The Canadian Portrait Gallery Part 9

On the 24th of May, 1879, Mr. Howland was created a Knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, by the present Governor-General, acting on behalf of the Sovereign.

He still continues to superintend the most important details of his great wholesale commercial business in Toronto, and in his seventieth year preserves a physical and intellectual vigour such as is seldom found in persons who have pa.s.sed middle age. He is President of the Ontario Bank, and of various prosperous mercantile and insurance companies. He has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1843, was formerly a Mrs. Webb, of Toronto. She survived her marriage about six years. By this lady he has several children, one of whom is a partner in the business, which is carried on under the style of Sir William P. Howland & Co. Sir William's second wife, whom he married in 1866, was the widow of the late Captain Hunt, of Toronto.

THE MOST REV. MICHAEL HANNAN, D.D.,

_R. C. ARCHBISHOP OF HALIFAX._

The successor of the late Archbishop Connolly was born at Kilmallock, in the county of Limerick, Ireland, on the 21st of July, 1821. He received his education at various schools in his native land, and in 1840, when he was nineteen years of age, he emigrated to the Province of Nova Scotia, where he has ever since resided. Soon after arriving in the Province he was appointed a teacher in St. Mary's College, which had then recently been established in Halifax by Dean O'Brien. While holding that position he studied theology, and in 1845 was ordained to the priesthood. He has ever since been an a.s.siduous promoter of education, and of the interests of the faith which he professes. His labours have been conducted with a quiet energy which has been productive of not unimportant results, but which has not been the means of making him widely known, as his distinguished predecessor was, beyond the limits of Nova Scotia. In or about the year 1853 he founded a Society of St.

Vincent de Paul in Halifax, over which he thenceforward exercised a personal supervision. He subsequently became Vicar-General of the Diocese of Halifax, an office which he held for some years, and in the exercise of which he displayed the same quiet zeal which characterizes all his public actions. Upon his retirement he was presented with an address, numerously signed by Protestants, as well as by the adherents of his own faith, expressive of strong regret for his resignation, and of appreciation of his services.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MICHAEL HANNAN, signed as M. HANNAN ALY. OF HALIFAX]

Upon the death of Archbishop Connolly, on the 27th of July, 1876, all the Roman Catholic bishops of the Province united in signing a recommendation to His Holiness in favour of Dr. Hannan's appointment to the Archiepiscopal See of Halifax. The recommendation was acted upon, and on the morning of Sunday, the 20th of May, 1877, he was consecrated and installed at St. Mary's Cathedral, Halifax, with imposing ceremonies, Bishop Conroy, Papal delegate, acting as consecrating bishop. His tenure of office has not been marked by any event of special interest to the public. He devotes himself to the duties pertaining to his high office, is kind and benevolent to the suffering poor among his flock, and continues to interest himself in the cause of education, though, unlike his predecessor, he is in favour of separate educational training for Protestants and Roman Catholics. "Dr. Hannan's mind," says a contemporary writer, "is of a different stamp from that of his ill.u.s.trious predecessor--not different in degree, but in mould.

Archbishop Connolly was emotional and impetuous, fervid and eloquent, with a clear head and a warm Irish heart, which sometimes carried him away. Dr. Hannan, on the other hand, is calm and equable, with a judgment naturally sound and solid, a temper not easily ruffled, and a sagacity seldom at fault."

GEORGE PAXTON YOUNG, M.A.

