mr.
Morton, of Kingston. At every previous election he had been
returned to Parliament, sometimes with influential and wealthy
opponents against him, and many times by acclamation.
His suecess in the house was great; it was equal to his
success at the bar. The active part which he took in all
debates in the former, his manner of delivery in speaking,
and the influence which he wielded thereby, and by his
conclusive arguments, awakened all to the conviction that
his rising talents must sooner or later place him on the
treasury benches, and they were not wrong. He entered
the MacNab-Morin administration as solicitor-general, west, in
1854, and was doubly welcomed by the members of that ministry,
for they saw in him a man of talents and of political energy, a
man that could and would work, and would prove a strong sup
porter. And he did work hard too, as everbody is aware. He
was "a real worker and no shirker." Who could help being
convulsed with laughter when they recollect the scenes in the
house of those days — he was ever ready to do battle — his pointed wit
and sarcasm was hurled at any one who dared to advance anything
against the well being of the administration of which he was a
member ! To be brief, Mr. Smith continued solicitor-general,
west, during successive administrations ; among others that of his
old schoolfellow, Mr. Macdonald, until the meeting of the new
Parliament of 1858, when a speaker had to be elected, and the
choice as one of the most experienced, and one of the most efficient
members of the house, fell on himself. It has been frequently
stated that the honors of the speakership never fell on better
shoulders than on those of the honorable gentlemen of whom we
are writing ; and though the onerous duties appertaining to that
office are very multifarious, yet Sir Henry surmounted them, and
for smaller emoluments than what he received in his capacity as
solicitor-general. As speaker he was appointed in 1859 to pro
ceed to England to the court of St. James, and present the address
from Parliament to the Queen, inviting her Majesty to visit Canada
and inaugurate the Victoria Bridge. The successful issue of this
mission has been so often referred to, and so generally and greatly
appreciated, that it would be superfluous for us to refer to it again.
Let it suffice to observe that Sir Henry displayed such wisdom and
such judicious conduct that he won the admiration of all. He
was just the man for such a post. The Queen herself, while she
desired, through Sir Henry, to convey to her Canadian subjects
her deep appreciation of their attachment to her person — expressed

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 625
regret that she could not leave England for such a distant part
of the empire at that period — Sir Henry persevered, however,
(until he obtained the promise of the home authorities to allow
ithe Prince of Wales to visit Canada; hence the visit of His
Royal Highness. It was thought that her Majesty would
have graciously conferred upon Mr. Smith on that occasion some
loyal mark of her personal appreciation ; but the honor was only
delayed. At court Sir Henry, as our envoy, was exceedingly well
received, as well as among the nobility of the United Kingdom.
He travelled, on this occasion, on the oontincnt.
On the memorable visit of the heir apparent of the British
throne to Canada, Mr. '.Smith, on presenting the address of the
Legislative Assembly, had the honor of knighthood conferred upon
nim by the prince, who was empowered by the Queen to do so in
recognition of his services.
The officers ofthe House of Assembly, in grateful remembrance
of the innumerable kindnesses which they had received from him
during the time he had occupied the speaker's chair, immediately
presented him with an address, congratulating him on the high
honor which her Majesty had been pleased to confer upon him.
The Parliament having come to an end, Sir Henry is no lon
ger speaker, nor is he indeed even a member of the house, having
been defeated in the last general election. As to the political at
titude which he assumed, and which led to this result, we have
very little to say, except to express our deep regret at the estrange
ment which has taken place between two such warm, social and
political friends as Mr. Macdonald and the subject of this sketch ;
how it came about we cannot say. That Sir Henry acted wrong we
are free to admit, still every man has a perfect right to express
his own opinion, and exercise his own judgment, even on a subject
of life and death, how much more then on a mere political question.
That he lacked tact and judgment in his course is evident, or
how else would he have left the party with which he had been so
long allied, with which his interests were identified, and which
was still in the ascendant, to join that which is going down further
and further every day, and is no longer respected, being without even
FalstafFs number, of men to constitute a troop or party ; it was,
indeed, a great mistake on his part but not without a precedent,
for we witness every day, in the Imperial Parliament and other po
litical coteries, the very same thing performed)by men of long stand
ing and high prestige ; but there was no just reason why certain
papers should indulge in such low, coarse and personal remarks
on the gentleman in question and his family. This certainly is
contemptible in the extreme, and deserves the greatest reprehension.
There is no doubt that Sir Henry Smith will again obtain a
seat in Parliament, when, we hope, he will rectify this false step,
and appear himself again, 79

626 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Hon. SIDNEY SMITH,
Postmaster-General.
There are some persons who believe that statecraft consists of
a perpetual series of deceptions— rthat to promise, to wheedle, and
befool the supporters of a government comprises the whole art of
statesmanship. To this class, Mr. Smith assuredly does not
belong. In conducting the business of his department, and all
public affairs confided to his care, his answers to all inquiries are
yea, yea, and nay, nay. There is neither circumlocution, reticence,
nor a holding out of false hopes in his replies. He has a ready
habit of telling unpleasant truths, when the occasion demands it,
and so far from losing by this in the estimation of his friends, it
is found to be the best way of conciliating their esteem. He has
preserved, and made more friends, even among those whom he has
been obliged to disoblige, by his prompt and straightforward manner
of doing it, than many others who have pursued an opposite course,
have made in the bestowal of favors. He has besides obtained
what is even more valuable, the character of uniformly acting in
an open, candid, and straightforward manner.
Mr. Smith, like the majority of his colleagues in the govern
ment, is a native of Canada, having first seen the light at Port
Hope — before the place was called by that name — on the 16th of
October, 1823. His grandfather, Elias Smith, was an United
Empire Loyalist, who adhered to the British standard through the
American revolutionary war, and afterwards emigrated to Canada.
Mr. John David Smith, the father of the subject of this notice,
was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, from
1824 till 1827. Mr. James Smith, brother of Sidney Smith, twice
represented Durham, and once Victoria, in the legislature of United
Canada ; and another, Mr. J. Shuter Smith, contested the east
riding of Durham, at the last general election, and succeeded in
obtaining his election, while the postmaster-general was defeated,
for the adjoining constituency, by a narrow majority.
The education of the subject of this notice, commenced under
Archdeacon Bethune, of Cobourg, was continued at the Home
district grammar school, and ended under the care of the Rev.
Dr. Jonathan Short, of Port Hope. Studying law in the office of
Smith (his brother John Shuter) and Crooks, he was admitted to
the bar in 1844. The same year he commenced practice in
Cobourg, where he soon became solicitor to the Commercial Bank,
and succeeded in establishing a lucrative business. His first law
partner was his brother, J. Shuter Smith, the partnership continu-

And persons connected with Canada. 627
ing until the latter was appointed master of the Court of Chancery,
in 1850. Three years after, he took in as a new law partner Mr-
John D. Armour. In 1853, Mr. Smith was elected municipal
councillor for two places, the town of Cobourg and the township
of Hamilton, in which the town is situated. The election of
warden, or presiding officer of the county councils, sometimes
takes shape of a political contest. Such was the case in 1853,
when Mr. Smith was elected warden of the united counties of
Northumberland and Durham, being reeve of the township of
Hamilton. Before that period no reformer had ever been elected
warden for these united counties. In 1854, Mr. Smith contested the
west riding of Northumberland against D'Arcy E. Boulton, Esq.,
and was then first elected a member of the Legislative Assembly.
This election was the first that occurred after Mr. Hincks's bill,
reforming the representation in Parliament, came into effect.
Mr. Smith was twice re-elected for this constituency. In these two
latter elections he was opposed in the first by Mr. Asa A. Burnham,
and in the second by a Mr. Grimshaw, and although the most
strenuous efforts were made by the opposition, and the thunders
of their press exerted against him to a greater extent than on any
previous occasion, to cause his defeat, yet he was triumphantly
returned, his opponent only polling a small number of votes.
On his first entry into Parliament, in 1854, Mr. Smith moved
the address, in answer to the speech from the throne. He has
supported all the liberal measures, such as the secularization of the
clergy reserves, since he went into Parliament. In 1854, he was
chairman of the so called corruption committee. Till 1856, he
supported the coalition, of which Sir Allan MacNab was at the
head ; and then he went into opposition, being dissatisfied with the
course pursued by Sir Allan in the leadership of the government,
and when the latter had ceased to be able to discharge his duties
on account of ill health. Atthe closeof this session, Mr. Smith went
to Germany for his health, and returned much improved. On the
second of February, 1858, Mr. Smith was appointed postmaster-
general, with a seat in the cabinet ; which office he has held ever
since, with the exception of a few days during the ministerial crisis,
in the summer of 1858, when he was president of the council and
minister of agriculture. In the session of 1859, he moved and car
ried an address to the Queen, praying her Majesty to recommend the
Imperial Parliament to grant a subsidy to the Canadian line of the
ocean steamers. To this address no favorable response has yet
been given. In connexion with Atlantic mail arrangements, Mr.
Smith has covered himself with laurels. He recently succeeded
in forming arrangements with the United States, France, Prussia,
and Belgium, for the conveyance of mail matters across the
Atlantic in the Canadian steam vessels, and through Canada on
the Grand Trunk Railway. In this he has done more for the

628 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
benefit of Canada than any of his predecessors in office. He has shewn
himself the best postmaster-general we ever possessed, and that he
has the proper administrative ability, and is one of the very best
and most efficient members of the government. This is no fiction ;
every one in Canada can bear testimony to the truth of what we
assert ; the duty Mr. Smith undertook, in proceeding to Europe,
was not as an interested party in the Canadian steamers, but as a
responsible minister, determined, as far as possible, to make his
own department self-sustaining. Succeeding to his present position
with a heavy balance against him in the annual accounts with Ut
tle prospect of improving receipts in the inland revenue, the post
master-general determined to make the best of what appeared, in
a measure, a hopeless task. By curtailing the cost of home con
tracts, a considerable saving was effected. But the crowning act of
Mr. Smith's administration was the ocean postal service. To
show what he had to contend against in his two separate missions
to Europe, it is only necessary to allude, first, ta the freezing sort of
sympathy he received from Lord Elgin, as English postmaster-gene
ral. The second and most painful discouragement which Mr. Smith
met was in the loss of two of the best of our steamers within a few
months of each other ; still our Canadian delegate was not to be
daunted ; he knew that Lord Elgin was not altogether omnipotent,
and was far from being so considered in England. The mission
was prosecuted with zeal and with determination such as we may
safely say has no parallel. The details of his scheme of ocean service,
Mr. Smith was enabled to present to Prussia, the Netherlands, and
France, in a light which at once commanded approval. The re
venue from the first Canadian ocean mail was fourteen shilhngs.
After Mr. Smith's arrangement in 1859, the mail freight included
some forty bags, and by the later arrangements upwards of one
hundred bags was carried by a single steamer.
The practical result of this is, that while the ocean mail subsidy,
in 1650, was nominally increased from £50,000 a year to £104,000
there was no actual increase of expenditure involved. Mr. Smith's
arrangements, in other words, brought for the first year of their
operation upwards of $200,000 into the exchequer.
If to this we add, that the annual balance of £40,000 which ap
peared against the post office department when Mr. Smith assumed
the reins has disappeared, we have said enough, we trust, to show
that there is fair room for congratulation in possessing such an able
minister. The postmaster-general of the United States in his last annual
report, thus speaks of the last part of the arrangements thus effected
by Mr. Smith : —
"Additional articles to the United States and French postal
convention of the 2nd of March, 1857, have been mutually agreed
upon, establishing new exchanging offioes, on the side of the United

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 629
States, at Portland, Detroit and Chicago respectively, and on the
side of France, at Paris, and providing for an exchange of mails by
the Canadian packets plying between Liverpool and Portland, or
between Liverpool and Riviere du Loup ; a copy of these articles
accompanies this report. Additional articles to the postal conven
tion with Prussia, of the same character, have also been agreed
upon with the general post office at Berlin, establishing, on the
part of the United States, new offices of exchange at Portland,
Detroit and Chicago respectively, to exchange closed mails with
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), through England, by means of the
Canadian line of mail packets, a copy of which is annexed to this
report. These arrangements have greatly expedited the transmis
sion of European correspondence to and from the western states,
and give entire satisfaction to that portion of the country."
In the session for 1860, Mr. Smith brought forward a
measure for increasing the subsidy to the Canadian line of
steamers to £104,000, about double the previous amount — the
contract to run till 1867. The additional postage earned by the
arrangements he had recently made, enabled him to do this without
imposing any considerable burden upon the Canadian revenue ;
indeed, he had placed the department under his control in a self-
sustaining position — an assertion hardly to be credited, when we
consider the extent of the country and the enormous debt we had
been paying Great Britain for our ocean postal accommodation, and
what benefits the country enjoys : not a village or country hamlet,
on the steamboat routes and railway lines, but receives its daily
mail ; while others, more remote — perhaps buried in the wilderness
— receive them once, twice, or three times a week. What a change
in a few years.
In 1860, Mr. Smith settled that much-vexed question : the
abolition of sabbath labor in the post offices in Upper Canada.
His settlement of it has been received, both in Upper and Lower
Canada, with satisfaction, which is the more surprising, when it is
remembered that for nearly ten years previously every effort by
Parliament to legislate upon the question proved abortive.
The Honorable Edmund Murney, member of the upper house,
died a short time after the postmaster-general's defeat in North
umberland, which occasioned a vacancy for the large division of
Trent. Mr. Smith, although comparatively a stranger in the
division, immediately commenced his canvass through the counties
of Peterborough, North Hastings and Lennox, composing the
division, and after a severe struggle, in which he had arrayed
against him, all the leading stars of the opposition, succeeded in
defeating, by a large majority, Mr. Biila Flint, one of the most
wealthy and influential men in the province. His election was
deemed a great triumph by his party, and was hailed with delight ;
public dinners were given him, both at Peterborough and Napanee,

630 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the former attended by the largest number of persons that ever
met at a social gathering in the province, in a building erected
specially for the occasion.
We have in another portion of this notice spoken of Mr. Smith's
qualities as a public man. In private life, he is not much changed ;
freed from the official dignity of his profession (although always
courteous and generous in that), he is the affable and accomplished
Canadian gentleman, one whom we can call our own both in prin
ciple and practice, with an open and generous nature worthy of the
warm-hearted people from whom he is descended ; to him, one man
stands in the same light as another, no matter what his coat,
creed or party be. He is ardent in his attachments, and would
support his party to the last, although this may be disavowed by
some, on account of the course he took in leaving the reform ranks
for the coalition ; yet, he has given a satisfactory explanation of
that, and, no one will dispute, a correct one, and has since proven
what we assert. His model is his leader, whom he justly considers
one of the greatest men the country has ever possessed ; and in
taking Mr. J. A. Macdonald as his model, we are sure no man can
ever do wrong. Yet Mr. Smith does not remain in the government
for his support, but rather for his great abilities and talents as a
minister; and this was exemplified lately on his defeat, when
dozens were running after the office but could not obtain it, for
neither the government nor the country could afford to lose the
services of one who has given such unquestionable evidence of ad
ministrative capacity.
Mr. Smith married a Miss Bennet, in 1854, and is the father of
several children.

Hon. MALCOLM CAMERON, M.L.C
The biography of this gentleman would fill an interesting volume.
The history of his career is one of the most remarkable, and we
exceedingly regret that we are unable to devote more space to
the record, but such as we are enabled to present from the mate
rials at our disposal will, we believe, repay the perusal. He is the
son of the late Mr. Angus Cameron, hospital sergeant of a Cana
dian regiment, a person so valuable in his position, that he never
could get promoted, while many inferior men in the same regiment,
at the commencement of the war of 1812, obtained commissions.
Malcolm Cameron was born on the 25th of April, 1808, and on tho

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 631
disbandment of his father's regiment, in 1816, went with his
parents into the settlement at Perth, in the Ottawa district, where
they for some time kept a house of entertainment ; and so amiable
and kind were the old couple, that they endeared themselves to all
in the place, and are remembered with kindness by the old settlers
to this day. At this place Malcolm remained until he was twelve
years of age, when he went on to a farm and kept the ferry at the
Mississippi river, ten miles back of the settlement, and there the
future minister in 1820-1, became acquainted with several emi
grants from Scotland, some of the old radicals of 1819, an entirely
new class of minds from the gay, reckless soldiers, with whom he
had hitherto been associated. What with talking and reading
among these he, in a short time imbibed their extreme ideas and
notions ; and consequently, at an early period, he received the
name of " radical," which he has ever since consistently maintained.
On his father's death, in 1822, he was offered a situation in a store
at Laprarie, whither he went in 1823 ; but he did not remain long.
His master was cruel, harsh and tyrannizing ; and, as the young
radical would not stand abuse, or be domineered over, he on the
9th March, 1824, left his employment, and walked nine miles
(having both his cheeks frozen on the way) ; and hired himself to
Martins, in the Hay-market, Montreal, as a stable boy, so to honestly
earn sufficient money to pay his stage fare to Upper Canada. His
mother had removed into town, and there kept a boarding house.
Young Malcolm went to the district school that winter, and studied
assiduously, in order to become useful, and to make something of
himself ; and in the spring, had the satisfaction of receiving em
ployment as a clerk in the brewery and distillery of the Honorable
A. Graham, as the result of said learning. And here it is right
we should remark that, although his parents had kept a tavern and
sold liquor in great quantities, neither of them could be accused of
being themselves drinkers, and so with Malcolm. His mother had
always cautioned and, guarded him against intoxicating drink, and
ever zealously prevented him from obtaining any within her juris
diction ; and her success may be estimated, when we see in him
at the present day one of the most fearless and stanch supporters
and champions of the temperance cause. Hence, although em
ployed in a place where he was subjected to every temptation that
can be set before a mortal, he remained firm, and passed through
the ordeal with safety, remaining in his employment four years,
during which period he devoted much time to reading and study
ing. Almost the first money which he earned he sent to England,
to purchase Hume, Smollet, and Doyd. He perused nearly every
novel and romance in the place ; and attributes to them any refine
ment in his character that he may possess. In 1828, he went into
partnership with his brother-in-law, a connection, which from some
difference that arose, did not last long. He went to Scotland,

632 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
when in business (1833), purchased largely, and married his cousin,
a Miss McGregor, of Glasgow. Three years after he was returned
to Parliament for his native county, Lanark, in opposition to Sir
F. B. Head's government; and took an active part in the affairs of this
time, conducing as much as possible to the union of the provinces in
1840. He supported Lord Sydenham, and was a great favorite of
that able nobleman. He was offered the office of inspector-general
by him, but declined, and first came into office under Sir Charles
Bagot as inspector of the revenue, and in that capacity effected much
improvement in the custom houses of the day. Since then he has
been commissioner of public works, minister of agriculture, president
of the Executive Council, and postmaster-general. He has been
twenty-six years in Parliament, having been elected ten times for
different counties, Lanark, Kent, Lambton, and Huron. Nor was
he ever defeated but once. In 1860, he was elected a member of
the Legislative Council.* He is now fifty-three years of age, and is
as active and energetic as ever. His services in the cause of
temperance can hardly ever be sufficiently appreciated.

G. W. WICKSTEED, Esq., Q.C
This gentleman was born in England, and after a classical edu
cation partly at the the public schools of his native country, came
to Canada in 1821, upon the invitation of his uncle, the late Mr.
Justice Fletcher. He subsequently studied law, and was admitted
to the bar of Lower Canada. In 1828, he became assistant law-
clerk to the Legislative Assembly, an office he held until the sus
pension of the constitution, when he was appointed to a similar
office in the Special Council. In 1841, at the beginning of thefirst
session after the union, he was appointed, on motion of that vener
able patriot, the late Honorable John Neilson, law clerk of the
Legislative Assembly of united Canada, which highly responsible
and important office he has held to the present day. In 1842, in
conjunction with the Honorable Hugues Heney and Alexander
Buchanan, Esquire, Q.C, he was appointed a commissioner for
revising the statutes of Lower Canada up to the time of the union.
Mr. Heney having died, the work was completed by himself and
Mr. Buchanan ; and the public statute law then in force, which
had been scattered over a great number of volumes, from the time
*Cote's " Political Appointments."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 633
of the conquest up to 1841, was ascertained and collected into one
moderate sized octavo volume, a work of great labor, responsibility
and usefulness. No one has ever found fault with the manner in
which the work was performed. In 1853, Mr. Wicksteed, in con
sideration of previous public services rendered in his official capa
city, and more especially in relation to the then recent settlement
of the questions arising out of the abolition of the feudal tenure in
Lower Canada, was appointed by Lord Elgin to be a Queen's
counsel. In 1856, he was named one of the commissioners for
revising and consolidating the statutes of Lower Canada, and of
those common to the whole province of Canada, a work which has
now been completed and published. The joint commissioners
having made a preliminary report and draft, the final printing and
editing of the work was performed by the late Sir James Macaulay
and Mr. Wicksteed, under the direction of the Governor-in-Council.
This work has now been for a considerable time in the hands of
the public, and has been found to be eminently useful, superseding
as it does, in conjunction with the Upper Canada volume, for all
practical purposes, all the previous statute law of the province.
Mr. Wicksteed has virtually now held the same office in the par
liaments of Lower Canada and Canada for thirty-three years, and
during that time, we believe all the acts have been revised and
superintended by him, in passing through the Legislative As
sembly ; and a very large number of those of a general character,
have been originally prepared by him. There is but one opinion
of his fitness for, and of the ability and fidelity with which he
has discharged his office ; for the due performance of which it
is unnecessary to say, that, apart from knowledge of the law as it
exists, a familiar acquaintance with the principles of legislation and
government, and a very considerable share of inventive power,
general information, command of accurate language, and good
scholarship, are indispensable.

Hon. CHARLES ALLEYN,
Provincial Secretary.
The subject of this notice, whose career in Canada has certainly
been very successful, is the son of Commander Alleyn, R.N., a notice
of whom appears in this work. He is the lineal representative
of the celebrated Edward Alleyn, who, in his day, was con
sidered the greatest actor on the London boards, and became the
80

634 6KETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
founder of " Dulwich college," or rather, as he himself called
it, " the CoUege of God's Gift," in Surry. Edward Alleyn was
himself the first master of it ; he died in 1626, and was buried in the
chapel of the college. He was one of the most celebrated charac
ters of the day. The family of Alleyn can trace its lineal descent
back through nearly three hundred years.
Charles, the eldest son, the subject of this brief notice, was born
at Myrus Wood, in the county of Cork, Ireland, in September,
1817. He pursued his studies at Fermoy school, founded by the
late Dr. Hincks, father of Honorable Francis Hincks, the present
successful colonial governor, and also at Clongowes college, in the
county of Kildare, where he was generally successful, and was
considered in some respects very clever.
In 1834, in conjunction with his family, he emigrated to Canada
and settled at Quebec, which has ever since been their head
quarters. He studied law under some of the most eminent of the
legal profession in the [lower province. In 1840 he was called to
the bar, and practiced at it until his accession to the cabinet. He
mingled in municipal politics to a considerable extent, and was
elected, in 1854, to the mayoralty of Quebec, which might almost be
considered as his native city, seeing that he has resided there from
boyhood. In the same year he was returned to Parliament, in
conjunction with the late Honorable Mr. Justice Chabot, thg com
missioner of public works, and the celebrated Dr. Blanchet, for
the same ancient and time-honored city; and he has continued to
be one of its representatives ever since.
In 1857, Mr. Alleyn was appointed Queen's counsel, and was
called to the Executive Council as commissioner of publie works, in
the government of the Honorable John A. Macdonald. He was
appointed to this office in preference to many aspirants, and with
out advantages which others possess to elevate themselves. Mr.
Alleyn entered the government not merely for the purpose of
" filling a place," or as a political acquisition, (though he is so in
one sense of the word) for he brought nothing with him but his
own talents and abilities ; and he will take nothing out whenever
it pleases him to leave, save the reputation of being an honest,
upright, hard working member of the government, who does not
shrink from doing his duty both to the government, his consti
tuents and himself.
When M. Cartier formed his administration in the latter portion
of the year 1858, Mr. Alleyn was transferred from the board of
works to the provincial secretary's department, where he still
remains. Mr. Alleyn is a fair speaker, possessing the richness as well as
the perspicuity and clearness of his countrymen, Sheridan, Burke,
or Grattan; or, in our own land, of an Aylwin. He is, however,
less forward in addressing the house than those profound orators,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 635
who were wont to move the thunders of Parliament by the power
of their eloquence and elocution.
Mr. Alleyn is a man of the strictest honor, and would not stoop to
do a degrading act, as was nobly evinced on a late occasion. When
the Quebec election committee declared against him, he imme
diately sent in his resignation to the governor-general (happily
not accepted), preferring to go back to humble citizenship rather
than remain a member of a government when he entertained doubts
whether he had proper claims to be such.
He married, in 1849, Miss Aubert De Gaspe, daughter of P.
Aubert De Gaspe, Esquire, surgeon of St. John Port Joli, C. E.,
by whom he has issue several children.

LIEUT.-GENERAL Sir WM. EYRE, K.C.B.
This gallant soldier well known to most of our Canadian readers
from his brief connection with this country from 1856 to 1858 ;
firstly, as commander-in-chief of the forces ; and secondly as admi
nistrator ofthe government in 1857, was the second son of the late
Vice-Admiral Sir George Eyre, K.C.B., by the third daughter of
Sir George Cooke, Baronet, of Wheatley, and was born at Hatfield,
in the year 1805. He entered the army in 1823, and after serving
in the 73rd Regiment in this province (during which time we
believe he was an aide-de-camp to one of the lieutenant-governors
of Upper Canada) he proceeded with that gallant corps to the Cape
of Good Hope, and while there greatly distinguished himself in
both the Caffre wars as lieutenant-colonel. In acknowledgment of
his eminent services in the last and previous war, he was made a
companion of the order of the Bath, promoted to the rank of
colonel, and appointed an aide-de-camp to the Queen. On the
military force being sent out to the east in the Crimean war, he
was appointed to a brigade of the third division of the army, which
he ultimately commanded, with the local and temporary rank of
lieutenant-general. He was present at the battles of the Alma, and
Inkerman, commanded the troops in the trenches during the latter
battle, and remained in the Crimea until after the fall of Sebastopol,
for which he received a medal and clasps. For these services
he was in 1855, created a knight commander of the order of the
Bath, was made a commander of the Legion of Honor, a knight
of the imperial order of the Medjidie of the second class, and was

636 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
among the general officers of the army who received the Sardinian
war medal. After his return home in June, 1856, he was selected
by the commander-in-chief to command the troops in Canada, and
whilst here, on Sir Edmund W. Head obtaining leave of absence to
proceed to Europe, administered our government. All will readily
testify to the great abilities which he displayed in these capacities,
and to his general gentlemanlike conduct, affability and courteous-
ness of manners to all who had the pleasure of coming in contact
with him during his short connection with Canada. Ill health,
which shewed its symptoms in a most alarming character, compelled
him to resign his command, and to relinquish a post, the duties of
which gave him so much pleasure to fulfil. He returned to Eng
land, but change of climate was of no avail, his disease rapidly
gained upon him, and his death took place during the year 1859,
causing a deep and general regret. He was one of the field offi
cers in the receipt of rewards for distinguished and meritorious
services. He married, in 1841, Miss Bridgeman Simpson, third
daughter of the late Honorable John Bridgeman Simpson, by
whom we believe he left no issue.

Right Rev. FRANCIS FULFORD, D.D.,
Metropolitan Bishop of Canada.
This distinguished and learned prelate, so justly celebrated for
his goodness and piety of heart, holds the high position of head of
the Anglican Church in Canada. Dr. Fulford is the second son of
the late Baldwin Fulford, Esquire, of Great Fulford, Devon, by
the eldest daughter of the late William Adams, Esq., M.P., of
Bowden, near Totness. The family is descended from William de
Fulford, who held Fulford, temp., Richard I. The right reverend
prelate was born at Sidmouth, 1803, and married in 1830, the
eldest daughter of Andrew Berkeley Drummond, Esquire, of
Cadlands, Hants, grand-daughter of the second Earl of Egmont. He
was educated at Tiverton grammar school, and subsequently
entered Exeter college, Oxford, where he graduated B. A. in
1824, and was elected a fellow, in June, 1825 ; he received the degree
of D.D. in 1850; was rector of Trowbridge, Wilts, from 1832 to
1842 ; rector of Croydon, Cambridgeshire, from 1842 to 1845 ; was
minister of Curzon chapel, in the parish of St. George's, Hanover

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 637
squafe, London, from 1845 till his consecration in 1850 ; he was
also chaplain to the Duchess of Gloucester ; and has published
sermons, and a work on " The Progress of the Reformation."
In 1859 he was appointed by royal letters patent " metropo
litan bishop of this province," and as such, is at the head of the
church in Canada. His lordship is regarded as a bright ornament
of the church, and an eloquent preacher. His language is elegant
and his reasoning logical, without any affectation or pedantry.
Since he has been connected with this country, he has done much
to promote the advancement and peace ofthe church, is popular
with all denominations, and has endeared himself to all with whom
he has come in contact. His services towards science and art
have been extremely valuable, and are held in high estimation ; so
much so indeed that he has been elected on several occasions to
high offices in some of our best institutions.

Hon. JOHN ROSE, M.P.P.
This gentleman is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in
Aberdeenshire, in the year 1820, and consequently is now in his
forty-first year, a comparatively early age for a man to attain the
high political standing which he enjoys. He completed his studies
at King's college, Aberdeen ; and, at an early age, in conjunc
tion with his father and family, emigrated to Canada ; but wealth
and distinction are not attained in Canada without industry and
assiduity, and young Rose was not an exception to this rule ; he
labored manfully in those days, and being possessed of great energy
he surmounted the obstacles which impeded his path in a new
country. It is said that in his younger days he performed the useful
duties of a tutor, and we know that he was lately commissioner of
public works ; a circumstance sufficient to demonstrate his energy,
and abilities. He resided for a short time in the Eastern Town
ships, and then went to Montreal to study law ; he was called to
the bar of Lower Canada (Montreal district) in 1842, and pos
sessing as he does, excellent natural abilities, and being a good
speaker and debater, with a good delivery and a tall commanding
figure, he impresses upon his hearers the full importance of the
subject which he discusses ; that he soon succeeded in his profes
sion and eventually acquired the largest practice at the bar in
the mercantile capital of Canada is an admitted fact. He became

638 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
solicitor for the Hudson's Bay Company and several other compa*
nies and institutions ; he was made a Queen's counsel in 1847,
and did a good deal of the government work in the courts.
Always taking a part on the loyal side in public affairs, Mr.
Rose soon became a politician, and was often desired to enter
Parliament, but to such alluring offers he long continued to turn
a deaf ear, though assured of office in some of the governments of
the day; but it was not till the general election of 1857 that he could
be induced to run for any constituency ; this was on his appoint
ment to the solicitor-generalship in the Macdonald-Cartier admin
istration. In conjunction with Messrs. Cartier, (the leader of the
Lower Canada section of the government,) and Starnes, a wealthy
and influential citizen of Montreal, he contested the honor of re
presenting that city against Messrs. Dorion, Holton and McGee,
who ran on the opposition ticket. Of the ministerialists, Mr. Rose
was the only successful candidate, the others were elected for
other constituencies. Mr. Rose continued as solicitor-general,
east, passing through the nominal appointment of receiver-general
on 6th August, until December, 1858, when, on the resignation of
M. Sicotte, he accepted the more responsible office of commissioner
of public works ; this position he held until the general election
of 1861, when, " for certain private reasons," he tendered his
resignation to the administration, and after being again returned
for Montreal, left for a tour in Europe. During the time he held
the commissionership of public works he effected many improve
ments in that department; and it was very truly said that no one
had ever performed the work of that arduous department with
greater satisfaction, notwithstanding that more was done for Mon
treal and that vicinity than for any other place ; nor did any chief
commissioner ever act with more integrity and honor than he.
The value of his services and the superiority of his character were
more especially evident during the visit of H. R. H. the Prince
of Wales. He took upon himself the main arrangements of the
tour, and elicited the grateful commendations of the royal party, and
the united praises of the British, American and Canadian press.
Mr. Woods, the Times special correspondent, speaks of him in
the following terms, which we think but right to reproduce : —
" To the Honorable John Rose, the chief commissioner of pub
lic works in Canada, was intrusted the task of organizing, arrang
ing and perfecting every single detail connected with the progress.
This scarcely sounds very much, but when the reader recollects
that the royal party, with their suite and attendants, with guards
of honor, police and couriers, averaged from 250 to 300 persons,
that either by rail, by horses, steamers, carriages or canoes, they
travelled on the average more than 100 miles a day through a new
and often a wild country ; that every single stage was kept to the
very hour, and that even the most trifling contre-temps did not occur

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 639
on the whole route ; this result, considering that all the materiel
for the royal guest and household, such as plate, linen and glass,
had to be forwarded always in advance from day to day that it was
always ready, even at the most remote points, and that throughout
not one single article was lost or mislaid — speaks well for Mr.
Rose's arrangements. *****
" With the untiring exertions of his staff, every member of which
Mr. Rose superintended and looked after himself each morning
and each night, and aided by the kindness and ready help of
General Bruce, the whole tour through Canada had been made.
Where has there ever been one more enthusiastic, even more
triumphant, or better organized in all its branches from stationing
carriages in back woods to relays of canoes up rapids, from relays
of horses to the banks of lakes, and from the banks of lakes to
railways, and so on to towns ? At every single town, village or
shanty-station, His Royal Highness had been enabled to arrive
with as much punctuality as if he had not travelled some 5000
miles to keep his appointment, and with as little apparent hurry
and confusion as if he had only one such appointment and not twenty
to keep each day. The more one saw of the country and of the
difficulties of travelling through it by the late royal route, the more
astonishing did it appear that Mr. Rose, even with all his able
staff, should have managed so well, and been able to keep the royal
word as strictly with little wayside villages as with the largest
cities which gave his Royal Highness so grand and so hearty a re
ception ; even the obstinate inhospitality of the Kingston men
made no alteration, and the royal programme through Upper and
Lower Canada was kept almost to the very minute. * * *
" There was great shaking of hands as his Royal Highness, the
Duke of Newcastle, and all the suite took a kindly leave of Mr.
Rose, whose arduous labors terminated with the last state visit to
the last Canadian city. It was with a feeling of deep regret that
the royal party bade adieu to one who had so ably and so success
fully ministered to the comfort of their tour throughout."

Hon. J. PATTON, LL.D., M.L.C.
Honorable James Patton is a Canadian by birth, and was
born at Prescott, C. W., on the 10th June, 1824. He is the
fourth and youngest son of the late Andrew Patton, Esq., major
H- M. 45th Regiment, and formerly of St. Andrew's, Fifeshire.

640 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Major Patton served under the Duke of Wellington throughout
the greater part of the Peninsular war. The eldest son is the
Reverend Dr. Patton, rector of Cornwall, C. W., and rural
dean. At an early age he attended Upper Canada college,
and passed through the prescribed courses in that institution. In
1840 he entered upon the study of the law, under the Honorable
J. Hillyard Cameron, Q. C. In 1843, at the opening of King's
college, (now the university of Toronto), Mr. Patton was enrolled
as a matriculant, and pursued his university studies, at the same
time discharging the arduous duties of a senior clerk in an office
which ranked among [the first in the province. In June, 1845,
he was admitted an attorney, and in Michaelmas term, of the same
year, he was called to the bar. In 1847, he took the degree of
LL. B. On being admitted an attorney, Mr. Patton commenced
the practice of his profession in Barrie, the county town of Simcoe.
The passage of the rebellion losses bill, in 1849, first drew Mr.
Patton into public life, and from that period he has taken a promi
nent part in the political contests in Simcoe. In 1852, there being
no conservative journal in the county, Mr. Patton started the
Barrie Herald, and for more than two years held the editorial
reins. In 1852, he published the Canadian Constables Assistant,
a useful pamphlet, founded upon a very able charge by Judge
Gowan to the grand jury of Simcoe. In 1855, in connection with
other legal gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Hewitt Bernard,
now chief clerk of the crown law department, he commenced the
publication of the Upper Canada Law Journal, a work highly
prized by the profession, and which is now ably edited by Messrs.
W. D. Ardagh, R. A. Harrison, and others.
Mr. Patton, though repeatedly urged to become a candidate for
parliamentary honors in Simcoe and Grey, invariably declined, but in
1856, when the Legislative Council became an elective body, he was
brought forward for the Saugeen division, (counties of Bruce,
Grey, and North Simcoe), and after a severe contest with Messrs.
Beaty and McMurrich, was elected. His success was the more
marked from the fact that he was barely over the required age,
(thirty,) and from having had arrayed against him the powerful in
fluence of the Leader and Globe newspapers.
In 1856, on the formation ofthe Toronto University Association,
he was elected president, and the following year he was appointed
a member of the senate. He, has always evinced a warm interest
in university and educational matters, and in Parliament he has
introduced several measures for the improvement of the law and
for elevating the status of the legal profession. In 1858, he was
the mover of the resolution, which was seconded by Sir E. P.
Tache', and carried in the Council, by sixteen to eight, condemning
the Brown-Dorion administration . Though a conservative, through
out his parliamentary career he has pursued an independent course.

AND' PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 641
In 1858, Mr. Patton took the degree of LL. D. in the univer
sity of Toronto, and in the same year was elected a bencher of the
Law Society, In 1860, he was chosen by the senate to fill the im
portant office of vice-chancellor. In 1861, he was named chair
man of the commission to enquire into the expenditure and
financial affairs of University college and Toronto university,
John Paton, Esquire, of Kingston, and Dr. Beaty, of Cobourg,
respectively representing the universities of Queen's college and
Victoria college, being the associate commissioners.

Rev. J. McCAUL, D.D.
President of University College, Toronto.
Foremost amongst the learned and distinguished professors
who adorn our Canadian colleges stands Dr. McCaul, a profound
scholar, orator and wit, urbane and kind as he is learned.
Dr. McCaul was born in the capital of Ireland, and is still, we
believe, under fifty'years of age. His career has been remark
ably brilliant as a scholar. He early entered Trinity college, in
his native city, and speedily obtained the highest honors that could
be conferred upon him — prizes, scholarships, gold medals and de
grees ; he served for a length of time as classical tutor and ex
aminer, and his pupils invariablv were successful in obtaining the
honors to which they aspired. In November, 1838, he was ap
pointed by the late archbishop of Canterbury, principal of the
Upper Canada college, and entered upon the duties of the office
in January, 1839. In 1842, he became vice-president of King's
college, and professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres.
Iu 1849, he was appointed president of the university of Toronto,
under the new statute, altering the constitution of King's college,
and in 1853 he was elected president of University college, Toronto,
and was appointed vice-chancellor of the university of Toronto ;
offices which he still continues to hold and in which he is exceed
ingly popular, not only with the senate and students, but with all
who have ever had the pleasure of coming in contact with him, or
of hearing him in his annual lectures at the literary institutions,
or when he speaks on public occasions in the capital of the western
province. Dr. McCaul is also a literary celebrity, having at different times
contributed valuable matters to the literature of both continents.
81

642 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Among other treatises he is author of disquisitions on the Greek
tragic metres, the Horation metres, Scansion of the Hecuba and
Medea of Euripides, lectures on Homer and Virgil, editor of the
satires and epistles of Horace, of Longinus, and of selections from
Lucian, and the first book of Thucydides ; he was editor of a Cana
dian monthly, the Maple Leaf, and the writer of a very clever
article in the Canadian Journal, on Latin inscriptions, which ex
cited considerable interest in Europe ; he is also composer of some
anthems and other pieces of vocal music. He married in 1838,
Emily, second daughter of the late Honorable Mr. Justice Jones.

DANIEL WILSON, LL.D.,
Professor of History and English Literature in the
University of Toronto.
Professor Wilson was born in the capital of North Britain,
we believe, about the year 1816, being the second son of Archibald
Wilson, Esquire, of that city, and brother to the celebrated Pro
fessor Wilson, well-known in the annals of literature as " Chris
topher North." The subject of this notice was, therefore, a
member of that interesting family so graphically described by his
sister in the memoir of her elder brother, pubUshed in the course
of last year.
Professor Daniel Wilson pursued his studies in Edinburgh,
along with his brother, and distinguished himself as a zealous and
industrious student ; indeed the respectable position and honor to
which he obtained could only have been the result of much per
sonal exertion and eminent talents. These, combined with the
characteristic energy of his family, Dr. Wilson has displayed on
several occasions since his connection with the university of
Toronto ; and we are assured by some of his townsmen, that he
possessed all such qualities in an eminent degree in his younger
days, and was regarded as a scholar, who would one day occupy
a high position in the literary and scientific world. This anticipa
tion he has fully realised. He has added much to the literature
of his country ; and his gifted and impressive mind has accom
plished much in science and the arts. Dr. Wilson's first work
appeared in 1847 ; it was the celebrated " Memorials of Edin
burgh in the Olden Time," illustrated from his own drawings.
This was very favorably received ; and the reviews of it, in some

and Persons connected with Canada. 643
of the highest authorites of the press, were written in the highest
terms of praise. His next publication was " Oliver Cromwell and
the Protectorate," equally commendable and equally well received.
In 1851, appeared the best work which he has written, and which
will remain a monument of his genius as well as his impartiality
as a writer, his diligence and industry as a historian and antiqua
rian, and is destined to keep his name before the world long
after he has passed away, and might otherwise have been forgotten ;
we allude to " The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scot
land," illustrated with two hundred engravings by the author.
This work exhibits great knowledge of the subject, which could
only have been gained by long and patient investigation ; and it is
written " in an enlarged and liberal spirit." It will continue to
be consulted in future ages.
The professor had been for some years previous to the publica
tion of the last work, secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland, of which he was also a fellow ; when in 1853, he received
his present appointment to the chair of history and English
literature in the university of Toronto. This position he is un
doubtedly pre-eminently fitted for, and fills it with much advantage
to the leading educational institution in the province. He had not
been a year in occupation of this professorship, when he was offered
the principalship of McGill college, Montreal ; but, although the
salary was larger, he declined the honor, in his zeal to remain and
promote the interests of the Toronto university, the present
high status of whieh is owing, in a great measure, to Professor
WUson, and to the ardor which he has successfully displayed on
every occasion to protect and advance the rights of that institution.
The death of the distinguished French philosopher, M. Arago,
in 1853, created a vacancy in the rank of honorary member of the
Society of Antiquities of Scotland, the members of which were
limited to twenty, and included such men as M. Guizot, M. Jean
Baptiste Biot, Sir H. C. Rawlinson, Bunsen, Lepsius, &c. ; he had
the distinguished honor conferred upon him of being elected to the
vacant place ; and this occurred subsequently to his removal to
Canada. He edited the Canadian Journal of the Canadian Institute of
Toronto, for four years, with marked ability, — an honorary and
gratuitous labor, but Dr. Wilson's exertions were not allowed to
pass by without the marked testimony of the institute, to the great
talent with whieh he had conducted the Journal. This mark of
esteem and gratitude appropriately consisted of a handsome silver
service, which the professor with much gratification accepted.
In 1859, he was elected president ofthe institute, and was re-elected
in 1860. The able manner, in which he filled the chair, and pre
sided over the deliberations of that learned body, will long be
remembered, and justly appreciated by its numerous members.