The life of Professor Young has been even less eventful than commonly falls to the lot of persons of purely scholastic pursuits. He was born on the 28th of November, 1818, at the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed--one of the few walled towns to be found in Great Britain at the present day. In his boyhood he attended the schools of his native town, whence he pa.s.sed to the High School of Edinburgh. He subsequently entered the Edinburgh University, and attended the lectures of Professor Wilson--the "Christopher North" of _Blackwood's Magazine_--who then occupied the Chair of Moral Philosophy there. During his early years he was an industrious student, and displayed that great apt.i.tude for mathematical and philosophical inquiry by which his subsequent career has been distinguished. After obtaining his degree he was for some time employed as a mathematical teacher in the Dollar Academy, Clackmannans.h.i.+re. After the Disruption of the Scottish National Church, in 1843, he entered the Theological Hall of the Free Church, which had just been opened at Edinburgh, and became a candidate for the ministry, attending the lectures of the late Dr. Chalmers and other eminent divines. After his admission to the ministry he was placed in charge of the Martyr's Church, Paisley, but remained there only a few months, having resolved to emigrate to Canada where he had many friends among the ministers and members of the Presbyterian Church. This resolution was carried out in 1848. Immediately upon his arrival in this country he was inducted into the pastorate of Knox Church, Hamilton, where he remained three years, at the expiration of which he resigned his charge, and accepted the Professors.h.i.+p of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Knox College, Toronto. His fondness for philosophical studies, and his wide acquaintance with philosophical literature, marked him out as peculiarly fitted for such a position. The sphere of his duties gradually widened, and in addition to Mental and Moral Philosophy and Logic, he soon had under his charge Exegetical Theology and the Evidences of Christianity--departments which are now in charge of Princ.i.p.al Caven and Professor Gregg.

During his Professors.h.i.+p in Knox College, Professor Young contributed some remarkable papers on philosophical subjects to the pages of the _Canadian Journal_. One of these, containing a brief exposition of some points in the Hamiltonian philosophy of matter, reached the hands of Sir William Hamilton himself, the most eminent exponent of the Scottish philosophy. The latter was so impressed by the merits of the paper that he addressed to the author a long and very complimentary letter, in which he bore testimony to Professor Young's power of grasping and elucidating the most abstruse points in a philosophical system of which he was not the originator. Such a testimony, from such a source, must have been highly gratifying to Professor Young, for Sir William was not a man given to wasting his words, and would certainly not have written such a letter to a stranger had he not been very greatly impressed by the merits of the article in the _Journal_. Various other articles from his pen have from time to time appeared in the same periodical, and every one of them bears the stamp of a mind which, to parody Iago's well-known saying, is "nothing if not mathematical." While on the subject of authors.h.i.+p it may be mentioned that in 1854 a theological work from his pen was published at Edinburgh, under the t.i.tle of "Miscellaneous Discourses and Expositions of Scripture." In 1862 he published in the _Home and Foreign Record_ a paper on "The Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion," which evoked much favourable comment alike from the religious and secular press at the time of its publication.

After discharging his professorial duties in connection with Knox College for about ten years with much zeal, and with great satisfaction to all persons concerned, Professor Young resigned his position on the Staff. In taking this important step he gave proof of an honesty and a genuine manliness of purpose which are worthy of the highest commendation. His philosophical researches had brought about a state of mind which, in his own opinion, rendered him unsuited to the position of a teacher of divinity. He was no longer in entire sympathy with the doctrines which he was called upon to expound to the students. How far the divergence extended we have no means of knowing, nor is it a question into which the public have any right to inquire. A man's theological beliefs are between himself and his Maker. It is sufficient to say that Professor Young resigned his Professors.h.i.+p and his connection with the ministry, and this without having any other means of livelihood in prospect. "His course," says a contemporary writer, "was characterized by an amount of intellectual candour and moral courage which do him credit, and is in striking contrast with the practice of those who, on finding themselves at variance with the communion to which they belong, and in the att.i.tude of drifting away from their dogmatic moorings, have neither the discretion to await in silence the end of their own intellectual struggle, nor the courage of their convictions, and the resolution requisite for placing themselves at any sacrifice in a position to speak and act on them without restraint." He soon afterwards found a suitable field for the exercise of his talents. The position of Inspector of Grammar Schools was offered to, and accepted by him, and for more than four years he discharged the duties of that office with a diligence and success which have been attended with great benefit to the public, and which have won wide recognition. His tenure of office, indeed, may be said to mark an important epoch in the educational history of this Province. At the time of his appointment, the Grammar School system was singularly inefficient. The fact of its inefficiency had long been acknowledged by leading educationists, but no one had indicated anything like an adequate remedy. Mr. Young's official reports not only exposed the defects of the system, but suggested the requisite legislation whereby those defects might be removed. His reports for the years 1866 and 1867 were deemed of sufficient importance to be published in full in the Chief Superintendent's Report for the latter year, and they were the means of bringing about a revolution in the whole Grammar School system. Most of the suggestions embodied in them have since been acted upon by the Legislature, and the School Acts of 1871, 1874 and 1877 are to a large extent founded upon them.

Having accomplished so much, Professor Young resigned his Inspectors.h.i.+p, and once more accepted the position of Professor of Philosophy in Knox College, but his duties during his second tenure of the Professors.h.i.+p did not involve the teaching of Theology. Upon the death of the late Dr.

Beaven, in 1871, he succeeded to the Chair of Metaphysics and Ethics in University College, Toronto, which he still retains. His inc.u.mbency has been marked by most gratifying results. The subjects taught by him are by many persons regarded as dry and uninteresting. Professor Young's lectures are so much the reverse of this that they are sometimes attended as a matter of choice by persons who never approach the building in which they are delivered for any other purpose. To render metaphysics and ethics acceptable to persons who have no special object to serve by pursuing such studies is an achievement of which any Professor might justly feel proud. His department, which was formerly the most unpopular in the University, has become one of those most resorted to by candidates for honours. He is equally popular as a teacher and as an examiner, and is said to be one of the most erudite of men in the literature of his department. He is also very eminent as a mathematician, and has made original discoveries in that branch of study which, in the estimation of persons who are capable of forming an opinion, ent.i.tle him to rank among the foremost of living investigators.

THE HON. TELESPh.o.r.e FOURNIER.

Judge Fournier is the son of William Fournier, of Becancour, in the Province of Quebec. He was born at St. Francois, Riviere du Sud, Montmagny, in 1824, and was educated at Nicolet College, where he was a pupil of the Abbe Ferland. At an early age he entered the law office of the late Hon. R. E. Caron, as a student. At the age of twenty-two he was called to the Bar of Lower Canada. In 1857 he married Miss Demers. In 1863 he was created a Queen's Counsel, and in the course of his professional career has been Batonnier and President of the General Council of the Bar of the Province of Quebec. He was one of the princ.i.p.al editorial writers engaged on _Le National_, a Liberal journal which was published at Quebec in 1856-7-8. His writings were characterized by great breadth of view and vigour of expression, and his editorials exerted considerable influence. In 1854 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Reform interest for the const.i.tuency of Montmagny, in the Canadian a.s.sembly. In 1857 he contested an election for the same Chamber, for the City of Quebec, and was again defeated. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Stadacona Division in the Legislative Council in 1861, and for De la Durantaye division in the same House, in 1864. He was first returned to Parliament in 1870, when he was elected to the Commons for Bellecha.s.se. This seat he held until his appointment to the Bench. He also sat for Montmagny in the Quebec a.s.sembly from the general election of 1871 until the 7th of November, 1873, when he resigned, on taking office in Mr. Mackenzie's Administration as Minister of Inland Revenue. He was sworn of the Privy Council on that day, and on the 8th of July, 1874, was appointed Minister of Justice. On the 19th of May, 1875, he was transferred to the Postmaster-Generals.h.i.+p of the Dominion, where he remained until his elevation to the Bench, as a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court, in October of the same year. Among the measures introduced and carried through Parliament by M. Fournier as Minister of Justice, the most notable are the Supreme Court Bill and the Insolvency Act of 1875. In his judicial capacity he has been concerned in two very important causes. The first of these is the famous Jacques Cartier contested election case, decided in April, 1878, in which Justices Taschereau and Henry coincided with Justice Fournier in the opinion that the seat of the Hon. Mr. Laflamme should not be vacated, and that the appeal should be dismissed. The Charlevoix contested election case forms the second. Justice Strong delivered an elaborate judgment, sustaining the plea of the Hon. Hector L. Langevin, that judgments as preliminary objections were not appealable. Justices Fournier and Taschereau dissented from this opinion, but Chief-Justice Richards and Justice Henry concurring, Mr. Langevin was confirmed in his seat.