644 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

THOMAS S. HUNT, Esq., F.R.S.
Thomas Sterry Hunt, chemist, mineralogist and geologist,
born in Norwich, Connecticut, on the 5th September, 1826. Al
though a native of the United States, Mr. Hunt has become a natu
ralized British subject. His early education was obtained at the
academy and grammar school of his native town. He studied for
a while with a view to the medical profession, but was subsequently
induced to devote himself to chemistry, and accordingly, in 1845,
became a private student with Professor B. Silliman, jr., in Yale
college, where he was also subsequently chemical assistant to Pro
fessor Silliman, senior. After two years' study in the Yale laboratory
he was offered, by the late Professor James F. W. Johnston, the
post of chemical assistant in his newly established school of agri
cultural chemistry in Edinburgh ; but he declined this overture in
order to accept the post of chemist and mineralogist to the geolo
gical commission for the survey of Canada, still in progress, under
Sir W. E. Logan. He had previously been named to the same
post in the geological survey of Vermont, then in progress, which
he declined. His labors in the Canadian survey have contributed
greatly to advance our knowledge both of the scientific and econo
mical geology of the country.
His earlier studies were especially directed to organic chemistry,
then assuming shape from the labors of Liebig, Dumas, Laurent
and Gerhardt. It was as the reviewer, interpreter and critic of
these chemists that Mr. Hunt first became known. Boldly attack
ing the views of the rival schools of Glisson and Montpellier, he
developed from the germs contained in some of the papers of Lau
rent a system which may be said to be essentially his own. In
this system he deduces all chemical compounds, organic and inor
ganic, from simple types, which are represented by one or more
atoms of water of hydrogen. These bold views he maintained, at
first single-handed, in a series of papers which appeared in succes
sive volumes ofthe American Journal of Science from 1848 to 1851,
but they were at length accepted by Williamson and Brodie in Eng
land, by Wurtz in Paris, and at last by Gerhardt himself. This
happy conception of Mr. Hunt will rank in the history of the sci
ence with the compound radical theory of Liebig, and the law of
homologous series of Gerhardt. Its author has now the satisfac
tion of seeing it generally received, although it is often errone
ously attributed to the chemists last named, who were however led
by Mr. Hunt by two or three years, and who historically are his
followers. Mr. Hunt's philosophical views in chemistry and physics have

and persons Connected With Canada. 645
plainly been influenced by the study of Kant, and still more of
Hegel and Stallo. This may be seen in his essays on solution,
chemical changes and atomic volumes,, which appeared first in
the American Journal of Science, but were re-published in England
and Germany. In these he attacks the long established atomic
hypothesis and all its consequences, and asserts that chemical union
is interpretation, or rather identification. His researches upon the
atomic volumes of liquids and solids were a remarkable anticipation
of those of Dumas, while by his views on the polymerism of mineral
species he has opened a new and as yet unexplored field for
mineralogy. These philosophical studies have however only been incidental to
Mr. Hunt's more serious labors of research in chemical mineralogy
and chemical geology. These researches, still in progress, on the
sedimentary rocks of Canada and its mineral waters, have already
contributed essentially towards obtaining more just views of chem
ical geology, and a more rational theory of rock metamorphi&m,
while serving to elucidate the rocks of Canada, in aid of the
researches of Sir W. E. Logan in the stratigraphical geology of this
country. Thus the analysis and chemical researches of Mr. Hunt
have demonstrated that the wide-spread alteration and crystaliza-
tion of the sedimentary rocks, constituting what is known as normal
metamorphism, have been produced by, the intervention of alkaline
waters, and his conclusions were speedily confirmed by the recent
experiments of Daubree. In some of his recent papers Mr. Hunt
has discussed the theory of igneous rocks and of volcanic pheno
mena from a new point of view, and has in a forcible manner re
vived the almost forgotten views of Herschel and Keferstein, who
placed the seat and source of all these in the sedimentary deposits
of the earth's crust. He undertakes to show that the chemical
reactions established in these sediments by the ascending heat of
the earth's nucleus will explain all volcanic and plutonic phenomena.
He has further discussed the'chemieal condition of acooling globe,
such as the primal earth is assumed to have been, and essays
to show how the present chemical conditions of the sea, the
atmosphere and the solid rocks, have been produced by the
slow operation of natural causes. In his lately published researches
on the formation of gypsums and magnesian rocks (American
Journal of Science, 2, 28) he has by the discovery of new and
important ractions of the salts of lime and magnesia been able to
resolve in a rational way, the knotty problem of the formation of
these rocks, and refute the ordinary hypothesis of their origin.
His memoirs of the serpentines or ophiolites, and on euphotide
and saussurite, among others in chemical lithology, are noticeable
for laborious and successful research.
Besides the contributions of Mr. Hunt to the American Journal
of Science, and to the London Philosophical Magazine, the Royal

646 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Society, the French Academy of Sciences, &c, «we may notice his
share in the reports of the geological survey of Canada for the
last ten years. He is also the author of a summary of organic
chemistry, forming a part of Professor Silliman's " First principles
of Chemistry." Mr. Hunt was one of the English members ofthe
international jury at the great exhibition at Paris in 1855, where
he attracted attention by his contributions to the Geological Society
of France and the French Academy. At that time he was deco
rated by Napoleon III. with the cross of the Legion of Honor. In
addition to his duties as a member of the geological commission of
Canada, Mr. Hunt is professor of chemistry to the faculty of arts
in the Laval university of Quebec, where he lectures in the French
language. In 1854 he received the honorary degree of A.M. from
Harvard college, and in 1857 that of doctor of science from the
Laval university. He is a member of various learned bodies,
and in 1859 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London,
of the Geological Society of France, the Imperial Geological Insti
tute of Vienna, and the Imperial Leopold Academy of Germany. A
complete list of Mr. Hunt's scientific memoirs would occupy more
space than our limits permit. In the second series ofthe American
Journal of Science alone, he has published seventy-one papers
since 1846.

Dr. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.R.C.S.
Perhaps of all the gentlemen of his calling, Dr. Douglas stands
at the head of his profession in this province. His great knowledge
of medicine and surgery, his perfect acquaintance with human
character and his distinguished and extensive erudition, combined
with his experience as a traveller, have justly raised him to the
high position which he enjoys. Our work would be imperfect
indeed, without a notice of such an individual ; and surely, if other
countries may boast of their great men in law, science, literature,
and medicine, why should not we be allowed to record the names
of those who have risen to eminence on their own merits, in this
enterprising community ?
Dr. James Douglas is the son of the Rev. George Douglas,
Wesleyan minister, and Mary Mellis, his wife ; he was born at
Brechin, in Scotland, on the 20th May, 1800. He received his
early education in Aberdeen and Dumfries.
In his thirteenth year, he was indentured to Dr. Thomas Law, a
surgeon in extensive practice in Cumberland. Dr. Law was a

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 647
nephew of the late Lord Ellenborough, and being a gentleman of
education and taste, possessed the confidence and esteem of the
many noble families, who then resided in the Lake district. During
the two last years of his apprenticeship, young Douglas had exten
sive opportunities of practice among the population, which was
sparsely distributed over the Fells in the South of Cumberland.
Those long and frequently dark and roadless rides inured him to
much hardships and fatigue, and this peculiar practice gave him
habits of trust and self-reliance, which often stood him in good
stead in after life ; and doubtlessly tended to modify his character.
At the termination of his apprenticeship, he passed a very
creditable and satisfactory examination, and was appointed, though
only eighteen, surgeon to the Trafalgar, then proceeding on a whal
ing expedition to Greenland. During the voyage he devoted himself
to the study of the fauna of these high northern latitudes, for
which the seas and coasts of Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzber-
gen, afforded abundant materials. The voyage was extremely
prosperous and profitable ; the highest latitude reached was 81°-
56', N., only 8° 4' from the pole.
The ensuing two winters were passed in Edinburgh, where, as a
pupil of the late celebrated Mr. Listen, he assisted at several of his
most important surgical operations, and, under his instructions,
acquired a great deal of his knowledge of anatomy and operative
surgery. In April, 1820, he was admitted a member of the Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ; and, on the 20th May follow
ing, was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of
London. Immediately afterwards, he sailed for India, as surgeon of one
of the honorable East India Company's ships. A heavy gale in
the Bay of Biscay, which swept off all the live stock, and a deten
tion of five weeks in crossing the equator, were followed by the
appearance of sea scurvy on board, and obliged the vessel to run
into Ascension, for the purpose of obtaining a supply of turtle.
As Napoleon was then a resident on the neighboring island of St.
Helena, Ascension was occupied by a company of marines, placed
there to prevent its occupation by any other power.
He remained in India until 1822, residing chiefly at the Dum
Dum artillery station. On his return to England, he was appointed
by the directors assistant-surgeon to the Indian army ; but not
relishing the service, he accepted the medical charge of the expe
dition to the Mosquito territory, under the celebrated Sir Gregor
McGregor. The melancholy and fatal termination of this ill-
advised and worse managed adventure caused at the time much
excitement in England. Dr. Douglas was one of the few survivors.
He was removed from the coast by a sloop of war, sent for the
purpose, from Balize. After much suffering he reached Havanna,
and thence took passage to Boston.

648 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
During a short residence in New York, he was appointed lecturer
on anatomy to the Western Medical college. At the termination
of the second course he removed to Quebec, where he arrived in
March, 1826. In that city, during twenty-five years, he devoted
himself assiduously to the practice of his profession, in which he
attained the highest reputation as a surgeon and physician. Ill
health compelled him to spend the winter of 1851-2 in the south
of Europe ; and, on his. return, he entirely relinquished practice,
retiring from the city to his country seat at (Glenalla,) where he
now resides.
In 1845, along with his two friends, Drs. Morrin and Fremont,
he founded and established the lunatic asylum at Beauport, near
Quebec, an institution which has been eminently successful, being
conducted on a system entirely new for this country. The manage
ment of this establishment, which now contains four hundred and
fifty patients, occupies much of Dr. Douglas's time ; and is beyond
doubt, the best conducted institution of the kind in the province.
An enthusiastic traveller, independently of several visits to the
south of Italy, Dr. Douglas's interest in antiquities has induced him
to spend four winters in Egypt, and to visit Palestine. From these
countries he has brought home a small but very interesting collec
tion of curiosities and specimens.

THOMAS C KEEFER, Esq., CE.
Thomas Coltrin Keefer, the celebrated Canadian engineer,
is the eighth son of the late George Keefer, Esq., of Thorold, in
the Niagara peninsula, and was born there on the 4th November,
1821, and is consequently now in his fortieth year. The father, who
died in 1858, and of whom a memoir has been prepared by the
Reverend T. B. Fuller, rector and rural dean of Thorold, was
born in Sussex county, in New Jersey, — then a British province —
in 1773, and came into Canada with other loyalists and children of
loyalists, in 1790. He was the son of George Kieffer, a French
Emigre of German extraction, who was born near Strasbourg, in
1739 ; emigrated about 1765, after the seven years' war, to Ame
rica, and established himself at a place called Paulinskill, near New
ton, in Sussex county, New Jersey. A brother who accompanied
him went to Harrisburg in Pennsylvania ; his descendants about Lan
caster in that state retain the original spelling of the name. The

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 649
name of Kieffer is a common one in and around Strasbourg.
Jean Daniel Kieffer, who was born in Strasbourg in 1765, and died
in Paris, in 1813, was " Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, ancien
premier secretaire interprete du Roi, pour les langues orientales,
professeur au college de France et k l'Ecole des Eleves interprete,
Pun des vice-presidents de la societe asiatique de Paris, membre dti
consistoire de l'eglise evangelique de la confession d'Augsbourg,
agent principal de la Societe Biblique de Londres en France, et
membre de plusieurs societes scientifiques et philanthropiques fran
chises et etrangeres." This celebrated French orientalist was the
translator of the first complete edition of the Bible into Turkish, and
was, with M. Ruffin, " the Nestor of the East," imprisoned in 1798,
for three years in the castle of the Seven Towers, Constantinople.
As Huguenots the Kieffers had probably followed many of their
countrymen who had previously taken refuge in America ; for emi
gration to this continent, from an interior point like Strasbourg,
was noi, one hundred years ago, the simple matter it now is. M.
Kidtfer married in 1767, and in 1776, with the Ryers^s, Swayzes
and many others of G erman blood, espoused the cause of the house
of Hanover, volunteered into the Rangers, and served under Sir
William Howe in New York, where he was carried off by army
fever, and was buried on Staten Island. His property, consisting of
two farms, a distillery and a female slave, was confiscated by Con
gress, but this was not oarried into effect until his son, George, had
attained the age of eighteen, and had made a journey into Canada to
look out the home which was offered here by the British government
to all its adherents. Returning in 1792, George Keefer, {who
wrote- his name according to the pronunciation), brought his
mother into Canada on horseback by an Indian trail through an
unbroken forest, from the Susquehanna to lake Erie. The site of
Buffalo was then vacant, and two temporary huts for fishermen
were the only human habitations there. For nearly seventy-
years Mr. Keefer lived at Thorold, on the Welland canal, of which
work he was the first president, and the constant supporter of its
distinguished author, the Honorable W. H. Merritt. Deprived of
his patrimony, he nevertheless by a long life of industry, temper
ance and strict integrity, acquired a considerable estate, and brought
up a large family, taking especial care to afford them all the advan-
, tages which, the progress of education in Canada from time to time
afforded. -  - - - -
The mother ofthe subject of this notice was the second wife of
George Keefer, having been the widow of -John Emery, the son of a
United Empire loyalist of English descent, and himself one of the
Canadian volunteers, who died at Niagara of army fever, in 1813;
She was the sister of Edward McBride, a prominent Freemason,
who represented Niagara in the provincial Parliament, and whose
name figured in the case of the adduction of Morgan, They were
82

650 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
children of one of the Irish volunteers who came to Canada in 1776,
under General Carlton, after having first married in Tralee, Mary
Bradshaw, who claimed descent from Col. Bradshaw (brother of the
regicide), who went to Ireland with Cromwell's army. The Brad-
shaws claim descent from the famous bishop of Winchester,
William of Wykeham, for the education of all whose descendants
provision is made in Winchester college. Mary Bradshaw's
mother was a Healy, a connection of the Springs, in that part of
Ireland. The Bradshaws were Protestant, — the Healys Roman
Catholic. Mr. Thomas C. Keefer was educated at Upper Canada college,
Toronto, where, between the years 1833 and 1838, he passed from
the third form under the late Dr. Phillips to the seventh, under
Dr. Harris. In 1838 he commenced the profession which for some
time before leaving college he had chosen, at Lockport, on the
Erie canal, where extensive works were then in progress. In
1840 he returned to Canada, and was employed by the Welland
Canal Company, under the late J. S. Macaulay, colonel in Royal
Engineers, then engineer-in-chief. In the following year the Can
adas were united, and this canal becoming a provincial work, its
enlargement was commenced. Mr. Keefer, then only in his twen
tieth year, was appointed to the charge of the enlargement of the
feeder, and continued the only engineer in charge until the
appointment of Mr. Power as engineer-in-chief, in 1 842, and the
commencement ofthe new locks. He remained a division engineer
of all south of the Welland river until 1845, when he was
appointed to the charge of the Ottawa works, and thus in his
twenty-fourth year, ceased to be an assistant engineer. At the
close of 1848 he was dismissed from the government service with
a flattering letter, ostensibly on the score of retrenchment, but in
reality because he had, as engineer in charge, successfully opposed
proposed expenditures in which some members of Parliament, hav
ing influence with the administration, were interested. In 1849
he wrote the "Philosophy of Railroads," a pamphlet which was
reprinted by several railway companies, and republished in many
of the newspapers, and Contributed more than any other to aid the
railway agitation which seoured the completion of the Great Wes
tern, the Toronto Northern, Port Hope, Cobourg, Ottawa, and
Grand Trunk Railways. It was also a text book for the press of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in advocating their railway
policy. In the same year, his Excellency the Earl of Elgin, governor-
general, offered a premium for the best " Essay on the influence of
the Canals of Canada upon her Agriculture." For this Mr. Keefer
was the successful competitor, and the announcement, in 1850,
immediately after the success of his "Philosophy of Railroads," at
once gave him the position of an authority on railway and com-

And persons connected with Canada. 65i
rnercial subjects. In his prize essay he forshadowed that political
differences might divert the trade of the north-west from the Mis
sissippi to the St. Lawrence. He opposed agricultural protection
as unnecessary, and general protection as unwise, but advocated
incidental protection to certain manufactures suited to the country,
and asserted that reciprocity would he granted. He predicted
that the St. Lawrence by its adaptation for steam power would yet
distance its rivals, and was the first to call attention to the import
ance ofthe route through the straits of Belleisle, as saving several
hundred miles in the European voyage. He showed that with
steamers, lights, buoys and beacons, the Gulf of St. Lawrence
would be safer than the Gulf of Mexico, the English or Irish chan
nels. He advocated the free navigation of the St. Lawrence and
shewed the relief it would afford to the lake craft in winter and in
seasons of depression, which view has been since proved correct by
the fact that twenty thousand tons of lake shipping went out on
the ocean in 1858 and 1859. He also pointed outthat New England
would for the future be a better market for Canadian breadstuffs
than old England. Since this essay was published other prize
essays have been written on Canada, and extensively distributed in
in connection with the Paris Exhibition in 1855, and many valu
able publications have likewise drawn attention to this province, in
late years, all of which have had the " Canals of Canada" of Mr.
Keefer before their writers, while he wrote under every disadvant
age, except that of treading new ground. His essay has however
been described by the leading press of Canada as a masterly
one, exhausting the subjects on which it treats. The government
policy with reference to the St. Lawrence in the last ten years has
been in accordance with the principles laid down in it, and his
views with respect to a manufacturing policy have been adopted.
In 1850 he was again called into the government service by the
Honorable W. H. Merritt, (who was then chief commissioner of
public works), and was sent to survey the rapids of the St. Law
rence with a view to their improvement, and also to explore the
country between the head waters of the river St. John in New
Brunswick and the St. Lawrence, opposite the Saguenay, for the
purpose of opening up an intercolonial communication by canal or
railway. In 1851 he resigned permanently his connection with the
government service, and was appointed chief engineer of the Toronto
and Kingston section of the Grand Trunk Railway, which, as laid
down by Mr. Keefer in his " Philosophy of Railways," was
restricted to a line from Montreal uniting with the Great Western
at Hamilton. In the same year he was appointed to the survey of
the Montreal and Kingston section of the Grand Trunk Railway,
and also of the bridge over the St. Lawrence at Montreal, thus
having the whole line and bridge in his hands. In 1852 the Eng
lish contractors assumed the position of the Canadian companies,

652 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
and appointed their own engineer to the charge of the railway and
bridge, and Mr. Keefer, unwilling to take a subordinate post under
the contractors' engineer, went into general practice. In connec
tion with the Trunk railway it may be mentioned that he advocated
the guage of New York and New England for the Canadian line,
so that cars laden in Canada could go without transhipment, in
bond or otherwise, into New York and Boston, the only produce
markets in the United States within our reach, and return in like
manner with imports, to their place of destination. Portland had
however foreseen chat, without a peculiar guage, traffic would branch
off at the Connecticut river and other points to Boston, and had
bound the Sherbrooke road to heT conditions. These in turn were
imposed upon the whole province, as the provincial guage, by the
Sherbrooke road. Mr. Keefer has since its commencement in 1853
disapproved of the policy of the Grand Trunk Company, in the
location, construction and management of the raUway, although, as
one of the early promoters, he has always been favorable to the
enterprise itself.
In reference to the bill then before the legislature, Mr. Keefer,
in 1852, recorded his protest in one ofthe leading provincial jour
nals, in the following prophetic language : —
" It is the control of the road during construction and after com
pletion, by a company of non-resident speculators, that should be
resisted. There are a thousand questions of local importance to
every town, village and township on the line, which must arise
during its construction, which such persons cannot appreciate and
will not accede to ; and when completed, upon the liberal and
enlightened management of its commencement will depend its
future success, and that ofthe interests along the route. This can
not and will not be appreciated by parties in temporary possession,
whose policy it will be to make that possession so irksome that the
country will be compelled to purchase them out. Thus after pay
ing the highest price for a road constructed in defiance of local
wishes, it will be thrown back on our hands, having been managed
by 'reference to the board at home,' damaged in reputation, and
not improbably, worn out in track and gear, by the cupidity or
indifference of temporary non-resident tenants.
*******
" Mr. Jackson merely asks power from the Canadian legislature to
puff the stock of our main line to double the amount necessary for
the construction of the road, and when he shall have disposed of
£10,000 per mile in stock, by quoting the confirmation of this
' chisel ' by the Canadian legislature and government, (who in
England, will be supposed to be the best judges of what the road
will cost and what it will pay), he will disappear from the scene
and leave 'the widows and clergymen,' the Sidney Smiths, and
all the small shareholders in Britain to divide the dividends between

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 653
themselves and the government guarantee mortgage. The position
which Canada will then occupy in the public opinion of Great
Britain will be similar to that of the repudiating state of Pennsyl
vania, whose drab-coated citizens Sidney Smith has immortalized."
Referring to the Toronto and Guelph road, Mr. Keefer fore
shadowed the result, as follows : —
" But where will all this end ? Public notoriety brings the
rumor of another gigantic 'chisel.' It is well known that the
directors of the Toronto and Guelph road have received over one
hundred bids for their line, but have as yet accepted none, and the
reason assigned is that they are angling with ' Jackson, Hincks
& Co.,' to be tacked on to the trunk line. The Great Western will
then be thrown overboard as a ' Yankee concern,' and the Canadian
main trunk will be pushed through Guelph and Samia, and the
government guarantee be extended over the whole line.
*fC 5f( 7fi 3fC *\Z 3ft 3ft
" If the doctrine be true that every man has his price, we confess
that with such a railwayTfacilities bill of fare there is scarcely any
thing which reckless and unprincipled plotting cannot do. We
tremble for the name and fame of Canada when we reflect with
what hot haste this Jackson business has been spurred on."
After describing the political position ofthe question, Mr. Keefer
thus concludes : —
" Lastly, Mr. Hincks is committed to himself. The power and
patronage arising out of the expenditure of such a vast sum of
money is worth all the political trump cards which ever have been
or can be started, and wielding that power through a project which
extends throughout the entire length and breadth of the land, he
can defy the whole army of politicians — who can only oppose princi
ple to interest, agitation to a consideration.
" The public character of Canada is to be prostituted in the Lon
don stock market, and used as an engine to extract their means
from distant and confiding men and women. Messrs. Jackson &
Co., are allowed, first, to make a contract with themselves, by which
they will make the future shareholders pay double the value of the
road ; secondly, they are enabled to purchase the support necessary
to secure the bill by being allowed to assign sub-contracts with
out competition, &c."
In addition to his professional engagements during the busy
period which marked the commencement of the railway era in
Canada, he was on the part of Canada prominentiy concerned,
from 1849 until its • passage in 1854, with the reciprocity
treaty, and spent some time in Boston and New York with the
United States consul-general, the Canadian department of whose
report bears evidenoe of Mr. Keefer's labors. Although many
names have figured prominently in the final stages of this measure,

654 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIAN*,
some are those of men who Were at first sceptical of its practica
bility, who ridiculed the proposition, but who like other fortunates
have reaped where they have not sown. There exists the best
authority for stating that Mr. Keefer contributed at least as much
as any other person acting on the part of Canada towards the suc
cessful issue of this important measure.
During the period which has elapsed since 1852, Mr. Keefer has
filled the positions of engineer ofthe Montreal Water Works, Mont
real Harbor, Stanstead, Shefford and Chambly RaUway, Hamilton
Water Works, Port Dover Railway, besides having been as consulting
engineer, or arbitrator, connected at some time with most of the
railways and public works in the country. Nor has his practice
been confined to Canada. Twice he has been called into the
adjoining province of New Brunswick ; and he has declined an offer
from Major-General Fremont to go to California, with a munificent
salary, on a professional engagement in connection with the Mari
posa mines. Besides his professional reports, some of his lectures
have been published; in one of which, that upon "the Ottawa,"
the only detailed description yet given of the mode of conducting
the lumber trade, is to be found. During the recent visit of the
Prince of Wales, his royal highness inaugurated the Hamilton
Water Works, on which occasion Mr. Keefer, as the engineer, was
presented. His connection with the Victoria Bridge has, since the erection
ofthe tablet bearing the inscription, been the subject of much dis
cussion by the Canadian press ; his friends contending that by the
omission of his name, great injustice has been done not only to
him, but to Canadian engineering. His claims have been made the
subject of pamphlets, both in this country and in England, and
have been brought forward in the Legislative Council here; and
thus far, judgment in his favor appears to have gone by default.
The directors of the company here disclaimed all responsibility
with regard to the inscription or the omission of Mr. Keefer's
name, and appear disinclined to interfere in a professional contro
versy ; so much so, that at the inauguration they did not in their
address allude to any of the engineers whose names have been
associated with the bridge. Mr. Keefer's claims appear to be as
follows : — Two eminent American engineers had previously located
the bridge across Nun's Island, and one of them had declared his
belief that any attempt to place it where it now stands would
endanger it; the other, by his subsequent location, practically
assented to this. One of these engineers proposed to provide for
the navigation by means of a draw bridge, whioh the other declared
to be impracticable, and therefore proposed to stop the navi
gation altogether. Both chose the widest portion of the river,
and adopted a minimum of obstruction in piers and abutments in
order to give the greatest freedom to the ice and water, and thereby

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 655
avert its destructive action. Mr. Keefer, on the contrary, demon
strated that the present site is the best, because the narrower, and
that it ought to be still more diminished in width, by encroaching
upon the shoals on either shore ; and by thus concentrating the
current prevent the ice from grounding in front and between the
piers. He therefore planned the solid approaches which have been
adopted, and provided for the navigation by elevating the central span,
and ascending to it by an ordinary railway grade from either shore.
This plan was as simple as that by which the egg was made to
stand on end, but with the low banks on both sides it did not sug
gest itself to his American predecessors. Mr. Keefer also estab
lished the proper spaces between the piers, (which have been
followed almost exactly), and he demonstrated the necessity for a
solid tubular bridge, and the inapplicability of the suspension prin
ciple to this site. It has therefore been claimed by his friends
that " all whieh is peculiar, all Which distinguishes this bridge
from any other, is derived from him ;" while several Canadian and
American writers on the bridge give him a foremost position in
relation to it.
In concluding this short notice we may say, with a late writer on
the subject: — "Judging the comparative merits of the surviving
engineers, few will dispute that in putting the English engineers'
names on the bridge portals, and in leaving the Canadian's Off, a
great injustice was done; and we believe that Mr. Keefer's name
will be engraved on the heart of every sensible man who under
stands anything of the subject."
Mr. Keefer married, in 1848, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of
the late Honorable Thomas McKay, of Rideau Hall, near Ottawa,
and is now a resident of Toronto.
Mr. Keefer is a younger brother of Samuel Keefer, Esq., deputy
commissioner of public works and inspector of railways, and for
merly engineer to the board of works ; a gentleman of great profes
sional attainments and much goodness of heart. Through his
appointment, he is professionally connected with many of the lead
ing public works in the province.

F. X. GARNEAU, Esq.
The name of this gentleman, as a historian, stands pre-eminent
in our republic of letters ; he is at once our Macaulay, Hume,
Guizot and Thiers ; and We may conscientiously say that he has
written the best history of Canada ever printed. This rank his

656 SKETCHES OP. CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
history holds, not only for the great information which it contains,
but for the purity and perspicuity of the language which he em
ploys to pourtray his opinions of the men and things in general
connected with Canada ; in fact, we have no history of Canada
equal to Garneau's. Smith wrote only up to a eertain period,
and Roger the same. Christie and McMullen's histories can
only be regarded as compilations, and the late history ofthe Abb6
Ferland, to speak strictly, concerns more the affairs of the Romish
Church than that of the province.
M. Garneau has been put to enormous expense and anxiety to
get out his history, (of which three editions and one translation
have appeared) ; he had to travel far and near to obtain infor
mation, and we owe a deep obligation to him for bringing forward
such information as, perhaps, but for his indefatigable energy,
would have remained in obUvion ; the anxiety which he felt and
the intense attention which he bestowed in procuring his history
nearly ruined what had previously been not a very strong constitu
tion ; and to judge of his age, he certainly looks much more en
feebled and aged than he really is. As for his personal history, he
is a native of Quebec, having been born there, and having received
his education at the Quebec seminary, an institution intrusted
with the instruction of nearly all the influential French Canadians
of the district from which have emanated some of the brightest
ornaments of our French population. From his youth, M. Gar
neau has always been of a studious disposition, and much given
to collecting intelligence" of occurrences and facts relative to the
history of Canada. When a young man he studied law and passed
for the bar, and he was employed in the Legislative Assembly for
a short time as a clerk, and eventually became, what he is now, the
city clerk of Quebec M. Garneau is a member of the CouncU of
Public Instruction, of Lower Canada, and an honorary member of
the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, and of the Historical
Societies of Montreal, Michigan, Chicago, &c. He has also been
several years president of the Institut Canadien, of Quebec..

CHARLES LINDSAY, Esq.
Mr. Lindsay, the celebrated, and (we may say. without exaggera
tion) the first politioal writer in Canada at the present day, was
horn in Lincolnshire, England, in the beginning of the year 1820. : He
came to Canada as late as 1842, in search of some occupation.or em-.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 657-
ployment as a writer, but for some time, he was unsuccessful in his
endeavors, having only obtained the editorship of a small country
paper iD Canada West. By degrees, however, as his talents became
known from his writings, people began to regard him with less reserve,
and in 1846, when Mr. Hincks started The Examiner as his organ,
in the capital of the western province, Mr. Lindsay was entrusted
with the sub-editorship of that journal, although practically he was,
as an eminent functionary has it, "the editor-in-chief." In that
capacity he remained for six years, when, in 1852, he was solicited
by the proprietor of the Toronto Leader to become its editor. The
proposal was accepted, and he has remained with that journal ever
since, raising it by his talented writings from a small second
rate paper, to be the most influential and widely circulated political
and family paper in the province.
Mr. Lindsay is also an author of no mean repute ; having at
different times published small but well written and valuable books
on the following subjects, " Clergy Reserves," " The Maine Liquor
Law," and " The Prairies of the Western States." The latter by
order of the government, was published to defend Canada against
the attacks of Mr. James Caird, M. P., in his work on America.'
Mr. Lindsay has also contributed largely to many valuable publica
tions in this and the old world, and is, we understand, also prepar
ing a work on the lower provinces, as well as a life of his late
father-in-law, William Lyon McKenzie, Esquire.
It is unnecessary to speak ofthe style of Mr. Lindsay's writings ;
for, assuredly, all political parties in Canada will acknowledge the
fact that he writes as a scholar and a gentleman. His services
have been exceedingly beneficial to his party ; so much so, that,
after the keen contest in the late elections, in which he worked
earnestly, he was attacked by a dangerous illness, the result of
hard desk work and late hours, and from that, we believe, he is
only now recovering. Indeed, we may say with confidence that in
him, the present ministry are possessed of the most powerful ally
which they could possibly have retained in the western province.
To Mr. Lindsay must be attributed a great portion of the recent
victory, which they have achieved in Canada West. This is no
flattery, for we speak the truth, which cannot fail to be apparent
to all unprejudiced persons.

83

658 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

DANIEL MORRISON, Esq;
If we award to Mr. Lindsay one of the highest places as a Cana
dian writer and journalist, we are bound in justice to the above
able and talented gentleman to place him side by side with his
celebrated confrere.
Mr. Morrison's name is well known in Canada, not only from his
long connection with our press, as one of its most vigorous writers,
but also for his known character as a gentleman of the most kindly
and amiable feelings.
He is the son of the Reverend Mr. Morrison, of Inverness, in
Scotland. An early resident (for his years) in Canada, he at first
engaged in agricultural pursuits ; and for some time he cultivated
a farm in the county of Wentworth, C. W. He subsequently, in
conjunction with Mr. S. T. Jones, edited the Dundas Warder ; and
during his short connection with that paper, he raised it from the
comparatively obscure position which it held on his first joining it,
to one of the first journals in the western section ofthe province ;
and achieved a reputation for himself as being one of the most
spirited and vigorous writers in Canada. His talents and abilities
were held in such high repute during his brief connection with the
Warder, that he shortly afterwards became editor of the Toronto
Leader, the principal journal in Canada ; and his writings
displayed such ability and energy, that he was spoken of as the
best journalist in this country. Leaving the Leader he became
editor of the Colonist, which, in conjunction with Mr. Sheppard, he
had purchased from Mr. Samuel Thompson, and he continued in that
office until 1859, when he was appointed by the government as one
of the provincial arbitrators, an office attached to the public works
department. This office he continued to hold until 1860, when
his official business having brought him to Quebec, he was offered
by Mr. Foote the editorship of the Morning Chronicle of that
city. This offer he accepted, and resigned his post in the govern
ment service. Subsequently, in the spring of 1861, he proceeded
to London, C. W., to take charge of the Prototype ; and is now em
ployed on the staff of the Tribune, in New York.
The style of writing in which he more particularly excels, is
sarcasm, and in this, it is said, few writers can approach him. We
think we but speak the general opinion of all those who are
acquainted with the affairs of the press of this country, when we
state that Mr. Morrison occupies one of the highest places in it.
Mr. Morrison married in 1858, the celebrated and accomplished
young Canadian actress, Miss Charlotte Nickinson, by whom (we
believe) he has two children.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WiTH CANADA. 659

GEORGE SHEPPARD, Esq.
Another name well known, as connected with our Canadian
press, is that of Mr. Sheppard. This gentleman, previous to his
connection with this country, was a writer and political lecturer in
England. Having come to America, he conceived the idea of
founding an English colony in the western state of HUnois, close
to Iowa. This he accomplished, bringing a large number of Eng
lish people there under his guidance. Too unselfish, however, to
profit by his position, Mr. Sheppard did not receive the best treat
ment at the hands of those whom he had placed in the most pros
perous position ; and being disappointed, he proceeded to Washing
ton, where he was employed by the Federal Government to write
for, and (if we mistake not), edit the National Intelligencer, the
organ of the administration of the day.
How he first became connected with Canada we are not aware;
but he distinguished himself as a writer for the Globe and for the
Leader, and afterwards, in 1858, for the Colonist, which he
owned, in conjunction with Mr. Morrison. Soon after the Colonist
went into opposition, Mr. Sheppard became one of the editors of
the Globe, and continued as such until the celebrated Toronto
Convention, of 1859, in the proceedings of which he took a promi
nent part, and shewed himself to be an eloquent speaker, as he is
one of the best of writers.
Subsequently, he proceeded to Washington ; and during his resi
dence there, contributed those much admired letters to the Leader,
which appeared, during 1860, written in his usual vigorous style,
describing the outbreak of hostilities, and other matters in con
nection with the American civil war. He returned to Canada a
short time since, and is now editing the Leader during Mr
Lindsay's absence.

Prof. J. W. DAWSON, M.A., F.R.G.S.
Principal of McGill College.
The name of this distinguished and justly celebrated savant is
not unknown to most of our readers. His labors in the cause of
science, history and education are calculated to give him a high
place among Canadian literati.

660 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Mr. Dawson is a native of Pictou, Nova Scotia, where he was
born of a good Scottish family, in October, 1820. After complet
ing a course of study in classics, mathematics, physics, mental
science, chemistry, &c, in Pictou academy, taking lessons in
drawing and taxidermy, and spending some time in collecting
specimens in natural history, he matriculated in the university of
Edinburgh, and attended more especially the lectures of Professor
Jameson, throughout the session of 1840-41, on mineralogy and
geology. On his return to Nova Scotia, in 1841, he travelled
with Sir C. Lyell, and, under his direction, he explored and
described in the "Proceedings of the Geological Society of Lon
don," several points of interest regarding the geology of that pro
vince. After having lectured on botany and geology in the academy
of Pictou, and in the Dalhousie college, and having published
several educational works, Mr. Dawson was appointed, in 1850,
superintendent of education for Nova Scotia. In 1853, he resigned
his office, and was appointed one of the directors of the new normal
school. Shortly after, great complaints having been made against
King's college, Fredericton, New Brunswick, a commission was
appointed to enquire into the condition of the institution. Dr.
Ryerson and Mr. Dawson were among the commissioners. The
latter was appointed principal of the McGill college, in 1855, and
had subsequently conferred on him the honorary degree of doctor
of laws, by the same university, in addition to that of master of
arts of the university of Edinburgh, which he already possessed.
Dr. Dawson is, moreover, a fellow of the Royal Geological Society
of London, and a member of the Natural History Society of Mon
treal, and of the Canadian Institute, Toronto, corresponding mem
ber of the Academy of Natural Science, of Philadelphia, fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Science, and honorary mem
ber of the Botanical Society of Canada. He has contributed several
papers to the British and American associations for the promotion
ofthe sciences. Besides the numerous essays published in the
transactions of scientific bodies, or in pamphlet form, he has pub
lished the following works : — " Handbook of ihe Geography and
Natural History of Nova Scotia," pp. 95, and map, (1848) ;
" Hints to the Farmers of Nova Scotia," pp. 148, (1853) ; and
"Acadian Geology," pp. 300, (1855) ; and "Archaia," (1859).
His administration of the educational affairs of McGill college has
been thus far marked with great success in the following particulars :
in the complete organization of the faculty of arts, which was pre
viously in a very depressed condition, in the organizing of the
McGill normal school, in conjunction with the educational depart
ment of Canada East, and in the prompt restoration of the
high school and college buildings, in the replacing of their libra
ries and in the restoration of their collections of natural history,
after the disastrous fire of 1856. The new library of the faculty

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 66l
of arts already contains eighteen hundred well selected volumes ;
and there is also a fair beginning of a collection of philosophical
apparatus. The new museum contains a general collection in
zoology; a general collection in geology and palosontology ; the
Holmes' collection of two thousand Canadian and foreign minerals ;
the Holmes herbarium, containing specimens of nearly all the
plants indigenous to Lower Canada ; the Logan collection of four
hundred and fifty characteristic Canadian fossils ; and the Couper
collection of two thousand four hundred Canadian insects.

R. A. HARRISON, Esq., B.CL.
The next name in our category is that of the rising barrister and
successful law author, Robert Alexander Harrison, the only law
writer of eminence of which Canada can really boast.
Mr. Harrison was born in the City of Montreal, C. E., on the
3rd August, 1833. His parents are both from the north of Ire
land, and in the same year that he was born, migrated to Canada ;
they afterwards removed to the upper province, and for some
time lived in the township of Markham, north of York, now
Toronto, and subsequently became residents of the latter city, where
Mr. Harrison's life from childhood has been spent.
Mr. Harrison is an " Upper Canada college boy," having been
educated at that institution, which has turned out many youths
who have shed lustre on the name of the college. Young
Harrison was most successful in hi3 studies, and yearly carried
off a great number of prizes. He left college in 1849, to em
brace the profession of the law ; he was then sixteen years of age,
and during the same year was articled as a clerk in the law office
of Messrs. Robinson & Allan, a practising law firm of Toronto.
During the time spent in their office he made rapid progress in the
study of the profession, and was looked upon as a " rising young
man." When about eighteen years of age, and two years a stu
dent, he commenced the compilation of the first law work he ever
wrote ; it was a digest of all cases determined in the Queen's Bench
and practice courts for Upper Canada, from 1823 to 1851, inclusive.
He was about a year in writing the book, and nearly as long in
passing it through the press. Being a young law student and un
known to the profession, the work was published under the super
vision of James Lukin Robinson, Esquire, who was then the

662 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
authorized reporter of the Queen's Bench. The work was pub«
lished in the joint names of " Robinson & Harrison." It was most
successful, and received the approval of the profession. It brought
Mr. Harrison's name widely and favorably before the legal pro
fession. This was the only legal work he wrote during the time he
was a law student. During the years of his study he was a
prominent member, both of the Toronto Literary and Debating So
ciety, and of the Osgoode Club of Toronto. For a long period he
was president of the Literary Society, though in years junior to
many of its members. Of the Osgoode Club, while Hon. Mrj
Justice Burns was president, he was one of its vice-presidents,
and a most active member.
In 1853, Mr. Harrison became a law student in the office of
Messrs. Crawford & Hagerty, then the leading law firm of Upper
Canada. In 1854, he joined the crown law department for Up
per Canada, as chief clerk, or deputy to the attorney-general.
Although then only a law student, his selection was made by
Hon. John Ross, on account of the favorable opinions given of
Mr. Harrison by many leading men of the profession. Though
the government, of which Mr. Ross was a member, was defeated
during the time that Mr. Harrison was on his way to Quabec, yet
the Hon. John A. Macdonald, who, in the meantime, had taken
Mr. Ross's place, confirmed the appointment. Prior to his depar
ture for Quebec, Mr. Harrison received addresses from the literary
and other associations with which he was connected, all bearing
the most fervent expressions for his welfare.
In 1855, on the removal of the government to Toronto, Mr.
Harrison was called to the bar " with honors". He was the first
so called under new rules then just in operation, and was warmly
congratulated by the late Mr. Baldwin, then treasurer ofthe Law
Society, and shortly afterwards had conferred upon him the degree
of B.C.L, by the university of Trinity college. About this
time he was a constant contributor to the Daily Colonist, then
one of the leading papers of Toronto ; his articles were often
reproduced by the country press with much effect. Becoming too
much involved in politics, to the neglect of his profession, he, in
the same year, 1855, cut short his connection with the political
press. This year he commenced his work on the Common Law
Procedure act. The undertaking, although a great one, was
accomplished in twelve months. It was received with even greater
favor than his first attempt, and the press loudly commended it.
The London legal press placed him in the front rank of those who
had written upon the subject about which he had treated.
The Jurist of London, England, said of it, " This work is almost
as useful to the English as the Canadian lawyer, and is not only the
most recent, but by far the most complete edition which we have
seen of these acts of parliament."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 663
The Solicitor's Journal said, " It is but justice to say that no
pains have been spared to make the notes as full and practicable
as possible, and that the annotator appears thoroughly to under
stand his text, and to be remarkably well up in the laws of the
mother country. His remarks shew that he has thought much
more upon the subject than many of our own authors."
We might continue our quotations innumerable both from the
English and Canadian press, but let it suffice for us to say that the
work was everywhere received with the greatest approbation.
His next work, which appeared in 1857, was, " The Statutes of
practical utility in the civil administration of justice in Upper
Canada, from the first act passed in Upper Canada to the Common
Law Procedure Acts of 1856." This was intended as a companion
to his former work, and fully answered its purpose.
In July, of the same year, he became joint editor of the " Upper
Canada Law Journal," in which capacity he still acts. It was pre
viously published at Barrie, and not much in favor with the profes
sion,' but when Mr. Harrison became connected with it, the " Law
Journal" was brought to Toronto, and from that time has steadily
progressed ; it is now much read and valued, not only by the pro
fession, but a great number of the people of Upper Canada. The
leading articles which appear in its pages, and which are attributed
to Mr. Harrison, are regarded with much favor, and well received
by the English and provincial press.
During 1857, he also brought out "A Manual of costs in Coun
ty Courts," containing besides the tariff of costs some general
points of practice ; and shortly afterwards, in the same year, wrote
" A sketch of the growth and present importance of ihe legal pro
fession in Upper Canada," which concluded his literary labors of
a legal character for that year.
In 1858, he produced two other law works, one being the "Rules,
Orders and Regulations as to practice and pleading in the Courts
of Queen's Bench and Common Pleas in Upper Canada, with notes
explanatory and practical," the other a corresponding work in
regard to the County Courts of Upper Canada ; these were both
well received, and fully bore out the reputation he had gained for
accuracy, industry and ability.
In 1859, appeared his last and most popular legal work, " The
Municipal Manual of Upper Canada," which had a tremendous
sale, and was greatly extolled. In speaking of Mr. Harrison, one
newspaper said, " Canada may justly feel proud of this one of her
sons, educated entirely at her educational institutions, and a member
of the Upper Canadian bar ; and it is to be hoped, if the talents
of youthful Canadians are to be properly appreciated, the time is
near at hand when Mr. Harrison will be called on by some corsti-
tuency to represent them in Parliament, thus benefitting the com
munity and honoring him and themselves by the choice. There

664 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
his clearness of head would soon be felt in pruning acts of Parlia
ment of the absurd verbosity and ridiculous excrescences with
which they are but too frequently encumbered, and thus render
them plain and intelligible to the general public. To the legal
profession, both in Canada and in England, Mr. Harrison is known
as being remarkably well versed in the laws of both countries," &c.
With reference to this suggestion, Mr. Harrison, although repeat
edly solicited to allow himself to be put in nomination for a place
in Parliament, has hitherto (wisely so far as his private interests
are concerned) steadfastly refused that honor.
Tn 1859 he retired from the crown law department, bearing
with him the sincere and heartfelt good wishes of all he had come
in contact with. He also received letters from his superiors, couched
in the most affectionate and flattering language. Mr. Harrison
commenced practice in partnership with a gentleman of much
ability in the profession in Toronto, and, at present, enjoys a
flourishing practice. He has been retained as counsel for the
crown in nearly every important case which has arisen of late.
His first appearance in that character was at the celebrated prose
cution of McHenry alias Townsend, the murderer ; he next ap
peared in the conduct of the Norfolk shrievality case, when
people ridiculed the government for retaining so young a man
to prosecute. Though opposed by one of the most eminent
counsel of the province, he was entirely successful, and by his
success set at rest the fears of those who looked only to his
youth and not his great industry and ability. In the " State
Trials" when the Parliamentary opposition endeavored in courts
of law to break down the government, he, with eminent coun
sel, was on the defensive, and as usual successful. _ In the
famous Habeas Corpus case of John Anderson, the negro, he
gained his case before the Queen's Bench, but happily for Ander
son, on technical points, the force of which he at once conceded,
lost it before the Common Pleas.
Mr. Harrison's practice is large and must be lucrative ; though
often employed in important criminal cases, as well for prosecution
as defence, his time is chiefly occupied in holding briefs in civil
cases. While the former spreads his name to fame, the latter fills
his pockets : he is now so actively engaged in the practice of his
profession that no time is afforded him for literary pursuits
of any magnitude. Unlike many rising lawyers, whom we could
name, he avoids politics ; he goes upon the principle that his
first duty is to himself and his next to his country. We hope,
however, that the time will come when the land of Mr. Harrison's
birth will receive in her highest councils the benefit of his talents
and experience. Mr. Harrison is an able and effective speaker ;
his style is clear and forcible ; he invariably gains and always
retains the attention of his audience. At times he is humor-

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 665
ous, never pTosy ; he accommodates his style to the humour and
capacity of his audience ; he knows when to begin and when to
stop. Though still a very young man, he is indeed an able advo
cate. Though often pitted against his seniors of the bar, his success
is proverbial. In disposition he is warm and generous ; he possesses
a portly and commanding figure ; his height is above the average of
men ; his bearing, although marked and decided, is withal extremely
easy; and his career so far has been a bright one. What he
has gained has not been earned without labor ; his industry, for
tunately for him, is as great as his talent ; he is never idle ; his
energy is intense ; his reputation for uprightness of conduct fully
equals his reputation for talent. From what is already known of
him, the brightest anticipations are formed as to his future.
Without doubt he will mount to an extremely exalted position.
He married in June, 1859, Miss Anna Muckle, the accom
plished daughter of the late John McClure Muckle, at one time an
extensive merchant in Quebec. On this occasion he took the op
portunity of making a tour through Europe, visiting places of
learning and historical interest.