THE HON. WILLIAM OSGOODE.

In view of the fact that this gentleman's name has a very fair chance of immortality in this Province, it is to be regretted that so little is accurately known about him, and that only the merest outline of his career has come down to the present times. Many Canadians would gladly know something more of the life of the first man who filled the important position of Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and the desire for such knowledge is by no means confined to members of the legal profession. He was the faithful friend and adviser of our first Lieutenant-Governor, and it is doubtless to his legal ac.u.men that we owe those eight wise statutes which were pa.s.sed during the first session of our first Provincial Parliament, which a.s.sembled at Newark on the 17th of September, 1792.

Nothing is definitely known concerning Chief-Justice Osgoode's ancestry.

A French-Canadian writer a.s.serts that he was an illegitimate son of King George the Third. No authority whatever is a.s.signed in support of this a.s.sertion, which probably rests upon no other basis than vague rumour.

Similar rumours have been current with respect to the paternity of other persons who have been more or less conspicuous in Canada, and but little importance should be attached to them. He was born in the month of March, 1754, and entered as a commoner at Christchurch College, Oxford, in 1770, when he had nearly completed his sixteenth year. After a somewhat prolonged attendance at this venerable seat of learning, he graduated and received the degree of Master of Arts in the month of July, 1777. Previous to this time he had entered himself as a student at the Inner Temple, having already been enrolled as a student on the books of Lincoln's Inn. He seems at this time to have been possessed of some small means, but not sufficient for his support, and he pursued his professional studies with such avidity as temporarily to undermine his health. He paid a short visit to the Continent, and returned to his native land with restored physical and mental vigour. In due course he was called to the Bar, and soon afterwards published a technical work on the law of descent, which attracted some notice from the profession. He soon became known as an erudite and painstaking lawyer, whose opinions were ent.i.tled to respect, and who was very expert as a special pleader.

At the Bar he was less successful, owing to an almost painful fastidiousness in his choice of words, which frequently produced an embarra.s.sing hesitation of speech. He seems to have been a personal friend of Colonel Simcoe, even before that gentleman's appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and their intimacy may possible have had something to do with Mr. Osgoode's appointment as Chief-Justice of the new Province in the spring of 1792. He came over in the same vessel with the Governor, who sailed on the 1st of May. Upon reaching Upper Canada the Governor and staff, after a short stay at Kingston, pa.s.sed on to Newark (now Niagara). The Chief-Justice accompanied the party, and took up his abode with them at Navy Hall, where he continued to reside during the greater part of his stay in the Province, which was of less than three years' duration. The solitude of his position, and his almost complete isolation from society, and from the surroundings of civilized life, seem to have been unbearable to his sensitive and social nature. In 1795 he was appointed Chief-Justice of the Lower Province, where he continued to occupy the Judicial Bench until 1801, when he resigned his position, and returned to England. His services as Chief-Justice ent.i.tled him to a pension of 800 per annum, which he continued to enjoy for rather more than twenty-two years. For historical purposes, his career may be said to have ceased with his resignation, as he never again emerged from the seclusion of private life. He was several times requested to enter Parliament, but declined to do so.