H. Y. HIND, Esq., M.A., F.R.G.S.,
Propessor op Chemistry and Geology in the University
of Trinity College, Toronto.
Henry Youle Hind, the distinguished subject of this notice,
was born in the town of Nottingham, England, June, 1823. Until
the age of fourteen, he was the private pupil of the Reverend W.
Butler, head-master of the Nottinghamshire grammar school,
together with his cousin, Mr. J. R. Hind, the eminent London
astronomer, and now superintendent of the Nautical Almanac.
Leaving Nottingham, he was sent to the royal commercial school at
Leipzig, where he remained for two years, acquiring a knowledge
of German, French, chemistry, natural philosophy, and other sub
jects taught in the school. Upon returning home he studied for
a few years, again with the Reverend W. Butler, and then went to
the university of Cambridge, entering as a student at Queen's
college. Here he remained one year ; but, on account of straight
ened circumstances, was compelled to relinquish the idea of taking
84

666 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
his degree at Cambridge. In 1845, he went to France, for several
months, with a view to perfect himself in French ; it appears,
however, that so much travelling in early life ensured a distaste
for sedentary pursuits, for, in 1846, we find him starting for
America, and spending a year or more in wandering through
Mexico and the wild parts of the southern states. Apparently tired
of this kind of life ; and, perhaps, in want of friends, he came to
Canada in 1847, and at once began to look out for permanent
employment. After a few months experience in teaching one of
the common schools of the country, he became a successful candi
date for the post of mathematical master, and lecturer in chem
istry and natural philosophy, at the provincial normal school for
Upper Canada, then about to be established. He remained at this
institution for about five years, when he was appointed professor
of chemistry and geology in the university of Trinity college,
Toronto, the chair he still occupies. In 1857, he received the
appointment of geologist to the Red River exploring expedition ;
and, in 1858, the charge of the exploration of the country between
Red River and the Saskatchewan, was confided to him by the
Canadian government. His reports on these expeditions are well
known to the public of Canada and England, having been printed in
this country by order of the Legislative Assembly ; and in England
laid before both houses of parliament by command ofthe government
and reprinted there with additional maps, constructed under Mr.
Hind's supervision, by Arrowsmith, the Queen's hydrographer.
In 1860, Mr. Hind was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society, and superintended personally, the publication of his
" Narrative of the Canadian Expeditions in ihe North West," a
highly illustrated work in two volumes, brought out by Longmans
& Co., of London. This work has been very favorably reviewed by
the English press, and comprehends a view of British America
from lake Superior to the Pacific. After his return from Eng
land in 1860, Mr. Hind made preparations for the exploration of a
portion of the Labrador peninsula, with a view to collect materials
for a description of the eastern part of British America. He has
recently returned from this exploration ; and it is expected that his
new book will appear in 1862, in the same style of illustration as
the narrative of the Canadian expedition of 1857 and 1858.
Among the earliest of Mr. Hind's efforts, in print, was a
pamphlet on the climate of Western Canada. This was soon fol
lowed by "Eight Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry." During the
years 1852-3-4-5, he edited the " Canadian Journal," devoted to
¦ science and art. In 1854, he was the successful competitor for
the prize of one hundred pounds, offered by the corporation of
Toronto, for the best means of preserving the harbor of that
city. In 1857, he wrote the prize essay on " The insect and diseases
injurious to the wheat crops." Among minor literary pieces attributed

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 667
to Mr. Hind's pen are the articles in Maclear & Co's Canadian
Almanac, on the " Future of Western Canada," " The Great
North West," " Our Railway Policy," as also the first issue
of the government emigration pamphlet, which has been translated
into several European languages, and scattered broad-cast over
northern Europe, and at the commencement of the present year
Mr. Hind undertook the management of the " Journal of the
Board of Arts and Manufactures" for Upper Canada, a monthly
publication. Mr. Hind is assuredly one of the first literary and scientific men
in Canada ; and his services have been very advantageous to the
country. Those who enjoy his personal acquaintance, speak of him
in no common terms. He is a thorough English gentleman in all
things ; courteous in his manners — kind and considerate in his
dealings. The province has been much benefitted by possessing
in him a master mind, and a practical scientific scholar.

Rev. R. J. MACGEORGE.
Very few who had the pleasure of knowing this accomplished
and highly gifted gentleman, during his sojourn in Canada, will
easily forget him. He is a man, " take him all in all," who was ex
ceedingly popular with all classes of the community in Upper
Canada ; he is endeared to their memory by many virtues. The
attainments which he displayed and the writings which he pub
lished whilst in this country, exposing the popular foUies, absur
dities, and abuses of the time in good natured satire and ridicule,
wUl cause his name to be long remembered. We are sure, there
fore, that old " Solomon," (the sobriquet, under which Mr.
Macgeorge was known in Canada West) will be acknowledged as
worthy of a place among Canadian celebrities.
He was born in the vicinity of Glasgow, in the year 1811 ; and
he is consequently now fifty years of age. He is descended from
an old family long settled in Galloway ; they are of Irish origin,
and a branch of the clan McYoris, which, in the time of Henry II.,
was one of the great families of Ireland ; his father was the late
Andrew Macgeorge, Esq., a well known and much respected soli
citor of Glasgow.
Being destined for the Church of England, the subject of this no
tice passed through the usual curriculum ofthe university of Glasgow,

668 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
and completed his studies at the university of Edinburgh. But ill
health prevented him from at once taking holy orders ; he was ad
vised to travel, and accordingly went to the East Indies, and after
spending some months in Bombay, he visited the Gulf of Persia,
&c, and on his return he published a very interesting account of
his pilgrimage in the Scottish Literary Gazette, then edited by
Mr. Andrew Crichton, a well know religious author. Mr. Macgeorge
also contributed for some time to Fraser's Magazine, the Scottish
Monthly Magazine and various other periodicals. He was admitted
to holy orders in 1839, by the Right Reverend Michael Russell,
bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, and a distinguished Scottish
author. He officiated for some time as assistant minister to the
Reverend Robert Montgomery, and was also incumbent of Christ
church, Glasgow. In 1841, he came to Canada, and was soon
appointed to the incumbency of Trinity church, Streetsville, near
Toronto, a post which he held until his return to the mother
country. During the time of his occupancy of this sacred
charge, he did much good for the township of Toronto and neigh
borhood. Church of England ministers in those days and places
were " few and far between," and consequently the settlement
would not very often have had the benefit of a clergyman had it
not been for the kindness and generosity of Mr. Macgeorge, who
gave frequent services in addition to his regular Streetsville duty,
at Milton, Norval, Brampton, Hurontario Church, Sydenham,
Dundas Street, Port Credit, Etobicoke and Edmonton ; and as we
are speaking on a subject which has reference to the church in
Canada, we may as well state that the poor clergymen, more espe
cially those in the country, receive very bad treatment at the hands
of those who have the paying of them. Not unfrequently, one of
these poor men, with a mind fit to adorn any sphere in life, has to
drudge and work like a beast of burthen for a mere pittance,
while he is supposed, besides, to keep a horse to carry his wearied
frame from one parish or township to another. It is the old story
and we suppose will always be ; those who do not do the work re
ceive the pay, and those that do, &c. We know not how Mr.
Macgeorge fared with regard to beingjremunerated for his services;
certain it is, however, that whatever he received he well earned.
Many will remember the Review of Streetsville, while it remained
under the control of Mr. Macgeorge. We really believe that at
that period it was one of the most popular weekly journals in the
province ; its articles were genuinely original, well written, and
most admirably adapted to ridicule the ruling absurdities which
abounded at that time.
Mr. Macgeorge also edited, for several years, the Church news
paper, the organ of the Episcopal Church in Canada, also that well
known and excellent publication, the Anglo-American Magazine, to
which he contributed the " Chronicles of Dreepdaily," the "Purser's

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 669
Cabin," and the larger portion of the "Editor's Shanty ;" he also
wrote literary articles for the Globe and Leader newspapers of
Toronto, and in 1858 he published his celebrated " Tales, Lyrics and
Sketches," which were received by much approbation, aa also were
several songs written by him which have been set to music. During
his sojourn there he was appointed grand chaplain to the Orange
Association of British North America.
It was with deep regret that the people around Toronto and of
Upper Canada generally heard of his departure, on account of the
ill health of his wife, for Scotland, in 1858. He, at present, re
sides at Oban in Argyleshire, being incumbent of the Episcopal
Church in that town, one of the most beautiful spots in the High
lands of Scotland, and much frequented during the summer months
by visitors from all parts of the world.
Mr. Macgeorge is one of nature's own children ; he is a man
above the ordinary height ; his locks quite silvery, his form erect,
inclined towards corpulency, complexion fresh, and features hand
some and well formed, with a clear sparkling blue eye, flashing
with intelligence and full of wit. Mr'. Macgeorge is a gentleman
of true genius, and though his pen seems at times to rush, in spite
of the hand that wields it and the soul that moves it into the lu
dicrous, yet a more sober and pure-minded man than Mr. Mac
george, we venture to say is not to be found in Canada. Though
a consistent, honest churchman, as some would think, a high
churchman, yet a more amiable Christian and large-minded man we
have seldom met ; his heart and soul are far too big for a bigot ;
he is, moreover, a decidedly pious man.

HUGH ALLAN, Esq.
The subject of this sketch was born at Saltcoats, in the county
of Ayr, Scotland, on the 29th September, 1810 ; and is consequently
now in the fifty-first year of his age. He is the second son
of the late Captain Alexander Allan, who was long and favorably
known as a highly popular and successful shipmaster, trading
between the Clyde and Montreal. During the thirty years he was
engaged in that business, the different ships he commanded were
much sought after by passengers ; and many persons still living
throughout the province retain to this day pleasant reminiscences
of the voyages which they made across the Atlantic under his
watchful care.

670 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIAN!,
Brought up almost on the verge of the ocean, and his fathe?
and two of his brothers being seafaring men, Hugh, at an early
age, manifested a strong attachment to all kinds of nautical craft,
and attained a considerable degree of knowledge in matters
connected with them. Constantly in and about boats and ships,
living almost on the water, and in the company of sailors, it was to
be expected that his predilections would run in that way ; and his
subsequent career has been, doubtless to a large extent, influenced
by his early associations.
In the year 1824, his family removed their residence to
Greenock ; and, in the following spring (1825) Hugh, being then
fourteen years of age, was entered as a clerk, with the highly
respectable firm of Allan, Kerr & Co., then an extensive and
influential shipping agency house in Greenock. There he acquired
some knowledge of the management of ships, and the method of
keeping their accounts, and developed a strong liking for that
kind of business. After he had been there about a year, his father,
who was a far-seeing man, and had ulterior views for him, proposed
that he should go out to Canada ; and, this being in accordance
with his own wishes, he at once agreed to the proposal. He sailed
from Greenock, for Montreal, on the 12th April, 1826, in the brig
Favorite, of which his father was then commander, and his eldest
brother second officer. After an agreeable passage, diversified by
the usual incidents of fogs, icebergs, and occasional strong breezes
of wind, incidents always regarded as important, on first crossing
the sea, the Favorite arrived at Quebec on the 15th May. She
was towed from thence, by the steamboat Hercules, then the only
towboat on the river ; and after various delays, reached the foot of
the current St. Mary. There was a strong breeze of wind down
the river, and the steamer was unable to take the ship up the
current. A. hawser was therefore passed ashore, and attached to
about a dozen pairs of oxen, (then kept for the purpose,) by whose
assistance the Hercules and the Favorite surmounted the current ;
and the subject of this sketch landed at Montreal, for the first
time, on Sunday morning, the 21st May, 1826. At that time
there were no wharves built, and the vessels lay as near to the
shelving beach as they could conveniently get, using long gang
ways, rigged on spars, as a means of communication with the
shore. After looking about him for a few days, he obtained a situation
as clerk, with the firm of William Kerr & Co., then engaged in
the dry goods trade in St. Paul Street. There he remained a little
more than three years, and obtained some acquaintance with goods,
besides a general knowledge of mercantile business and book-keep
ing. The winters were chiefly spent in the country, north of
Montreal, in the neighborhood of Ste. Rose and Ste. Thlrese, where
he acquired a knowledge of the French language, and durinp

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA- 671
these, years, all his spare time was occupied in improving himself
in various branches of learning and knowledge. Having determined
to revisit his native land for a short period, and being desirous of
seeing something of the country and continent, before he left it,
he obtained leave from his employers ; and, on the 19th August,
, 1830, he left Montreal for New York. There he remained some
days, and this being before the period of railroads, he returned to
Albany by steamer, and proceeded in a canal boat up the Erie canal
as far as Rochester, whence he went by stage-coach to Buffalo, and
thence to the falls of Niagara. After remaining some days at the
falls, he went round by Hamilton, then containing only a very few
houses, to Toronto, whence he proceeded to Kingston by land.
From Kingston he came by steamer to Prescott, and as the steamers
did not then run the rapids, he came from that place to Montreal
by stage-coach. He arrived at Montreal, on the 25th October,
and left again on the 31st, to join his father's ship at Quebec,
then ready for sea. He reached Quebec next day, but a constant
succession of Strong contrary winds detained the ship in Quebec,
till the 21st November, on which day the Favorite sailed, in
company with a large fleet of ships, which had been detained by
the same cause. His father and two of his brothers were also on
board the Favorite, and many of their friends remonstrated against
so, many of one family sailing in the same vessel, deeply laden with
wheat, at so late a period of the year. However, after a boisterous
and somewhat perilous voyage, they arrived safely at Greenock, on
the 28th December, 1830.
Hugh remained quietly with his family, from that time till
about the 1st March, when, being desirous of seeing something of
his native country, before' he returned to Canada, he set out for
Liverpool, ou his way to visit London, for the first time. From
Liverpool he went by railway (then not long opened) to Manches
ter, and thence to London, by mail-coach. He remained a short
time in London and returned to Scotland by the east coast, and
visited Edinburgh, also for the first time.
He sailed again for Canada, on the 1st April, 1831, in the ship
Canada, then on her first voyage ; and after an agreeable passage,
arrived in Montreal on the 1st May, the season having been
unusually early.* Immediately on his arrival he received very
tempting proposals to join his former employers; but having
resolved to give his attention to the shipping trade, as being more
suited to his taste, and in which he could be of use to other
members of his family, as they might be to him, he declined the
offers. Soon afterwards he obtained a situation in the house of
James Millar & Co., then engaged in building and sailing ships,
and as commission merchants. This was congenial employment

*In that year the brigs Sophia and Cheriot, regular traders, made each three
Toyages between Glasgow and Quebeo and Montreal.

672 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
for him, and he devoted his whole energies to the business. He
remained a clerk there till the end of the year 1835, when some
changes taking place in the establishment, he was admitted a
partner with Mr. Millar and Mr. Edmonstone, who had been long
connected with the house. The firm then was Millar, Edmonstone
& Co. The death of Mr. Millar, in 1838, caused another change,
and on the 1st May, 1839, Mr. Edmonstone and Mr. Allan
commenced a new partnership. That connection still exists,
though other changes have taken place in the partnership since
then* In 1839, on one of the frequent voyages which he then made
to England, Mr. Allan, in company with the late Honorable
Joseph Masson, Mr. G. B. Symes of Quebec, and others, embarked
at New York, on the 14th December, on board of "the steamship
Liverpool, bound for Liverpool. This was in the early days of
transatlantic steam navigation, and previous to the establishment
of the Cunard line. A succession of heavy gales and contrary winds
so retarded their progress, that on the 28th of the month, they
were little more than half across the ocean, and still there was no
appearance of any change in the weather. The chief-engineer
reported on that day, that he had not coal enough left to carry the
ship to Xiverpool ; and the steward signified that the provisions
would scarcely hold out, if the passage was protracted, as it seemed
likely to be. After consulting with the passengers, the Captain
(Engleduc) determined to run for Fayal, one of the islands of the
Azores, where it was understood, a depot of coal had been provided
to meet such a contingency as the present. The steamer reached
Fayal on the night of the 31st December, just as the last coal was
thrown on the fires. Her arrival (a steamer being then new to
them) created a lively sensation on the island. The passengers,
fourteen only in number, landed next day, and were most hospitably
treated by the inhabitants. The Portuguese governor, the American
consul, (the late Mr. Dabney) and the British consul, were
particularly attentive, and a grand ball was got up for the occasion.
This was followed by an entertainment on board the steamer
to all the principal inhabitants ; and during the four days she
remained at the island, there was a constant interchange of
civilities. The contrast between a stormy ocean, and the smiling
orange groves and flower gardens, to most of which the passengers
had free access, was indeed great ; and they enjoyed it accord
ingly. On the last day of their stay, Mr. Allan and Mr. Symes hired
guides, and started at daylight to walk to the top of the highest
mountain on the island. It is named the Caldeira, and (as the
word signifies) is an extinct volcano. After a fatiguing journey,
*During the two rebellions in 1837 and 1838, Mr. Allan served as a yolnnteer,
and attained to the rank of captain in the service.

And persons connected with Canada. 673
they reached the summit, which is about seven thousand feet above
the sea ; and were rewarded for their toil, by the glorious prospect
around them, embracing some half-dozen of the islands with the
magnificent peak of Pico, about nine thousand feet high, sending
its top into the clouds seemingly quite near. It was late at night
when they got back to the town, and they were glad to get on
board the steamer, to rest their wearied limbs. Next morning they
started for England; and, after a pleasant run of eight days,
reached Liverpool. There they learned that they were supposed
to be lost, as the steamer had never been heard of since she sailed
from New York, thirty days before.
Mr. Allan returned to Montreal in the spring of 1840 ; and the
firm continued the business of shipbuilding, Mr. E. D. Merritt
being then practical overseer of that branch. In the year 1841,
they were employed by the then governor-general, the late Lord
Sydenham, to build a steam frigate, which bore his name. They
also built in that year, a small screw steamer for the government,
called the Union, being one of the earliest attempts at that
description of vessel in the province. Next year, besides two
sailing ships, they built a tow boat for the river, called the Alliance,
and several barges to lighten ships up and down the river. The
Alliance was one of the best and most powerful tugboats that has
ever been on the St. Lawrence.
They soon after discontinued shipbuilding ; and for some years
contented themselves with the management of their ships, and
such other business as was entrusted to them ; till about the year
1851, when the successful establishment of screw steamers on the
Atlantic elicited proposals for a line to the river St. Lawrence.
Mr. Allan took up the matter with much interesc, and entered into
correspondence with various parties on the subject, which resulted
in his making an offer to a leading member of the government,
then in office in this province, to establish such a line. The
government, however, preferred giving the contract to parties In
Great Britain; because, no doubt, they were supposed to be better
able to carry it out. It was consequently given to Messrs. McKean,
McLarty & Co., of Glasgow. After a trial of about a year and a
half, these parties failed to give satisfaction ; and the government
again threw the contract open to competition.
Mr. Allan once more took up the matter warmly ; and through
the influence of the Honorable John Ross, the Honorable G. E.
Cartier, the Honorable L. T. Drummond, and others, a contract
was given to him. He had already, with his brothers and business
connections, built the steamships Canadian and Indian,, which
were then profitably employed in the service of the home govern
ment in the Black Sea, during the Crimean war ; and he proceeded
at once to England, and contracted for two others, the North
American and Anglo-Saxon. With these four steamships the line
85

674 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
was commenced in the spring of the year 1856. The service was
fortnightly to and from the St. Lawrence, during. open navigation^
and monthly to and from Portland, during winter. The perfor
mances of the steamers were exceedingly satisfactory; and, though
not at first attended with much profit, the line was successfully
conducted.. In the year 1857, the public began to ask for more frequent
communication, and soon after, the question was taken up by the
government, tt was ultimately determined that the service should
be increased to a weekly steamer from each side during the whole
year ; and, after some negociation, the government arranged with
Mr. Allan for the establishment of the increased service. He lost
no time in proceeding to England, and contracted for the building
of four additional steamers of enlarged size, and on the 1st May,
1859, the weekly service was commenced, and has ever since been
continued. In addition to the mail contract line of steamers sailing from
Liverpool, Mr. Allan with his brothers and connections, has also
established a line from Glasgow ; and the additional facilities, thus
given, will no doubt still further be increased. Besides the lines
of steamships to Liverpool and Glasgow, now ten in number, Mr.
Allan and his friends own a large fleet of sailing ships ; and it is
creditable to the province, that, even in Britain, there are not very
many persons or firms more largely engaged in shipping, than that
here referred to.
There are few public enterprises of any kind in this province,
in which Mr. Allan has not been engaged, either as a director or a
shareholder. He has shewn himself to be one of our most enter
prising and public spirited men, and a credit and honor to the
country in which his conceptions have been chiefly carried out.
Mr. Allan was married, on the 13th September, 1844, to Matilda,
second daughter of John Smith, Esquire, of Montreal, and by
her he has eight surviving children.

CHAS. SMALLWOOD, Esq., M.D., LL. D.
Doctor Smallwood has entitled himself to rank among the
most eminently scientific men which this province possesses.
During the short time he has resided in Canada, he has contri
buted much to advance the branoh of science to which he has

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 675
chiefly devoted so much of his valuable professional time and
private means.
He is an Englishman, having been born in the town of Birming
ham, in the year 1812 ; where he pursued his studies, graduated at
University college, and (we believe) obtained his medical degree.
He eame to Canada in the year 1853 ; and in 1854, he settled at
ot. Martin, Isle Jesus, C.E., where he acquired a large practice as
a medical practitioner, and soon after established his meteorological
and electrical observatory, a description of which is given in the
Smithsonian Reports.
He discovered the effects of atmospheric electricity On the
formation of the snow crystal, and instituted extensive investiga
tions on ozone in connection with light, electricity and the effects
of germination of Seeds, on its development and effects in disease.
In 1858, Dr. Smallwood received the honorary degree of LL. D.,
from the McGill college, and was appointed professor of meteoro
logy in that university. In 1860, he obtained through the liberality
of the Canadian government, a small grant for the purchase of
magnetic instruments, which were duly received, and observations
were commenced on the 3rd of August, 1861.
Dr. Smallwood has contributed largely to the Various scientific
periodicals, not only in this country, but also in the United States
and in Europe. He is likewise the author of " Contributions to
Canadian Meteorology." The object of the whole of these obser
vations have always been directed to practical utility, with
reference to medical science, and to the health of mankind. They
have been written during the brief intervals which he could snatch
from a very active and laborious professional life, and therefore are
the more valuable and interesting.
Dr. Smallwood is also one of the governors of the college of
physicians and surgeons of Lower Canada, honorary member of the
British Meteorological Society, of the Montreal Natural History
Society, of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, member of
the Societe Meteorologique de France, of the National Institute of
the United States, corresponding member of the Academy of Natural
Science of Philadelphia, ofthe Observatoire Physique Central of St.
Petersburg, and of the Acade'mie Royale des Sciences des Lettre*
des Beaux Arts of Belgium,

676 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

J. C. TACHE, Esq., M.D.
The name of Tache is well known in Canada, and anything in
the way of eulogizing it would be superfluous.
Mr. Tach6, the subject of this brief sketch, may be considered as
one of the cleverest men that the province has produced. He was
born at Kamouraska (one of the lower parishes) in 1821 ; and,
when quite a youth, entered the Quebec seminary, where he was
educated. He subsequently studied medicine, passed the neces
sary examination, and received the large but arduous practice
of the Marine Hospital, Quebec, as a recognition of his skill.
But, from what we can learn, young Tach6 was of too active
a temperament to settle down to the life of a hospital dissector,
without regard to personal advancement or emolument. He
aspired to higher things ; and, in 1844, left the field of his
labors for that of the stormy sea of politics ; he settled at a
place nearer his native home, Rimouski, where, after conti
nuing for some time in practice, he was unanimously returned to
Parliament in 1847, and again by acclamation in 1851 . Shortly,
after, in 1853, he was made a member of the Board of Agriculture
for Lower Canada. After the passing of the act to increase the
representation of the province in Parliament, Dr. Tache' was asked
by the counties of Temiscouata and Rimouski to- become their
representative. He selected his old county, where he was residing,
and accordingly was again elected, after a contest, for the third
time, in 1854.
When the universal exhibition was held at Paris in 1855, Dr.
Tache' was deputed to proceed to that city as one of our commis
sioners. The object in sending him, and the success with which
his exertions were crowned, are things too well known to require
any comment at our hands. His able report, published at Paris
during his sojourn there, and in Canada on his return, by order of
the legislature, will give all information to any persons desirous of
becoming acquainted with the success of the Canadian portion of
the exhibition, and the prominent manner in which Canadian pro
duce and manufactures were brought before the French people,
who so fully appreciated his merits, that he was created a knight
of the Legion of Honor by the emperor of the French.
In the year 1857, he resigned his seat in Parliament, where he
had taken an active part in all the leading questions of the day, to
accept the editorship of LeCourrier du Canada, then just started,
and managed this new journal with marked ability, until he was
appointed to the ofnoe of one of the prison inspectors in 1859.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 677
Dr. Tache, in 1860, was appointed to the chair of physiology at
the Laval university. He is the author of different pamphlets and
books, amongst others : — "Lepeuple et ses besoins." " L'hermite
Bonsens." " Rapport sur V agriculture du Bas- Canada." " Rapport
sur le pilotage dans le bas Saint Laurent." " Mimoire sur les ame
liorations dans le bas du fleuve." " Esquise sur le Canada." " Le
Canada et V exposition universelle." " Des provinces de I'Amirique
du Nord et une union fide" rale." " Notice sur I'universiti Laval."
" Rapport priliminaire des inspecteurs des astles L. C." " Trois
Ugendes de mon pays."

Right Hon. VISCOUNT BURY, M.P.
Lord Viscount Bury is the only son of the Earl of Alber-
marle, and was born in London, in 1832. In his youth he was
an officer in the Scots Fusileer Guards, and served in India as
aide-de-camp to Lord Frederic Fitzclarence ; he returned to Eng
land on sick leave, and not caring to remain longer in the military
profession, left the army in 1854, and devoted himself to political
life. At one time he was private secretary to Lord John Russell,
when premier. In December, 1854, he first came to Canada, hav
ing been appointed civil secretary and superintendent of Indian
affairs, a post which he held for a few years ; he devoted himself
to studying the Indian life and character, and did much in his
official capacity to forward their condition ; the chiefs and the Indians
themselves thereby became much attached to him, and he was made
chief of three Indian tribes. During the short time he remained
in this country he took a great interest in its history and affairs,
and made himself thoroughly acquainted with its wants ; he saw much
of the country and therefore became well informed with regard to
its geographical bearings and its vast and valuable resources. He
was first returned to the Imperial Parliament at the general elec
tion of 1857, for the borough of Norwich, after one of the sharpest
contests ever witnessed in England. In Parliament he was very
successful ; he took up the question of legalizing " marriage with
the sister of a deceased wife," and was mainly instrumental in its
successful passage through the House of Commons by a large ma
jority, although it had been unsuccessfully argued for twenty years
before that assembly. Afterwards, in conjunction with Mr.
Roebuck, he brought the important question of the Hudson's Bay
Territory before the House of Commons so successfully as to elicit
the very highest encomiums of Mr. Gladstone, Lord John Russell,

678 'sketches op celebrated Canadians,
Sir E. B. Lytton, and in fact of almost the entire house. The
British press, in reviewing that session of Parliament, unanimously
expressed their opinion that Lord Bury was undoubtedly the most
able new member returned to the house at the general election.
He is also indentified as the originator ofthe Canadian peerage
scheme. In 1858, he came to America a second time for the pur
pose of pushing forward the interests of the Galway Steamship
Company, and of establishing the terms upon which the intercolo
nial railway could be carried out. On this occasion he received a
series of ovations in the form of public dinners, &c, throughout
the country. Had he succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of
Canadians in favor of the former scheme, he would have obtained
the establishment of a weekly line of steamers from Ireland to
Canada. In June, 1859, he was appointed to the responsible
office of treasurer to the Queen's household, which he still continues
to occupy. On his appointment thereto he was defeated in his
election for Norwich, but, a short time afterwards, he was returned
for Wick. He is a thorough and hard-working practical man ; he
never tackles a subject which he does not completely master.
His prospects at home from his birth, position, abilities, and
energy are most promising; and the day, perhaps, is not far distant
when he will be entrusted with some high office commensurate
with his great talents. In a Speech delivered in Parliament by
Lord Bury, on the Hudson's Bay question, he paid the highest
compliment ever paid to Americans on the floor of the House of
Commons, in relation to their school system and the general diffu
sion of knowledge among their youth. He married in 1855,
Sophia Mary, second daughter of the Honorable Colonel Sir Allan
N. MacNab, Bart, of Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, C. W., and for
some time premier in the government of Canada.

Hon. LOUIS S. MORIN,
Solicitor-General East.
Mr. Morin was born at Lavaltrie, in the county of Berthier,
on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, on the 21st of January,
1832. He entered L'Assoinption college in 1842, where he fol
lowed the ordinary course of education in that institution until
July, 1849 ; he commenced the study of the law in 1850, in the

And persons connected with Canada. 679
office of Messrs. Cherrier, Dorion & Dorion, of Montreal ; also fol
lowed a course of lectures under the late Hon. D. B. Viger, and
on the 7th of February, 1853, was admitted to the bar, and highly
complimented for his creditable examination by the late T. Peltier,
Esquire; battonier of the bar of the Montreal district. The de
ceased gentleman, it is said, used these words in conclusion on ad
dressing M. Morin : " I hope, with the talents which providence
has bestowed upon you, you will not fail to do honor to your coun
try." M. Morin early took an interest in politics, and at the
general election of 1854, he was solicited to run for the county of
L' Assomption, but was defeated. A vacancy having occurred
during the same Parliament for the county of Terrebone, adjoining
L' Assomption, Mr. Morin presented himself, and was returned by
acclamation, but scarcely was his election concluded when Parlia
ment was dissolved ; this happened in 1857. When the next
general election took place, M. Morin again became a candidate
for the same constituency, and was again unanimously elected.
When the new Parliament met in February, 1858, a high honor
awaited M. Morin in his being selected from the whole batch of
newly returned members to move the reply to the speech from the
throne. During that session and the succeeding, he took an active
part in all the proceedings of the house, and being an excellent
speaker and possessed of rare talents for a young member, he ex
ercised considerable influence in the Assembly. Previously to
this he was connected with the La Patrie newspaper, the first
French journal started on the daily principle in Canada, and edited
by some of the cleverest writers among the Franco Canadian por
tion of the community.
In January, 1860, M. Morin was appointed to the vacant solici
tor-generalship for Lower Canada, with a seat in the cabinet. The
political world was somewhat surprised to hear of this appointment ;
M. Morin being in the opinion of many too young for an execu
tive councillor and Queen's counsel, so that members of the other
party raised various objections, all of which were either satisfac
torily answered or successfully overcome. The honorable gentleman
has proved that, notwithstanding his age, he was none the less
fitting and capable of sustaining the duties of his appointment.
When we add that he is as brave as he is talented, wc have said
sufficient. In the recent general election he was defeated in
Terrebone, but returned for Laval by a large majority,

680 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Hon. Sir ETIENNE P. TACHE, M.L.C,
Aide-de-Camp to the Queen.
The next important personage, whose career we have to chroni
cle, is Sir E. P. Tache; it has been one of remarkable brilliancy,
well earned and dearly bought by long years of toil, assiduous and
patient attention to the duties of the several important offices he has
held in the service of his conntry.
Etienne Paschal Tache was born at St. Thomas, C.E., in the
year 1795, and is descended from an ancient French family, the
members of which, from time to time, have distinguished them
selves both under French and English sway. Having received the
usual education given by the French gentry of Lower Canada to
their children, he does not appear to have had any distinct or
settled purpose as to what was to be his avocation in life. The
war of 1812 breaking out, these surmises, if surmises they may be
called, were dismissed ; and young Tach6 entered the incorporated
militia of Lower Canada, as an ensign in the Sth battalion, and
along with others, went boldly to the frontier to defend his coun
try against aggression. He was subsequently during the war pro
moted to a lieutenancy in the Canadian Chasseurs, and with them
served against the enemy in several engagements, which reflected
great credit and honor on that corps.
At the termination of the war, Sir Etienne studied medicine,
and practised in that profession with great success, until 1841,
when he was delegated by his fellow-citizens to represent them in
Parliament. His rise henceforward was exceedingly rapid. Scarcely
had he been in the Assembly six years, when he was appointed,
being a military man, to the important office of deputy-adjutant-
general, which he held until March, 1848, when he entered the
ministry of Sir L. H. Lafontaine and Baldwin, as commissioner of
public works, in which office he continued until the retirement of
the Honorable L. M. Viger, in December, 1849, from the receiver-
generalship, when he was elevated to that office, which he left only
to become speaker of the Legislative Council, on the 21st April,
1856, (having previously been made a member of that body) and
at the same time his excellency the governor-general (Sir Edmund
W. Head), thought proper, as a mark of confidence, and as a re
ward for long service to place Sir Etienne at the head of the
administration of the province. This was on the retirement of Sir
Allan MacNab from that capacity. Colonel Tach6's administration
was a consistent one, and composed of some of the best men of the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 681
province. For instance, Mr. J. A. Macdonald was attorney-gene
ral, west, a post he continues to occupy. Mr. Cartier was attor
ney-general, east, having been raised from the provincial secre
taryship.. Mr. R. Spence was postmaster-general. Mr. Cauchon,
commissioner of crown lands, a post he filled with the greatest advan
tage ; to the province and last though not least, Mr. Vankoughnet
was brought in and made president of the council, and minister
of agriculture. Against these gentlemen not a shadow of a doubt
as to their^ honesty and fitness for the posts they occupied so ably
could be raised by the opposition party, although parties vainly strove
to do so._ We may give the gallant colonel the greatest praise for
the admirable manner in which he conducted the affairs of the
country during the short time he was at the helm of the ship of
state. It was at this time that Mr. John A. Macdonald took his
place in the Assembly as the leader of his party, a post he is
. eminently fitted for. Sir Etienne himself conducted the govern
ment business in the upper house, and gave the greatest satisfac
tion. As to the manner in which the financial arrangements of
the govern ment were carried out, we cannot be so explicit as we
are on other particulars ; but at any rate it was not the fault of
the head of the administration, for he always paid a rigid regard
to economy, and endeavored to conduct the affairs of the province
with as little expense as possible. For instance, when in June,
1857, M. Cauchon resigned his seat in the cabinet as commissioner
of crown lands, Sir Etienne would not put a useless expense on
the country, by calling in one of his friends and placing him in the
vacant place. Not having many duties to perform as the speaker
of the upper house, except during the session of Parliament,
he himself took M. Cauchon's place, and performed the duties
of the two offices for the one salary, although he could, had
he wished, have obtained both. These onerous duties the gallant
knight sustained until the month of Noveinber following,
when it pleased his excellency the governor-general to allow
him to resign his high offices, and retire from public life, after
as he said in the house, " a iong and lengthened period in the
service of my country, I wish to retire to the bosom of my family
from the cares attendant on public life." In November, 1858,
as a recognition of his distinguished services to his country, it
pleased her Majesty the Queen to confer the honor of knighthood
upon him by her own hands. — Sir Etienne being on this^occasion
invited to Windsor castle ; and in July, 1860, he was appointed,
jointly with Sir A. "N. MacNab, to the honorary rank of colonel
in the British army, and aide-de-camp to her Majesty the Queen,
and as such, formed a portion of the suite of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, on his late tour through Canada.
As a Canadian, few have attained the honors he has had conferred
upon him, and certainly none are more justly entitled to them.
86

682 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

JOHN RAE, Esq., M.D., M.R.G.S.
This distinguished man, being necessarily much connected with
Canadian interests, we append a slight sketch of his remarkable
Ufe, and the high services which he rendered the country. We
regret that we cannot devote more space to so interesting and
eminent a subject.
Doctor Rae was born in the Orkney3 ; and after studying at
Edinburgh, took a surgeon's diploma there, and entered the service
ofthe Hudson's Bay Company as a surgeon, in 1833. He spent
ten years at or near Moose Factory, where he acquired all infor
mation concerning the country within his reach, the manner of
living, travelling, habits, &c. He even entered into the most
minute details, " in fact accomplishments (as he himself says) which
are in most cases considered rather disadvantageous than otherwise
to the possessor, but which, under the circumstances in which I
was subsequently placed, were of very great value to me and to
those under my command."
He travelled to a great extent over the country, and from an
estimate made of his several journeys, it appears that the number
of miles on land and water amounted to 13,255 miles. His first
hard journey was when he had to travel on snow-shoes from
Red River to Sault Ste. Marie, in the winter of 1844-45, a
distance of nearly twelve hundred miles, occupying two months'
time, for the purpose of receiving instructions in astronomy and
other useful arts. Subsequently, he visited the Arctic sea, in the
years 1846-47, being absent about fifteen months, having passed
the winter in a stone house at Repulse Bay, without fuel of any
description. In this expedition he traced about 655 statute miles
of new land and coast, forming the shores of Committee Bay. In
1848, he accompanied Sir John Richardson in a search for Sir
John Franklin's party, along the coast from the McKenzie river
to the Coppermine, wintered at Fort Confidence, and in 1849 de
scended the Coppermine.
• During the winter of 1849-50, he was entrusted with the charge
of the McKenzie river district; and in 1850 was appointed by
the Hudson's Bay Company, at the desire of the government, to
take charge of an expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. His
only instructions were, that he was to select any route he pleased,
or thought most advantageous. He chose the route by Great Bear
Lake and the Coppermine. Of the results of this expedition, most
persons interested in such matters are without doubt well aware :
A journey on snow and ice over 1,080 statute miles ; a boat voyage

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 683
going and returning, along the Arctic coast, of 1,390 statute miles;
the tracing and laying down correctly six hundred and thirty miles
of previously unexplored coast, along the southern shores of Vic
toria and Wollaston lands ; and the finding of two pieces of wood,
in all probability parts of one of Sir John Franklin's vessels. The
time occupied, exclusive of five day's detention by bad weather,
&c, was 39 days, which gave an average distance per day of 274
statute miles. This was the most quickly performed of any Arctic
journey on record. Dr. Rae visited England in 1851-52, travel
ling on snow-shoes from Athabasca to St. Paul's, a distance of
1,730 statute miles.
In 1853, he again proceeded to Repulse Bay, for the purpose of
completing the survey of coast on the west side of Boothia ; and
he passed the winters of 1853-'54 in snow-huts at Repulse Bay.
During this expedition, he discovered a new river, which falls
into Chesterfield inlet ; and two hundred and seventy miles of
previously unexplored land and coast line were added to the
charts. It was during the succeeding spring that he most highly distin
guished himself, and brought his name with iclat before the world,
as the first discoverer of the fate of Sir John Franklin's party.
He had travelled eleven hundred miles, including a preliminary
journey, when he made this valuable discovery, for which he re
ceived the government reward of £10,000 sterling, and was well
received by the Queen and government at home.
Dr. Raa makes an explanation in a pamphlet published in
London, relative to his conduct in not at once proceeding west
ward, when he received the information from the Esquimaux that
a party of whites had starved some years before in that direction.
The information which he received, on his outward journey was
not sufficiently clear to enable him to fix upon the exact spot where
it was stated the men had starved ; and to have travelled westward
without that knowledge, when the land was covered a foot, and a
half with snow, would have been sheer madness. On his return to
Repulse Bay in May, he learned from the natives the information
he wanted ; but then it was too late that season, for in the months
of June and July, it is all but impossible to travel across that
country, owing in a great measure to the melting of the snows
whereby the lowlands are completely flooded, and every little
stream is converted into a torrent ; so that there is no crossing, not
even with Halkelt's admirable little boats. Dr. Rae wisely forebore
running the risk of crossing ; and indeed, had he proceeded any
way, it would have been but time thrown away, so he returned to
give all the information he had gained, and to stay further expe
ditions. The many voyages and journeys which Dr. Rae made, were
invariably accompanied by hardships and privations of an alarming

684 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
character. On these occasions his wonderful firmness of character
would sustain his men, and enable them to endure fresh dangers,
disappointments and severe privations, while his extensive know
ledge would come in opportunely to ensure the success of his
undertakings, in which he never failed.
For his meritorious and distinguished services, there was awarded
to him in 1852, the founder's goid medal of the Royal Geographi
cal Society of London; and an honorary diploma of M.D. was
granted to him by McGill college, Montreal; and he was also
elected an honorary member of the Natural History Society of the
same city, as well as of several high and learned bodies in London.
He is now on an expedition to visit Red River, the Saskatche
wan and the Rocky Mountains. Our earnest desire is that he may
add fresh laurels and honors to those which he has already won,
and so worthily wears.

Mr. CHARLES SANGSTER,
The Poet.
In the present age, when almost every person who claims to have
received an ordinary education, attempts to write poetry, anything
like real poetry is duly appreciated. We in Canada are unfortunate
enough not to have had many persons entitled to the distinotion of
being marked as poets, though possessing every facility that a
grand and romantic scenic country presents, capable of exciting the
proper inspiration and spirit of poetry. One might imagine under
such circumstances there would have been more successful aspi
rants for the honor. As our object is simply and purely biographical,
we will refrain from passing any additional remarks on our readers,
merely stating that the gentleman whose name heads this notice
stands in the first rank of our Canadian poets.
Charles Sangster, a name until recently unknown, is a British
Canadian. His family came from the lower provinces ; he him
self was born in Canada, at the Navy- Yard, Kingston, on the 16th
July, 1822. His education was meagre, so much so, indeed, that
had he not studied zealously when he reached man's estate, we
could not probably now have included his name among our Cana
dian celebrities. His was a hard struggle; left fatherless, the
youngest of a large family, with a widowed mother to support, he
strove, for a length of time, to push himself forward. But all to

And persons Connected with canada. 685
little purpose ; instead of receiving encouragement he only met with
repulse. He was but fifteen years of age when he first got employ
ment in the laboratory at Fort Henry, where he helped to make
the cartridges with which Captain Sandom of the royal navy bat
tered the old windmill at Prescott ; after this he obtained an ap
pointment as messenger in the Ordnance office, where he remained
for ten years, receiving the pay of a laborer, doing the duty of a
clerk, and without any possible chance of promotion. This is too
frequently the case in publie departments ; the favored ones, who
have interest at court, come in for all the promotion. At length,
seeing how futile it wai to pass away the best years of his Ufe in so
hopeless a position, Mr. Sangster gave up his situation in the sum
mer of 1849, and went to Amherstburg, where he was offered the
editorship of the Courier of that town, and he continued to con
duct that journal until the death of its publisher, towards the end of
that year. He then returned to Kingston, and has been ever since
connected with the press of that city. Our readers will perceive
that his career has not been remarkably brilliant, at least not
so much so as his talents and endowments might warrant us to ex
pect. He has, for a length of time, contributed poetic effusions to
the Canadian press ; and has, besides numerous other poems, brought
out two books of great promise, " The St. Lawrence and the Sague-
nay and "Hesperus and other Poems." So well were these received
that the press both of America and Europe passed rich encomi
ums on them and their gifted author ; indeed some critic went so
far as to say that he could rank with the celebrated poets of the
old world. Let us hope that Mr. Sangster's talents will meet with
their reward. Mr. Sangster may justly be regarded as our national
bard, and Canadians may feel proud in possessing such a man, who
writes rot for lucre, bui for love of his country, possessing a deep
regard for everything essentially British, and is evidently inspired
with kindly and commendable feelings. Some passages in his
poems are beautiful and lofty, rich and grand in expression, hon
orable alike to his head and heart.
Having in view the object of benefitting his fellow man, and
raising him from a state of stupor to a just appreciation of the
beauties of nature, he may rest satisfied with the consideration that
such a life, devoted to such pursuits, is not altogether thrown away,
or unfitly employed. The following song, composed since the com
mencement ofthe American war, maybe presented as a fair speci
men of Mr. Sangster's lyrical powers and loyal sentiments :

686 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
SONG FOR CANADA.
Sons of the race whose sires
Aroused the martial flame
That filled with smiles
The triune isles,
Through all their heights of fame !
With hearts as brave as theirs,
With hopes as strong and high,
We'll ne'er disgrace
The honored race
Whose deeds can never die.
Let but the rash intruder dare
To touch our darling strand :
The martial fires
That thrilled our sires
Would flame throughout the land.
Our lakes are deep and wide,
Our fields and forests broad ;
With cheerful air
•We'll speed the share,
And break the fruitful sod ;
Till blest with rural peace,
Proud of our rustic toil,
On hill and plain
True kings we'll reign,
The victors of the soil.
But let the rash intruder dare, Ac.
Health smiles with rosy face
Amid our sunny doles,
And torrents strong
Fling hymn and song
Through ail the mossy vales ;
Our sons are living men,
Our daughters fond and fair ;
A thousand isles,
Where Plenty smiles,
Make glad the brow of Care.
But let the rash intruder dare, Ao.
And if in future years
One wretoh should turn and fly,
Let weeping Fame
Blot out his name
Prom Freedom's hallowed sky ;
Or should our sons e'er prove
A coward, traitor race, —
Just heaven I frown
In thunder down,
T' avenge the foul disgraoe !
But let the rash intruder dare
To touch our darling strand :
The martial fires
That thrilled our sires
Would light him from tbe land.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 687
The London (England) National Magazine says of Mr. Sangster,
and " The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay " : " WeU may the
Canadians be proud of such contribution to their native literature ;
well may they be forward to recognize his lively imagination, his
descriptive powers, his ardent love for the beautiful and the good,
his never failing charity, his reverence ofthe god-like, his adoration
of the true, his bold, masterly style, and the fullness of his imagery.
In some sort, and according to his degree, Mr. Sangster, may be
regarded as the Wordsworth of Canada. The passionate sentiment
hovers over everjr object, and forms, indeed, the atmosphere in
which it Uves — all breathes of it, languishes with it, dies of it, ' like
a rose in aromatic pain.' " The late Thomas Macqueen, in an ar
ticle on " The Poets of Canada," after speaking of Alexander
McLaughlin, says : " Charles Sangster is a poet of a different order.
He has adopted far loftier models, and struck the lyre on a much
higher key. His whole soul seems steeped in love and poesy, and
finds utterance in expression, generally eloquent, bold and musical.
He is thoroughly sentimental, teeming with ideas of the sublime
and beautiful, and his poetry bears evident marks of enthusiastic
poetical conception. Mr. Sangster is a poet of no mean order, and
his volume is by far the most respectable contribution of poetry
that has yet been made to the infant literature of Canada." The
Rev. J. Macgeorge, the renowned "Solomon" of the Streetsville
Review, writes : " Among the very few bards which Canada has yet
produced, Mr. Sangster occupies the very first rank, and he will oc
cupy a prominent position in the literary annals of the province."
-Mrs. Susanna Moodie is equally flattering in her commendations,
and says : " If a native of Canada, she may well be proud of her
bard, who has sung in such lofty strains the natural beauties
of his native land." And the press of the country, with but one
solitary exception, has accorded him a position second to none in
Canada, in the critical department of literature in which he has
embarked. The Ottawa Times remarks : " These poems are
written in a bold masterly style, are full of imagery, displaying
ability of no ordinary kind. Mr. Sangster is a poet, in the true
sense of the term, and leads his readers in burning language of
inspiration from Nature up to Nature's God."
The Kingston Commercial Advertiser says : " He who wrote
' A Poet's Love ' has a poet's pinions, and can soar to the loftiest
peaks of Parnassus. Mr. Sangster possesses poetical talent in a
high degree ; we find that he is schooled in that grand lesson —
love and reverence for that which is beneath us ; love and rever
ence for that which is around us ; love and reverence for
for that which is above us. And this love and this reverence
permeates every thought in his poetry. In the wild and tumultu
ous heavings of the great heart social, he hears only the ancestral
voices prophesying a clearer day-dawn — little though he writes on

688 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
men and manners. This^everence of the god-like, this love of the
beautiful, this adoration of the true, commend his first breathings
in the world of authorship to every right-thinker." We might go
on and quote page after page of notices equally as favorable as
these. The leading poem in Mr. Sangster's first volume has recently
been entirely re-written, and when the public again have an oppor
tunity of perusing it in its more perfect form, it wiU be seen that
the legendary and the historical have not been forgotten. Here is
a portion of the description of the grand Rapids of the Lachine :
" With whirl sublime, and with what maelstrom force,
The awful waters strike our plunging bark !
The rage" defiant, and the thund'rings hoarse,
These bring no terror to our little ark,
That sweeps securely to its distant mark.
See how the tortured deep heap surge on surge !
What howling billows sweep the waters dark !
Stunning the ear with their stentorian dirge,
That loudens as they strike the rocks' resisting verge.
To what shall we compare thee ? thing of dread !
A nameless Terror 1 — How much more art thou !
The awful Champion, Autocrat and head,
The mighty wrestler, to whom all must bow
Along the watery pass. 0, stern of brow,
As Lucifer amid his cowering crew !
How like a scourge, a mad Attila, now
He charges with his Hun-like retinue,
The flying Lombard waves to vanquish and subdue.
The danger is so great we know it not ;
And yet we dare to thread the narrow way,
Cutting a passage through the Gordian knot
Of reefs and breakers, as the vast array
Here bursts in dazzling showers of diamond spray,
Here bids defiance to all human skill,
Lifting up bold Titanic busts of gray,
As if to awe the mind or shake the will,
Pursuing us like Pates adown the tumbling hill.
0, awful Shape ! that haunts the wild abysm,
That hold'st thy Reign of Terror evermore,
What grave offence, what unforgiven sohisni
Consigned thee hence from Hell's remotest shore ?
Why troublest thou the waters with thy roar ?
No angel footstep thine, of rest or peace,
But some lost soul's, for whom no open door
Leadeth to where thy spirit toils shall cease,
With no commissioned arm stretohed forth for thy release !
The waves of two vast streams fall down to thee,
And worship at thy feet.' The pilgrim bands
In untold legions rush to bend the knee,
All victims to the Dragon, that demands
Its multitudes, as oountless as tbe sands,
And ope's its jaws for more. So Error keeps
High jubilee through all earth's blessed lands,
Above whioh evermore sweet Pity weeps,
To see the blinded fools embraoing death by heaps.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 689
And wo hare passed the terrible Lachine :
Have felt a fearless tremor nerve the soul,
As the huge Waves upreared their crests of green,
Holding our feathery bark in their control,
As a strong eagle holds an oriole.
The brain grows dizzy, witb the whirl and hiss
Of the fast-crowding billows, as they roll,
Like struggling demons, to the vexed abyss,
Lashing the tortured crags with wild, demoniac bliss."
In noticing Mr. Sangster, we cannot confine ourselves to a mere
biographical sketch ; as our national poet, he deserves more, and
we freely accord it to him. Coming to his new volume, " Hesperus
and other PoemS, and Lyrics," we might again quote whole pages
of commendation. So far as the European reviews have come to
hand, they are as flattering as could possibly be expected. The
London Athenaeum, which is down on everything American, and
who could naturally expect very little excellence to eome out of
Canada, or any other of the colonial Nazareths, has a favorable
critique, and does not, according to its usual custom, demolish the
volume for mere recreation. The London Saturday Analyst and
Leader says : " Western Canada boasts of a new poet who has
delighted to sing of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay, and who,
in the spirit of Wordsworth, has communed with the genius of the
lofty hills and mighty waters in the presence in which he has lived,
and derived from them an intelligence which has blended with his
own, reconciling his heart and mind, or rather identifying them
with the character of the scene. And now, with his credentials
accumulated and ratified, he comes forth again, attired in his singing
robes, and calls on the world admiringly to listen. His new volume
is one of exceeding beauty. It is almost entirely lyrical. In
' Hesperus, a Legend of the Stars,' he soars bravely ; but he is
not always intelligible. Nor does he appear to conceive it possible
to be. Perhaps there is too much of subtile word-weaving in these
initial poems : their spirit, however, cannot be too highly com
mended. There is a charming Tcnnysonian lyric, entitled,
' Mariline,' whose bridal is celebrated with appropriate sweetness.
A eantata, ' The Happy Harvesters,' supplies some capital rustic
songs and ballads. We have then a true Canadian chant on ' The
Falls of Chaudiere,' Ottawa. The lyrics welcoming the Prince of
Wales are right hearty compositions. The poems, however, to
which we would attract most attention, are those forming a series
under the title of ' Into the Silent Land.' They are, indeed,
tenderly pathetic."
The following is from the Glasgow Commonwealth : " In his
volume there is an undoubted facility, while there is a great variety
of versification. There is much sincere appreciation of the beauties
of poetical phraseology, best descriptive of mountains, forests, lakes,
rivers, moonlight nights, and starry skies, and the fanciful influence
87

690 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
which the picturesque holds over the mind, to which a kind of
character, even charm of freshness, is given by the introduction
occasionally of Canadian names of scenes and localities. There is
also some fair thinking, and that amount of dreamy speculation on
the life to come, and the things pertaining thereto, for which we
have all a relish, and which goes so far to the making a book of
modern poetry readable. Indeed, it could scarcely be a book of
modern poetry without this ingredient, while a commendable spirit
of religion, mereover, pervades the whole. Besides such poets as
Coventry Patmore and Charles Mackay, he may claim a place with
out any presumption. There are several lyrics quite up to the
mark of any of the doctor's. In proof.of this compliment, we may
quote the worthy ' Song for Canada,' the spirited song of ' The
Snows,' and the light-hearted, happy song, entitled ' Clara and I,'
which has attraction and felicitous buoyancy. As specimens of
the author's decided success, the highly-thoughted, and truly
original poem called ' The Mystery,' and the devotional lay, very
beautiful, named ' My Prayer,' may be particularized. ' England 's
Hope and England's Heir,' also quite redeems a twaddling class of
ballatries, remarkable for little else, with but few rare exceptions,
save fulsome adulation and false prediction."
The New York Albion speaks of having predicted Mr. Sangster's
certain success, in a review of his first volume, and continues:
" He is fairly entitled to a place upon Parnassus Hill. He seems
to live and breathe mainly in a spiritual atmosphere, yet it would
be injustice to suppose that Mr. Sangster affects to be above, or even
to keep himself aloof from, his fellow men. By no means, love as
we poor mortals know it, is his frequent theme. The domestic
affections prompt him oft. In rural life he revels. His patriotism
glows, from contact with local associations and specific events. He
can look upon the Apocalypse with unshrinking gaze; but, he has
an eye for the daisy under his foot. ' Colin' is full of sound
stuff and exalted philosophy, while as a mere lyrical composition,
it strikes us as fine in the extreme. The wail for the dead is a
significant sermon for the living. To the faithful few, we commend
this comparatively unknown lyrist, and shall be glad indeed if
what we have said and quoted, should aid in giving him his proper
rank." In fine, the Albion's notice abounds with graceful compU-
ments, only a tithe of the most striking of which we can afford to
quote. In Canada, very few notices of this volume have appeared,
and the majority of these are mere notices. The Kingston News
says : " The easy grace and exquisite finish of some of his lyrics,
would be creditable to the genius of Moore. Worthy of a high
place in the esteem of every Anglo-Canadian, is the 'Death qf
Wolfe.' The poem written on the occasion of the inauguration of
the new monument to Brock, is excellent. More than his first

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 691
work, 'Hesperus,' commends itself to the people. It is more fully
the work of a Canadian. Our scenery is viewed and described with
true homely feeling ; our history when alluded to, sways his lyre
with the same breeze that stirs the maple leaf, and though national
enough to love the country which has stamped its dialect on his
name, he does not carry us from Couchiching to Loch Lomond, or
from the Laurentian Hills to the Conemara mountains. Much of
excellence as there is in the songs of other poets in this country,
we know of none so well worthy of being enshrined in the heart of
any man who loves his home on our soil, as those of the volume
before us." The Montreal Transcript says : " We have one
worthy of the name of poet amongst us. His genius is not so
prolific as that of the author of ' Saul,' and ' Count Filippo' ; but,
his taste is far more refined." A recent notice in a western paper
(the Woodstock Times) is complimentary in the extreme. The
following are extracts : " While the ' St. Lawrenee and the
Saguenay,' was replete with the out-gushing effusions of no ordinary
mind, ' Hesperus ' is overflowing with gems of higher worth. No
one, we think, in perusing either of these works — especially the
latter — will deny that Mr. Sangster possesses the varied requisites
of the true poet. There is a softness, a delicacy, a rich hue of
thought, and withal a purity of sentiment pervading these poems,
which at once and forever redeem them from a species of literature
far too potent in our midst. The eye of precocious wantonness,
and the heart of prurient lasciviousness, so pandered to by the
venal writers of the age, find nothing to regale them on these
pages. But to all who admire poetry, as she weaves her chaplet of
love, to deck the brow of the true and the pure, we promise a rare
gratification in this book. Mr. Sangster, himself a most ethereal
being, has refined, sublimated and crystalized, by the force of his
genius, the objects of his poetic admiration. And the sunshine
and shade — the song, and sadness — the bitterness and the bliss of
human life, find each their fitting delineation, their just expression.
Mr. Sangster is no misanthrope, he loves his brother man with a
real brotherly and genuine heartiness ; and seeks, as far as in him
lies, to minister to his dignity, and to regain for him his birthright.
Who ' Colin ' was, whose memory Mr. Sangster has enshrined in
amber, we know not, but from what is here- said of him, we conclude
he was an heir of the blood royal of bravery ; whose deeds, but for
the poet, might have perished in the grave of the hero, now to
survive, at least, a fraction of duration.
" The poet enters the abodes of death and bereavement — ' where
Hope like a lamb lies slain ' — with the air of a messenger of peace
— sets an iris in the darkest cloud, and leaves sparkling qu. the
coffin lid the assurance that —
" Sorrow ne'er filled a chalice
That joy did not wait to drain."

692 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" All we have to add is, that we hope the day is not far distant,
when such men as Sangster, McCoU, McCarrol, and the famed
author of ' Saul,' a drama, will take their proper and legitimate
stand before the public of Canada. It certainly speaks and augurs
badly for the future of this country, that its sons of talent and
genius must be tried at the bar of British criticism, before their
voices can even be heard at home. Let Canada wipe this stigma
from her literature, and award due encouragement to her high-
souled sons, who daily toil for daily bread, and trim their ' midnight
lamps' to brighten and to bless her homes."
We believe that the above review is from the pen of the Rev.
Wm. Stephenson, a gentleman of rare ability as an orator, and whose
copiousness of language, fancy, fire, and grace of expression, united
to pleasing manners, and a restless master-spirit of research, wUl
yet place him in the foreground of Canadian oratory. It is not
only well, but noble, to see men of his stamp coming to the rescue
of our Canadian poets. We conclude this notice of Mr. Sangster
with his ode on

BROCK.
October 13th, 1859.*
One voice, one people, one in heart
And soul, and feeling and desire I
Re-light the smouldering martial fire,
Sound the mute trumpet, strike the lyre,
The hero deed can not expire,
The dead still play their part.
Rise high the monumental stone !
A nation's fealty is theirs,
And we are the rejoicing heirs,
The honored sons of sires whose cares
We take upon us unawares,
As freely as our own.
We boast not of the victory,
But render homage, deep and jusf,
To his — to their — immortal dust,
Who proved so worthy of their trust
No lofty pile nor sculptured bust
Can herald their degree-
No tongue need blazon forth their fame —
The ohoers that stir the sacred hill
Are but more promptings of the will
That conquered then, that conquers still;
And generations yet shall thrill
At Brook's remembered name.

*The day of the inauguration of the new monument on Queenston Heights.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 693
Some souls are the Hesperides
Heaven sends to guard the golden age,
Illuming the historic page
With records of their pilgrimage ;
True Martyr, Hero, Poet, Sage :
And he was one of these.
Each in his lofty sphere sublime
Sits crowned above the oommon throng,
Wrestling with some Pythcnie wrong,
In prayer, in thunder, thought, or song ;
Briareus-limbed, they sweep along,
The Typhons of the time.

ELKANAH BILLINGS, Esq., F.R.G.S.
Mr. Billings, one of the most talented palaetiologists that
Canada possesses, whose name has for some years been associated
with the geological survey of Canada, is an Ottawaite, having been
born in the Township of Gloucester, on the Ottawa, on the 5th of
May, 1820. His father's family came originally from Wales, and
settled in the New England states. His father was born in
Massachusetts during the war of the revolution, shortly after which
his grandfather came to Canada, and settled near Brockville.
Mr. Billings pursued his studies partly at Ottawa city (then
Bytown) and partly at Potsdam, in the state of New York. He
entered the Law Society of Upper Canada as a student-at-law in
Trinity term, 1840 ; and studied, at different offices, in both Ottawa
city and Toronto. At the latter place he completed his pro
bationary studies, and was called to the bar in 1845. He practiced
in Ottawa city and the adjoining county of Renfrew until June,
1856, when he was appointed palaetiologist of the geological
survey of Canada. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Geological
Society of London in February, 1858.
While residing at Ottawa city Mr. Billings made a large and
valuable collection of the fossils which abound in the rocks of the
neighborhood. By studying these, he made himself well acquainted
with the palsetiology of the siluvian rocks of Canada. His first
papers were published in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, and in
the Canadian Journal of Toronto; the latter the organ of the
Canadian Institute, and a most valuable publication. In February,
1856, Mr. Billings published the first number of the Canadian
Naturalist, a periodical devoted to scientific objects, which proved
extremely successful. The first volume was edited by Mr. BilUngs

694 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
alone ; and his writings reflected the highest credit on his scientific
standing. These were much read, and most favorably reviewed in
all the leading publications. He was also the sole proprietor for
the first year, when he made it over to Messrs. B. Dawson & Son,
of Montreal, by whom it is now published. Mr. Billings is, how
ever, still one ofthe editors. He has also contributed to Silliman's
Journal, and largely to the publications of the geological survey
of Canada, though many of his writings do not appear under his
name. His mostimportant memoirsare the thirdand fourth decades
of the geological survey of Canada ; nearly all the new genera and
species of fossils described in these two publications were discovered
by him. Numerous and most valuable contributions have also been
made by him to the Canadian Naturalist, since it has been pub
lished by Messrs. Dawson, of Montreal, under the auspices of the
Natural History Society of that city.

Mr. EVAN McCOLL,
The Bard.
Evan McColl has now been for ten years a resident of
Canada, and can fairly be claimed as one of the celebrities of the
country. He was born at Kenmore, Loch-Fyne-Side, Scotland, on
the 21st of September, 1808, and is there widely known as the
" Clarsair-nam-beann," or " the Mountain Minstrel." A prominent
place his been assigned him in MacKenzie's " Beauties of Gaelic
Poetry, and Lives of the Highland Bards," published at Glasgow
in 1841. Mr. McColl, though born and brought up in humble_
circumstances, is paternally descended from a very ancient family,
the McColls of Glasdruim, Glencreran, a family which, for many
years, gave chiefs to. his clan, a small but heroic branch of the
great Clann Ddnuill. Like many others of the irritable race, he
seems to have inherited the poetic faculty, and that peculiar tem
perament incident thereto, from his mother, who was of the clan
Cameron, aud for whose memory he cherishes the most tender
fijial feelings and remembrances! She is represented as being
somewhat of an improvisatrice, and her leaning in this direction,
coupled with the frequent exercise of her gift, doubtless gave a
bent and tone to the boy-mind, which time, an ardent soul, and
carefully directed thought, have fully developed, if not perfected,
in the man. The sketoh to which allusion has been made, says :

And persons connected with cAnadA. 695
_ " His father seems to have been alive to the blessings of educa
tion ; for, as the village school afforded little or nothing worthy of
that name, he, about the time that our bard had reached his teens,
hired a tutor for his family, at an amount of remuneration which
his slender means could scarcely warrant. The tutor's stay was
short, yet sufficiently long to accomplish one good purpose — that
of not only enabling Evan properly to read and understand English,
but, also, of awakening in him a taste for English literature. A
circumstance occurred about this time, which tended materially to
encourage our author's poetical leanings. His father, while
transacting business one day in a distant part of his native parish,
fell in with a Paisley weaver, who, in consequence of the depression
of trade, had made an excursion to the Highlands with a lot of old
books for sale. McColl bought the entire lot, and returned home,
groaning under his literary burden, which Evan received with
transports of delight. Among other valuable works, he was thus
put in possession of the " Spectator," " Burns' Poems," and the
" British Essayists." He read them with avidity, and a new
world opened on his view; his thoughts now began to expand,
and his natural love of song, received an impetus which no
external obstacle could resist.
" Contemporaneous with this literary impulse, was the artillery
of a neighboring Chloe, whose eyes had done sad havoc among the
mental fortifications of our bard : he composed his first song in her
praise, and, although he had scarcely passed the term of boyhood,
it is a very respectable effort, and was well received by his
co-parishioners. The circumstances in which his father was placed,
rendered it necessary for him to engage in the active operations of
farming and fishing, and he was thus employed for several years.
In the year of 1837, he threw off the mask of anonymy, and
appeared as a contributor to the Gaelic Magazine, then published
in Glasgow. His contributions excited considerable interest, and
a general wish was expressed to have them published in a separate
form, by all Highlanders, with the exception of his own immediate
neighbors, who could not conceive how a young man, with whom
they had been acquainted from his birth, should rise superior to
themselves in intellectual stature, and public estimation. They,
of course, discovered that our youthful bard was possessed of a
fearful amount of temerity, and, the public, at the same time, saw
that they were miserably blockaded in their own mental timberism.
If native talent is not to be encouraged by fostering it under the
grateful shade of generous friendship, it ought, at least, to have
the common justice of being allowed to work a way for itself,
unclogged by a solitary fetter — unchilled by the damping breath of
unmerited comtempt or discouragement. The high-souled inhabi
tants of Inveraray, failed to extinguish the flame of McColl's lamp ;
and now, as they are probably not much better engaged, we recom-

sketches op Celebrated CANADIANS,
mend them to ' see themselves as others see them ' in our author's
retaliative poem, ' Slochd a Chopair' in which they are strongly
mirrored, and the base metal of which they are made powerfully
delineated. Mr. McColl imitates no poet ; he has found enough in
nature to instruct him — he moves majestically in a hitherto untra-
versed path ; and, if we are not continually enraptured with him,
we never tire — never think long in his company. But we are
reminded, that praises bestowed on a living author, subjeot us to
the imputation of flattery : — long may it be ere Evan McColl is the
subject of any posthumous meed of laudation from us. Here
follow samples of his Gaelic poems. Of these the Glasgow
Constitutional says : " Mr. McColl's Gaelic pieces are chiefly
amorous, and emanate from a heart imbued with the finest feelings
of humanity. His ' Ode to Loch-duich ' is inimitable. Rich in
the most splendid imagery of nature, represented to our admiring
gaze, through the burning vista of poetic genius, we sit on the
author's lips, float with him on its glassy surface, or dive into its
transparent bosom. As a Celtic "bard, Mr. McColl is second
to none; and we trust that a young man, who has commenced his
career so auspiciously, will yet be an honor to his country, and to
the republic of letters. We do not envy the taste of that man (says
Dr. Norman McLoed) who will sit an hour on the mountain side,
wthout the bewitching company of ' Clarsach nam Beann.' " The
title of this volume is " Clarsach nam Beann; or, poems and
songs in Gaelic."
His next publication was " TJie Mountain Minstrel; or, poems
and songs in English." Of this latter, the highest authorities in
Britain speak in terms of praise. Dr. McLeod, the editor of
" Good Words," says : " Evan McColl's poetry is the product of
a mind impressed with the beauty and the grandeur of the lovely
scenes in which his infancy has been nursed. We have no hesita
tion in saying, that this work is that of a man possessed of much
poetic genius. Wild, indeed, and sometimes rough, are his rhymes
and epithets ; yet there are thoughts so new and so striking —
images and comparisons so beautiful and original — feelings so warm
and fresh, that stamp this Highland peasant as no ordinary man.
His volume well deserves a niche among the curiosities of modern
literature." Notices equally favorable might be adduced from the Athenaeum,
the Westminster Review, and other English periodicals ; but, instead
of these, we prefer quoting the opinion of the author of " Festus,"
and " The Angel World," which is not only more flattering, but
necessarily much more just, than the opinion of a mere critic,
the composition of whose mentality is frequently as devoid of poesy
or poetic feeling, or impulse, as the close of a sullen day is desti
tute of fiery splendor or sun-set associations : — " There is a fresh
ness, a keenness, a heartiness in many of these productions of the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 697
Mountain Minstrel which seem to breathe naturally of the hungry
air, the dark, bleak, rugged bluffs among which they were com
posed, alternating occasionally with a clear, bewitching, and
spiritual quiet, as of the gloaming deepening over the glens and
woods. Several of these melodies, towards the close of this volume,
are full of simple and tender feeling, and not unworthy to take
their place by the side of those of Lowland minstrels of universal
fame." All honor to Mr. Bailey's candor ! all honor to the excel
lence of his head and heart !
When, in 1831, his father, with the rest of his family, emigrated
to Canada, the bard could not be persuaded to leave the beloved
land of his birth, where be remained until 1837, when, having
been appointed to a clerkship in the customs at Liverpool, he bade
farewell to, and exchanged his native hills for a sphere of life,
anything but congenial to a man of his temperament, tastes and
feeUngs. In the year 1850, in consequence of an impaired state of health,
he obtained six months leave of absence for the purpose of visiting
his friends in Canada, and for the improvement of his over-worked
constitution. Shortly after he crossed the Atlantic, having met
the Honorable Malcolm Cameron, then a minister of the crown, he
was, by that gentleman, invited to transfer his services to the
provincial customs, and, was soon thereafter, appointed to a situa
tion at the port of Kingston, where he still remains. It would be
well, if those in power were to bestow their patronage more
frequently in this way, and not, as is often the case, on mere political
partizans and time-servers. The men who write the songs of a
country are not less honored by posterity than they who make its
laws ; but the literary man needs leisure which, alas ! Evan McColl,
as well as others of this class, have not got, and can scarcely dare
to hope for.
Mr. McColl's sphere is evidently that of song. As a song writer
he excells. He is at present, and has been for some years, the
Bard of the St. Andrew's Society, Kingston, and his annual con
tribution on the anniversary of the saint, is looked for with much
anxiety. His " Bonnet, Kilt and Feather," and his " Lake of ihe
Thousand Isles," are particularly good. So is his " Robin," written
for the people's centennial celebration of the favorite Scottish poet's
birthday in Kingston. One of the corps editorial,* in noticing
this latter song, observed : " Its melodious and flowing beauty of
expression then commanded general admiration; its pervading
characteristic — that of being in Burns's own style,— and the
subject being throughout in especial relation to the Scottish bard,
made it peculiarly appropriate as a birthday ode, and, as a specimen
*Mr. James Neish, editor of the Daily News, Kingston, whose name will
appear with honor in some future edition qJ " Qanadian Celebrities.'*

698 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
of that class of poetry, it must be held in high estimation. What,
for instance, could be better or more poetically expressed, than the
stanza descriptive of the poetry of Burns ? —
His burning lays devoid of art,
Are they not written on each heart ?
To waken mirth, or tears to start,
No mortal matches Robin !
Now gently flow his thoughts along ;
Now, like a rushing river strong,
A very cataract of song,
Resistless is our Robin !
" Or what more expressive of the bacchanalian and amatory
propensities of the hero ' Robin,' than the stanza ? —
The graceless bard loved mountain dew-
It was his Helicon, I trow ;
' He dearly loved the lasses,' too, —
A mighty crime in Robin!
' A body coming through the rye/
Unkissed he never could pass by ;
Nor can I blame him much ; for why ? —
The lasses all loved Robin !
" Another quotation ere we close. The simple beauty of the
language of the following lines is such that their omission would
be inexcusable, and the idea embodied is perfectly consistent with
the teachings of sound philosophy and healthy morahty : —
' Hold, honest Labor, up thy head,
And point with pride to Robin dead ;
The halo round thy path he shed,
Immortal is as Robin.'
" We consider that in ' Robin,' Mr. McColl has achieved his
greatest success, and, as an artistic production, it deserves to be
placed on a level with Lady Nairn's celebrated impersonation of
Burns, so touching and pathetic, ' The Land o' the Leal.'"
And he is right when he says that, " Mr. McColl's song is by
far the best Canadian poem called forth by the recent demonstra
tion to the memory of Burns." More, its authorship would be a
credit to any poet, and we feel no little pride that such a meritorious
composition should have emanated from a resident of Kingston.
Mr. McColl is now somewhat past the middle of life, but bids
fair to weather the storm of existence for many years to come. In
private Ufe, he is all, both by precept and example, that could be
desired. He has an intense love for all that is really good and
beautiful and true, and a manly scorn for all that is false, time
serving, or hypocritical ; there is no narrow-mindedness, no bigotry
in his soul. Kind and generous to a fault, he is more than esteemed,
and that deservedly, by all who properly know him. In the
domestic circle, all the warmth of the man's heart— the full flow

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 699
of genuine feeling and affection — is ever uppermost. He is a
thoroughly earnest man, in whose daily walks and conversation, as
well as in his actions, Longfellow's " Psalm of Life " is acted out
in verity. In his friendship, he is sincere; in his dislikes, equally
so. He is thoroughly Scottish in his leanings ; his national love
burns with intensity. In poetry, he is not merely zealous, but
enthusiastic, and he carries his natural force of character into all
he says and does. Consequently, he is not simply a wooer, but a
worshipper of the Muse. Long may he live, the " Bard of Loch-
Fyne," to prostrate his entire heart and soul in the Temple of the
Nine.

COLONEL BARON DE ROTTENBURG, C.B.
Ottr work would be imperfect were we not to include in it a
notice, however brief from the materials at our disposal, of the
above estimable officer, who has done much to bring his native
Canada under the favorable notice of Europe. This he has
achieved, principally through the admirable manner in which he
has executed the high charge placed in his hands, as lieutenant-
colonel of the " 100th or Prince of Wales Royal Canadian
Regiment," in which responsible trust he has succeeded in making
that fine body of men the admiration pf the British army.
Colonel de Rottenburg is a son of the late General Baron de
Rottenburg, at one time administrator of the government of Upper
Canada, and a military officer of considerable distinction. The
family came originally from Germany, and the title is hereditary.
The subject of this sketch entered the army as a cornet, on the 7th
April, 1825 ; and in July, 1832, was promoted to the rank of captain,
a fact which augurs much for his character for diligence, attention
and skill. Unfortunately, as it is generally thought, he has seen
but little of active service. He was in the rifle battalion which
proceeded to Spain under Sir De Lacy Evans, but was compelled
to retire from it on account of ill health. He served in Upper
Canada during the rebellion, and on that occasion plainly shewed
the metal of which he is composed, being appointed to what
military men call a " particular service," he acquitted himse}f
so well as to receive in consequence the brevet rank of major.
He served in the 46th Foot, and was nominated by the late
Earl Cathcart to succed Colonel (now Major-General) Young as
assistant-adjutant-general in Canada. On the 1st July, 1855,

700 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
he was appointed adjutant-general of the militia of this pro-
vince, which office he held until the 30th of June, 1858, when
he was appointed by his excellency the governor-general to the
lieutenant-colonelcy of the 100th Regiment — an appointment as
Sir J. B. Robinson, our respected chief-justice, truly said, was
"the most happy that the province afforded." Respecting his
management of his arduous appointment we can only say that it
was most admirable, and he brought our mUitia by his judicious
ness to a state of efficiency which we may safely assert has been
hardly ever equalled.
On his departure from amongst us to assume his command of
the 100th Regiment, a grand banquet was given him in the
Rossin House, Toronto, and a magnificent and costly sword was
presented to him by the militia of Canada.
On this occasion, Sir Edmund Head, the then governor-general,
thus expressed himself: —
" Gentlemen, I must, in the first place, thank you most sincerely
for the manner in which my health has been drunk. I beg to
express my gratitude on that account ; and having done this, it is
my next duty to refer to what Colonel Thomson has been pleased
to say in reference to my exertions for the success of the militia of
Canada. I have done what I could for that arm of the service,
but the little I have been able to accomplish has resulted mainly
from the untiring efforts of that gentleman in whose honor we
have met here to-night. (Applause.) I have a better right to
speak in praise of his merits than any other person in this room,
because I have seen his conduct, not in reference to one corps or
one part of the country only, but in reference to all. I assure you
that he has devoted the whole of his time and energy to the
benefit of the public service, and that he has given the utmost
attention to every case that has come before him. I believe from
my heart that he has done all with the greatest impartiality, his
sole object being to promote her Majesty's service and the public
good. (Applause.) I would desire to enter a little more , into
particulars ; and I speak in all sincerity when I say that, never in
the course of the time that he and I have worked together with
reference to the militia of Canada, has he allowed himself to be
influenced by a single feeling of party or political prejudice.
(Applause.) I can conscientiously say I do not believe, ,on any
occasion, party considerations were allowed to interfere with what
he thought to be the good of the service and the merits of this or
that officer, be he who he may, or be his political party whatever it
may. (Hear, hear.) I think it is a duty I owe to him to give
him this credit, especially as he has been located in a country
where, unfortunately, we are not altogether free from party feeling
or violence. It often happens that persons in my position get
credit for many things both good and evil which we do not per-

And persons connected wIth CANADA. 701
form; but I claim credit on this occasion for one thing, and that
is disinterestedness. When Baron de Rottenburg told me that
he was again anxious to enter her Majesty's active service, my
first feeling was one of deep regret, and when I learnt that hia
purpose was fixed, I felt bound to make a representation of his good
qualities and merits to those in authority elsewhere. I am happy,
for his sake, that those representations had a good result ; but I am
sorry for your sake and I am sorry for my own. (Applause.) He
has, without doubt, worked the militia force well, and he has produced
results of which I think he has great reason to be proud." Colonel
de Rottenburg left Canada to the regret and with the well-wishes of
all parties. This year, he has retired from the army with the rank
of colonel ; and we believe, he is expected to return to Canada.
Besides being a thorough military man, he enjoys the reputation
of being an astronomer of considerable experience.

LLEUT.-COLONEL DUNN, V.C.
Colonel A. R. Dunn is a Canadian by birth, and is the second
son of the late Hon. John Henry Dunn, who for more than twenty
years held the high and responsible office of receiver-general in
this country, and stood deservedly high in general estimation for
political consistency, and the excellence of his character in public
or private Ufe.
Colonel Dunn has received a military education, and what is
bettter, has seen service, having gone through the Crimean cam
paign. He was a lieutenant of horse in the 11th, Lord Cardigan's
Hussars, and rode in the celebrated charge of the Light Brigade
at Balaklava, when six hundred men had the hardihood to attack a
battery of thirty pieces of ordnance in point blank position, cutting
their way through a dense body of five thousand Russian cavalry ;
returning through the same mass and sabreing the gunners, and
finally running the gauntlet through an infantry fire on both flanks,
from twenty thousand muskets. The impetuosity of this advance,
made it an isolated movement, for it was impossible to bring up the
supports in time to enable the gallant little band to bring into the
British lines the heavy guns they had ridden into and over. The
enemy were in the ratio of thirty to one of their British assailants,
and nothing but the unexampled effrontery and suddenness of the
attack, and return to position, saved this handful of heroes from

702 sketches op celebrated Canadians}
being hemmed in by numbers, and cut to pieces, or compelled to
surrender at discretion. It is recorded that the affair occupied
only twenty-five minutes; but in that brief space, out of six
hundred men, twenty six mounted officers, two hundred and seventy-
six hussars, and as many as four hundred horses fell to rise no more.
Colonel Dunn's share in this transaction was worthy of his
lineage and country. He not only overthrew all with whom he
came into direct conflict, but left the ranks more than once, to
rescue troopers whom he saw engaged singly against numbers, and
to whom he brought the succor of his resistless sword arm. It is
thus the tale is written of him ; and when her Majesty was advised
to institute a new military order, for the distinction of cases of
individual valor in action with the enemy, and a demand was made
for the most distinguished men for personal gallantry in the terrible
Balaklava charge, Colonel Alex. Dunn's was the name, which by
the common accord of officers and men was returned. The Victoria
Cross was publicly delivered to him in Hyde Park, by the hand of
the Queen herself. To have had the mint mark of true valor thus
stamped upon his name — to have been declared the bravest of the
brave of that astonishing little band of heroes, is no mere praise.
Having retired from the 11th, he came to Toronto after the war,
and in June, 1858, in conjunction with the Baron de Rottenburg
(who was selected as lieutenant-colonel), had the honor, as a native
Canadian, to be elected by his excellency the governor-general,
for the majority of the 100th, or Prince of Wales Royal Canadian
Regiment of Foot. On this occasion, he was the recipient from
his old school fellows and friends of a handsome demonstration in
his honor. He has of course since remained with his regiment,
which is stationed at Gibraltar. He was lately promoted to the
lieutenant-colonelcy, in consequence of the retirement of Baron
de Rottenburg.

MAJOR WELLS,
1st (Royal) Regiment op Foot.
Major Wells is a Torontonian by birth, and a son of the late
Hon. Mr. Wells, of Canada West; he is also an "Upper Canada
collegian." Having adopted the military profession, he rose to
the rank of major, won principally by his daring and intrepid
gallantry in the Crimean campaign. He was present at the battles

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 703
of Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sebastopol, for which he has
the medal and clasps. He also received from the Emperor of the
French the distinguishing mark ot the grand cross of the Legion
of Honor, and belongs to the fifth class of the Medjidie. He
likewise received the rank of brevet-major; and on his return to
his native city, in 1856, his fellow-citizens turned out en masse
to receive him. The city in recognition of his services, and
proud at his being a fellow-eourtryman, presented him with a
valuable sword. His school-fellows and others, gave him and
Lieutenant (now Lieutenant-Colonel) Dunn a grand entertainment
in the Rossin House. His commissions date as follows : —
ensign, 12th October, 1841 ; lieutenant, 2nd August, 1844; captain,
6th November, 1854 ; major, 2nd November, 1855.