During the four years immediately succeeding his return to England he resided in the Temple. In 1804, upon the conversion of Melbourne House--a mansion in the West End of London--into the fas.h.i.+onable set of chambers known as "The Albany," he took up his quarters there for the remainder of his life. Among other distinguished men who resided there contemporaneously with him were Lord Brougham and Lord Byron. The latter occupied the set of chambers immediately adjoining those of the retired Chief-Justice, and the two became personally acquainted with each other; though, considering the diversity of their habits, it is not likely that any very close intimacy was established between them. In conjunction with Sir William Grant, Mr. Osgoode was appointed on several legal commissions. One of these consisted of the codification of certain Imperial Statutes relating to the colonies. Another involved an inquiry into the amount of fees receivable by certain officials in the Court of King's Bench, which inquiry was still pending at the time of Mr.

Osgoode's death. He lived very much to himself, though he was sometimes seen in society. He died of acute pneumonia, on the 17th of January, 1824, in the seventieth year of his age. One of his intimate friends has left the following estimate of his character:--"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 Const.i.tution sometimes made him severe in the reproof of measures which 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 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 circ.u.mstances, the result of laudable prudence, without the smallest taint of avarice or illiberal parsimony."

He was never married. There is a story about an attachment formed by him to a young lady of Quebec, during his residence there. It is said that the lady preferred a wealthier suitor, and that he never again became heart-whole. This, like the other story above mentioned, rests upon mere rumour, and is ent.i.tled to the credence attached to other rumours of a similar nature. His name is perpetuated in this Province by that of the stately Palace of Justice on Queen Street West, Toronto; also by the name of a towns.h.i.+p in the county of Carleton.

THE HON. WILLIAM MORRIS.

At the present day, the name of the Hon. William Morris is less frequently in men's mouths than it was half a century ago, but it is a name of much significance to any one familiar with the ecclesiastical history of this country. There was a time when there were three prominent political leaders in Western Canada, agreeing in no respect but in the possession of great abilities and indomitable energy. These were John Beverley Robinson, who led the Church of England party, better known by the name of the "Family Compact;" Egerton Ryerson, who headed the Methodist, which was then the Liberal party; and William Morris, who led the Scotch Presbyterians with all the gravity and sagacity which are usually attributed to that cla.s.s and creed. The first and last named of these leaders were in Parliament, and guided its rival parties. The second, from the lobby and the press, exercised, perhaps, greater influence than either. Mr. Robinson was the most accomplished, Mr.

Ryerson the most versatile, and Mr. Morris the most determined and persevering. Mr. Robinson contended for the supremacy of the Church of England, and her exclusive right to the Clergy Reserves, with the hauteur of a cavalier. Mr. Ryerson, in seeking a share of all good things for his co-religionists, identified them with the people, and consequently had it in his power to use the strong plea for equal justice, which finally prevailed. Mr. Morris sought a share of the Clergy Reserves for his own Church only, upon the plea that the Church of Scotland was, by the Act of Union between England and Scotland, as much an established Church as the Church of England. There have been many exciting times in the history of Canada, but none has called forth more powerful exhibitions of feeling, or, we may add, more ability than the Clergy Reserve struggle--when the Upper Canada Parliament sat at Little York, with the gentlemen above named for its leaders, and when the press was directed by Messieurs Ryerson, Mackenzie, Cary and Collins. Nor did the then leaders sink into oblivion. Mr. Robinson became Chief Justice of Upper Canada, an office which he filled with credit from the time of his appointment in 1829 down to his death in January, 1863, embracing a period of nearly thirty-four years. Mr.

Ryerson became Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, in which capacity he served his country faithfully from 1844 to 1876. Mr. Morris became Receiver-General of United Canada, an office in which it would have been well for the country if he could have been permanently retained. Possessed of an integrity which gave perfect security that he would partic.i.p.ate in no jobs himself, he had at the same time that knowledge of men and of business, that patient industry, and that discriminating judgment which would permit no others to peculate. He was a model Receiver-General. Such is the characterization of an able and discriminating writer of twenty and odd years ago, and his remarks will stand the test of time. The late Mr. Morris was not, perhaps, what would be called a man of modern ideas, but he was a man of stainless honour and thorough conscientiousness of purpose. He initiated one of the most important movements known to Canadian history, and took a foremost part in the agitation consequent thereupon. He left his mark upon his time, and transmitted to his posterity a name which is justly held in respect. For the following particulars of his career, we are largely indebted to his eldest son, the Hon. Alexander Morris, who has himself attained to a high place in public life, and whose career has been sketched in a former portion of this work.