HIS LORDSHIP THE BISHOP OF HURON.
The Right Reverend J. Crontn, first bishop of Huron, was
born in the city of Kilkenny, Ireland, in the year 1802, and is con
sequently in the fifty-ninth year of his age. At an early period
he evinced a strong inclination for the church, and entered at
Trinity college, Dublin, when he was only fifteen. He soon
distinguished himself above the majority of his fellows, and
graduated in 1821 as A. B. ; subsequently he obtained the degree
of A. M., which he took in the year 1824, and the same year won
the regius professor's prize at the divinity examination, (see Dub
lin University Calendar.) In the year 1825 he was ordained
deacon by the bishop of Raphoe, and proceeded to England where
he officiated as curate for some months in the diocese of Chester,
leading the same hard and harassed, though contented life of most
of the English curates ; his was a hard and difficult road through
life ; yet he accomplished it, and triumphed over the obstacles and
impediments cast in his way. Mr. Cronyn returned to Ireland
after a few months' sojourn in England, and in the year 1826, was
ordained priest by the late archbishop of Tuam, when he served as
curate under his lordship in the county of Longford, for six years ;
at the expiration of which time (1832) he came to Canada,, and
was immediately appointed to the London district, in which capacity
he served for twenty-five years. The amount of good work done by
this pious and zealous prelate during that time can hardly be
estimated ; so energetic, earnest and phUanthropic was he in his

704 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
endeavors to do good to his fellow creatures. Happily his service
met with a high reward, for in 1857, on a portion of the western
province being constituted into the bishopric of Huron, his
lordship was unanimously elected to that high, dignified, and im
portant post; and in October following he was consecrated bishop at
Lambeth palace, by his grace the archbishop of Canterbury, assisted
by the right reverends the bishops of Winchester, Nova Scotia
and Sierra Leone. In the performance of his high and sacred
duties he has always given the greatest satisfaction to all parties
connected with the church in the district under his control. He
has taken an active part in all the leading questions appertaining
to it, and is justly regarded in the province as one of the ablest
divines we possess.

R. STEPHENSON, Esq., C.E., M.P., D.C.L., F.R.S.
It cannot be out of place to insert a notice of this eminent and
distinguished engineer. Although not a Canadian or a resident of
Canada for any length of time, yet his connection with one of the
greatest undertakings of the age, the Victoria Bridge, of which
the whole empire may well be proud, fully entitles his name to
appear in these pages.
Robert Stephenson was born at Wellington, Northumberland,
England, November 16, 1803 ; he was sent to school at Long Bolton,
and in 1814, placed with Mr. Bruce at Newcastle. He soon showed
a taste for mechanics, and became a member of the Newcastle
Literary and Philosophical Institution, from the Ubrary of which
he took books to study over with his father at home on Saturday
afternoons. The Rev. William Taylor, one of the secretaries of
this institution, aided him. In 1818, he was apprenticed to
Nicholas Wood, as a coal-viewer, and made himself acquainted
with the machinery of coal-mining. In 1820, his father became
able to Send him to Edinburgh university for a single session.
Here he attended the lectues of Dr. Hope on chemistry, Sir John
Leslie on natural philosophy, and Prof. Jamieson on geology and
mineralogy. He gained a mathematical prize, learned how to
learn, and returned home in 1821. In 1822 he was apprenticed
to his father in his locomotive factory, but his health failing, in
1824 he went to South Amerioa to examine gold and silver mines.
He was recalled thence by his father, and reached home in
December, 1827. He now took an active part in the discussion of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 705
the use of locomotives on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway,
and aided his father in the construction of the successful engine,
although he gives the credit of the tubular boiler to his father and
Mr. Henry Booth. He was next employed on a branch of that
railway. Before it was completed he surveyed and undertook the
construction of the Leicester and Swannington Railway, and on
the completion of that work he surveyed the line of the London
and Birmingham Railway, was appointed its engineer, and removed
to London. He built it in the four years from 1834 to 1838.
He devoted much time to improvements in the locomotive engine,
' and after 1838, was engaged on many lines of railway. But he
was most remarkable for the vastness of some of his projects, such
as the high level bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle, the viaduct
over the Tweed Valley at Berwick, and the Britannia tubular
bridge over the Menai Strait, a conception the novelty of which
was even more striking than its magnitude. This was opened in
1850. He was also consulted as to the Belgian lines of railway,
as to a line in Norway between Christiana and Lake Miosen, for
which he received the grand cross of the order of St. Olaf, and
as to the railway between Florence and Leghorn. He visited
Switzerland for the same purpose. He visited this country, and
selected the spot where the Victoria Bridge now stands. He was
also the designer of that noble structure, although the chief merit
must perhaps be awarded to Mr. Keefer. It is not long since he
completed the 140 miles of railway between Cairo and Alexandria,.
with two tubular bridges. Previous to his death he was construct
ing an immense bridge across the Nile, to replace the steam ferry.
Besides these labors he was a member of Parliament for Whitby,
in Yorkshire,. from 1847, to the time of his death. In 1855, he
paid off a debt of $15,000 for the Newcastle Literary and Philoso
phical Society. He aided Piazzi Smyth in his investigations at
Teneriffe. He was an honorary but active member of the London
Sanitary and Sewerage Commissions, a fellow of the Royal
Society, a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers since
1830, of which institution he was member of council during the
years 1845 to 1847, and president during the years 1856 and
1857. He received a great gold medal of honor from the French
Exposition d'Industrie of 1855, and is said to have declined an
offer of knighthood in Great Britain. He was also the author of
a work " On the Locomotive Steam Engine," and another " On
the Atmospheric Railway System," published in quarto by Weale,
London. His death occurred at that city on the 12th October,
1859; and occasioned a general gloom and regret on the part of
the whole British people. For in him the nation lost one of its
brightest ornaments, a genius difficult to replace and not easily to
be forgotten. 89

706 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
His funeral was one of the grandest ever witnessed in the United
Kingdom, thousands and thousands flocked to pay their last humble
marks of respect and esteem to the memory of the great man, as
his body was lowered into its final resting place, in Westminister
Abbey. When the beautiful service was brought to a conclusion,
and Handel's Funeral Anthem was sung. — " His body is buried in
peace, but his memory liveth for ever," — a most powerful effect
was produced on all present.
He died in his fifty-second year, and none regretted more his
early death than the people of Canada.
During the recent visit to Canada of the heir apparent to the
British throne, when his royal highness was pleased to inaugu
rate the stupendous monument to Stephenson's skiU, he thus
feelingly alluded to the deceased gentleman : —
" I regret that the great man whose name is now double enrolled
in that page of my country's history, in which its worthies are
inscribed, has not lived to see this day. I regret that ill-health
prevents the presence of another, who labored with him to plan
and execute this vast design ; but to them and to the eminent firm
and those employed by them in carrying out the works, no less
than to your countrymen, whose energetic exertions first gave birth
to the scheme of this bridge, are the thanks of the great com
munity of North America due."

JAMES HODGES, Esq.
The antecedents of Mr. Hodges constitute him another striking
illustration of " self help." To his own indomitable perseverance
alone, coupled with the strictest integrity of character and honor
able conduct, does he owe his present high position in the engineer
ing world — a position which did not fail to attract the notice of his
future king, on the occasion of the laying of the last stone of the
Victoria Bridge, by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on
the 25th of August, 1860. Of the many claimants that have
sprung up, both in Britain and in Canada, for the honor of being
the originator, or designer of the Victoria Bridge, it is not our
intention to speak ; but we are at the present time about to intro
duce a name in connection with this stupendous structure, which
well deserves the record we here give it. From the hour in which
the first cofferdam was laid, until the last rivet was driven, which

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 707
completed the Victoria Bridge as it now stands, the presiding
genius was Mr. Hodges, as the engineer of the contractors, Messrs.
Peto, Brassey, and Betts.
Mr. Hodges was born on the 6th April, 1814, in Queenborough,
in the county of Kent, where he was educated at the grammar
school of that town. After going through the scholastic duties
of a grammar-school of that day, he was removed, in order to
receive a government appointment which some of his Parliamentary
friends had promised, but which promise was never redeemed.
After waiting until his patience was exhausted, he apprenticed him
self, at the age of seventeen, to a builder, residing at Brompton
near Chatham. Having served four years in this trade, he com
menced his railway practice under Mr. John Rowland, the agent
of Macintosh, the contractor of the Greenwich Railway, his first
essay in railway work being the centring for the arches. After
this he went to Shard, and, at the age of twenty-two, had charge
of the building of the union houses of that place. These finished,
his next work was at the Shakspeare tunnel, Dover, which he
superintended at first as the agent of the contractor, Mr. Rowland;
but, on his death, Mr. Hodges assumed the charge of the work
in concert with the resident engineer of the South-Eastern Railway ;
and it is not a little remarkable, that every ounce of gunpowder
used in the large blasts was deposited in its place by his own hands.
During the progress of this work he attracted the attention of the
late Sir Wm. Cubitt, then engineer-in-chief of the South-Eastern
Railwav, to whom Mr. Hodges has frequently stated he is more
indebted for his subsequent rise and progress in his profession, than
to any other man. The pupil in this case is a worthy disciple of
a very worthy master.
It was at this time that a curious resolve was made by young
Hodges, and it was this, that, if spared, he would work until the
age of thirty-five, for whatever amount of remuneration others
might think his labor worth, but, after that time, he should name
the price at which his services were to be obtained. And to this
end he steadily kept on progressing, so that by the time this period
of his life was reached — having superintended the driving of the
Abbott's Cliff, Seaham, and Archcliff Fort tunnels, and the erection
of the Shakspeare viaduct, along with the blasting of the Round-
down Cliff, and several other works in that neighborhood, as well
as the erection of swing bridges at Norwich, Needham, and
Somerleytou, as the agent of Sir Morton Peto, Bart., with whom,
about this time, he became acquainted — his "resolve was no castle
in the air on his part, but a firm determination to work up by hard
industry and integrity to the point which he himself had chosen,
and which he attained whithin the time he had himself specified.
A handsome testimonial from Sir William Cubitt, at tbe termina
tion of their business relations as to his wprth? gave him a fresh

708 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
start as it were in his upward tendency, and the next appointment
he filled, was that of resident engineer, under Mr. G. P- Bidder, on
the Norfolk Railway. The trammels of daily routine, and on so
limited a scale, were not in consonance with his feelings, and,
retiring from that position, we next find him as the engineer of the
Lowestoft harbor ; after which, in connection with Mr. James Peto,
the brother of Sir Morton Peto, he contracted for and built fifty
miles of the Great Northern Railway, on behalf of his principals,
Messrs. Peto and Betts.
After so many years of active life, under which his health suffered
to some considerable extent, Mr. Hodges, determined on retiring
into private life, and, with that view, purchased a small estate,
near Bagshot, Surrey, where he at present resides ; but no sooner
had he completed his arrangements, in 1853, for enjoying his
otium cum dignitate, than the organisation of the Grand Trunk
Railway Company, with its Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence,
afforded him, as the agent of the contractors who had undertaken
the work, the opportunity of handing his name down to posterity,
associated with an undertaking which will last through all time.
Such an opportunity was not to be lost sight of by the active and
genial temperament of such a man, and it was at once embraced.
The good he has done in the field of his labors, between that time
and the present day, may be summed up in the words of the metro
politan bishop of Canada, who spoke them on the occasion of the
workmen in the employ of Messrs. Peto and Betts erecting a stone
— a granite boulder, weighing thirty tons, taken from the bed of the
river — to preserve from desecration the remains of six thousand emi
grants, which were found in digging the foundations of some of the
Grand Trunk Railway works. The right reverend gentleman said :
" He was there because he wished to pay the tribute of his personal
respect to Mr. Hodges, to testify his high sense of that gentleman's
integrity, and of the Christian principle with which he had always
acted towards all employed under him. He had provided for their
spiritual and educational supervision ; and his otherwise high
moral principles, his Christian philanthropy, and his munifi
cent liberality to the charities of their city, would remain on
perpetual record."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 709

Dr. GEORGE LAWSON,
Queen's College, Kingston.
" George Lawson was born in the year 1827 at Maryton, a
beautiful village on the banks of the Tay, not many miles from
Flisk. The family, soon after his birth, removed to Dundee, but
most of his childhood summers were spent with a relative in a
secluded cottage on the Newton Hill, not far from Kilmany.
There ample opportunities were afforded for the observation of the
wild plants and animals of the neighborhood, and his solitary
rambles on the hill sides were, no doubt instrumental in laying the
foundation of that love of nature which seemed in after life to
grow up with him as a deeply rooted instinct rather than as an
acquirement. During these summer visits to the Newton Hill,
although he was not then more than six or seven years of age, his
industry speedily filled the cottage with natural products of all
kinds from the neighboring woods and fields ; and tiny gardens,
cut out of the turf on the hill sides, were made the receptacles of
wild orchids and other flowers from the neighboring valleys.
After a suitable education, Mr. Lawson was apprenticed to a
solicitor in Dundee, with the view of following the legal profes
sion ; but his private readings were not confined to " Erskine' s
Institutes" and " Blackstone' s Commentaries." The discovery in
the Watt Institution Library of such works as " Loudon's Magazine
of Natural History" and " Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology,"
opened up a more congenial line of thought, and led him to pursue
natural history as a science. His excursions in the neighborhood
resulted in the addition of many new plants to the district. His
first excursion, in 1843, was to the Sidlaw Hills, where he gathered,
along with many other plants, &c, Archemillae alpina, which had
not previously been discovered on the Sidlaw range. For some
time his natural history studies were pursued alone, and were
greatly prompted by the excellent selection of natural history books
which lay unused in the Watt Institution Library of Dundee. EJe
soon made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gardiner, the poet-
botanist of that town, and enjoyed one or two excursions with him,
chiefly for the collection of mosses and lichens. While pursuing
his own researches Mr. Lawson adopted various means to enlist
others, in the pursuit of which he found so much gratification.
One of these was the establishment of a monthly manuscript
periodical, called the " Dundee Natural History Magazine," which
was circulated gratuitously to all who would permit their names to

710 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
be added to the list of local naturalists. This humble publication
continued in existence for eighteen months, and afforded some
beneficial results — one of the most gratifying of which was the
ultimate establishment of a natural history society, consisting of a
large number of working members, and which may be familiar to
many by name (who now learn its origin for the first time), as the
Dundee Naturalists' Association. Mr. Lawson also acted as
secretary to several literary societies. It may be mentioned that
many of the papers which appeared originally in the " Manuscript
Magazine" were in after years published in the " Phytologist,"
and other scientific journals. Having removed to Edinburgh, he
was in the spring of 1849 elected to the office of assistant-secretary
and curator to the Botanical Society, and at the same time to a
similar office in the Caledonian Horticultural Society. He was also
elected a fellow, and subsequently assistant-secretary of the Royal
Physical Society. His position in these societies brought him in
contact with scientific men, and' afforded many advantages for
improvement in addition to those of the university. In 1850 Mr
Lawson published a small volume on water-lillies, containing a full
description, with drawings of Victoria regia, which had flowered
in England, and was therefore exciting much attention. In 1854
he took an active interest in the establishment of the Scottish
Arboricultural Society, and was appointed assistant-secretary. In
that capacity he edited the society's transactions up to 1858. In
the autumn of 1856 he was elected by the Royal Society to the office
of assistant librarian, and the catalogue of the society's library was
completed and printed under his care. While in' Edinburgh, Mr.
Lawson's great aim had been to qualify himself as a teacher of
science. The classes which he attended in the university, &c,
and his private studies, must have been selected with this view.
In 1852, he gave a course of lectures on botany, in connection
with Mr. Hope's abstinence movement ; and during the two sub
sequent years, conducted public classes of a similar kind in
Edinburgh, which were very largely attended. In 1855, he com
menced a class for practical histology, under Professor Balfour's
superintendence, in connection with the botanical class of the
university ; and it is worthy of remark that the three gentlemen
who obtained gold medals at the graduation in 1858 were all
students under Mr. Lawson. In 1857, on the unexpected death of
Professor Fleming, a committee of Church college was appointed
to make arrangements for conducting the class during the winter
session. They selected Mr. Lawson to conduct the botanical part
of the course, and the zoological part was conduoted by Mr. A.
Murray, W. S. In 1857 the university of Glessen conferred on
him the degree of doctor of philosophy. Mr. Lawson's writings
are very voluminous, but almost entirely anonymous. With the
exception of a few papers published in the Botanical Sooiety's

And persons connected with Canada. 711
transactions, most of his writings have appeared in literary journals
and reviews, such as Chambers's Journal, Chambers's Information
for the People, The Eclectic Review, Saturday Magazine, Hogg's
Instructor, The Scottish Review, The Scottish National Journal,
The Paladium, The British Journal, Titan, The Leisure Hour,
The Illustrated London News, Illustrated Times ; also, North
Briiish Agriculturist, Scottish Gardener, Scottish Florist, Gar
deners' Chronicle, The Gardeners' Companion, The Phytologist
Annals of Natural History, Scottish Agricultural Journal, &c.
Many papers on sanitary and general subjects have appeared in the
Commonwealth and other newspapers. In addition to all these,
about 150 closely printed folios anonymously in Bailey's Monthly
Circular. In 1858 he was elected professor of chemistry and
natural history in Queen's college, Kingston, C.W. In all the
situations which Dr. Lawson has filled, he has acquitted himself in
such a manner as to secure unqualified approbation. He is
enthusiastically fond of natural science in all its departments, and
he has devoted special attention to botany. His kind and obliging
manners, his modest Christian deportment, his indefatigable zeal,
his laborious and painstaking exertions, and his thorough scientific
knowledge, have deservedly placed him in an eminent position in
the Scottish metropolis and in Canada, and have secured for him
a large circle of friends.

CHEVALIER FALARDEAU
Is a Canadian artist of some eminence. He was born at Quebec,
where he received his education; and, at an early age, (about 1844)
he made his way to Italy, to study ; and, after innumerable hard
ships, he accomplished the object of his journey, and settled at
Florence, where he has become famous as a painter. It is men
tioned in Bibaud that he made a present of a picture to the Grand,
Duke, for which Don Carlos of Spain offered him a great price.
In return, he was created a chevalier. It is certain, however, that
he possesses the title. Nearly all Canadians travelling abroad visit
him. In 1857, Honorable Henry Black, of Quebec, paid his studio
a visit, the particulars of whieh, we extract from a Quebec paper :
" I. In the first hall the visitor sees a pretty numerous collection
of the portraits of the first masters, such as Leonardo de Vinci,
Raphael, Andre", del Sarte, Guido, Rubens, Vandyke, Titian, Paul
Veronese, Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c, &c. These are esteemed
excellent copies, and are executed with great care and zeal.

712 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
" II. In the second hall are several small paintings of the Flemish
and Dutch school, admired for their finish, their expression, and a
certain inexpressible touch peculiar to the style of the several
original artists.
" III. & IV. In the third and fourth halls are some splendid
pictures of the different Italian schools, amid which the school of
Florence shines conspicuous. We have not space to particularize
at length the copy of Raphael's Madonna, of Guido's Christ on
the cross, Fran.cheschini's Death of St. Joseph, the Judith, after
Leonardo de Vinei, and several landscapes after Salvator Rosa, and
Claude Loraine, all remarkable for their great fidelity and execution.
" V< & VI. In the two remaining galleries there are several admir
able paintings of the old masters, such as the Martyrdom of St.
Bartholomew by Spagnoletto, an Apollo and Marsias by Cortoni,
a landscape by Poussen, the Baptism of Jesus by Baroccio, several
pictures of fruits and flowers by Loper, &c, &c.
" These six galleries or halls are elegantly furnished in the style
ofthe fifteenth century. The furniture is of rare quality, beauti
fully carved, and derived in descent from some of the principal
Etruscan families, the Medici, the Strozri, &c, and even from the time
of the Florentine republic. Every room is unique and complete ;
and Signor Falardeau (as we must call him) has refused to part
with tbe mere furniture for more than one thousand pounds
sterling, without taking into account the Venetian crystal lustres,
the candelabra and similar additional ornaments, hangings of gold
and silver work, damasks, bronzes, coins, medals, vases and dishes.
Everything is arranged in neat and tasteful order; and his studio,
while it reflects credit on the classical apprehension of the artist,
excites the admiration of visitors from all parts of the civilized
world."

LIEUT. J. H. BRADSHAW, H.M. 52nd Regt.
This young and gallant officer, the eldest son of J. F. Bradshaw,
Esquire, for many years the manager of the Quebec branch of the
Bank of Upper Canada, was born at Hillsborough, in the county
Down, Ireland, on the 21st of August, 1834, and came to Can
ada with his parents in the spring of 1839, when not quite five years
old. From his earliest days, the leading traits of his disposition
manifested themselves very plainly. Extreme kindliness to all
the members of his family, gentleness to every one, with a degree
of dauntless courage and fortitude not often perceptible in so young

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 713
a child. At two years of age he used to be an object of wonder to
the villagers, on account of his delight in climbing, or for his bold
attempts at riding ; indeed, he had all his life a great love for horses,
never- shewing any fear of the most spirited or vicious ; as a boy he
was a graceful and fearless rider, and never desired better amuse
ment than driving on the snow roads of his adopted country. He
was eduoated in Quebec, principally at. home, though for a short
time he attended the school of the Revd. C. L. Haensel ; he had a
very retentive memory and learned without any trouble ; as also a
peculiar aptness for languages, acquiring Latin and French with
,the greatest ease, frequently expressing a wish to learn German,
but it being thought that he would spend his life in Quebec, other
languages were not thought necessary for him. Before he was
fifteen he entered a merchant's office, and continued there and in
the bank of Upper Canada until the breaking out of the war in the
Crimea, when it seemed as if an entire new nature had taken pos
session of him. He continually spoke of his desire to be a soldier,
read all the accounts from the seat of war with the greatest avidity,
and used to watch most anxiously for the letters of his brother-in-
law, who was with the army before Sebastopol. This was the more
remarkable, as although his younger brother had always wished to
enter the army, he had not until then expressed his desire upon
the subject. So strong, however, did the wish become that he
frequently said, he would rather be a private soldier than not join
the army at all. His father seeing it was not merely a boyish
fancy, applied to the Horse Guards, and in January, 1856, he was
gazetted in the 52nd light infantry, then serving in India, which
was what he had particularly wished for. He joined the depot of
regiment at Chatham, early in May, and soon became a favorite
with his brother officers, on account of his cheerful and obliging
temper. He obtained a fortnight's leave of absence early in June,
and went over to Belfast to make himself acquainted with his rela
tions, whom he had only known when quite a child. Here he
became a great favorite, his warmth of affection making him feel,
as he himself expressed it, as if he had found a second home.
One of his uncles, in writing about him to his parents, says : —
" His aunt and I feel towards him as if he were our son, and the
girls love him as a brother ; he is a noble fellow, and you have great
reason to be proud of him." In writing of this visit, his affection
ate nature shews itself again. He writes : — "I like all my cousins
much, and they are all spoiling me, but my great friend is little
Annie," (an orphan cousin who was being educated along with his
uncle's daughters), " I suppose it is because she is away from her
home as well as myself, and so we can understand each others feel
ings ; besides, she has suffered so much, I like to make her laugh."
In the same letter, finished at Chatham, he says : " I thought I
would get used to partings, having bad so many lately, but I was

714 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
nearly as much knocked up by this one as when I left you all at
home, but I think a good cry does a man good sometimes." While
in Belfast, he received intelligence of being, with three others of
the 52nd, ordered to India immediately, whieh he considered very
fortunate, wishing that his younger brother, now in H. M. 9th Foot,
might soon get his commission and be as fortunate as he had been.
He sailed on the 5th of July, and before arriving in India he had
obtained his lieutenaney on the 11th July, 1856. There were
many young officers on board, and they had a very pleasant voyage.
A regular newspaper was established on board, to the comic articles
of which he was the chief contributor ; they had also theatricals
which were a source of great amusement, and here again the suc
cess was mainly owing to his lively humor. He arrived at Calcutta
in the end of October, and on the 4th of December left by steamer
for Allahabad, from whence the detachment was to march to Seal-
kote, where the regiment was then stationed. He enjoyed the
journey much ; the new scenes, and manners and customs of the
natives were most graphically described in his letters; in which,
though regretting the loss of his family circle, he always expresses
himself perfectly happy in the society of his brother officers, and
more aud more pleased with his profession. Shortly after his
arrival at Sealkote, he was attacked with (supposed) inflammation
of the hip-joint, and was for five months confined to his bungalow,
almost to his bed. Blisters, leeches, &c, failed to give him any
relief, and in May, 1857, after describing minutely the frightful
scenes which were then taking place in India, he says: — "And
while all this excitement and chance of fun is going on, here am I,
stuck in the house for the last six weeks, (without getting outside
my compound once), with inflamation of and about the hip, which
makes me dead lame, to say nothing of the pain. I have had on
five large blisters and twelve leeches, which are equal to another,
making an average of a blister a week, just giving the one time to
heal, before clapping on another ; but all with the same efficiency,
as I am still as lame as an old horse, and have to sit or lie whole
days in one position, and when I can move with any ease after the
blister is off, I have to hobble about with a great stick, like an old
man. I suppose as soon as they get tired of blistering, I may
expect the same treatment as the old horse — fancy being fired like
a horse for lameness ! and really, I don't know of anything else for
it. It sometimes brings on a regular fit of the blues, and then I
think I will never get well, and the worst of it is, I cannot in any
way account for it." What trial he felt it to be laid up at such a
time, may be.judged by the following extraots from his letters : —
" The regiment is now ordered to Lahore, everything has to be got
ready for a new march, and now, in the middle of the hot weather,
the heat will be something awful in the tents, and I fear the mor
tality will be very groat. The thermometer is 90° in the house,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 715
with all the doors kept shut, green curtains on, and the punkas
going, so what will it be in the tents. 1 was nearly ready to cry
when the order came, and I found I was to remain behind with the
rest of the sick here ; the women and children are to go on to La
hore, and so here I am as well as ever I was, but stuck hard and
fast with a game leg. I did not give up the idea of going with
the regiment without trying to go ; I first tried the doctor to let
me go as I was, but he put his veto on that at once, saying the
colonel would not allow it, unless I was fit for duty. The next
morning I went over to Stopford, the adjutant, who lives at the
next bungalow, to ask him to speak to the doctor for me, but he
could not interfere, so there was no help. The morning the regi
ment marched, my bearer came and began pinching my leg to
awaken me, and when I got fairly roused, there was the colonel
standing beside my bed. He sat down, and staid fully half
an hour with me, and asked all about me ; so I proposed to him
that I might go with the regiment on the chance of my getting
better, but when he asked what the doctor said, I was obliged to
tell him that he had told me I might get worse and perhaps be a
cripple for life ; and then he said : ' my poor boy, you must not
run any risk of that sort, but I will go and see the doctor about it ;'
so in about half an hour I had a note from Ingham, ordering me to
Simla, to try what good the hill weather might do me; so now
I must part from the regiment and I feel more wretched than I
can tell." But though his young heart was nearly broken at
remaining inactive, while his companions were aUowed to avenge
their country's wrongs, yet the subjoined short note* written to a
*" 13th of June, 185T.
" My dear Miss Gore : — Though I never dreamed of becoming a correspondent
of your's, yet I must write to thank you for the trouble you have taken to write
me the little note enolosed in one of my mother's letters, as well as for your
good wishes and prayer for my eternal welfare, and which I hope will not have
been ineffectually offered for me, and you would greatly misjudge me if you were
to imagine I could be offended at your kind advice, or be displeased at anything
you might say to me, were it ever so much like preaching, and I should consider
myself an ungrateful being indeed, were I not to be thankful to any one who
manifested a similar interest in my affairs. I was very sorry to hear you had
suffered so muoh latterly, but I know a verse which says, ' Whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth,' and I know you have too much faith in Him to think it could be
other than for your good, as it was His will it should be so. I have been an
invalid myself for nearly the laal four months, but all I have suffered has been
nothing to what has fallen to your lot for years past, and often when sitting out
side of an evening all alone, while the others were away at mess, I have thought
of your patient resignation, and felt almost ashamed of myself for not bearing
my trials more patiently ; but it is hard to be pleased with being shut up in the
house, being left behind the regiment when there was a chance of seeing active
service, and not be able to take any share in it; but I will not trouble you with
an account, as it were, of my grievances, for they might have been far worse than
they are, and I should have no right to complain. I suppose you have heard ere
this, of the mutiny of the native troops and of the atrocities they have committed
at Delhi, Meerut and elsewhere. * * * * *
" And now I must again thank you for all your kindness to me, ever since I
can recollect you, and remain yours very truly, J. Hill Bradshaw."

716 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
friend who had kindly written to him on religious subjects, shews
that his Heavenly Father's rod was received in a truly humble
spirit, and we trust in God's own time worked for him " a far more
exceeding and abundant weight of glory."
Before this letter reached Quebec, the youthful writer and his
aged friend had both entered into that land " where there is no
more pain." But the Almighty Friend to whom many and fervent
prayers had been addressed in his behalf, had unexpected mercy
in store for him.
At the end of June, he started for Lahore en route to Simla, in
charge of some soldiers who were there to join their respective
regiments, being obliged, on account of his lameness, to travel in a
palanquin. He awoke one night (that being the time for travelling) and
found the bearers had put down the palanquin and were sitting
or lying about ; the soldiers were not to be seen ; he was alone
with twelve bearers who had several times in the preceding days
shown symptoms of insubordination. He called to them (for he
had acquired great proficiency in the language of the country), to
proceed ; they refused. Forgetting in the excitement of the
moment his lameness, he jumped from the palanquin, ordered the
men to lift it and continue on their journey. Awed by his deter
mination, they obeyed, and he followed, driving them before him
with the flat of his sword, until in three or four hours he overtook
the men. His lameness was gone, and with spirits rejoicing in his
restored health, he marched into Lahore at the head of his men,
and immediately reported himself to the commanding officer as fit
for active service. He remained about a fortnight in Lahore, and
then being attached to the 81st Foot until he could regain his regi
ment, he set out for the great object of his wishes, Delhi. His
first engagement with the natives was at Bars river, under Gen
eral Nicholson.
In his usual lively style, and yet with a grateful sense of the
Divine protection, he writes : — " Thank God, mother, I have had
my first brush with the enemy, and escaped unhurt. We had
two days, or rather nights, forced marches, to enable us to cut
off a body of the natives before they joined the main body; we
left upwards of two hundred men under trees as we went on, but
not one officer was obliged to fall out. When we first came in
sight of the enemy, I felt a curious tingling sensation all over, and
a ringing in my ears and a feeling of reluctance to take the life of
a fellow-creature, but in a few moments I perceived a great black
fellow taking deliberate aim at my head ; as one of us must go, I
thought I would give him the preference, and my revolver made
him leave his horse at any rate, and after that, till the 'shindy'
was over, I neither heard or knew anything. I gave Trench one
of my pistols, and we made the niggers clear the road in famous

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 717
style. It was rather a strange sensation at first, to hear the
balls whizz past my head, but I thought it good fun before all was
over." In a subsequent letter, he writes : — " A curious thing happened
to me yesterday ; you recollect that a few days after I left Sealkote,
the rebels took possession of it, destroying and taking all they could
lay their hands on ; although I then lost almost everything I was
possessed of, still I ought to be very thankful they did not find me
there. But yesterday we came up with a small party of rebels who
marched off in double quick time, leaving their baggage behind
them. Riding as fast as my horse could go after them, I passed a
camel, heavily laden ; seeing a boot protruding from a parcel, I
snatched at it without thinking, and to my surprise found it to be
one of the dress boots made for me by Viger, before I left Quebec,
which the thieves had taken out of my bungalow in Sealkote. I
sent my servant to try and hunt up the other, but though he suc
ceeded in bringing another of my own, by the same maker, yet I
am not much the better shod, as unfortunately they are both for
the same foot."
He arrived before Delhi, and rejoined his own regiment in
August, and his letters from there will be read with interest, as
they not only give many particulars of that eventful time, but
shew his cool courage and contempt of danger. On the 27th,
he writes : — " We arrived here about fifteen days ago, and found
everything remarkably quiet, nothing but picket duty and no
end of that. When we arrived at Umballah, I found myself on
treasure guard, though I had fancied we would have left it all
there, but instead of that, we got ten thousand pounds more, so I
was stuck in the guard room all day. We halted for a day three
marches from this, and though more than thirty miles from Delhi,
we could hear the booming ofthe guns quite plainly. We got into
camp at last, with our own and the 60th band playing us in. About
twelve o'clock we went up to see the various batteries, which
rejoice in such names as the ' Metcalfe Battery' and ' Picket,' the
' Flagstaff Battery,' the ' Mosque,' the ' Hindoo,' the ' Crow's Nest,'
the ' Subsee Mundee,' aud several others, at all of which pickets
are posted. We are in the second brigade here, composed of our
old friends the 60th, ourselves, a regiment of Goorkhas, (a race of
men who come from the hills, very short, very strong, very ugly,
and fight like fiends), and a Sikh regiment. The Goorkhas are
considered the most plucky and best fighters here, and are very
fierce in their hatred of ' Pandy,' alias Jack Sepoy. The 60th got
the credit of being the best regiment here before we came, and the
Goorkhas asked to be brigaded with them, as they were the only
regiment who knew how to skirmish properly, but they have not
seen us at it yet. The second day we were here, we took our share
of picket duty, and then, two days after, I was sent up to relieve

718 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the picket at the Crow's Nest. I fancied I would not like pic
ket duty on account of the balls, round shot and shell continually
flying about, but before I had been two minutes in the Crow's
Nest, I did not mind the whistling of ,the bullets at all, and then
Pandy always fires so high that if any one is hit it is quite by mis
take. The niggers have plenty of corn in front of the Crow's
Nest where they can pepper away at us without being seen, and
sometimes the bullets come flying over the breast-work of the
Crow's Nest by volleys, and if they took even a very bad aim, they
ought to hit some of us, as the breast-work is only up to my waist ;
but somehow or other, they don't. Then we have capital chances
for practising with the Enfield rifle at long ranges ; I have managed
to tumble over two fellows, though I did not kill them; I did not
run any risk as I sat down quietly on a stone in the battery, with
my rifle resting on the breast- work, and caught my men while run
ning across a gap in our wall. I had one or two close shaves up
in the Crow's Nest, one ball passed across my chest and struck a
point of rock just in a line with me, another came in through the
door of the tent, and I felt the wind of it as it passed by my face
while I was lying in bed in the tent. I was on duty at the Mosque
picket a few days ago, and at night it was such beautiful moon
light, it reminded me so much of moonlight nights in winter at
home, that I sat upon the edge of the roof for a couple of hours
before going to bed, quietly thinking to myself of the best of
mothers that ever a son was blest with. There were six of us at
the Mosque picket together, and we all had our beds in one little
room. I had the head of my bed just at a hole where a corner of
the building had been carried away by a round shot, and so I had
plenty of fresh air. I slept like a trooper as I always do, and a
very jolly time we had of it." On Sunday, 13th September, he
writes: — "Our breaching batteries played ' old harry' with the
walls last night, and there are two jolly breaches this morning,
and the niggers seem in a great funk and are not bothering us with
musketry to-day. We storm the place at dawn to-morrow morn
ing; we go in with our Colonel Campbell as our brigadier, so I
expect we will go ahead rather, and he is not the man to hesitate,
and I expect we will have great fun. I have taken your advice,
and this morning burned all my old letters, so that in case of acci
dents they will not fall into any one's hands. And now, may God
bless and protect you all."
Eight hours after the writing of this last letter, the heart so
warmly rejoicing for the prospect of victory was still and cold in
death, but . " victory was won." He was twenty-three years and
three weeks old, and the bleeding hearts of those he so fondly loved,
can truly say : — " We know no living one,
We would give for our sleeping son.'"

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 719
The subjoined extracts from letters from Colonel Campbell and
some of his brother officers, will shew the character he had won in
the regiment.*
The medal and clasp for the capture of Delhi has been received
by his friends, accompanied by the usual letter from the secretary
of state for war, which will long be retained in memorial of his
gaUant conduct and early but glorious death.
* Colonel Campbell writes : — " I am most happy to give you all the informa
tion in my power regarding the glorious though sad death of your son ; for it is,
1 indeed, sad to be cut off so young. He had behaved most gallantly, and in
taking the Water Bastion, shortly after our entry at the Cashmere Gate, he was
very conspiouous. I directed a oompany to go in and clear it, there was only one
small entry, sufficient to admit two men at a time. He was with tbe company,
and they forced their entrance in a most intrepid manner. Your son had a per
sonal encounter with a Sepoy inside the bastion, and he cut off his head with his
sword at one blow. The scene of his death, which was very instantaneous, was
in a narrow street. In the centre of the street which was about fourteen or six
teen feet wide, a gun bad been planted, and in taking this gun he was shot dead on
the spot. I saw him immediately and there was not a sign of life, so that he
could have suffered no pain whatever. I can assure you, he is much regretted by
his brother officers one and all. I saw sufficient of his conduct on that eventful
day to pronounce him a fearless and intrepid officer. * * * An
officer of the regiment witnessed his interment in the grave-yard of the canton
ment; all the thirteen officers were buried at the same time. As soon as affairs
are in a more settled state, a tablet will be erected to his memory by his brother
officers." Lieutenant Stopford, adjutant, writes: — "Jullundur, 12th November, 1857.
My dear Madam : — Long ere this reaches you, you will doubtless have become
acquainted with the death of your poor son, James Hill Bradshaw, who was killed
in action at Delhi, on the 14th of September ; but probably, you will not have
received any account of the circumstances attending his death, and whioh I feel
it my painful duty to put you in possession of. I will not dwell upon the loss
that the regiment has sustained by the death of so gallant and so young an
officer, a loss which is so deeply felt by all of us ; but I will merely state the cir
cumstances under which he met with his death, and which are as follows. He
bad escaped the assault unhurt, and was pressing on with the regiment to occupy
the post appointed to it, when it was ascertained that a light field gun was in
position pointing down a street up which we had to pass ; to gain our point it
became necessary to capture that gun, and it was in this important undertaking
that your son lost his life. He was shot through the body by a musket ball when
bravely leading on his men, and had he not fallen, he would have been first at
the gnn ; he fell at my feet and expired almost immediately, tbe only words he
uttered were, " My God, I am hit." His gallant behaviour elicited the warmest
expressions of admiration from all who witnessed his conduct, and it will be a
consolation to you and all his relations, to know-that he whom you have lost, fell
when leading on his men in a most gallant and soldier-like manner. I don't say
this merely from a desire to offer you consolation, on this very distressing occur
ence, but I simply relate what came under my notice, and I in common with
many others, know and feel it to be true. Under such circumstances as these, it
is unnecessary for me to add more on behalf of his merits, unless it be to assure
you how deeply we deplore the loss of so brave and|promising[an officer from among
us. He was buried in the cemetery at Delhi, and we intend to erect a monument
to his memory; * * * I beg to offer you, on the part of myself
and brother officers, our sincere sympathies with you."
A young Canadian, then in India, in writing to his father in Quebec, says : —
•' Among other places I .sought out the spot where poor Bradshaw fell. He was
shot througb tbe heart and fell doad while loading on his men to take a gun. Just
before Ibis charge, he had cut off a Sepoy's head with bis regulation sword at one

720 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

CAPTAIN J. A. POPE, 67th Kegt.
Few natives of Canada have served England in more varied
climes, or during more eventful periods than the subject of the
present notice. His services were not merely confined to the
faithful discharge of his own peculiar duties, but on all occasions
he was found cheerfully rendering assistance in departments with
the business of which he made it a point to become acquainted
during unoccupied hours. Possessed of great judgment and the
faculty of intense application, he was favorably noticed at an early
age, and thus paved his own advancement to rank in a branch
which, till his appointment, had been conferred only upon military
men. Captain Pope, the subject of this memoir, was a member of the
same family to which the present worthy mayor of Quebec, and
Mr. Bichard Pope, advocate, belong. He was born at Niagara,
Upper Canada, on the 30th November, 1821. He was early
initiated into the management of military hospitals, and at the
age of fifteen became secretary to Dr. Gillkrest, the principal
medical officer at Gibraltar. He accompanied his parents to
Jamaica, in 1838, where he at once obtained the appointment
of medical clerk, which he held until 1854. He married in 1842,
Ann, daughter of James Evans, Esquire, of Orange Grove. In
1850, the cholera committed fearful ravages in the island, and the
services then performed by Mr. Pope were brought under the
notice of the authorities by the following letter addressed by the
general commanding, to the secretary at war : —
" Kingston, Jamaica, 9th December, 1850,
" Sir, — In submitting the enclosed letter from Dr. Maclean, the
principal medical officer on this station, I do most earnestly solicit
clean sweep. It ie the only case of the kind on record during Vie siege. He was
very much liked by every body who knew him."
H. Gogarty, assistant surgeon, writes from Jullundur, March 10th, 1858 : —
* * * "" The last I saw of your son was on the morning of
the assault. After our regiment had fallon in, iu camp, there was a delay of
nearly an hour, waiting for the engineers, I believe ; during this time your son
was sitting in the road along with me and one or two others. Ho was in excel
lent spirits, talking of the delay, the regiments that were passing us, and other
commonplace topics. After the bugle sounded tbe advance, I did not see him
any more, as my place was in the rear. I first heard of him from one of our
wounded men, whose wounds I was dressing ; he informed me of the sad event,
and to use his own words, ' Oh, there is poor Mr. Bradshaw, sir, killed ; a braver
and a bettor officer never lived, he was leading us on when we were charging a
gun and was shot dead.' I did not know until then, what a favorite he was
among the men. We intend putting a tablet in Meorut ohuroh to his memory."

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 7 2l
your attention to the statement therein contained relative to Mr.
Pope, a gentleman whose valuable services (in a position you
would hardly suppose could be made available in the way they
have been) were brought under my notice, during the last two
years, in a most favorable point of view.
" But his merits have been more eminently conspicuous during
the many and great difficulties experienced (and which have been
detailed by anothor hand) by the visitation of the most awful
malady, the cholera, in the island, and which I am bound to declare
entitle him to all the support in my power to afford.
" I do most sincerely hope you will be pleased to give your patient
attention to this representation, as nothing but a sense of the
eminent and extraordinary services performed by this talented
individual, could possibly induce me to address you in a strain of
praise, unusual perhaps in military communications.
" It has seldom fallen to my lot, to have had an opportunity of
witnessing more talent, zeal and ability displayed by any one per
son, and I beg to add I know none more likely to make to his
country a grateful return for any patronage or favor, you in your
good judgment might think meet to bestow upon one so truly
worthy of it. "I have, &c,
" T. Bunbury,
" The Right Honorable the ) "Major-General."
Secretary at War." j
This recommendation was most favorably noticed by Mr. Fox
Maule, who, in answer, expressed the sense of the Lords of the
Treasury " of the merits and valuable services of Mr. Pope,
particularly during the prevalence of the cholera," and notwith
standing the regulation respecting pay, a substantial increase was
forthwith allowed him, as a " special grant," being " without
precedent." Upon the commencement of hostilities against Russia, Mr. Pope
was gazetted paymaster to the- 47th Regiment, wliich he accom
panied to Varna and the Crimea, where he served till the reduction
of Sebastopol, and the evacuation of the Peninsula. He was
present at Alma and the sortie of the 26th October, 1854. On the
morning of the battle of Inkerman he had a very narrow escape.
The 47th were in the vicinity of the famous " Sandbag Battery,"
and he had just issued from his tent, when a shell entered and
exploded, shivering the saddle which had served for his pillow.
This gallant corps played a distinguished part in that bloody
encounter. The regiment also took an active part in the successful
affair of the Quarries on the 7th June, 1855, simultaneously with
the French attack, and capture of the Mamelon. The Quarries
were obstinately held for a while by the Russians, and in one of
91

722 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
their attacks, an instance of individual prowess occurred which
obtained for the performer of it the rare honor of being men
tioned in Lord Raglan's despatch. Lance-Corporal Quinn of the
47th, was Captain Pope's clerk, and obtained permission to take
part in the action, and the enemy having wavered a little before
the sharp fire from the British muskets, Corporal Quinn darted out
of the works, towards a Russian officer and four men, who had
advanced somewhat in front of the main body of the enemy.
With the butt end of his musket he brained one of the soldiers,
bayoneted a second, and the other two precipitately fled. Quinn
then collared the officer, and administering a gentle stimulant with
the point of his bayonet to accelerate his advance, dragged him
a prisoner into the works. For this gallant exploit the corporal
was promoted to an ensigncy in his regiment. The 47th left the
Crimea in 1856, Captain Pope having in the meantime received
the Crimean medal with the clasps, for Alma, Inkerman and
Sebastopol. After being stationed for some months in Malta and
Gibraltar, the regiment returned to England. In September,
1858, Captain Pope being desirous of more active service, ex
changed into the 67th, then under orders for India, where he
served until the mutiny was suppressed. He then accompanied
his regiment to China on the breaking out of the war, and remained
till ill-health compelled him to return to England in 1860. Never
possessing a strong constitution, his health was undermined by
frequent exposure and continued service in the call of duty. He
still hoped to regain sufficient strength to return to China, and
had arrived in London, to make preparations for his departure,
when he fell ill, and died almost suddenly, on the 12th October,
1860. He had previously received the rank of captain, under
the provisions of the royal warrant. He was an officer of much
promise, and few have been so sincerely regretted as he by the
companions of his campaigns.
His elder brother, Captain James Pope, late of the 3rd Buffs,
entered the army when quite young, and served in Gibraltar, Malta,
Jamaica, and Canada, and was stationed at lake Temiscouata during
the boundary dispute in 1842. In 1854, he was appointed staff-
adjutant at Chathaji, which office he filled until his promotion to a
Captaincy on the staff. Shortly afterwards he accepted the adjutancy
of the 2nd Royal Surrey Militia, an appointment which he still
retains. He has written two works on military subjects which
are highly spoken of, and is considered one of the best drills in the
British army. He is not a native of this country.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 723

LIEUTENANT JOLY.
Edmond de Lotbiniere Jolt, born at Lotbiniere, in Lower
Canada, the 16th November, 1832, a scion of the noble house of
Lotbiniere, one of the oldest in the colony, having been in posses
sion ofthe seiginory bearing the same name for the last two hundred
years. Edmond Joly attended the seminary of Quebec for some years,
and finally went over to Paris, where he finished his studies.
In 1850, he entered her Majesty's service as ensign in the
32nd, and spent the succeeding five years in India with his
regiment. India being then in a perfectly tranquil state, he had
no opportunities of distinguishing himself beyond what a few
trifling skirmishes on the frontiers might afford. We will here
give only one instance of his adventurous disposition, and a marked
originality which always characterized him. While attached to a
division of the army, marching across the Punjaub, the encamp
ment was one evening formed at the foot of a high monument,
pointed out by tradition as the tomb erected by Alexander the
Great over the remains of his famous horse, Bucephalus. The
monument had only one aperture on its summit. At break of day
Edmond Joly resolved to explore the interior ; providing himself
with a rope and torch he succeeded in scaling the pile, and having
reached the opening, which had the appearance of a huge well, he
let himself down the gloomy recess. A long search followed, but
he failed in discovering any interesting relic ; regaining the
summit with empty hands, but covered with the dust of centuries,
he appeared to the wondering army, standing as it were on a pedes
tal like a titulary genius of the spot ; to relieve him from this
somewhat awkward position his colonel, the celebrated Markham,
forwarded him with some despatches ; carrying them over the
plains he came suddenly, while at full gallop, upon one of the deep
ravines or gullies, so numerous in this country ; it was too late to
draw back, so putting spurs to his horse he gallantly took the des
perate leap, it proved however too much ; the rider rolled on the
opposite top and the horse at the bottom, and both horse and rider
rolled to the bottom of the gulley ; the fall was fatal to the poor
animal, while Edmond Joly fortunately escaped with a few bruises.
Having delivered his despatches, he procured the assistance of a
dozen stout Sepoys, and drawing the remains of poor " Nejib" to
the apex of the monument, he consigned them by torchlight to
the depths below, where, no doubt, they will be found by some
future explorer, and pass for the bones of Bucephalus.

724 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
In 1855, Lieutenant Joly was sent home on a two years' leave of
absence, to res tore his system, debilitated by a five years' residence in
India. Returning by way of Egypt, he no sooner arrived at Ma'ta,
than a strong desire to serve his country in the Crimea, brought
him to the walls of Sebastopol ; here he served as a volunteer for
several months, first attached to the 3rd Buffs, and subsequently to
the 87th Connaught Rangers, until prostrated by a severe dysen
tery, he was conveyed to England in a transport freighted with
the wounded and sick ; he finally returned to Canada in ill health,
but the bracing air of his native home, and an active life, soon
restored him to health.
In the autumn of 1856, he embarked at Quebec for England,
obtained a year's extension of absence, and spent the following
winter in Paris. His polished address and courtly bearing brought
him into high notice at the court of the emperor of the French;
this was all the more flattering as a young lieutenant could not
have exDecied this distinction.
In the spring of 1857, he again left for India, this time, how
ever, with feelings of repugnance for which he could scarcely ac
count. The enervating climate of the country and the unavoid
able indolence resulting from it, perhaps also a fatal presentment
of coming death, made his voyage a most tedious one.
On leaving England the rebellion had not broken out, and as
time was no object, he made the voyage by way of the Cape. On
his arrival in Calcutta, in July, 1857, he heard the first news from
the pilot who boarded the vessel of the Sepoy rebellion, and the
heartless massacre of almost all the women and children of the
32nd, his own regiment, at Cawnpore, and the desperate situation
of his brother officers shut up in Lucknow. From that moment
his sole thought was to effect their rescue. Finding that he would
have to wait too long for the next detachment that might leave
Calcutta, he resolved to start alone, and hazard capture atthe hands
of the insurgents whose bands scoured the country in every direction,
in order to join General Havelock, then in full march for Lucknow.
Regardless of the advice and warnings of all who knew him,
and among them Lord Elgin, then at Calcutta, he set out alone,
and escaping a myriad perils, reached Sir Henry Havelock at
Cawnpore, 700 miles from Calcutta, just as he was leaving for
Lucknow. His last letter to his father is dated from the camp
before that place ; he wrote : " I hear from this the booming of the
guns from the defenders of Lucknow ; I will soon see my brave
regiment, and that day will be the most glorious one of my life,
perhaps it will be the last," then with his usual indifference " I
will soon be in Lucknow."
On the 25th of September, he fell, struck down by a bullet in the
midst of the fearful struggle Havelock was sustaining, with his
handful of heroes, while cutting a passage through the streets of

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 725
the city to the residency, still held by the remains of the 32nd ;
he was carried by his men to the residency, and a few drys after
had the consolation of dyiDg in the arms of his friends whom he
had come to rescue.
The commanding officer of the 32nd wrote a short time after
to h:s father : " He died expressing satisfaction at having arrived
in time to rescue his comrades." The officers of the 79th Regi
ment loudly testified their admiration of his bravery while forcing
a passage through the streets of Lucknow.
The glorious end of Edmond Joly's career shows what energy,
courage and devotion he w?.s possessed of, and what might have
been expected from him by his country and his friends, had he
not been cut off at the early age of twenty-four.

LIEUT. CHARLES McKAY.
Charles McKay was the youngest but one of four sons who
survived their father, the late Honorable Thomas McKay, M.L.C,
of Ottawa, and was born in Montreal, 21st April, 1836, and edu
cated at the high school of that city, and also in Edinburgh, Scot
land, where he was at his studies when the Crimean war created
so much military ardor amongst the youth of Britain. As a boy,
he was remarkable for his steadiness, self-control and self-reliance,
and a judgment beyond his years. Possessed of great personal
strength, and a fearless disposition, he was slow to anger; amiable
and gentle in his deportment, and though not wanting in means or
opportunity for indulgence, was temperate in all things.
At his urgent request, while at school in Edinburgh, a commis
sion was obtained for him in a line regiment, and on May 10, 1855,
he was gazetted to the 97th Regiment, then one of the strongest in
the Crimea, the depot of which was at Preston, where he joined.
So rapid was promotion in consequence of death vacancies, that on
21st December of the same year, he became lieutenant, without
purchase, and embarked for Malta, where reinforcements were
located to acclimatize them for the Crimea. In 1856, he sailed for
Balaklava, where he arrived on the 11th March, after the fall of
Sebastopol and the cessation of hostilities. On his return from the
Crimea, he paid a visit to his family in Canada, which was abruptly
terminated by the breaking out of the Sepoy rebellion, in 1857.
He saUed with his regiment from Spithead, 5th August, 1857,

726 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
arrived at Calcutta in November, and was sent up, in December, to
Benares, where his regiment formed part of General Frank's divi
sion, in the march to Lucknow. At Benares he was laid up with
fever, on his arrival on the 16th December, and did not come off
the sick list until the 2nd January. On the 4th, the regiment
marched to Babudpoor. During this period his diary shews hard
work— up at four every morning, and sometimes on his feet till
midnight; frequently going the whole dey without food, and sleep
ing where only soldiers have to sleep. On the 8th, they were
joined by two Ghoprka regiments at Manccahoo. On the 22nd,
they came up with the rebels at Secundia. Coming in from outlying
pickets, on the morning of the 23rd January, youug McKay was
marched with the column to attack the Sepoys who where strongly
fortified in the midst of a thick jungle. He writes, "while the
guns were blazing away, the 97th and two Ghoorka regiments- made
a flank march, and sent out three or four companies, mine amongst
the number, and blazed away at them, we killed about five hundred,
and had only four or five wounded ; our fellows bayoneted them
right and left, and gave no quarter; we took three guns, and
burnt all the villages in the vicinity." On the 19th of February,
they drove the rebels out of Chaundra. On the 4th March, after
a desperate fight at Moorshegunge, in which one of his brother
officers (Smyth) was killed, General Frank's division marched to
join Sir Colin Campbell's army before Lucknow, and on the 6th,
the 97th were in the trenches, where McKay writes, they were
" pounding and being, pounded at," for twenty-four hours at a
stretch. On the 10th, he Was again "trotted off to the trenches,"
where, once or twice, while looking over the parapet, he narrowly
escaped losing his head. '• At about two p.m. on the afternoon of
the above day," he writes, " the 42nd and 93rd Highlanders
stormed and took the Martiniere. As soon as the Sepoys saw our
Highlanders advancing across the open plain towards them, they
began to make for the town in great style. While in the act of
bolting, we favored them with an unlimited amount of shot and
shell, which falling among a crowd of them, would knock scores of
the brutes over. On the 11th, three companies, mine amongst
the number, were marched toward the Ghoorkas on the left, and
here we had no end of skirmishing for two days ; we drove the
fellows into the town, the bullets dropping thick amongst us, but
fortunately wounding very few. On the evening of the 13th, we
moved over to the Secundrabagh, and the 97th killed upwards of
eighteen hundred Sepoys in this building. The place is full of
human bodies, and here we had to sleep for the night. • At eleven
a.m. next morning, received orders to advance on the Kysabagh,
which was chock full of Sepoys ; we trotted along at a pretty good
rate, and when going up the different streets they peppered us in
great style. On each side of the road, as we advanced, nothing but

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 727
dead 'niggers ' were to be seen, for the live ones kept pretty well
under cover, and potted at U3 through loopholes, every house in the
place being thoroughly loopholed. On our arrival inside the
palace, then commenced the game, for we had to fight the brutes
through each room as we went along. In the act of doing so, our
Colonel Ingram was shot through the head. Just fancy fighting
through rooms far superior to any in England, and the tables
therein covered with gold and silver ornaments. Had hard fight
ing all that night and next morning — found my Colt's revolver
useful — tumbled over two swell looking Sepoys with it — kept on
fighting till the 16th, when they all made their exit. I never
slept out of my clothes from the 10th to the 20th, and for six
nights at a time had not so much as one wink of sleep ; we certainly
had hard work for the number of days we were at it,"
In announcing his death to his relations his brother officer says
of Lieutenant McKay, " He was mentioned in the despatches by
our colonel for his conduct at the capture of Lucknow, which was
beyond praise."
He remained in garrison at Lucknow until January, 1859, when
he was ordered to Banda, in Oude, a march of fourteen or fifteen
days from Lucknow, where he was attacked immediately, on his
arrival by small pox, and carried off after three days' illness, on the
13th February, 1859, in the twenty-third year of his age.
In communicating the sad intelligence to his elder brother, his
most intimate friend and associate in the regiment, writes : — " I
am sure it will be a great comfort to your mother to know that he
was a good Christian, an upright and moral man, a brave, gallant
and devoted soldier, and did his duty manfully to his Queen and
country, through many a hard days work. A nobler disposition
and a Detter, kinder or truer friend could not be met with. I miss
him fearfully, and I cannot even now feel reconciled to His decree
' who doeth all things for the best.' " " It is needless for me to
add," he says in another letter, " the great regret we all feel at his
loss ; with myself it is irreparable, as I can never expect to see his
like again on earth. But it will gratify you all to know that a
more gallant officer the Queen never had." About a year after
receipt of the intelligence of his death, the following letter which
explains itself, was received : —
« " No. 16587.
\ "12. "(Lr. 115).
" War Office, London, August, 1860.
" Madam, — I am directed by the secretary of state for war, to
transmit to you herewith, a medal which has been granted for
Lieutenant C. McKay's services as an officer of the 97th Regiment
of Foot, to be retained in commemoration of his gallant conduct in
the campaign in India.

728 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
" You are requested to acknowledge the receipt of the medal upon
the form herewith enclosed.
" I am, madam, your obedient servant,
«B Hawes."
" Mrs. A. McKay, )
" Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Canada, America." j
Heu miserande puer !
Manibus date 1 il ia pleuis ;
Purpureos ut spargam flores, et fungas inani mnnere !

MAJOR FORSYTH.
Major Gerrard J. Forsyth is a native of Montreal. He
entered the military service at an early age, and rose to the rank
of captain, at the age of twenty-six, without the aid of those influ
ences that help others on. He has served through the eastern
campaign of 1854-55, including the battles of Balaklava aud Inker-
man, siege of Sebastopol, capture of the Quarries, attack oh the
Redan on the 18th June, (with the storming column), and on the
8th of September, also at Kinbourn, for which he has received the
medal and clasps, the Sardinian medal, and has been decorated
with the Legion of Honor by the Emperor of the French. He
retired with the rank of major, on the 26th of December, 1856.
His career has testified to the valor and patriotism of the Canadians,
and been a source of honor both to himself and his country.

CAPTAIN STUART.
Captain Edward Andrew Stuart is a son of the late Chief-
Justice Sir James Stuart, and was born on the 20th November, 1832.
He entered the army on the 21st May, 1852, as an ensign in the 1st
Royal Regiment of Foot, and was promoted to a lieutenancy on the
11th August, 1854. He served at the siege of Sebastopol from
22nd of April until he was severely wounded on the 7th June,
1855, for which he received the medal and clasp, aud the fifth
olass of the Medjidie, and was promoted to the rank of captain.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 729

CAPTAIN ROBERTSON.
Captain George Robertson is a son of the late woll known
Dr. Robertson of Montreal. He joined the army as late as 17th
of June, 1851, and in December, 1859, had been promoted to a
captaincy. He served with the 12th Regiment, in the Caffre war
of 1851-53, for which he received the medal, and was with the
95th Regiment at the siege and fall of Sebastopol, from 26th
January, 1855, for which he received the medal and clasp, and was
honored with the fifth class of the Medjidie. He also served in
1858, at the siege and capture of Kotah (medal.) The Gazette
of his native city, in speaking of his former services, said " our
citizens will join with us in expressing our hearty congratulation
on the honors bestowed upon him, which we cannot doubt have
been well earned," and of him and other Canadians " the whole
country will rejoice at these honors won by Canadians."

HIS LORDSHIP THE BISHOP OF ONTARIO.
As we have endeavored, to the best of our opportunities, to
give notices of the four other English bishops of the province, we
will not make the list imperfect by excluding from it one of the
distinguished divines who had the good fortune to be elected to
the bishopric of Ontario, a short time since, and which was
founded but a short time previous to the election.
The Right Reverend John Travers Lewis, LL. D., is a native of
Ireland, having been born in Cork about the year 1826 ; he is, there
fore, thirty-five years of age, and is a comparatively young man to
have attained to the high and holy office which he now holds. This
fact goes a certain length to demonstrate the superiority of his
talents ; and when we state that he has not long resided in
the province, we think we shall have proved that the appointment
must be highly gratifying to his lordship, and also to his
friends. His lordship is a son of the late Reverend John Lewis, M.A.,
formerly of St. Anne's, Shandon, Cork, Ireland. He was educated
92

730 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
at Trinity college, Dublin, where he graduated as senior moderator
in ethics and logic ; and held the distinguished position of gold
medalist, having obtained classical and mathematical honors in
his under graduate course, and obtained the degree of LL. D.
He was ordained deacon in the chapel of Christ's college, Cam
bridge, by the Lord Bishop of Chester, in 1848 ; was consecrated
priest by the Lord Bishop of Down, and appointed to the curacy
of Newtown Butler, in the county of Fermanagh. Shortly after
wards, having vacated this living, he came to Canada, and for four
years officiated in the parish of Hawkesbury, Canada West, having
been appointed thereto by the Lord Bishop of Toronto. At the
expiration of that time he was placed in the rectory of BrockvUle,
where he faithfully discharged his duties for seven years ; and
was then elected by the synod, convened at Kingston, in the
summer of 1861, to the new bishopric of Ontario.

THOMAS G. RIDOUT, Esq.
The father of the subject of this notice, Thomas Ridout, came
to this country in the year 1780, shortly aftei- the American
revolution. The incidents connected with his life — how he was
taken prisoner by the Indians, when passing down the Ohio river ;
how he escaped to Detroit, and finally to Canada, are fuU of
interest, and we may return to the subject at a future time. Hav
ing arrived safely in Lower Canada, he became connected with
one of the government departments. On the 10th October, 1792,
Thomas G. Ridout, was born near Sorel ; so that had he survived
till October, 1861, he would have been sixty-nine years of age.
In 1796, when the seat of the Upper Canada government — with
which Mr. Ridout would seem at that time to have been connected
— was removed to Niagara, the family went with it. Subsequently
Mr. Thomas Ridout was appointed registrar of York, and more
lately surveyor-general of Upper Canada. When the government
was removed to Toronto, some years afterwards, the family came
with it. " Muddy Little York " was then but an Indian settlement
consisting of a few wigwams, and the young Ridouts' playmates on
the spot where Toronto now stands, were the children of the red
men of that day. Mr. Thomas G. Ridout's first business connec
tions were with the commissariat, in which he acted as deputy
assistant-commissary general. ' He was then nineteen years of age.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 731
Having resigned this position, he was appointed cashier of the
Bank of Upper Canada, which was then " located" in a small
building, now used as a shoemaker's shop, and which stands on the
coroner of King and Frederick streets, opposite the Canada Com
pany's office. In 1825, the bank was removed to the building on
the coroner of Duke and George streets, where it remained until
lately — all which time, except during the last few months of his
life, Mr. Ridout acted as cashier. He died in September, 1861. He
left behind him a widow and twelve children, ten of whom reside
in this country, and two are officers in the army — one in the 100;h,
now stationed at Gibraltar, and the other in the 80th, stationed in
India. By marriage the family is connected with the Baldwins,
the Sullivans, and the Boultons in Canada, and the Bramleys in the
mother country. In private life Mr. Ridout was much esteemed.
Upright in character, and exemplary in his dealings, he made for
himself a large circle of friends, who deeply lamented his death .
It is rather a singular coincidence that- the bank and Mr. Ridout,
may be said to have passed away from the old building together,
Mr. Ridout died on the day that the bank was opened in the new
house in Toronto.

PAUL KANE, Esq.
The name of this celebrated painter, traveller and writer must
awaken in the hearts of all Canadians a profound feeling of esteem
and admiration, not only from the fact of his being a fellow coun
tryman, but for the admirable manner in which he has overcome
the various obstacles which he has encountered in life. The
enviable position and reputation which he has earned without
any friend to assist him, redounds much to his credit, and
bespeaks our highest admiration. Born in Toronto, he earlv
evinced a strong inclination for the profession which he has adopted.
While at school, when other boys were playing or were amusing
themselves, Paul was devoting all his attention to improving him
self in drawing. For a long time, although his youthful producr
tions were really meritorious,, yet they were not ser complete as
they would have been, had he had the advantage of proper instruc
tion and models to go by. Hardships beset his path, but at length,
he felt emboldened to lay some of jus drawings before Mr. Drury,
th°. then drawing master of th,e Upper Canada coUege. This
gentleman must have possessed a good heart and the power pf

732 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
doing good, for perceiving at once that young Kane, if he received
the necessary instructions, would eventually become a great genius
in the art of painting, he forthwith enrolled him as one of his
pupils, and from that day Kane's fortunes were fixed. In 1836,
on the completion of his studies, or on mastering all that Mr.
Drury could undertake to impart to him, Mr. Kane visited the
United States, and lived in many places. For some time he
endured great hardships, and fell into many scrapes, consequent
on his pecuniary distress. On one occasion, on board a steamboat,
he had to take the skipper's portrait to pay for his fare; neverthe
less, he managed to live, exercising his profession and acquiring
still more knowledge ofthe art. In 1840, by dint of great industry
and untiring zeal, he had amassed a sum sufficient to carry him to
the old world, there to complete his studies in the celebrated
academies of Rome, Genoa, Naples, Florence, Venice, and Bologua.
All these places he visited, and in each, studied for a time ; living
in humble lodgings and content with humble fare; doing his utmost
to learn as much as possible. He went through the whole course
of his studies with unflagging industry and perseverance, and
travelled over a great portion of the continent of Europe, without
one friend to help him, his only resource being in his own talents.
He triumphed over everything with his extraordinary good fortune
and indomitable zeal, and finally returned safe to his native city,
in the spring of the year 1845, after nearly nine years' absence.
After some necessary repose from his great labors, Mr. Kane
had now to think how he should turn his acquirements to account,
and at length formed the patriotic determination to enter the great
north-west territory, bordering on Canada, and to delineate the
habits, customs and physical peculiarities of the aborigines of his
native land, and of the wild scenery of the far north. In this
determination he was eminently successful, having twice entered
the Hudson's Bay territory and travelled nearly everywhere over
that vast country, thousands of miles were accomplished by land
and the great rivers, with nothing to propel him and his comrades
on the latter but the wooden paddle, and on the former the Indian
snow-shoe. We could not do justice to the subject were we to
attempt to describe the peregrinations of Mr. Kane ; his able and
excellent work will furnish all that; suffice it to say, that he
travelled the whole extent of the continent, and effected the pur-
pobe for which he set out ; namely, to give a true and accurate
panorama of pictures of real Indian life. He again returned to
Toronto, on the 9th of December, 1848, and brought with him one
ofthe largest collections of aboriginal curiosities ever made on the
continent, together with nearly four hundred sketches, illustrative
of the manners, customs and physical peculiarities of about sixty
different tribes of Indians. From these he commenced painting a
series of elaborate and magnificent oil pictures, which are the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 733
delight and boast of all those who have had the good fortune to
possess or see them. In fact, by these pictures, Mr. Kane has
established a world-wide reputation as a portrait and scenic artist ;
and may any day compete with the artists of the old world. He
is, however, well known by his book, which he published in 1859,
" Wanderings of an Artist," &c, Longman & Co., London. This
work created a considerable sensation, and was dedicated to the
Honorable W. B. Allan, of Toronto, that gentleman having, it is
understood, after Mr. Kane's return from the north-west, greatly
befriended and patronized him.

COLONEL BALDWIN.
Colonel Baldwin, long a resident of Canada West, was born
at Clohina, in the county of Cork, Ireland, the residence of his
father, James Baldwin, Esquire. He was a brother of the late
Dr. Baldwin, an eminent physician of Cork, which city he
represented in the Imperial Parliament. He was also a first cousin
of the late celebrated Daniel O'Connell, and a nephew of the
gallant General Count O'Connell, of the French service. Colonel
Baldwin was one of the Peninsula heroes, whose career is now a
matter of history. He first entered the service of his country in
the navy at the early age of fourteen years. He was obliged by
ill health to leave that service, but desirous of a military career,
he entered the army at sixteen, in the 87th Regiment, from which
he exchanged into the 83rd, and afterwards into the 50th, in whieh
regiment he obtained his company, after passing his examination
with honors at the military college of Farnham. While with these
regiments iu the Peninsula, he was present at the battles of
Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D'Onor, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria,
Neiva, Nevelle, Orthes, and Toulouse, for all which he possessed
a medal and ten clasps. At Talavera he was wounded in the head;
at Badajoz, leading the stormers, he was twice thrown from the
scaling ladders, and at Fuentes D'Onor he received a ball through
the arm, for which wounds he obtained a pension. Colonel
Baldwin was a good classical scholar, and in a conversation amongst
officers, in which General Picton took part, the general used
a classical quotation which Colonel, (then Lieutenant) Baldwin
answered in the same language. This so gratified the general that
he appointed him en his staff, and ever afterwards entertained the

734 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
most friendly feelings for him. He served in the 50th Regiment,
when he acted as brigade-major, in Jamaica, and in other parts of
the West Indies ; but to his active disposition the mere routine of
garrison duty became irksome, and he retired on half-pay. On
visiting his native country he was induced by Colonel Cotter, then
recruiting for the Brazi'ian service, to raise a regiment, which he
did at Cork, aid entered into the service of the emperor of Brazil.
This service, however, from the mismanagement of the government,
and the ill-treatment of his men, disgusted him; and the government
ordering the regiment to the interior as settlers, be resisted at the
request of the men, and finally obtained their discharge and ship
ment home. The Brazilian government tendered him pay for his
services, which, under the circumstances, he refused.
About 1828, he came to Canada, and after some time spent near
the then town of York, he went to Peterborough, where he held
property, and is remembered with the highest respect and esteem.
He afterwards removed to the Gore of Toronto, then a wilderness,
where he continued to reside until a short time before his death.
In the troubles of 1837 and 1838, Colonel Baldwin again made
his services available to his country, and raised a regiment of
militia, for the defence of the frontier. As a civilian he was a
magistrate, aud in that capacity earned the respect of his neighbors.
He was fearless, honorable and impartial, and never during the
long continuance of the high trust, to his death, did he condescend
to receive fees, being in all the actions of his public life sans peur
et sans reproche. He was a politician of the moderate reform
party, and made many sacrifices for it. He was a strong sup
porter of his namesake, the late Honorable Robert Baldwin,
between whose family and that of the colonel, there is some remote
connection. Like many others, the colonel was overlooked when
his party came into power ; and too proud to ask as a favor what
the party should have been proud to have the opportunity to offer,
he remained in private life, and like Cincinnatus of old, tilled his
farm for a living.
His decease took place at Toronto, on the 14th December, 1861.
Colonel Baldwin left a family of seven children. His only son
is an officer of the 100th Regiment, whose praise as one of the
three officers distinguished as " judges of distance" in that
regiment, came as a ray of sunshine through the cloud, illuminating
his death bed and reviving in him the love of that profession
in which he gloried, and connected with which were the remini
scences of his youth and early manhood. By his death the
country lost a gallant soldier ; society an upright magistrate ; his
friends a generous, kind, hospitable gentleman, and his connections
the dearest and most attractive of relatives in every place. He died
a Roman Catholic, and received from that church all the imposing
ceremonies in its power to bestow, as a mark of the high respect

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 735
and esteem in which he was held ; and we do not believe we
assume too much in saying, that he was equally respected by every
denomination of the citizens of this province acquainted with his
character.

S. ZIMMERMAN, Esq.
Our next notice is of the above celebrated man who was
unfortunately killed at the Desjardins canal accident on the
Great Western Railway, in 1856. Mr. Zimmerman, at the
time of his death, was in the very prime and vigour of
manhood — had but just commenced his career in public improve
ment — was upon the first step in a new and extended sphere
of improvement for the benefit of the public. Regarding this
man as in every sense worthy of public regard, we have ascer
tained some facts in his personal history which will not be
uninteresting to the general reader. He was born in Huntingdon
county, Penn., in the year 1815, and spent his early years in that
state. In 1842, he removed to Canada, having no capital
but his own energy and farsightedness. He said afterwards
to some persons who enquired of him respecting his commence
ment upon the line of enterprise which he followed so successfully,
that his only effects, when he arrived in Canada, were a grey horse
and buggy. It might be supposed, as he himself added, that he
possessed no more capital than he required for his immediate use.
He was then but twenty-seven years of age. He settled at Thorold,
Canada West, and his first undertaking was the construction of four
locks and an aqueduct on the Welland canal, which involved some
thing like $100,000. Subsequently, he built, under contract, 120
miles of the Great Western Railway, the contract price for which
was about $600,000. The building of the first suspension bridge at
Niagara Falls, and of the great railroad bridge at the same place,
engaged his attention and commanded his resources. He built the
Cobourg & Peterborough, the Port Hope and Lindsay, and the Erie
and Ontario Railways in Canada. Mr. Zimmerman originated,
and completed the preliminary arrangement for building the Great
Southern Railway, a new road to the west, nearly parallel with the
Great Western, to the south of that line, and on a shorter and
better route. This work was to cost some ten millions of dollars.
It is doubted whether any man possesses the energy and capacity
to successfully assume a work which ^Providence prevented him
from carrying forward.

736 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Not long before his unfortunate death he bad purchased a large
property at Clifton, Niagara Falls, and in the vicinity of the sus
pension bridge, including the fine hotel known as the " Clifton
House," and his excellent taste and liberal ideas were illustrated in
improving this fine estate, and adorning it artistically. Fifty-two
acres on the cliff, directly opposite the American Falls, are
enclosed with an iron fence and privet hedge. The topography of
these grounds is diversified and picturesque. That part nearest
the river is level, and this is laid out in gravelled walks, with
shrubbery, forest trees and fountains. Oiie fountain was con
structed at a cost of $15,000. These groves and shaded promen
ades are lighted during the summer evenings with gas. The pro
prietor's residence stands on a bluff some sixty feet high, midway
of the ample grounds. In the summer it is nearly hidden by the
foliage of the surrounding trees. This dwelling is an unpretending
mansion, but had always been the scene of generous hospitaUty,
while occupied by its princely owner. He had perfected the most
extended and elaborate plans for the establishment near the same
spot of an elegant mansion-house, with the proper accessories and
surroundings. The foundations of a building of Cleveland sand
stone and Canadian brick, to cost $175,000, were laid in 1855, and
the work was to be prosecuted immediately. His lodges, of which
there are four, the conservatory, and tenements for his servants,
are models of taste. His stables cost $48,000. From the terraces
on the grounds and the portico of his dwelling, a splendid view
of the American Falls is obtained. The Clifton House is near by
— one of the most complete and popular hotels that any watering
place can boast. This was owned by Mr. Zimmerman, and was worth
over $300,000. At Elgin, on the western side cf the river, at the
suspension bridge, he formerly owned a large property, which his
own liberal expenditure and judicious enterprise had rendered very
valuable. This was sold in 1855 to his friends, Messrs. Pierson
and Benedict, for $200,000. At Toronto, he owned property
valued at $400,000. At Hamilton, an estate worth $100,000. He
was owner of the steamer Zimmerman, on lake Ontario, and half
owner of the Peerless, (which was recently lost in the great naval
expedition to Beaufort,) — his interest in both amounting probably
to $100,000. Some 18.000 acres of land, in different parts of
Canada, belonged to him. He estimated his property to be worth
three millions of dollars.
Mr. Zimmerman was twice married. His first wife was Miss
Woodruff, the only daughter of a worthy and influential gentleman
at St. Davids, near Niagara Falls. This lady bore him two sons,
who are still living. She died in November, 1854. On the 16th
December, 1857, he was married to a Miss Dunn, of Three Rivers,
Canada East. Mr. Zimmerman was a man of limited education,
but he was endowed with sterling mental gifts.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 73?

MAJOR PATTINSON,
Governor of Heligoland.
Major Richard Pattinson is a son of R. P. Pattinson,
Esquire, of Sandwich, C.W., and a military officer of some standing.
Born, we believe, in the province, he studied at the universities
of Glasgow and Cambridge. He served fifteen years in India, and
was adjutant-general of the cavalry at Alli wale; was present at the
battle of Mahragepore in 1843 ; went through the campaign of
Suttledge ; had a horse shot under him at the battle of Budderwall,
and was present at Sobraon. He has received three medals. He
returned to Canada in 1850 ; but had to depart shortly after for
the Crimea, and passed through the whole of the eastern campaign.
In 1857, he was appointed governor of Heligoland.
Lockyer says of him : " Few officers of his standing have had
the good fortune to have seen so much hard fighting with such
brilliant results."

Sir W. F. WILLIAMS, Baet., K.C.B., D.C.L.,
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Canada.
Sir William Fenwick Williams deserves to have his name
placed in this work, not only on account of the public positions which
he has held in this province with so much honor and integrity to
us and himself, but also because of his being a colonist, having
first seen the light at Halifax, in the adjoining province of Nova
Scotia. Our sister dependency can thus lay claim to having given
birth to one of the most talented and distinguished soldiers of
the present day.
Four or five years ago in the world's history Sir William Fenwick
Williams, of Kars, was unknown to the world at large. Like the
gallant Havelock, he suddenly rose into fame, and his name in a few
days became a "household word" in the homes of Englishmen.
He is the only surviving son of the late Thomas Williams,
Esq., commissary- general and barrack-master at Halifax, in Nova
93

738 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
Scotia, who died in 1807, by his wife Maria, daughter of Captain
Thomas Walker. He is one-of a family consisting in all of five
daughters and two sons ; and his elder brother, Lieutenant Thomas
Gregory Townsend Williams, of the Royal Artillery, served under
the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula and in France, and died
after the combat at New Orleans, in 1814. He was born inNova
Scotia in December, 1800, and at an early age was placed in the
Royal Academy at Woolwich, through the interest of the late Duke
of Kent. In 1825, having passed through the regular course of
study with credit, he was gazetted to a second lieutenancy in the
Royal Artillery, and obtained his promotion to the rank of first
lieutenant in 1827, and to that of captain in 1840.
From a speech delivered by Earl Granville in the House of
Lords in May, 1856, in proposing the grant of a pension of £1,000
to the subject of this memoir, we gather that Lieutenant
Williams, whilst still very young, was sent out on special service to
act as an engineer in Ceylon, where he remained during nine years
of active and constant employment. He subsequently spent some
time in Turkey, previous to 1843, when we find him promoted to
the rank of brevet-major for his military services, and commissioned
by the Earl of Aberdeen, then secretary of state for foreign affairs,
to act on behalf of England in concert with our ambassador at
Constantinople and the British minister at Ispahan, in settling the
disputed limits of the Persian and Turkish territories in Asia—a
task which made large demands on his judgment and diplomatic
ability, and was ultimately accomplished by him in such a way as
to obtain the' commendation of his superiors, and to mark him out
as a proper person for further employment of a similar kind. We
have heard that out of the nine years during which the settlement
of the Turkish frontier engaged his attention, he spent no less
than four years under a canvas tent, and suffered severely in health
and person from the feverish character of the climate and the
frequent attacks of robbers.
Upon the establishment of a friendly understanding between
the Court of St. James and the Ottoman Porte, the late Sir Hussey
Vivian, who at that time was master-general of the ordnance,
selected Major Williams for the post of instructor in artillery
practice to the Turkish army ; and we are only repeating the
opinion publicly expressed by Earl Granville when we state that,
under his training, the Mussulmen rapidly improved in that branch
of military education.
In May, 1847, we find Major Williams taking a prominent part
in the conferences at Erzeroum, which resulted in the well-known
treaty signed there between England and the plenipotentiaries of
Turkey and Persia. For his services on this occasion, which
involved many delicate and difficult points, he was promoted to the
brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 739
This rank he held at the time when the Russian war broke out,
and when his eastern experience pointed him out as one of those
officers whose talents and energies could be turned to good account.
Lord Clarendon, who at that date held the seals of the foreio-n
office, at once selected Colonel Williams as the fittest man for the
post of her Majesty's commissioner at head quarters with the
Turkish forces, with the rank of a brigadier-general. His appoint
ment was dated in July, 1854 : early in the following September
he reached Erzeroum, and before the close of the month proceeded
onward to Kars — a city whose name he was destined to render
famous through all time in the annals of English military exploits.
To use the emphatic and impressive term of Lord Granville,
certain " painful events" arose in the course of the year, during
which General Williams held the command of Kars, on which
severe comments were passed by the daily papers and society at
large. These " painful events," however, upon being thoroughly
sifted, resolved themselves into one notorious fact, that although
the gallant general had repeatedly sent official information to Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe, our ambassador at Constantinople, that the
force at his disposal was too weak to be able to hold permanent
possession of the place, his excellency, from private pique or
personal jealousy, chose to turn a deaf ear to his requests for
further supplies of men and money, and refused to send assistance
until it was too late to be of any avail. But we are anticipating
events. With the assistance of Colonel Teesdale, Colonel Atwell Lake
(known to the Russians as the English Todtleben), and General
Kmety,-General Williams was enabled to render the petty forti
fication of Kars almost impregnable. On September 29th, 1855,
after the town had been invested for four months by Mouravieff,
General Williams resolved to give his besiegers battle, and, after a
sanguinary conflict of eight hours' duration, defeated a much larger
force than his own, on the heights which rise above Kars. This
victory at once raised General Williams into note as the " hero of
Kars ;" he was almost immediately afterwards gazetted a knight
commander of the Bath ; whilst the Sultan honored him with
the rank of mushir, or full general, in the Turkish service.
Still, however, with the scanty force at his disposal, General
Williams was unable to force Mouravieff to raise the siege, as he
hoped to have been able to do had he been properly seconded by
the haughty ambassador at Constantinople. It will be enough to,
state here that the siege was pressed on more closely than ever ; '
and as week after week no reinforcements arrived, and the garrison
army (for so we ought, perhaps, to call it), began to die from
hunger. At length, on the 14th November, the gallant defenders.
of Kars were forced to capitulate and surrender their swords
to General Mouravieff as prisoners of war, Lord Stratford thus

740 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
robbing the dearly bought victory of all its fruits, and the British
arms of everything but the prestige of bravery and valor which
they had gained upon the heights above Kars In the words of a
contemporary, " hunger and an Armenian winter amply seconded
the jealousy and haughty indifference of the British ambassador."
Together with his comrades and colleagues — Colonels Lake,
Teesdale, and Thompson — General Williams was taken as a prisoner
to Moscow, and afterwards to St. Petersburgh, where they were
all treated honorably and respectfully, as was their due. Peace
was concluded early in the following year between England and
Russia ; and it was not without cause suspected that Kars was
voluntarily and deliberately sacrificed by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
in order to compensate Russia for the loss of Sebastopol. The
whole matter was freely canvassed in Parliament at the time ; but
the ministry contrived to throw dust in the eyes of the people.
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was visited with no official censure or
rebuke ; and the nation at large was forced to conclude that whole
armies and their generals are but blind chessmen or draughtsmen
in the hands of their rulers, who play a fearful game of hazard,
for the conduct of which they are responsible to none.
Early in the following month of May (1856) General Williams
and his friends landed once more upon the shores of England. On
the 10th of that month a royal message was sent to both houses of
Parliament recommending the House of Commons to enable her
Majesty to make provision for securing to Sir W. F. Williams a
pension of £1,000 a-year for the term of his natural life, in
acknowledgment of his services, which we have already specified
in detail. In addition to this tangible reward, General Williams
was placed as a major-general on the fixed establishment, and
gazetted to a baronetcy, as Sir William Fenwick Williams of Kars.
In the following July he was appointed commander of Woolwich
garrison, and returned M.P. for the Borough of Calne, positions
which he vacated in 1858, to accept that of commander-in-chief
of the forces in British North America, thus returning to his
native country in one of the highest positions his sovereign could
appoint him to. From October 12, 1860, to January 22, 1861, he
administered the government of Canada during the absence of the
governor general (Sir E. W. Head), and during the short time he
held that high appointment, he performed the arduous duties with
a zeal and activity which many governors would do well to imitate.
The bestowal of a baronetcy on the gallant general may be con
sidered a greater compliment from the fact that, with the exception
of the titles conferred on Admiral Lyons and General Sir John
Burgoyne, it is the only hereditary dignity which was given in
consequence of the Russian war, though between thirty and forty
individuals reaped the less substantial prizes of the order of the
Bath.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 741
In speaking of General Williams, it was remarked by Lord
Granville that most of the conditions of .a first-rate general were
found in him. " A well known ancient historian," said the noble
lord, " lays down that a general must not only be a good engineer,
a good geographer, a good manager of persons, well acquainted
with human nature, and something of a statesman, but must also
exhibit in himself a power of descending with ease into little
things, and to become, if necessary, his own commissary and his
own clerk. These conditions were found in an eminent degree in
Sir W. F. Williams; and indeed there is only one point in which
he has not shown the highest qualities of a general, and that is in
not having as yet had an opportunity afforded him of showing his
powers of manoeuvring a large force upon the field," which we
might add he may perhaps have before he vacates his command
in this country, and prove himself to be " the competent general,"
which we Canadians and the people of England believe him to be,
notwithstanding the late attacks made upon him in a London
journal. General Williams is a thorough English gentleman ; he has proved
himself such in his every action in this country, and, in fact, in his
every action throughout life. We can hardly say more, except
that here in Canada he is universally esteemed, and held by all
classes in the highest respect. This feeling was evinced in a
great measure during the recent visit of the heir apparent, when
in many places the general was as much an object of the people's
enthusiasm as our future king. On his first visit to America, in
1858, he was the recipient of innumerable demonstrations and
dinners by the public bodies in all the cities and towns in British
America. He has also been rewarded by the Sultan of Turkey with the
order of the Medjidie of the first class, and has been presented
with the freedom of the city of London, accompanied by the gift
of a splendid sword. He was also created an honorary D.C.L. of
Oxford, at the annual commemoration in 1856.