The subject of this memoir was born at Paisley, in Lanarks.h.i.+re, Scotland, on the 31st of October, 1786. When he was about fifteen years of age he emigrated to Upper Canada with his parents, who settled in Montreal, where his father embarked in a general mercantile business.

This business involved a considerable s.h.i.+pping interest, and was carried on by Mr. Morris the elder for some years with much success. In process of time a catastrophe occurred which materially crippled his resources, and rendered it necessary that he should resort to a new and hitherto untried occupation. Having lost a homeward bound s.h.i.+p in the Straits of Belle Isle, and no part of the cargo having been insured, owing to the carelessness of an agent, and having sustained other heavy losses, he was compelled to close his business in Montreal, and retire to a farm near Brockville. In 1809 he died, leaving large debts in Montreal and in Glasgow. His son William, the subject of this sketch, remained 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 commenced, when he left his business and joined a militia flank company as an Ensign, having received his commission from General Brock. In October of that year he volunteered, with Lieutenant-Colonel Lethbridge, in the attack of the British forces on Ogdensburg, and commanded the only militia gun-boat that sustained injury, one man having been killed and another wounded at his side by a cannon shot. In 1813 he was present at and took an active part in the capture of Ogdensburg, having been detached in command of a party to take possession of the old French fort then at that place--an achievement which he successfully accomplished. 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 a.s.sist his brother in the management of the business there.

In 1816, he proceeded with the military and emigrant settlers to the Military Settlement near the Rideau, and there commenced 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 Mr. Alexander Morris. 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 the estate. Such respect for a father's memory indicated a high-toned rect.i.tude that deserved and could not fail to command success. In this year, also, the political career of Mr. Morris commenced, he having been elected by the settlers to represent them in the Provincial Parliament. He soon took an active and prominent part in that a.s.sembly, and in 1820 took one of the leading steps in his political life, when he moved and carried an address to the King, a.s.serting 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 st.u.r.dy perseverance and a strong conviction of right, he urged the claims of his own 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 consecutively to Parliament for the county of Lanark. 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 pet.i.tion to the King and Parliament from the Scottish inhabitants of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, a.s.serting 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.

During the troubles of 1837 and 1838 he was actively engaged in drilling and organizing the militia of the county of Lanark, of which he was Senior Colonel, and twice sent to the frontier detachments of several regiments, going in command on one occasion himself. In 1841 he was appointed Warden of the District of Johnstown, under the new Munic.i.p.al Council Act, and carried the law into successful operation. In 1844, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council in Sir Charles Metcalfe's Administration, and also Receiver-General of the Province. He was a most efficient departmental officer, and proved himself to be what 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 while he held the office 11,000 as interest on the daily deposits of public money--an advantage to the public which had never before been attempted. In 1846 he 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 vigour. In 1848, on the retirement of the Administration of which he was a member, he retired to private life, with health impaired by the a.s.siduous attention he had given to his 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 proceedings of the Legislative Council.

He was a clear, logical, vigorous speaker, and 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 his firm adherence to principle, he wielded a very beneficial influence in that body. Few public men pa.s.s through a life as long as his was, and carry with them more of public confidence and respect than did Mr. Morris. He died on the 29th of June, 1858, in the seventy-second year of his age.

THE HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.

Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the most brilliant orators known to Canadian Parliamentary history, was born at Carlingford, in the county of Louth, Ireland, on the 13th of April, 1825. He was the fifth child and second son of Mr. James McGee, an official in the Coast Guard Service, by his wife, Dorcas Catharine Morgan. The latter was the daughter of a bookseller in Dublin, who had been connected with the troubles of '98, and who had been brought to ruin and imprisonment as a member of that body known, by a strange misnomer, as "United Irishmen." The real or fancied wrongs of the patriotic bookseller had made a profound impression upon the susceptible mind of his daughter; an impression which was never effaced, and which descended, by hereditary transmission, to her children. The subject of this sketch, like his little brothers and sisters, was taught at a very early age to hate the name of the Saxon, and to long for the emanc.i.p.ation of Ireland from the thraldom of her hereditary foe. His paternal grandfather had also been a partic.i.p.ant in the ill-advised attempt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; and when James McGee accepted employment in the Coast Guard Service we may be sure that he was not actuated by any profound enthusiasm for the duties of his position. He seems, however, to have discharged those duties acceptably to his superior officers, and to have attained to a position which enabled him to provide a comfortable home for his family.

The wrongs of his country were nevertheless a fruitful theme of comment in James McGee's domestic circle, and the family traditions on both sides of the house were constantly retailed for the benefit of the younger members. Reared among such influences, it is not to be wondered at if young Thomas D'Arcy grew up to manhood without any very fervid sentiments of loyalty to the British crown. The mischief wrought by his early training was great, and was destined to exercise a baneful influence upon his future life. It was only after many years of severe discipline, and after he had reached an age to think and reflect for himself that he was able to unlearn the pernicious teachings of his childhood. He never ceased to regard the land of his birth with the affection of a large-hearted patriot, but he grew, in course of time, to rate at their true value the wild revolutionary projects which for many years impeded his intellectual advancement, and engrossed so large a share of his energies. He outgrew the follies of his early youth, and learned wisdom in the school of experience. He conceived n.o.bler and more practical schemes for the advancement of the race from which he sprang; and there is abundant reason for believing that, had his life been spared, he would have developed into a broad and enlightened statesman. His untimely death was a loss to the "New Nationality"

which he had helped to call into existence, and a grievous, almost irreparable loss to the Irish race in Canada. The a.s.sa.s.sin who sent him to his doom perpetrated a crime against humanity, but more especially against his fellow countrymen settled in this Dominion, when he shed the blood of Thomas D'Arcy McGee.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS DARCY McGEE, signed as T. D. McGEE]

He was, of course, reared in the faith of his ancestors, and was throughout his life a zealous adherent of the Roman Catholic Church. He was christened, in honour of his G.o.dfather, Mr. Thomas D'Arcy, a gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood of Carlingford, and who was a personal friend of the family. His mother, who was possessed of a good education, took a pride in directing his infant studies, and by her he was taught to read and write. He seems to have been her favourite son, and he returned her affection with all the enthusiasm of an ardent and poetic nature. She was a melodious singer, and delighted to hold her little boy on her knee while she sang to him those heart-stirring old ballads which stir the blood like the blast of a trumpet. Sometime in 1833, when he was eight years of age, his father was promoted to a more lucrative office than he had previously held. This promotion necessitated the removal of the family to the historic old town of Wexford, where the subject of this sketch began to attend a day-school.

We have no accurate information as to the course of study pursued by him, but as this establishment afforded the only scholastic training which he ever received, it is tolerably certain that he must have made good use of his time, for in after years he gave evidence of possessing a fair share of that peculiar knowledge which is seldom, if ever, acquired outside the walls of the schoolroom. The family had not long been settled at Wexford when it was deprived of its maternal head. The memory of his dead mother was ever afterwards cherished by young McGee with a hallowed fondness which found frequent expression. "Through all the changeful years of his after life," says Mrs. Sadlier, "her gentle memory shone like a star through the clouds and mists that never fail to gather round the path of advancing life."[11]