J. T. MACKENZIE, Esq., M.D., M.R.C.
A native of Canada, having been born we believe in Toronto,
C.W. He commenced the study of medicine in July, 1852, with
the late Dr. John King, and after attending Toronto college,
where he carried off many valuable prizes, and took the degree of

742 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
M.B., he went to England, and entered at Guy's Hospital, London,
where he passed and received the diploma of the Royal College of
Surgeons of England. Soon after he was placed in medical
charge of a detachment of her Majesty's troops on the voyage to
India. Immediately on the troops being landed in India, he was
placed in medical charge of the Hon. East India Co.'s invalids
bound for England. He received the highest encomiums for both
services, and was allowed to present himself for the commission of
surgeon in the company's service. At the East India House, in
July, 1858, after six days examination of thirty-nine candidates, his
name was placed No. 2 on the first class, No. 1 being one of the
teachers in Guy's Hospital, so that Mr. Mackenzie took precedence
of thirty-seven of the picked men of Edinburgh, Dublin and Lon
don. He got his commission and (an unusual favor) his choioe of
Presidency, and a present of a free overland passage to India,
equal to £105 sterling. Dr. Mackenzie had no patronage, but his
own abilities, and is the first medical student from Canada who
has ever competed for the commission of the H.E.I.C.

Mrs. MOODIE.
Susanna Moodie was born on the 6th of December, 1803. She
is the sixth daughter of the late Thomas Strickland, Esquire, of
Beydon Hall, Suffolk, England. This family is, indeed, a most
talented one; out of six daughters five are more or less celebrated as
writers for the press. Elizabeth, the eldest, has written for and
still conducts, several well known magazines in London, (G.B.)
although her name never appears to the public. Agnes, who is the
best known, principally through her many and masterly historical
works and novels. Jane Margaret, who bears a reputation for her
religious works, although in her earlier days she wrote tales and
poetical pieces to suit the times. She lately published a history of
Rome* ; then comes Mrs. Traill, of whom we speak elsewhere, and
last but not least, Mrs. Moodie, the subject of this notice. Another
member of this family is Colonel Strickland, of Peterborough, C.W.,
who has resided in the province since his boyhood, and obtained his
rank through serving in our militia during the rebellion.
Mrs. Moodie lost her father at the early age of thirteen, by
whom she was educated. Mr. Strickland had been a man of some

"*Rome, Regal and Republican.'

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 743
wealth, and spent most of his leisure time in educating his
numerous daughters, though he was not spared to witness the
fruits of his care ; he met with some great pecuniary losses by the
bankruptcy of a friend for whom he had endorsed very heavily.
The shock of this loss was the immediate cause of his death ; he
being in delicate health at the time.
The family, though still possessed of a large property, were
obliged to live a good deal in seclusion. Susanna commenced to
write very early, we believe, when between fifteen and sixteen.
Her early productions were poems and tales for children. For
many years she wrote for annuals and various periodicals, sometimes
under her own signature, but more frequently under a feigned one.
In 1829-30, she published a book of poems entitled, "En
thusiasm and other poems" . The same year, visiting London, she
met Mr. Moodie, a lieutenaut in the 21st Fusileers, then upon
half-pay, to whom she was married on the 4th of April, 1831.
Mr. Moodie (John Wedderbar Dunbarj, is the fourth son of the
late Major Moodie of Melsetter, in the Island of Hoy, one of
the Orkneys. They left England the following year, immediately
after the publication of Mr. Moodie's book upon South Africa,
where he had been ten years previous to his visit to and marriage
in England. Upon their arrival in Canada they went up to Cobourg,
C.W., where they remained a few months, and then bought a farm in
the township of Hamilton, eight miles from Cobourg. They remained
there about a year, when they were persuaded to go to the back
woods, ten miles north of Peterborough, then a perfect wilderness.
It was, however, supposed that the river Trent would be soon made
navigable for steamers, which would have soon made the then vil
lage of Peterborough a city. This idea has never been carried out.
They remained in the township of Douro more than eight years.
Having spent all available means in purchasing wild lands, &c,
which was represented to them to be the best way of investing
money, and not being fitted by birth or education for such a laborious
life, they were very soon reduced to great poverty. In this they
were not alone, as almost all their neighbors, gentlemen and
ladies by birth, were suffering the same hardships. Mrs. Moodie
describes this better in her " Roughing it in the Bush," than we could
do ; a work she published many years afterwards, in the hope of
deterring people of gentle birth and education from settling so far
from civilized life. Upon the rebellion breaking out in 1837, Mr.
Moodie left for Toronto ; Mrs. Moodie was left with four little
children, the eldest only five years of age and the youngest only a
few months ; they consequently suffered many hardships. An old
Irish servant being their great assistant in keeping the family in
food and wood. They lost many of their crops the following summer
for the want of men to harvest it. In 1839, Mr. Moodie being
stationed at Belleville, as paymaster to that division of the militia,

744 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
under command of Colonel de Rottenburg, he obtained the situation
of sheriff of the county of Hastings, when that county was
separated from the midland district, which office he still retains.
In 1850, Mrs. Moodie published in England, " Roughing it in
the Bush" ; most of which had been published before in the " Lite
rary Garland," (a periodical published in Montreal by Mr. John
Lovell), and had been written at the very time she was undergoing
the scenes she so feelingly describes.
This work, being so very successful in England, induced Mrs.
Moodie to publish " Life in the Clearings," " Flora Lindsay," and
several other books of a fictitious character.
Mrs. Moodie has had seven children ; one died an infant in 18f0,
and another fine boy of five years of age was drowned in the river
Moira, which flows through Belleville ; the latter was a great blow
to both parents, as they were devoted to their children. Of the
remaining five, the two eldest daughters have been for some years
married and settled in Toronto : the three younger sons are all
unmarried, and with them in Belleville

Mrs. CATHERINE P. TRAILL.
This distinguished Canadian authoress, a member of the cele
brated Strickland family, and a sister of Mrs. Moodie, of Belleville,
C. W., was born about the year 1805, and was the first of the six
sisters who began to write, and display the high genius which
has since been exhibited by them, as authoresses. At sixteen
years of age, she wrote a series of juvenile books, which were
bought by Harris, of St. Paul's Churchyard, and appeared without
her name. So remunerative did these books prove, and so engag
ing was the employment, that she wrote for many years for Darton,
and other juvenile publishing houses, with great success. In 1832,
Miss Strickland married Lieutenant Traill, ofthe Scotch Fusileers, a
friend and brother officer of her sister's (Mrs. Moodie) husband. Soon
after, they migrated to Canada, and lived in the neighborhood of
Rice Lake. Here she wrote her " Backieoods of Canada," pub
lished by Charles Knight, of London, in his " Library of Useful
and Entertaining Know/edge," a work which was eminently suc
cessful. It is a charming book and presents a truthful picture of
the subject delineated, as well as of the hardships of an early
settler's life. Encouraged by the success of this, she afterwards

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 745
* *
brought out " The Canadian Crusoes," which was also very popu
lar. Previously to this, Mrs. Traill contributed largely to Cham
bers's Journal, Sharpe's London Magazine, and other periodicals.
In 1854 appeared her " Ramblings in the Canadian Forest," and
a few years later, her " Female Emigrants' Guide," a useful work,
which, from mis-management, was not as successful as her previous
works. It has recently been brought out in a new form, by Stan
ford, of London, and is very popular. She is now preparing a new
work on the "Forest trees and wild flowers of Western Canada,"
which is spoken of very highly by some of her friends, who have seen
the MS. Mrs. Traill is now a widow. She has a large family, and
lives at Lakefield, township of North Douro. We hear that some
of her friends are exerting themselves to secure her a pension for
her great services to Canada. We are confident none more deserves
one than this lady, who, by her works, has done more towards
inducing people of condition and capital to settle in Canada, than
any other writer on this country. She is fully entitled to an
ample recompense, and, indeed, should long since have received
the fruits of her industrious life.

MISS MURRAY
Is a true Canadian literary celebrity, standing at the head of
the list of our female writers.
Wishing to obtain some information respecting her career, we
wrote to a reverend gentleman, who, we had understood, was a
friend of the lady's ; and his reply appears to be so truthful, and to
embody the information sought for in so satisfactory a manner,
that we cannot refrain from producing the original : —
" Miss Murray, to whom you refer in your letter to me, is a
person of real genius, and would make her mark (as the saying is)
in the world, had she ambition enough to make her very carefd of
fame. But she, really, is too great to care for notoriety, or to wish
to be admired by the masses. Her father was a British officer,
and served with distinction in Canada, during the war of 1812.
He is still alive, and resides with his family on Wolfe Island,
opposite Kingston. A work of Miss Murray's has lately been
purchased by a large publishing house in London, England, and
will, I believe, shortly appear. She is a poetess of a high order, if I
am at all capable of judging, a good romance writer, and one of
94

746 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
the most discriminating of critics and essay writers, taking bold,
large, original views on almost every subject of human thought,
and capable of shewing, with vivid distinctness and clearness of
unmixed outlines, the idiosyncrasies of each writer, so that they
may stand out in their individualities in bold relief. Her own
peculiarity, however, is power, and she revels especially therefore
in the concrete. She only needs au introduction to the literary world
to take her place amongst the great heroines of mind, and I hope
to live to see her enrolled in the list of the worthies, who have
ornamented and elevated life; for I do wish to see every soul with
the genuine ring occupying the place which of right is theirs;
the true and the good and the noble and the able in their true
positions, and the unreal and the sham in their place too. If we
are, we are ; and if we are not, it is vain for us to essay the impos
sible. We must fall into our true place in the ranks of the world
sooner or later, for the canker of time will finally eat out whatever
is not gold. I tell you, sir, that she is amongst the genuine gold
productions of great mother nature, and will yet have (if only she
can be made to covet it highly) the stamp of current sterling
stamped upon her by the judgment of mankind, if my opinion be
worth much."

Mrs. LEPROHON.
We feel much satisfaction in being enabled to give a notice of
one of the few native born Canadian ladies who have devoted
themselves to the advancement of our native literature.
Mrs. Leprohon, better known to the public and most of our
Canadian readers by her maiden name of Miss Rosanna Elenor
Mullins, the accomplished and talented authoress, was born at Mon
treal, and received her education in that city.
At the early age of fourteen, she evinced a strong inclination
for writing; and from that time became a steady contributor, both
of prose and verse, to the celebrated IAterary Garland, published
by John Lovell, of Montreal. Under the initials of " R. E. M.",
she became speedily known; and her pieces were invariably admired
and received the encomiums of all. Every one was surprised to see
in one so young, talents of so high an order, capable of producing
compositions of such grace and beauty. Among the many tales
contributed by her to the Garland, none were so well received
or so popular as " Ida Beresford," (since translated and published

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 747
in French), " Florence Fitz Hardinge," and " Eva Huntingdon,"
tales of fiction and pathos of so high a character, that they may,
without exaggeration, be ranked among those of the same class,
by the best English or American contributors to the periodical press.
She afterwards became enrolled on the staff of some ofthe Ameri
can journals and magazines.
In 1860, Mrs. Leprohon became connected with the Family
Herald by the same publisher, and whilst engaged on that paper,
wrote her celebrated tale of the " Manor House of De Villerai,"
wherein she made it her object to describe faithfully the manners
and customs of the peasantry or habitants, as they are called, of
Lower Canada. It was also written to illustrate that period of our
history embracing the cession of Canada to England. In all that
she purposed, the authoress was eminently successful, and so popu
lar was this work, that it was translated into French, and published
in book form. This work has, according to general opinion, been
considered as the very best written on Canada, and adds another
laurel to Mrs. Leprohon's well earned fame. In the same year she
translated into English the words of the cantata of Mr. Sempe,
written to commemorate the visit of the Prince of Wales, sung
before his royal highness, whilst in Montreal, by the Oratorio
Society of that city.
Mrs. Leprohon is also a very superior musical artiste and linguist,
endowed with great general abilities and accomplishments. She
married, in 1851, Dr. Leprohon, a French Canadian gentleman of
Montreal, by whom she has a young and interesting family.

Rev. J. A. ALLEN.
Mr. Allen is a Canadian poet and writer, residing at Kingston,
Canada West. In 1854 he published his celebrated poem, " Day
Dreams," which was received with great approbation. He is the
author of a Greek Lexicon, and undoubtedly a gentleman of
education as his works fully show. He is perhaps, even more a
philosopher than a poet, of a deep enquiring mind and a very Cole
ridge in conversation. He will never write anything as good as his
" talks;" and there is that in him, which might, and without
doubt will enrich our dramatic literature.
" Day Dreams," is a speculative and philosophical poem, and as
such is not to be comprehended in a hasty and careless glance. It

748 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
shows a high and rich intellect, without which imagination is never
worth much ; the true poetic spirit and power of expression are to
be found there. It is not a poem of mere fancy or sentiment ; it
appeals to the highest faculties of our nature, and by them it must
be judged. It is addressed to free speculative minds imbued with
a sense of the wonderful and beautiful in nature; and that sense
pervades every line of the poem. An intense perception of the
unity 'of life and power in all existence, a deep feeling of the
grandeur and might of the boundless infinite, which encompasses
us, and into which the pioneers of science advance farther every
year, and a firm faith in the final triumph of the beautiful, the
good and the true, prevail throughout. Tbe poet also evidently
holds the conviction that we live not under capricious and arbitrary
conditions, but under general and invariable laws which operate on
us, as a part of God's universe. Those who admire rich fancy and
imagery woven round the grandest thoughts which the soul can
conceive, should read the poem and judge for themselves. That
philosophical poems are not as popular as those which are com
posed to excite emotion, is not to be denied ; for one, who reads
" Ulysses," or " The Two voices;" there are a thousand who read
" The Miller's Daughter ;" but to those, who deny to poetry an
intellectual dominion, and believe that it has no affinity with
science, we might only quote the words of one of the greatest
teachers of the age : " Poetry will more and more be understood as
nothing but higher knowledge, and the only genuine romance for
grown persons, reality." The author recognizes a progressive
revelation of that God, who is the " central mind" of the universe
from age to age, has a profound conviction of the work of truth
and rectitude, and a deep faith of the lofty destinies of the human
bouI. And now, when the philosophy of Auguste Comte, which
ignores the spiritual element altogether, is rapidly spreading, a
poem which shows us that " the noblest ministry of nature is to
stand as the apparition of God," ought to be properly appreciated
by all who have faith in the Divine in nature and in the soul of man.
Mr. Allen married the daughter of the Baron de Longueuil, but
we are not aware whether he has any family by this distinguished
lady.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 749

ABBE J. B. A. FERLAND.
M. Ferland's reputation rests upon his literary productions,
although he is at the same time a distinguished ornament of the
Roman Catholic Church in Canada. Although his productions
have not been very numerous, they are held in great estimation, on
account of the circumstances under which they were written,
chiefly amid the performance of his arduous professional services.
The abbe" is a profound scholar, and has labored strenuously in
his favorite studies. He is therefore well acquainted with the
subjects on wbich he treats in his several publications, more espe
cially with everything connected with the history of Canada. He
is descended from the family of Freland, formerly of Poiton, in
Vendue, France, in the 17th century; a member of which
emigrated to this country and settled on the Island of Orleans,
near Quebec. Here the name was changed to its present style ;
and the father of the historian was married to a daughter of- M.
Lebrun De Duplessis, one of the four advocates who remained in
Quebec after the conquest. M. Ferland was born at Montreal on
the 25th of December, 1805.
In 1813, his mother went to reside at Kingston with her son,
and there he pursued his early studies. In 1816, he entered the
college of Nicolet, where he remained until 1823, when he was
admitted to holy orders ; served for one year as under secretary to
Monseigneur Plessis, and afterwards became professor of arts,
rhetoric, and philosophy, at Nicolet. In 1828, he was admitted
to the priesthood ; was vicar, and served at Riviere du Loup, and
St. Roch, Quebec ; and acted as first chaplain of the marine hospital,
during the cholera of 1834. He was appointed curate of St.
Isidore; and, in the first of the same year, was appointed curate of
St. Foy, as also at Ste. Anne de Beaupr6, in 1837.
In 1841, he was appointed superintendent of students at Nicolet,
and became superior of that institution in 1847. A year later, he
was called upon to reside at the archiepiscopal palace, Quebec.
In 1856, he proceeded to France, for the purpose of gathering
materials for an early history of Canada. In this expedition, he
was eminently successful ; and, on his return, published " Observa
tions on an History of Canada by TAbbe" Brasseur ;" and subse
quently, " Notes on the Registers of Notre Dame de Quebec ;" " A
Voyage to Labrador ; " lately the first volume of " Courses of
History of Canada, from 1534 to 1633;" and "A Journal of a
Voyage to the coast of Gaspi" with other narratives. M. Ferland
is a gentleman of much goodness of heart ,and amiability of man
ners, and is much esteemed in Lower Canada.

750 sketches op celebrated Canadians,

E. VAN CORTLANDT, M.D., F.R.C.S.
This gentleman is well known in scientific and other circles as
a mineralogist, geologist, botanist and physician of considerable re
pute in the province, and as one who has done much to advance
the interests of the Ottawa country, in the capital of which he has
resided for many years.
Dr. Van Cortlandt was born in Newfoundland, in the year 1805 ;
he is the son of a retired military officer and a devoted loyalist,
who was connected with some noble English families ; his sister
married Sir E. Buller, and her grandson is the present Lord
Elphinstone. Dr. Van Cortlandt received his education at the
celebrated school of the late Rev. D. Wilkie, LL.D., Quebec, and,
at the early age of fourteen, left to study medicine under the late
Dr. Hacket, with whom he remained until he proceeded to England,
in 1825. In 1827, he passed his examination at the Royal Col
lege of Surgeons in London, having received, on the occasion,
some very flattering encomiums from the celebrated Abernethy and
Sir A. Carlisle, for the creditable manner in which he passed
through the vigorous ordeal. In 1829, Dr. Yan Cortlandt was chosen
librarian to the Royal Medical and Chirurgic Society of London,
having ten or twelve English competitors, in preference to all of whom
he was chosen, probably in a great measure on account of the remark
ably flattering notice of his examination at the Apothecaries Hall ;
here he had been desired to retire, after being examined only thir
teen minutes, with these emphatic words : " You may go, sir, for
if you continue any longer here you will puzzle us." Three years
afterwards he came to Canada, and settled at Ottawa city (then
Bytown), according to the advice of Dr. Skey, a community in
which he stil Hives, and which greatly benefits by his presence. He
has been appointed physician and afterwards consulting physician
to the Ottawa General Hospital, and consulting physician to the
Protestant Hospital, coroner to the city, physician to the jail, and
president of the Horticultural Society and Mechanics' Institute.
Every one must admit that he has been one of the most active
and ardent prorr.oters of the prosperity of Ottawa ; and that district
is not a Httle indebted to him for the numerous measures which
he has originated and carried out in the furtherance of its
interests. He is the chief promoter of exhibitions of Ottawa pro
ductions ; he was the first to point out the looality of the stone
with which the parliamentary buildings are being erected, to
this he drew the attention of the Earl of Elgin, a circumstance
which tended perhaps more than anything else to give to Ottawa
favorable publicity. He has, at great expense, had constructed the

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA 751
best private archaeological and geological museum in Canada, an
object of great attraction to all who visit Ottawa; and he even, we
believe, intends to reconstruct the edifice on a still grander scale.
Dr. Van Cortlandt is the author of a pamphlet on Ottawa produc
tions which has received great attention, and been very favorably
noticed ; and also of another pamphlet, published by order of the
City Council of Ottawa, on the building stones of the Ottawa,
a publication which has done much towards drawing public atten
tion towards the resources of that rich and beautiful country.

F. C. CAPREOL, Esq.
The name of this gentleman, connected, as it is with the organi
zation and carrying out of the first railroad constructed in Upper
Canada, certainly deserves a place iu our pages.
Mr. Capreol is the second son of Thomas Capreol, Esquire, of
Bishop Stofford, Hertfordshire, England. His pedigree, on the
father's side, is derived from the ancient and ennobled foreign fami
ly of the de Capreols ; and on his mother's side equally illustrious,
for she was niece to the late Sir Richard Chase, and a relative of
the Marquis of Salisbury. Mr. Capreol first came to Canada in 1828,
to assist in arranging the affairs of the old north-west fur company,
and having fulfilled his part of the business, returned to Eng
land in 1830. Three years afterwards, he again came to Canada,
and shortly after his arrival at New York, married a Miss Skyring,
a lady who had been -a fellow passenger with him across the Atlantic.
He proceeded to Toronto, and determined to settle there, having
purchased a large quantity of lands on the Credit. The result of
this purchase was a long and tedious law-suit, in which he was,
however, successful. For some time he followed mercantile pur
suits, but these he gave up on his becoming connected with the North
ern Railway. It is a well known fact that to Mr. Capreol the North
ern Railway owes its existence, it was he who projected it, aud
promoted the design, almost nearly unaided, and at his own ex
pense forwarded the preliminary arrrangements. No one can fully
estimate the benefit which this gentleman conferred on Toronto,
and the country north of it. Not only was the city in daily require
ment of this line, but it was an absolute necessity to its well-being
and that of the vicinity. When all other men and means had
failed to obtain a charter, Mr. Capreol stepped forward and success
fully overcome all difficulties, got an act passed in the legislature

752 sketches op celebrated Canadians,
and when the same act was reserved for the royal assent at home,
he proceeded to England, and in the short space of seven weeks,
returned to Canada, having successfully accomplished the object of
his voyage to England. The recompense which he received is too
fresh in the minds of the public to be recapitulated here ; let it
suffice to remark that, after he had been appointed to the office of
manager of the railway, and been recognized by the directors as
the originator ofthe scheme and the "father ofthe undertaking,"
these directors, to their shame and dishonor be it said, dismissed
him from his office the day previous to the first sod having been
turned, after he had served their purpose and benefitted them to
the utmost extent. Such was their gratitude, and like that
awarded to the late lamented Earl of Dundonald, it was as infamous
as it had been unmerited. Great exertions were made to reinstate
him ; the citizens of Toronto petitioned the directors, as also did
the board of trade of that city, but all to no purpose. Mr. Capreol
had incurred the malice of one of these directors, and to this low
and petty annoyance alone could his dismissal be ascribed. But
possessing the confidence and good will ofthe people, Mr. Capreol
little cared for the attempts made on his good name. Beyond
receiving the bonds of the company for eleven thousand pounds,
awarded for the expenses he had incurred in getting the concern
afloat, and which had actually amounted to more than was awarded
by one thousand three hundred and fifty pounds, he never obtained
a dollar from the company. He subsequently proceeded to Europe
and travelled on the continent, and whilst in London, had the gra
tification of accepting a present of a handsome service of plate, con
sisting of seventeen pieces, presented to him on behalf of the citi
zens of Toronto, as a mark of their confidence, esteem and gratitude
for the services which he had rendered to their city. He returned
a short time since, and is now residing in Toronto.
Mr. Capreol's name is also associated with a noble piece of gal
lantry, which reflects not a little credit on his public spirit. The
circumstances may with propriety be given on this occasion : — In
the month of July, 1843, a gentleman of the name of Kinnear,
residing at Richmond Hill, near Toronto, a much esteemed citizen,
together with his housekeeper, was brutally and barbarously mur
dered during the night, by two of the servants, who, after the
horrid deed, escaped to the United States. The city authorities
did not take any decided action in the matter, and Mr. Capreol,
hearing of the whereabouts of the murderers, chartered, at a con
siderable sacrifice of time and money, a steamboat, and accompanied
by the high bailiff, proceeded to Lewiston, where he succeeded in
capturing the fugitives, and brought them to Toronto. They were
tried, found guilty, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
Yet, strange to say, Mr. Capreol was suffered to pay the whole
expenses.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 753
During last session, he was before the legislature again, and suc
ceeded in getting a bill passed to enable him to sell his lands by
lottery, and to erect a large cotton manufactory in the midst of the
lots. The bill was reserved for the Queen's assent, which was re
ceived a short time since. Let us hope he will, on this occasion,
be more successful in a pecuniary point of view.

ALEXANDER MURRAY, Esq.
Mr. Murray, the able assistant of Sir W. E. Logan in the
Canadian geological survey, is the second son of the late Anthony
Murray, Esquire, of Dollerie and Creiff, in the county of Perth,
Scotland. He was born on the 2nd of June, 1811. The family
estate, of which his elder brother is the present possessor, though
not large, and never entailed, has descended uninterruptedly from
father to son, since the commencement of the sixteenth century.
On his father's side his family came direct from the old house of
Tallibardine ; on his mother's, from the old princes of Orkney, and
the St. Clairs of Roslyn, on the one hand; while on the other, they
inherit the blood of the Grahams of Fintry (his mother's mother
being a Graham of Fintry) ; one cadet of which family was the
great and gallant John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.
Mr. Murray's career has been strange and eventful. His early
youth was spent in the royal navy; and he was educated for that
service at the Royal Naval college, Portsmouth. From the early
part of 1825, to the year 1829, he served chiefly in the Mediter
ranean, and was present at the action of Navarino (20th October,
1827) as an unpassed midshipman, on board her Majesty's sloop,
Philomel, commanded by Lord Ingestre, now the Earl of Shrews
bury and Talbot. In 1829, while in England, he passed his
examination for navigation, at the college ; and, at Malta, in 1830,
he passed for seamanship, qualifying for promotion, which he
never got. After this time, he served partly in the West Indies,
and partly on the home station, and finally, again in the Mediter
ranean, until 1835, when still perceiving no hopes of promotion, he
left the service altogether, and went to England. Two years after
while at home, in Scotland, he married Fanny Cooper Judkins,
sister of a well known commander on one of the Cunard royal
mail steamships; and, shortly afterwards, emigrated to Canada,
where he had previously bought land, intending permanently to
95

754 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
m
settle in the country. This he probably might have done, had not
a series of family misfortunes compelled him to return to England
in 1841. He had scarcely been established in Canada, before the re
bellion broke out, during the continuance of which he served as a
volunteer in various capacities ; at one time attaching himself to
the naval brigade, at Chippawa, under Commander (now Captain)
Drew, R.N.
While in London, in 1842, Mr. Murray became acquainted with
Mr. (now Sir W. E.) Logan, who kindly gave him an introduction
to Sir Henry de la Beche, at that time director of the British
geological survey, the result of which introduction has shaped his
career through life ever since. During the summer and autumn of
that year, he worked as an amateur with one or two of the
geological parties under that gentleman's direction, and wag pretty
constantly engaged with the staff, at the museum of practical
geology. In the winter of 1842-3, when the survey of this
province was finally determined on- by the Canadian govern
ment, and Sir William Logan was appointed director of it, that
gentleman was pleased to apply for Mr. Murray's appointment as his
assistant, on the grounds of certain recommendations given to him
by Sir H. de la Beche; and this application being granted, Mr.
Murray was duly appointed, and has served in that capacity ever
since, with credit and ability.
In connection with the geological examination of the country, it '
was found necessary in many parts to make extensive topographical
surveys, and to this subject a great portion of Mr. Murray's time
and attention has been directed in the wild regions of the Gaspe"
peninsula, in the first instance; and afterwards, in the unexplored
parts between lake Huron and the Ottawa river, including lake
Nipissing, and the country around it. Latterly he has been trying
to work out the stratigraphical arrangement of a newly discovered
system of rocks, now known as the Huronian series ; and, we beUeve,
he was the first to demonstrate their unconformable relations with
the formations of the lower Silurian age.
It is said that Mr. Murray's career would present an ample field
to a novelist, owing to the many adventures in which he has figured,
and his many escapes from drowning. Twice when he was in the
navy, while endeavoring to rescue two persons who had fallen over
board, one of whom he did save. Afterwards he escaped as nearly
as possible, being carried over Niagara Falls; he was also on
board the Clyde steamship when wrecked in the gulf; and lastly,
he had an escape off the island of Campment d'Ours, lake Huron,
so lately as August, 1861.*
*There is something romantio touching his last escape. Mr. Murray, with three
others, was out in an open boat, whioh was upset in a heavy squall ; and, being
a good distance from shore, and unable to plaoe the boat again on her bottom,
all On board "would, no doubt, have been oarried away by the ourrent and lost,

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. ?5&

Mr. ALEXANDER McLACHLAN.
Alexander McLachlan is another of our few Canadian poetsnf
any note or repute. He is the son of a Scotch mechanic, and was born
in the village of Johnston, Renfrewshire, in the year 1820. Though
he enjoyed but few of the advantages of education, then common to
Scotland, he was, from his boyhood, a voracious reader, and those
who have listened to the lectures delivered by him in different
parts of Canada, and elsewhere, are convinced of his profound and
accurate acquaintance with the principal British authors. In his
youth, he was a tailor and a chartist leader ; but, like many others,
after visiting the neighboring republic, he became completely cured
of his youthful folly. He first came to Canada in 1840, and spent
the greater portion of his time, since his arrival in Canada, in the
" bush," or backwoods, until the muse brought him before the
publie as a successful author and writer of poetry, and as a lecturer.
He has published three volumes of poetry, and delivered lectures
on poetry and kindred subjects in most of the principal towns of
Canada, and in the state of New York. From a sketch of him
contained in a Guelph paper, published sometime ago, we make an
extract, highly eulogistic of his merits and talents : —
" Mr. McLachlan's powers "have been comparatively slow in
developing themselves. His is indeed still a young mind. *We
confess that we like minds of this rather than those of a meteoric
character; for, not unfrequently, the sudden splendor of the latter,
like that of the meteor, is transient, and too often passes away
without leaving any lasting impress. When nature designs to
accomplish anything great and permanent, she generally works
silently and gradually ; there is nothing startling and spasmodic in
her efforts. How quietly she drops the little acorn into the lap of
mother earth, and how slowly she rears the giant oak, which stands
proudly rooted for centuries. Considerations of this nature
leads us to believe, that, as yet, we have had but a partial mani
festation of our poet's powers. Fine and rare as are many of his
thoughts, we predict that they are only first fruits of a richer
harvest. Still, we are fearless in asserting, that there are contained
in the present volume* some pieces of a character to place its author
in no mean rank among the acknowledged poets of the nineteenth
had their position not been perceived by a young girl on shore, Margaret Walker,
the daughter of the only settler there, who, like another Grace Darling, reso
lutely and bravely entered a boat, pulled to their rescue, and saved their Uvea.
This heroic girl surely deserves a medal from the Humane Society.
*" Tht Emigrant and other Poems," — Toronto : Rollo & Adam, 1861.

75b sketches op celebrated Canadians,
century ; appreciation may come slowly, but sooner or later, come
it must and will ; for where genius has implanted his seal, we have
proof that the gods have issued a message that needs must find
access to the heart. And when we prophesy, that there are among
these poems some which will attain an immortality that but few of
the author's warmest friends and most ardent admirers little dream,
we undoubtedly rely upon the future for a verification of our
prediction." As to his ability as a lecturer, the following notice from the pen
ef Professor George, of Queen's college, Kingston, speaks for
itself: —
" Those who had the opportunity of listening to the lecture of
Mr. McLachlan, on Wednesday evening, in the city hall, will not
soon forget the high intellectual enjoyment they experienced.
The subject chosen (i. e. "great men,") by the lecturer, is indeed
a high one, and if handled by an ordinary man, would not only
prove a failure, but could hardly be other than a miserable carica
ture. But Mr. McLachlan is not an ordinary man — hence his
audience saw no arrogancy in the choice of his high subject, just
because there was no failure in the execution. It was, indeed, treated
throughout with the wisdom, knowledge, and taste of a master mind.
No outline of the lecture could do any justice to it, as it plainly
belongs to that class of intellectual performances, which must be
looked at as a whole, if the mind would realise the force of the
reasoning, and appreciate fully the beauties of the most appropriate
illustrations. The strain of the lecturer's thinking is marked as
might be inferred from his high poetic genius by much originaUty.
Some of the thoughts are exceeding grand, while the general strain
was admirable, just; and the practical reflections simple, pointed,
and wholesome. The style and manner of the lecturer have a
natural majesty, beautifully in keeping with the character of his
theme. It is hardly too much praise to say, that had the great
men of whom he spoke been present, they would have listened with
no little satisfaction to the profound principles so clearly stated,
and so ably illustrated."
Mr. McLachlan's chief aim in becoming an author and lecturer, is
to be an exponent of the minds of the working men of Canada ; in
fact, to be to Canada, if possible, what Burns was to Scotland. His
desire is to ameliorate the condition of the working classes. He
has shewn the mental workings of the working man, for the purpose
of getting all the rich, who obtain their living by means of head
work instead of hand work, or without work of any kind, to see
that the real distinction between the two classes consists less in
intrinsic worth, than in fortuitous antecedents. He has endeavored
to expose the sympathies, antipathies, and some of the powers of
mind of the working men, so that the rich may be induced to treat
their less fortunate fellow-creatures more honorably and charitably ;

and persons connected with Canada. 757
in short, that they may see that the working man is a man, not
differing but in fortune from themselves. His ambition is to
stand shoulder to shoulder with Burns and Miller, as a pioneer in
establishing the literature of the working classes.

Mr. J. McCARROLL.
James McCarroll, the talented subject of this notice, was
born of a respectable family in the town of Lanesbora, in the
county of Longford, Ireland, on the 3rd August, 1815. His father's
side of the house was, in some way or other, connected with the
Cardens of Templemore, who evinced much interest in McCarroll's
family ; for, on his father running away to enlist, Sir John Carden
followed him with a view to providing for him more suitably, but,
ere he had effected his generous purpose, the hand of the spoiler
was on the brave old knight, he died.
Young McCarroll went early to school, studied earnestly and
with success. He obtained a knowledge of the classics ; and
then his schoolboy life was over. His family came to Canada in
1831 ; and in the wild forests of Upper Canada took up their
abode. Here he encountered all the vicissitudes of a settler of
that period. His taste for letters, however, soon prompted him to
seek a more genial atmosphere. He began to contribute scraps
both of prose and verse to some ofthe provincial journals; and
the manner, in which they were received, was so gratifying, that
it may be said to have determined his after literary career.
In 1845, his whole energies were devoted to the press ; and he
has continued ever since to be connected with it, advancing steadily
more and more in public favor, daily becoming more popular. He
has been the unsuccessful proprietor of two journals, the editor of
several, the literary critic of more than one daily, and the contri
butor 'to many. All that he ever wrote, has been received in a
manner which must have been most gratifying to his feelings.
His story, " The New Guager," published in the Anglo-American
Magazine of Toronto, " The Adventures of a Night," and " The
New Life Boat," are too well known and have been two highly
eulogized for us to endeavor to say more about them. Mr. Mc
Carroll is best known as a poet. " Madeline" is spoken of highly,
and when we add that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on
his late visit paid our poet a very high compliment on the composi-

758 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
tion of his ode to the Prince, we think we have said sufficient id
justify the opinion that he ranks high among our sons of song.
In connection with this subject, we may observe, that it is gener
ally understood that we are shortly to have a volume of poems from
his gifted pen ; and we sincerely trust that the publication may
prove as successful, as those that have preceded from the same
source. In connection with music, Mr. McCarroll figures as one of the
very best flutists on the continent. This will be more readily
understood, when we state that he can simultaneously bring out
two distinct notes with one fingering, forming a perfect major
third. In addition to this feat he can play the most ornate melodies
with one hand. His second eldest daughter, Miss McCarroll, is
also well known as a splendid pianist.
Mr. McCarroll resides at Toronto, and occupies the post of out
door surveyor to the port of Toronto. He is very popular with
the people of the city, and has lived with them in constant and
close intercourse for many years.

THOMAS DEVINE, Esq., F.R.G.S.
This gentleman is the head of the Upper Canada surveyors'
branch of the erown lands department, and may be considered
at the summit of his profession. His sterling worth, his excellent
abilities, and his services in developing the resources of Canada,
are highly appreciated.
Mr. Devine is a native of the county of Westmeath, Ireland ;
he received his education at Fox's celebrated Engineers' Academy,
where he early acquired a profound knowledge of the profession
in which he at present shines. He subsequently studied under
the corps of the Royal Engineers, and passed very creditable ex
aminations, both while he was at the academy and among the
engineers. His first employment was in the ordnance sufvey of
Ireland, in which he continued until its completion. After this
he migrated to Canada, to a larger and more important field for
his labors ; — and, in i846, was appointed to the crown lands
department, in which he has continued ever since, rising by his
talents and industry from a subordinate occupation, to the important
post which he now holds as head of the Upper Canada surveyors, in
which he succeeded Mr. Andrew Russell, now assistant-commis
sioner of crown lands.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 759
As a topographer, Canada is much indebted to Mr. Devine for
the very many beautiful, elaborate and useful maps, which from
time to time he has brought out from the department, immediately
under his supervision. We may mention more especially those
that were issued during the time Mr. Cauchon and Mr. Van
koughnet were commissioners of crown lands. These plans were
eulogized not only in the province, but in the United States and
Europe. Mr. Devine has done much to improve the branch under his
control ; the field-book, of which he is the author, and which is
exclusively used in the Canadian and other surveys, is one of the
best exLant ; and it has been highly commended by many influential
persons capable of judging.
As a recognition of his talents and services in the cause of the
geography of Carada, he was recently elected to the high and
distinguished honor of a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
of London. He has also been elected a corresponding member of
the Geographical Society of Berlin, and of the American Geo
graphical and Statistical Society, honors which few Canadians have
been fortunate to attain. These are in the present case well
merited, and have been most judiciously bestowed.

F. M. U. M. BIBAUD, Esq., LL. D.
The name of this French Canadian gentleman, associated with
the native literature of the province, deserves as high a place in
this work, as that of the generality of his confreres.
Mr. Bibaud is a son of the celebrated Canadian writer of that
name, and was born in Montreal, in November, 1824. He studied
law and successfully passed the bar, and is now law professor in
the Jesuit's college, Montreal. He is the author of different
works relating to Canada, all of more or less merit, and among
them may be enumerated " Discours historique sur les races sau
vages de I'Amdrique Septentrionale, serie d' articles dans les Melan
ges Religieux," 1846; " Les Sagamos lllustres de I'Amirique Septen
trionale, pricide d'un Index de l'histoire fabuleuse de ce continent,"
1848; " Analyse critique du projet, sirie d' articles dans la Minerve,"
1850 ; " Lecture de M. Parent sur le Progres et Revue critique de
cet icrii' 1852 ; " ParalMe entre Napolion et Wellington, d I'occa--
sion de la mort de ce dernier, sirie d'articles dans le Moniteur

760 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
Canadien," 1852; "Analyse critique du manuel, sirie d' articles
dans le Moniteur Canadien, avec la reponse de V auteur et la repli-
que du critique," 1852 ; " Les lois de l' administration francaises
preventives des incendies, lecture par Bibaud, jeune, d Vinstitut
National, en presence des membres de la municipaliti de Montrial,
a, I'occasion du dernier incendie, imprimS dans la Minerve," 1852 ;
" Catichisme de l'histoire du Canada a Vusage des Scoles," 1853 ;
" Essai de Logique judiciare, ouvrage que doit servir d' appreciation,
et sur quelques points, d' ' antirrhitique de la logique judiciaire, publiie
a Paris en 1841 par M. Hortentius de St. Albin,juge au tribunal
de la Seine, membre de la chambre des deputis, Chevalier de la
Ugion d' Honneur, et de I'Etoile Polaire," 1853 ; " Pricis de l'his
toire de I' Europe durant la revolution francaise," 2 vols., 8vo.,
1857 ; " Dictionnaire historique des hommes illustres du Canada et
de I'Amirique, 1857; " Tableau Historique des Progres Mat6riels
et Intellectuels du Canada, 1858 ; " Pantheon Canadien," Montreal,
1858. He has also contributed some ablearticles to several pericdical
publications, and will doubtless, with a proper cultivation of his
talents, rise to some eminence as a Canadian author. His industry
has been so great, that he. heartily deserves it.

M. EMILE DE FENOUILLET.
This gentleman, who died at Quebec, on the 30th June, 1859
was one of the most distinguished French writers in this country.
M. de Fenouillet was born in France at Hyeres, in the department
of Var ; he went through a course of legal studies at Aix ; after a
short sojourn at Montpellier he removed to Paris, and while in that
city was connected with the Epoque ; he subsequently accepted a
professorship at the university of Bonn, and while there wrote a
series of letters on Germany, published in L' Univers. In 1854,
he left his native France for America, and arrived in Quebec
towards the end of October. The two years following his arrival
in this country were passed in fulfilling the arduous duties of
editor-in-chief to the Journal de Quibec. Shortly afterwards he
was appointed professor of history and literature to the Laval nor
mal school. The rapid progress of his pupils were the proofs of
his zeal, of his talent and of his energy ; even when enfeebled by .
disease, he resolutely continued his lectures, though requested by
the principal and the superintendent to recruit his wearied frame,

And persons connected with oanada. 761
and though an assistant had been named by the government to re
lieve him from his arduous task. His articles in the Journal de
V Instruction Publique, are well known and fully appreciated ; he
was one of the cleverest of its contributors.

M. A. G. LAJOLE.
A. Gerin Lajoie was born at Yamachiche, in the district of
Three Rivers, in August, 1824, and was educated at Nicolet. After
completing a regular classical course of studies, he went to Montreal
to study law, and was, in 1848, admitted to the bar. During his
clerkship he took a prominent part in the establishment of the In-
stitut Canadien, a literary institution first established in Montreal,
in 1811, and which has since spread throughout Lower Canada.
He was several times elected president of this association, and was
for some years editor of La, Minerve, the oldest French newspaper
published in Montreal, and wrote also, we believe, for some other
periodicals. In 1852, M. Lajoie became connected with the
French translator's office of the Legislative Assembly, which
office he left in 1857, to be transferred to the parliamentary li
brary, where he is chiefly entrusted with the management of the
French part of that magnificent collection.
When at college, M. Lajoie wrote a tragedy in three acts, in verse,
entitled " Le Jeune La Tour, " which has been reprinted several
times ; he has also composed and published several pieces of poetry
and some songs, and pamphlets, one of which entitled " Catichisme
politique," is a synopsis of our present provincial system of govern
ment, and has been considered very useful to students and to the
public generally.

M. REAL ANGERS.
M. Real Angers was one of the most eloquent advocates of
Lower Canada. He died in April, 1860, in his forty-seventh year.
He had been admitted to the bar at an early age, and by his brilliant
96

762 sketches of celebrated Canadians,
imagination and energetic mind soon attracted notice. His taste
for literature was strong, but he had to yield to that necessity
which had directed his course towards the sterner and somewhat
thorny practice of the law. He left testimonials of his literary
talent in the form of pleasing poetical essays, and of two short
¦works in prose. His " RGvelations du Crime" might have laid
him open to the reproach of having attempted an imitation of the
" Mysteries of Paris," were it not well known that it was written
long before that by Eugene Sue, and that the fearful descriptions it
gives, unfortunately are realities. His other production is a treatise
on stenography, written at the time he was engaged reporting
parliamentary debates. To him, and to Mr. Aubin, are due
perhaps the only able reports extant of the speeches delivered in
the Lower Canada House of Assembly, during its three or four last
sessions. Mr. Angers was, together with Mr. Lsranger, entrusted
by the government with the defence of the censitaires before the
Seigniorial Court. In the fulfilment of this duty he showed much
learning, and sound and eloquent argumentation. As one of the
editors of the periodical in which are published the Lower Canada
law reports, he likewise contributed highly to the fund of our
jurisprudence. His health, through over-exertion, had become
impaired, and great efforts were necessary to enable him, for some
years, to attend to the duties of his profession. His death caused
universal regret, although, under the circumstances, the sad event
could not but have been anticipated.