Notwithstanding the hindrances under which his genius was developed, Thomas D'Arcy McGee from a very early age gave unmistakable evidence of the possession of uncommon abilities. He learned his lessons, whatever they were, with astonis.h.i.+ng rapidity, and without any apparent mental effort. He was endowed with an ardent imagination, delighted in poetry, and had ever at command a flow of that brilliant eloquence and wit which are the especial birthright of so many of the sons of Erin. He read much, and remembered everything of importance that he read. He had an especial fondness for the history and literature of his native land, and was never weary of declaiming to his youthful a.s.sociates about "Ireland's Golden Age." He lived an imaginative life, and indulged in all sorts of wild dreams about the future of his race. He had his full share of ambition, however, and saw no means whereby he could acquire fame and influence at home. Like many another clever young Irishman, he cast longing eyes across the Atlantic, to that favoured land where hundreds of thousands of his race have found refuge from the buffetings of adverse fortune. When he was seventeen years of age he emigrated to the United States, accompanied by one of his sisters. After a brief visit to a maternal aunt who resided at Providence, Rhode Island, he repaired to Boston, whither he arrived in the month of June, 1842. A few days later came the annual Fourth of July celebration, which afforded him an opportunity of addressing a large crowd of his fellow-countrymen. His various biographers unite in describing his eloquence on this occasion as something marvellous. When it is borne in mind that he was only seventeen years of age, and that his audience was chiefly composed of emotional Irishmen, ready to applaud any sentiment from the young orator's lips, so long as it was sufficiently anti-British in its tone, a considerable discount from the commonly-accepted estimate is permissible. The speech was probably a fervid, audacious, emotional effort, partaking largely of the "spread-eagle" character, and addressed to the prejudices of the audience rather than to their calm judgments. It answered the speaker's purpose, however, by attracting a due share of attention to himself. A day or two later he obtained employment on the staff of the Boston _Pilot_, a weekly newspaper which was then, as now, the chief exponent of Irish Roman Catholic opinion in New England, and which was then, and for many years afterwards, controlled and published by Mr. Patrick Donahoe. To its columns young McGee contributed some "slas.h.i.+ng"

articles, and numerous short poems on national subjects, all of which were eminently calculated to compel admiration from its readers. Two years later he succeeded to the chief editors.h.i.+p. He had meanwhile acquired a good deal of additional knowledge as to the proper functions of a journalist, and had adopted a somewhat more chastened style than he had brought with him across the Atlantic. He had also begun to make a figure on the lecture platform, and had thrown himself with great enthusiasm into the agitation on the subject of "Repeal," which was then at its height both in Ireland and in America. His efforts on behalf of this movement reached the ears of the great Liberator, Daniel O'Connell himself, who, at a public meeting held in Ireland, referred to young McGee's editorials and metrical effusions in the _Pilot_ as "the inspired writings of a young exiled Irish boy in America." The result of the notoriety thus gained was an offer to Mr. McGee from the proprietor of the _Freeman's Journal_, of Dublin, to take the editors.h.i.+p of that widely-circulated paper. The offer was accepted, and early in 1845, at the age of twenty, our poet-journalist returned to his native land, and "took his place in the front rank of the Irish press." His connection with the _Freeman's Journal_, however, was not of long duration. The line of editorial action prescribed by the management was altogether too moderate for the radical young Irishman, who had had it all his own way during his three years' sojourn in the United States, and who believed himself well fitted to instruct his fellow-countrymen on all subjects, whether political or otherwise. Mr. O'Connell had laid down certain limits beyond which the National or Old Ireland Party must not pa.s.s. Of that Party the _Journal_ was the accredited organ, and the editor thus found himself out of harmony with his position. The Liberator was too Conservative for him, and was seeking the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of Ireland by what he regarded as too slow a process. Conceiving himself to be fully competent to instruct Mr. O'Connell as to the political necessities of Ireland, he was not disposed to submit to dictation. The doctrine of "moral force" advocated by the _Journal_ had no charms for him. He was young, enthusiastic, and governed almost entirely by his imagination.

After a brief interval he withdrew from his editorial position, and allied himself with the "Young Ireland" Party, as it was called. This alliance brought him into intimate relations with Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, known to us of the present day as the Hon. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Speaker of the Legislative a.s.sembly of Victoria, Australia. Mr.