M. THEOPHILE HAMEL.
M. Theophile Hamel is well known as a Canadian artist ot
great eminence. Indeed, with the exception of Falardeau, Kane,
Plamondon, or Thieckle', we can hardly boast of having produced
any artists who have distinguished themselves as painters.
M. Hamel is a native of Quebec, "that ancient and time
honored city," which enjoys the reputation of having given birth
to the majority of our " celebrities." But he has studied in the
Italian schools, and although still young (about 35), he has pro
duced one of the largest and best series of portraits in oil painting
on this continent. We allude to our " National portrait gallery,"
composed of all the speakers of both houses of parliament before
and since the union, and also a large number of our governors.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 763
These have been greatly and most justly admired, not only
for their excellent finish, but for their striking likeness to the
individuals pourtrayed.
M. Hamel has been most industrious and laborious throughout
his career, and singularly fortunate in his pictures, so much so
indeed, that the series of portraits, without including many other
works of art which he has executed in a masterly manner, will
hand down his name to posterity in Canada with the highest com
mendation.

JOSEPH MORRIN, Esq., M.D.
Dr. Morrin was a native of Dumfriesshire in Scotland, but was
brought by his parents to Canada at an early age. He received
his school education under the late eminent Dr. Wilkie. His
medical education, begun in Quebec, was completed in Edinburgh
and London. When scarcely of age, he commenced to practise in
Quebec, and gradually rose to the highest eminence in his profession,
in some departments of which, he was probably unequalled by any
of his confreres in the province, and in all, gave proof of a sagacious
understanding. He was indefatigable in his attention to the duties
of his profession. Peculiarly kind and soothing at the sick bed of
his patients, he never failed to gain their confidence in his assiduity
and skill. As a tribute to his professional eminence, he was elected
the first president of the medical board of the lower province. He
shared with Drs. Douglas and Fremont the honor of establishing
the asylum at Beauport, and conducting it on principles univer
sally admitted to be beneficial to the patients, and economical to
the public. Latterly, his long experience had rendered his opinion
especially valuable, and he was called in, in every case of difficulty
and importance. His retirement from practice, some years ago,
was felt like that of his distinguished confrere and friend, Dr.
James Douglas, to be a public loss.
With all this constant and unwearied attention to the duties of
his profession, Dr. Morrin was an active and efficient member of
general society. He took an interest in all public matters. He
was to be seen in every important meeting of the citizens, secular
or religious. He was a magistrate and a city councillor, and, more
than is usual, earnest and assiduous in the discharge of the duties
of either office. He twice presided over the city of Quebec, as ,
mayor, to the universal satisfaction of his constituents; and he was

764 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
employed by the corporation to plead with the Imperial Government
in London, the claims of Quebec to be the capital of the province.
A short time previous to his death (which occurred on the 29th
of August, 1861,) he made a munificent donation for the erection
of a Protestant college in Quebec, under the charge of the religious
body to which he had always belonged, and we can only express
our desire and hope, that Morrin college may prove a worthy
monument to his memory, and be, as he intended it, of general use
to successive generations of the citizens of Quebec.

J. S. HOGAN, Esq., M.P.P.
John Sheridan Hogan was born about the year 1815, in
the neighborhood of Dublin, where his father held a small landed
estate, the refuge of a family ruined by that spirit of useless
extravagance and inordinate hospitality so unhappily general
among the sons of Erin. At a very early age, probably about
eleven or twelve, young Hogan proceeded to Canada, under the
guardianship of an uncle, who resided at Toronto. The home thus
provided for him, being uncongenial to his taste, he made up his
mind to work out, single handed, his way through the world ; and
accordingly, in the grey dawn of the morning, when others slept,
he, moneyless and friendless, sallied forth with nothing but a small
bundle which contained all his worldly possessions, to carve out a
career for himself, armed only with that energy which rejoices at
obstacles, and with that perseverence which succumbs not to disap
pointment. Ere long, he obtained employment in a printing office,
we believe the Canadian Wesleyan, of Hamilton, as a newsboy,
and subsequently, on account of his good behavior and exemplary
conduct, became foreman, and was subsequently placed on the staff
of writers. This was a rapid rise for one whose prospects, a few
years before, had been so dim and so uncertain, yet he steadily
continued to advance, until he entered the office of Sir A. N. Mac
Nab, for the study of the law. He was also generously allowed a
salary by that gentleman to support himself until he should have
finally passed the bar, which, unfortunately, he never did. When
Mr. Allan Macdonell became sheriff of the Gore district, he em
ployed Mr. Hogan as his clerk and bookkeeper; and in 1840 or '41,
he again gave himself to the study of the law, in the office of Mr.
Tiffany, of Hamilton. It was also at this time that he made his

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 765
first essay as a writer ; his attention having been called to the
aspect of political affairs in Canada, he contributed some able
articles'on the subject to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, which
attracted considerable attention at the time, and, indeed, established
Mr. Hogan's reputation as one of the literati of Canada. Shortly
afterwards happened that eventful episode in his career, his arrest
at Lockport, in the United States, for being concerned in the burn
ing ofthe steamer Caroline; but he was subsequently discharged
and his claim for indemnity ignored by the Imperial Government.
In 1856, he was awarded the first prize by the Paris Exhibition
Committee, for his justly celebrated "Essay on Canada," which
was printed by order of the government, a work which may
probably bring down his name to posterity. He at the same
time formed a business connection with the proprietors of the
Toronto Colonist, and became the editor-in. chief of that journal, a
post which he filled to much advantage, his articles being generally
admired by the public. As to the manner in which his connec
tion with that journal ceased, on its turning its political principles,
there is little occasion for comment on our part.
At the general election of 1857, he was elected to represent the
county of Grey in Parliament ; and at once took a determined stand
in the house as a member of the reform party, and continued as
such until the unfortunate period of his death, in December 1859,
when his presence was missed by his friends and acquaintances in
Toronto from amongst them. For eighteen months his disappear
ance remained shrouded in a most profound mystery, everything
that could possibly be done to ascertain his whereabouts or his fate
was tried, both by the government and his friends, but without suc
cess, until the month of March or April 1861, when information
was received of a murder — afoul, a wicked murder of which he had
been made the victim, performed at night when Mr. Hogan was
proceeding on his way to visit a friend in the eastern environs of
Toronto. His body was found in the river Don, (which runs into
the bay of Toronto), and was recognized — the murderers were
arrested and tried, but proving an alibi, were acquitted. Thus
went unrequited the perpetrators of a deed which carried off one of
the noblest minds which the country possessed, and who, if he
had not been thus prematurely cut off, might have attained some
distinction in his adopted country.
His friends and colleagues in the house subscribed a handsome
sum in 1861, to erect a fitting monument over his remains.

766 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,

Mr. EBENEZER CLEMO.
A native of London, England, who came to Canada in 1858.
He was, although young, a person of great genius and ability. On
his arrival in this country, he was reduced to such necessity that he
applied to Mr. Lovell for employment as a message boy ; but Mr.
Lovell, knowing'his acquirements, engaged him to write a couple
of books on Canadian life. Hence " Simon Seek?' and " The
Canadian Homes" which appeared in the same year, works not of
the highest standard of literature certainly, but evincing much
talent and giving a good insight into Canadian character and life.
He was the inventor and discoverer of making paper pulp out
of straw; and was engaged erecting machinery for the manu
facture of such paper, at Morristown, New Jersey, where he
died in 1860, at the early age of thirty years, deservedly re
gretted by all.

WILLIAM EVANS, Esq.
A celebrated Lower Canadian agriculturaUst, who died in
1857. Speaking of him at the period of his demise, the Montreal
Gazette said : — " It has been our fortune to meet few worthier or
more patriotic men than he, few more diligent in the promotion to
the uttermost of his ability, of the prosperity of this his adopted
country. Enthusiastically devoted to agricultural pursuits, it has
been his endeavor for many years past to raise the standard of
agriculture in Lower Canada from the position to which it had
sunk, to teach and to' lead the way in a system by which the worn-
out farms of the long settled districts might recover their fertility,
and farming in the eastern province be made to rival in profitable
ness that of the west. Nor have his efforts been altogether in
vain, we hope. He has spent over two score years, we believe,
as an agriculturist in Canada. Long ago, he furnished agricultural
contributions to the columns of this journal. Afterwards he
became secretary of the Lower Canada Agricultural Society, and
editor of the Agricultural Journal, published under the auspices of
that society. Lately, having retired from the direction of that

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 767
journal, he renewed his connection as a contributor with this paper,
a connection only now dissolved by death. Elsewhere will be
found his last communication, addressed to us a few days since,
and crowded out of our columns until now, when the brain that
conceived and the fingers which wrote it have alike ceased to have
life or_ motion. How touching are its concluding sentences now,
in which, promising to resume the review of Mr. Nesbitt's lecture,
he says : — ' I cannot now expect that I shall be spared many years
to continue these labors, but while it may be the will of God to
spare me, I shall persevere in the good cause of endeavoring to
promote the improvement of agriculture in Canada.' Alas ! even
as he wrote, his vow was fulfilled; the span of life allotted him by
his Maker was even then coming to an end.
*******
" We are aware that during the early part of the autumn he
suffered from an attack of paralysis, which he spoke of to us as a
warning that he ' had not long to stay.' He was fitted and
prepared, we believe, for the long, long journey he has taken.
FuU of years, enjoying the esteem of all who knew him, and sur
rounded by a large circle of tried friends, he has passed peacefully
away : a man whom many loved while living, many will regret in
his death : one who strove faithfully to do his duty in that state
of life to which it has pleased God to call him."

BARON DE ROTTERMUND.
An European geologist, who resided in Canada for some years
previous to his death, which took place at Montrieux, Lake of
Geneva, in 1858. He was born in 1813, and for some years was
employed by the crown lands department as inspector of mines.
There may be in the remembrance of our readers the attacks he
made in 1850, against ou» celebrated and learned geologist, Hunt; he
also contested the theory of Sir William Logan, who contends that
there are not coal mines in Lower Canada. The baron held that coal
existed both at Quebec and in the district of GaspC, having discovered
particles of it at the former place. During a visit to Paris, he
submitted these to several learned geologists of France, who con
firmed his opinion that coal must exist where these had been taken
from. Nevertheless, what has subsequently been discovered, con
firms Sir William Logan's theory, and proves that Baron Rotter-

768 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
mund's was an illusion. He wrote a report to the mayor and
corporation of Quebec, on the nature of combustible minerals to be
found in the city of Quebec. He married a daughter of the
Honorable P. D. Debartzch ; and was brother-in-law to the Hon
orable L. T. Drummond.

Right Hon. VISCOUNT MONCK,
Governor-General op British North America.
Charles Stanley Monck, fourth viscount of that name, and
our. present governor-general, is descended from William Le
Moyne,* who lived in 1066, and represents more immediately a
junior branch of the house of Monck, Duke of Albemarle (now
extinct). He was born at Templemore, county Tipperary, Ireland,
in the year 1819, and is a son of the third viscount by the youngest
daughter ofthe late John Wellington, Esquire, of Killoskehane in
the same county, (she died 1843.) Educated at Trinity college,
Dublin, he was called to the bar in Ireland in 1841. In 1849 he
succeeded his father as the fourth viscount, and entered ParUament
in July, 1852, as member for Portsmouth, previous to which how
ever in May, 1848, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Wicklow.
* Two Governors op Caw Ada. — " Tho appointment of Baron Monck, to the
administration of Canada, gives rise to a singular coincidence. Two men evi
dently of Norman origin, one might add, of the same name, will have been
intrusted with the destinies of this country ; the one under French dominion the
other under British rule.
" Some two centuries back, Charles Le Moyne (whose father, Charles Le Moine,
came from Dieppe in Normandy,) afterwards Baron of Longueil, was appointed
King's Lieutenant in Canada; the French Crown erected in his favor near
Montreal a barony ' as a reward,' history tells us ' for the service he rendered
to the colony.' He was the eldest of eleven brothers, who all played a distin
guished part in New France. D'lberville won some important naval engage
ments in the gulf of the St. Lawrenoe and elsewhere. De Ste. Helene, after
whom the island of Ste. Helene, near Montreal, a portion of the family estate
was called, died at the siege of Quebec, fighing bravely against Phipps in 1690.
DeBunville was tho founder of New Orleans, and so on.
After a lapse of two hundrod- years, wo now receive amongst us, the descendant
of Guillaume Le Moyne,f a contemporary of William of Normandy, the
. conqueror of England. The name it is true, is anglilied, but such transformations
are too common in history to have the right to astonish us.
Louis XIV. had for his representative in New Franoe, Charles LeMoyne.
Queen Victoria hands over the sceptre of British America to the descendant of

\ See Dodd'e Peerage,

And persons Connected with Canada. 769
In February 1851, he was appointed a eommissioner of charitable
donations and bequests in Ireland. He was a lord of the treasury
in the Palmerston administration from March, 1855, until he lost
his seat for Portsmouth at the general election of 1857, when he
ran for Dudley, in Worcestershire, but without success.
In October 1861, his lordship was appointed to succeed Sir E. W.
Head as governor-general of British North America, and arrived at
Quebec in the same month, but owing to the absence of the Court
at Balmoral on his leaving England, his excellency's commission
was not made out, and he was only sworn in as administrator. He
was sworn in as governor-general on the 28th November. His com
mission as such bears date : Westminister, 2nd November, 1861,
and that of vice-admiral, London, 7th November, 1861.

Hon. GEORGE BROWN.
Mr. Brown, the late leader of the Upper Canada radical reform
party, and formely representative of the capital of Western Canada
in the Legislative Assembly, is Scotch in origin, feeling, sentiment,
and religion, being a member of the Free Church, and it will not be
too much to say that he owed his late position, not only to his great
abilities, but also to the depth and breadth and intensity of his
nationality, as well as that of his countrymen in Canada.
Mr. Brown was born in 1821, in the city of Edinburgh, where
his father was engaged in business, and held at one time a public
Guillaume LeMoyne, who flourished about 1066, a year rendered memorable in
British annals, by the appearance of a Norman duke at the head of his Normans,
the future conquerors ofthe island.
"The most ancient titles in England, such as that of the Howards and others,
retrace back to the conquest.
" Why is this important command conferred on the present nobleman ? Are we
Canadians to view it as a compliment our gracious sovereign intends to pay to
her old Norman colony, in sending out for a viceroy, an illustrious scion of that
stout Norman race, whose blood flows in the veins of England's proudest nobles ?
Is Lord Monck intended to be the trait d'union, the social link to connect the
various provinces of British North America in a compact confederacy, capable of
stemming back the wave of mob law and anarchy which threatens to surge over
our borders ? Who can unveil the impenetrable arcana of tho future ? Let us at
least hope that the descendant of Guillaumo LeMoyne, like his distinguished
namesake, the Baron de Longueuil, will endear his name to the mother-country
' by the services he will render to the colony,' which service will doubtless open
to him the door to further proferment. Let us also indulge the hope that anta
gonism (founded on difference of race) to the metropolitan government will die
out entirely from want of the necessary materials to keep it up, when the ruled and
the rulers are identical in origin." — Le Canadien.
97

770 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
office. At the age of thirteen, he left home, and we believe)
became connected with some business pursuit in London. About
twenty-one years ago, the family having suffered some reverse,
emigrated to New York, where they engaged in business; and had
also, if we mistake not, at the same time, a store in Albany. The
business in which Mr. Brown's family engaged on coming to
New York did not succeed to their satisfaction, and in December,
1842, four years after their arrival in the United States, Mr. Peter
Brown, the father ofthe subject of our present memoir, a man of
considerable general information, commenced the publication of
a weekly newspaper in New York, called the British Chronicle.
The character of this paper is indicated by the title. It was far
more British than Galignani's Messenger, in Paris, and was to the
United States what Le Nord is to Western Europe. It was more
than an advocate of everything British in opposition to everything
American, and it never ceased to criticise, in a severe spirit, the
institutions and the manners of the people in whose commercial
metropolis it was issued. Not being able to compete with the
Albion, another English organ published at New York, and then
owned and conducted by Dr. Bartlett, British consul at that port,
its duration did not extend beyond eighteen months. While Mr.
Peter Brown remained in New York, he published a reply to Les
ter's " Shame and Glory of England," under the title of the
" Fame and Glory of England Vindicated."
In 1843, the family came from New York to Toronto, under cer
tain offers held out to them by the Free Church party, who required
an organ to represent their views at the critical period of the dis
ruption which added another to the list of Presbyterian churches.
In the same year a weekly paper called the Banner was started in
Toronto, as an organ of the Free Church party; the elder Mr.
Brown being editor, for which task he was well qualified, and his
eldest son, George, being constituted the proprietor. But it was
soon found that, as a political organ, the Banner could never obtain
a general circulation, since it addressed itself mainly to one of the
religious divisions into whicli Upper Canada was divided ; and in 1844,
the reform party wanting an organ that would be more directly under
the control of its leaders than any paper which then existed, the Globe
was projected. The first number appeared about the beginning
of April. It was at first published weekly, then tri-weekly, and
for some years has been a daily, in which form it is issued, and
enjoys with the Leader the largest circulation of any newspaper in
Canada. On the 28th of the preceding November, the resignation
of the Lafontaine-Baldwin administration had taken place, and
there being no other minister than that of one secretary, upon
whom devolved the k whole administration of the country, it may
easily be understood, from the nature of the crisis, that party spirit
ran high. At this time, although Mr. George Brown was not as

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 771
practised a writer as subsequent experience has made him, and
although Mr. Brown, senr., lay under the disadvantage incident to
the want of acquaintance with the past history of the country,
political parties, and individual politicians, the paper was, never
theless, conducted with much vigor, and for four years it was
deservedly looked upon as being, in a special manner, the great
organ of the reform party of Upper Canada.
In 1848, the Lafontaine-Baldwin party found themselves again
victorious after a general election ; and in February of that year
they were restored to power. The Globe now became the organ of
the government, and as a general rule defended its policy till 1851.
In 1849, Mr. George Brown was appointed, in conjunction with
two others, a commissioner to investigate certain alleged abuses in
the Provincial Penitentiary. This commission sat several months,
and ended in effecting considerable changes in the management of
that institution.
There is reason to believe that Mr. Brown cherished the desire
of one day becoming a member of the government long before he
made an attempt to secure a seat in Parliament. In April, 1851,
he stood, but was defeated, for Haldimand, (the representation of
which had become vacant by the death of Mr. Thompson), in
opposition to the late Mr. W. L. Mackenzie and Mr. Ronald Mc-
Kinnon. The Papal aggression agitation was then at its height in
England, and Mr. Brown energetically echoed the cry of resistance.
Thereafter he declared he would only support a political policy
based on broad Protestant principles. As a natural consequence of
the expression of these views, his course as a journalist turned
from being the defender of the government, the ruling element in
which was French Canadian Catholic. He took a vigorous stand
against everything Roman Catholic ; from being an opponent of
Orangemen and the Orange society, he became its advocate. In
the session of 1859, he voted for a bill to incorporate the order, but
since the formation of his ministry, he has not taken the same pro
minent part in politico-religious questions as in previous years.
In December, 1851, Mr. Brown was first elected to the Legisla
tive Assembly for the county of Kent, and he took his seat at
Quebec, in the following August. At that time his position was
peculiar. He had broken with his party, denounced its leaders,
and being in opposition, was obliged constantly to vote with the
conservatives, in opposition to the party whom he had for several
years represented and defended in the press. In the western
peninsula of Canada the democratic element was sufficiently strong
to create a relish for almost any amonnt of opposition to the govern
ment, no matter how the government was conducted nor of whom
composed. The American element strengthened this feeling, of
which Mr. Brown became the organ. His opposition was vigorous,
though not always discriminating, and. complaint was made of his

772 SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
tendency to assail personal character. This was particularly so
after he had been elected for Lambton, in the summer of 1854.
The charges which he made were investigated by committees of
both branches of the legislature, and although the evidence which
he brought forward was far from complete, there is no doubt but
that their effect upon the elections of 1854 was considerable, and
that they thus indirectly tended to bring about, if they did not
actually effect, a change of administration.
In December, 1857, Mr. Brown achieved a great triumph by
being returned for the city of Toronto, and the north riding of
Oxford at the same time ; and in the following July, on the resigna
tion of Mr. Macdonald's administration, on the seat of government
question, he was entrusted by the then governor-general with the
formation of a new administration. He succeeded in bringing
together into his government a dozen gentlemen, who had pre
viously been opposed to one another on almcst every leading ques
tion in the country, but his ministry, as our readers will remember,
only lasted two days. He was again returned for the " Queen
City," after a keen contest, having been opposed by the Hon. J.
H. Cameron, Q. C., the present member for Peel, and a leading
conservative. This constituency he continued to represent until
the general election of 1861, when he was defeated, and has now
retired into private life. Previous to the last session of Parliament
he was seized with a dangerous illness which confined him to his
bed, and prevented him from taking part in public affairs and
occupying his seat in Parliament ; this, together with the unpopu
larity of his party, and the reaction which has taken place in
the public mind in favor of the present administration, no doubt
contributed in a great measure to his defeat, and to that of the
leading members of his party.
As a journalist, Mr. Brown has at one time and another attacked
with great severity, and with an equal amount of ability, almost
every public man in the country. He has not, perhaps, been sub
ject to an unusual number of actions for libel. In April, 1854, he
was sued by Mr. John White, M.P.P. for Halton, who had been
charged in the Globe with having " sold his vote for money." Mr.
Brown defended himself with great ability. The jury failed to
agree, and there the matter was allowed to drop. In 1849, in an
action for libel brought by Colonel Prince for some remarks upon
the alleged mismanagement by the latter, as counsel for the defence,
in a case of no great importance, damages were recovered, but only
to the amount of thirty pounds. In April, 1857, Dr. Workman,
superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum in Upper Canada, brought
an action against Mr. Brown for having published some remarks
reflecting upon his management of that institution. Here^as in
the action brought by Mr. White, the jury failed to agree. The
steward of the same institution also sued him for libel at the same

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 773
time, on account of the same publication ; but he was unable to
obtain a verdict.
Mr. Brown belongs to the class of men to whom journalism has
been a means of personal political advancement. -Mr. Hincks, as
editor, first of the Examiner, in Toronto, and afterwards of the
Pilot, in Montreal, had set the example, and in this respect both
can quote as their models Guizot, Thiers, and several of the most
eminent statesmen of France, who had similarly profited by their
connection with the political press of Paris during the reign of
Lcuis Philippe. Mr. Brown undoubtedly weakened his position as
opposition leader for the Upper Canada section by taking office in
1858. The incongruous opinions of his ministers and their wide
difference laid them peculiarly open to attack.
As a speaker, Mr. Brown possesses a robust, although no1; highly
refined eloquence. He possesses unflagging energy, industry and
perseverance, qualities which have frequently called forth the
praise not only of his admirers, but also of his political oppo
nents ; as well as a species of uncontrolled enthusiasm, which
sometimes, though not often, unconsciously betrays him into rude
ness. His manner, when speaking, is chiefly remarkable for daring
courage. He always seems as if he were throwing defiance on all
around him. He is fully six feet in height, and he bears, in his
outward demeanour and appearance, many of the characteristics
which tend to make a prominent as well as an eminent man in
Canada.

Hon. J. H. CAMERON, Q.C, D.C.L., M.P.P.
The Hon. John Hillyard Cameron was born at Beaucaire,
Languedoc, France, April 14, 1817 — his father, the late Angus
Cameron, Esq., paymaster of the Royal Canadian Rifles, being at
that time in the 79th Highlanders. Mr. Cameron served with his
regiment at Waterloo, and throughout the Peninsular campaign ;
and in 1825 he came to Canada : he continued to serve with that
gallant corps, and afterwards in the R. C. Rifles, when they were
raised, until his death, in 1845. When the 79th was stationed in
Toronto, in 1831, the subject of this sketch, being then in his thir
teenth year, was placed at the Upper Canada college. Upper Canada
college was then, and for many years, the sole collegiate institution
in Western Canada, (for it was not until 1843 that King's -college,
now the university of Toronto, was opened to the youth of this

774 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
province) ; and the majority ofthe public men of the present day
nave at some period of their lives pursued their studies within its
time-honored walls. At college, Mr. Cameron carried off some of
the highest honors ; and thus early gave promise of that brilliant
career which has ranked him among his most distinguished alumni.
After passing through college, Mr. Cameron entered upon the
study of the law under the Hon. Henry John Boulton, and subse
quently he served under the present Vice-Chancellor Spragge.
While yet a student, he was called upon to bear arms, and during
the troubles of 1837 and 1838 he served with the Queen's Rangers.
He held the rank of captain in that corps, and for six months he
was on the Niagara frontier, and at Navy Island.
On 7th August, 1838, Mr. Cameron was enrolled as an attorney,
and in Michaelmas Term of the same year he was called to the bar.
In 1838 he formed a partnership with J. Godfrey Spragge, Esq.,
(now vice-chancellor), and together they commanded a very large
and lucrative business. Mr. Cameron's great abilities attracted
attention, and he soon took a foremost place among the most dis
tinguished Nisi Prius counsel. Nor was this an easily won position,
when it is borne in mind that he had for his compeers Sullivan,
Sherwood, H. J. Boulton, Hagerman, Draper, Blake, Hagarty,
and other eminent advocates. In 1843 he was appointed reporter
to the Court of Queen's Bench, and in 1844, he gave to the legal
profession a digest (known as " Cameron's Digest") of all the de
cided cases of the Court in Banc. In 1845 he published a valuable
work of Practice under the title of "Cameron's Rules." Mr.
Cameron retained the reportership until 1846, and it may be noted
that from his time is dated the first regular record of the decisions
of the judges. In 1846 he commenced the publication of the
Reports which have since been taken up by Messrs. Lukin and
Christopher Robinson, E. C. Jones, and Alexander Grant, respec
tively, reporters of the courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas,
and Chancery. In 1846 Mr. Cameron was appointed a Queen's
counsel and solicitor-general in Upper Canada, and was then
elected a bencher of the Law Society. In 1860, on the death of
Sir James Buchanan Macaulay, ex chief-justice of the Common
Pleas, Mr. Cameron was elected treasurer of the Law Society.
Mr. Cameron's career as a politician must now be briefly noted.
In July, 1846, he was invited to take part in Mr. Draper's admin
istration, and was appointed a Queen's counsel and solicitor-gene
ral for Upper Canada, and soon after, on the resignation of Rolland
Macdonald, Esquire, he was elected member for Cornwall by a
large majority over his opponent, Mr. Mattice. In 1847, on the
appointment of Mr. Draper, the then attorney-general for Upper
Canada, to a seat on the bench, Mr. Cameron was offered the
attorney-generalship, but declined to accept it, as he was desirous
that the late Hon. Henry Sherwood should be appointed, believing

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 775
that his appointment would heal the division then existing in the
conservative ranks. On Mr. Sherwood's acceptance, Mr. Cameron
was offered a seat at the council-board, by Lord Elgin, personally,
as a mark of special consideration. This was the first instance of a
solicitor-general being thus honored. At the general election, in
1848, Mr. Cameron was again elected for Cornwall, and soon after,
on the Sherwood administration being beaten on a vote of want of
confidence, be resigned the solicitor-generalship. Mr. Cameron
continued to represent Cornwall until the end of that Parliament,
and did not offer himself for re-election in the new Parliament of
1851. In 1854, he was returned with John G. Bowes, Esquire,
for the city of Toronto, which he represented until the end of 1857.
On Parliament being dissolved, he did not offer for re-election,
although solicited to do so ; but in 1858, on the formation of the
celebrated two day's Brown-Dorion ministry, he opposed the re
election of the Hon. George Brown for Toronto, and was defeated
by a majority of something over 100 votes, out of upwards of 5,000
polled. He again offered himself at the general election of 1861,
and is now the representative of the county of Peel.
During the time he has been in Parliament, Mr. Cameron has
originated numerous important measures, and there have been few
members in our legislature who have left so enduring a memorial
on the statute book. He introduced and carried through the
legislature the address to the Queen to exempt from the English
income tax colonial securities payable in England, the property
of colonists, and was successful, while in England, in having the
address approved of by the Imperial Government, and such secu
rities have always since been exempted. Mr. Cameron first
suggested the invitation to the Queen to visit Canada, and the
feasibility of a postal arrangement between England and the
United States, for the carriage of , the American mails by Canadian
packets. As a strong conservative he opposed the introduction of the elec
tive principle into the Legislative Council, and was one of a small
minority who opposed that measure in all its stages. He was the
chairman of the committee on the municipal corporation act,
and suggested most of the various alterations and amendments
which have since been adopted by the commissioners for revising
the statutes. Mr. Cameron was one of the commissioners origi
nally appointed for their revision, but he resigned, as his legislative
duties interfered with the work ; his appointment was, no doubt,
made in consequence of his having been a commissioner in 1840,
for revising the Statutes of Upper Canada, an honor conferred
upon him when he had been only two years at the bar, ar^d the
appreciation of his labors by his brother commissioners is shewn
in the preface to the revision, and by the executive of the day in
the remuneration given to him for his work.

776 BKET9HES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
In 1856, Mr. Cameron brought forward the celebrated resolu
tions for the production of Mr. Justice Duval's charge in the Cor
rigan case, and the bold stand taken by him on that occasion called
forth the sympathies of the entire Protestant population of the
province. As a firm adherent of the Church of England, Mr. Cameron has
always been conspicuous in the advocacy of her rights. He op
posed the secularization of the clergy reserves, and when that
step was determined on, he was mainly instrumental in securing
for her clergy the rights which were reserved to them. The zeal
and ability which he then displayed in advocating their interests,
and subsequently in the gratuitous management and investment of
their commutation moneys, have claimed the lasting gratitude of
the olergy. Though repeatedly tendered some substantial recog
nition of his services, he has declined to receive aught at their
hands, save the expression of their heartfelt thanks ; but on the
contrary he has acted the part of a true churchman by founding a
scholarship in Trinity college, for the benefit of the sons of the
clergy seeking an university education. Mr. Cameron carried
through Parliament the address to the Queen for the removal of
the disabilities which prevented synodieal action in the Church
of England. He prepared and carried through its early stages, the
Church Synod BiU, having introduced the petition to the lower
house at the head of a procession of the bishop, clergy, and laity
ofthe diocese of Toronto; and when the bill was reserved for the
royal assent, he remained several months in England to obtain the
Queen's sanction, He had the measure submitted to the opinion
of the judicial committee of the Privy Council, and under their
advice it was approved by her Majesty. Mr. Cameron rendered
valuable aid in the establishment of Trinity college, and subse
quently, in connection with J. H. Hagarty, Esquire (now Mr.
Justice Hagarty), and the Hon. P. M. Vankoughnet, he was ap
pointed to a professorship in the Faculty of Law in that institu
tion. In 1854, he received the honorary degree of D.C.L.
For a period of eight years Mr. Cameron held a seat as alderman
in the civic councils of Toronto, and endeavored to the best of his
ability, to promote the interests of the city with which his pros
perity was so closely identified. In 1845, he was first returned for
St. Andrew's ward.
In 1859, he was chosen graud-master of the Orangemen of
British North America, and he still retains the important position
of head of the order. In I860, during the visit of the Prince of
Wales, Mr. Cameron bore a prominent part in the difficulties
between the Duke of Newcastle and the Orange body, and by his
influence and exertions contributed largely towards allaying the
excitement which at one time threatened to bring the royal visit to
an unhappy close.

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 777

OGLE R. GOWAN, Esq.
This gentleman is a native of the county of Wexford, in Ireland,
and son of the late Captain John Hunter Gowan, of Mount Nebr,
one of the most distinguished magistrates of that county. Mr. 0. Rj
Gowan edited a political newspaper, published in the city of Dublin,
styled the Antidote, and was the author of several pamphlets on
political subjects. While in that kingdom he was a leading mem
ber ofthe Grand Lodge ofthe Orange Institution. He emigrated
with his family to this country about the year 1829, and settled
at Escott Park, in the county of Leeds, for which shire he has
stood several severely contested elections ; he was four times
elected to Parliament for that county, and was subsequently elected
for both the counties of Leeds and Grenville ; he also contested
the representation of the city of Toronto and the county of Ontario,
but was defeated in both by slender majorities. For many years
in succession he was chosen warden of the united counties of
Leeds and Grenville, and be has also been, for some years, an
alderman of the city of Toronto ; he is popularly known as " the
father and founder" of Orangeism in America, and for twenty
years filled the office of grand-master of that body. Foreseeing the
dawn of the rebellion in 1837, he called a meeting at Brockville,
at which he made a very remarkable speech to the people, pre
dicting the unfortunate insurrection which soon after followed.
At this meeting the germ was laid of the first Volunteer Association
formed in the Province ; the enrollment was called the Brockville
Invincibles ; it gave the impetus to those noble defenders of the
soil, the Canadian Volunteers. Immediately after this movement
he was appointed by his Excellency Sir F. B. Head, Bart., a
captain in the 2nd Regiment of Leeds Militia, then commanded
by the Hon. Charles Jones ; he was subsequently promoted by
his Excellency Lieutenant-General Lord Seaton, to a company in
the Queen's Own Rifles, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel McMil
lan, and while serving in that capacity, was present at the capture
of " Hickory Island," near Kingston, in 1838. While serving in
the Queen's Rifles he attracted the attention of his Excellency
. Major-General Sir George Arthur, then commanding the forces in
Upper Canada, by whom, in the year 1838, he was appointed to
the command of the ninth provisional battalion of embodied
militia, as lieutenant-colonel. At the engagement fought between
the British troops and the American invaders, at the " Windmill,"
near Prescott, in November, 1838, Lieutenant-Colonel Gowan com
manded the right wing, and was three times wounded ; a rifle ball
98

778 SKETCHES OP CELEBRATED CANADIANS,
passed through his left leg ; he was cut across the inner side of the
knee by a buck shot, and received a bayonet stab in the hip. The
British loss in this engagement was 8 officers and 62 rank and file ;
that of the Americans 72 and 167 prisoners. For his personal
conduct upon that day, Lieutenant-Colonel Gowan was publicly
thanked in the military " general orders," dated the 19th of
November, and by a " general order " dated the 4th of December,
1838, his regiment, the Ninth Provisional Battalion, was allowed,
as a mark of special distinction and approbation, to be thereafter
distinguished and known as the Queen's Royal Borderers. Mr.
Gowan was subsequently appointed to the command of the 2nd
Regiment of Leeds Militia, vice, the Honorable Charles Jones, de
ceased. In Parliament he was an ardent supporter of the adminis
trations of Lords Seaton, Metcalfe and Cathcart, but was generally
found in opposition to the governments of Sir F. B. Head, Sir
George Arthur, Lord Sydenham and Lord Elgin. During the ad
ministration of Sir Edmund Walker Head, he acted with the in
dependent party, but at all times expressed a warm personal at
tachment to the Hon. John A. Macdonald. In 1830, he wrote a
long letter in favor of the preservation of harmony between the
executive and representative branches of the government. This
was the first public address by any leading politician in favor of
what was called " responsible government." It was subsequently
reprinted by the Hon. Mr. Hincks, in pamphlet form, and largely
distributed through the province. For the publication of this
letter Mr. Gowan was removed from the office of agent for crown
lands in the Johnstown district.
Upon the death of the late Sir David Jones, Mr. Gowan was
offered the lucrative appointment of registrar of the county of
Leeds, but as the offer was accompanied by the request that he
should resign the office of grand-master of the Orangemen, ho de--
clined to accept the post tendered ; he was subsequently appointed
supervisor of tolls upon the public works west of Lachine, but
was removed for opposing the election of the then attorney-general,
Mr. Richards. At a later period he was selected, with the late Dr.
Morgan Hamilton, a commissioner, to deoide the land claims in
the counties of Huron and Bruce. When Parliament was dissolved
he resigned his commissionership, to enable him to stand as a can
didate for the representation of North Ontario ; he first stood for
Parliament in 1830, and was defeated. At the next general elec
tion, four years afterwards, he was more successful. His parlia
mentary career closed in 1861, beiDg then the " father of the
house." It is generally understood that he would have been
elected to the present Parliament had he desired to continue in a
legislative capacity ; but he preferred retiring and accepting the
office of post office inspector of the money order department for
Upper Canada, which post he at present fills. So far as regards

AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA. 779
Colonel Gowan's parliamentary career and character, we cannot,
perhaps, do better than copy the following extract from a keen
and talented little work, published at Toronto in 1840, and enti
tled, " Sketches of the \Zth Parliament in Upper Canada." The
writer is understood to be Walter Cavendish Crawford, Esquire :
" This gentleman (Mr. Gowan,) has for eight or nine years oc
cupied a prominent position in the politics of the country, not only
as the head of a powerful body, but in consequence of a talent he
possesses of engaging the minds of popular assemblies and leading
them with him. As a speaker he is fluent and energetic, very
often powerful in his appeals to feeling, and evidently speaks more
for the audience than the house ; his sarcasm is bitter, and pos
sessing great evenness of temper, you seldom see him ruffled at
any remarks which may be made. He is an active, well made man,
rather low, with a prepossessing face and easy insinuating manners ;
very mild in his address, and with talents, which, if rightly ap
plied, would soon raise him to an eminent situation."
This is the character of Mr. Gowan, as drawn by a pen under
stood not to be over friendly to that gentleman.

FINIS.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]
NATIONAL UNTHRIFT;

OR,

The Cup of British Prosperity
AS IT UNFORTUNATELY IS.

Actum est de Republica"— " The Empire in Danger.'

NATIONAL ECONOMYi

OR,

The Cup of British Prosperity
ua.s xa* ought to X3X4 :

"Res Secundse "— " The Empire out of Danger."

DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS.

The first illustration shows tho cup of Britain's prosperity to be a Tantalus'
cup and the same thing is equally true of the United States and Canada, except
so far as this is modified by their more patriotic Tariffs, Put into it, what you
will, our prosperity cannot possibly rise above a certain point, at which it
escapes by a waste-pipe. The moment that prosperity raises the price of
British labor over the low-fixed price of gold, (about £i tho ounce) away goes
the gold, the cause op this prosperity, as being the cheapest article in the
export market! and even when not annoyed by an export of gold, on account
of the higher prices of goods— (which is surely bad enough, for it is surely a
most inhuman system under which prosperity is the necessary mother or
cause of adversity) Britain encounters the still greater evil of having her
internal and colonial prosperity interfered with by continual drains by Foreign
loans, and by India (India having always been the grave op British Trea
sure), for which there is no immediate return to the country. It is obvious that
to the extent that Gold goes abroad in payment of goods, the demand for the
Country's labor, and consequently the price thereof, is lessened. And if it
is an injurious thing for the Country's labor that Gold should go abroad in pay
ment of something which is, or may be, a comparative advantage to the mass of
the people, how much worse that it should be given away for nothing, which in
any way benefits British Industry.
But — as is shown in the second illustration — there should be no waste-pipe
in the cup of Britain's prosperity, and India and Foreign countries should not
have it open to them to introduce their syphons into our national cup, but only
in the depositories of its overflow. To leave it open to them to do as at
present, is to leave it open to Foreign producers to prey upon the nation's vitals.
It is to take our children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. Our gold should bo
retained as money, or as a basis or security of money, for the purpose of our own
people generally, till it completely fills and overflows our own national cup, and
then, and not till then, should it become available as an exportable commodity ;
for money is a thing created for the internal trade alone, and should
only be so used. This can only be done by the use by us of an emblematic or
paper money, which will be of no use beyond our own country ; and in these
pages various modes of establishing this have been pointed out—one of which
may be better suited to one state of circumstances and another to a different state
of circumstances. There is evidently, however, no necessity to wait till a more
economical system than the present be proposed. The boon of paper money to
the masses, to businesses, and to Banks, can be attained, and the independence of
the country's prosperity can be attained, even although by our new system no
direct gain js meantibie made ; i. e., although paper money is not made for the
present a legal tender to a greater extend than the mere amount of the gold in
the vaults of the issuer, the banks or governments, specially held for the security
of such paper money.
The object of these Illustrations, and the following explanations, is simply to
oadoavor to get Members of Parliament, as well as their constituents, to ask
themselves whether it was the intention of the country in establishing Banks,
and in establishing a paper circulation to make these the mere handmaids of tho
Foreign Trade ! There was a day in the Province when those Banks and that
circulation did not exist. And was it then the intention of the people, iu
applying for these to the Legislature, that the result should only be to increase
Foreign Trade, or, more properly, to increase the, importation of Foreign labor,
thus beggaring the province ? So far from this being the people's object, it

4 DESCRIPTION OI" ILLUSTRATIONS.
was the result which of all others it was the interest of the province to avoid. It
is clear, then, that though they have been the best possible Institutions, and
their paper circulation the most undoubtedly safe to the holder, the Banks have
not realized the higher object which it is the interest of the Province, as well their
own interest, they should subserve. They have been little more than Exchange
Brokers, and they could not possibly have been any thing else. For what pur
pose then, it may be asked, was the establishment of Banks and of a paper circu
lating medium demanded by the people ? The purpose of the people in increased
circulation," could only be increased employment to Canadians. They had
been told that the more money, there would be the more demand for
Canadian labor, and (as a necessary consequence of more bidders) a greater
price for it. It was, however, concealed from them that this law of supply and
demand had already in fact been violated in the admission of the principle of
the money law of Canada, in existence before the Banks were created, so that
firstly, the Canadian Banks' notes cannot safely be advanced, except to parties
who can sooner or later produce something convertible into Foreign Exchange —
and, secondly, the increased demand (that apparently greatest blessing to the
producer) is not allowed to shed its benign influence in raising the
prices even of commodities fitted for exportation ; for the Foreign or
Export Merchant, always having it in his power to exchange his Bank notes
for gold near the price it will fetch abroad, will not of course take wheat
or [other Canadian exportable commodity at any higher price ; and indeed from
this price has to be deducted a margin to save him from the contingencies of
markets, besides tho freights and charges to the foreign market. This perpe
tual inclination to THE BAREST RAW MATERIAL PRICES FOR OJR EXPORTS is,
as I have fully explained in the following pages, A very serious considera
tion for the Canadian farmer, and the more so as while this is the highest
price he will get, there is no certainty that he will even get this price
for his produce, unless he goes to the trouble of himself sending it to the
foreign market. — [From " Britain the Country versus Britain the Empire, by
Isaac Buchanan, Esq., M.P. P., Hamilton]

Date Due
All books are subject to recall after two weeks.

,m*3