Chapter III: Preface (3)

=MacVicar, Rev. Malcolm=, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Apologetics and Christian Ethics, McMaster Hall (Baptist College), Toronto, was born on the 30th September, 1829, in Argyleshire, Scotland. His father, John MacVicar, was a farmer in Dunglass, near Campbeltown, Kintyre, Scotland, and was known as a man of great physical and intellectual vigour, and was well known in his native Scotland and the land of his adoption, Canada, for his ability, generosity and sterling integrity. His wife, Janet MacTavish, possessed a similar character, and reached the age of ninety-two years before she died, having seen her children’s children in positions of usefulness and influence. Malcolm, the subject of this sketch, was one of twelve children, and came with his parents to Canada in 1835, and settled on a farm at Chatham, Ontario. His early years were spent at first on a farm, then at Cleveland, Ohio, where he learned the trade of ship carpenter. Being ambitious and anxious to get on, he decided to secure an education, and along with his brother Donald, now Principal of the Presbyterian College in Montreal, went to Toronto, in 1850, and entered Knox College to study for the Presbyterian Ministry, where he remained for two years. In the meantime his views of doctrines having undergone a change, he became connected with the Baptist denomination, and turned his attention to teaching and fitting young men for the Toronto University, preaching occasionally. He was ordained to the Baptist Ministry in 1856. In 1858 he went to Rochester, New York State, and entered the senior class at the University of Rochester, taking his degree of B. A. the following summer. He immediately went to Brockport, in the same county, where he became a member of the faculty of the Brockport Collegiate Institute, then under the principalship of Dr. David Barbank. Here, with the exception of one year spent in the Central School at Buffalo, he remained until the spring of 1867 (when that institution was transformed into a Normal School), first as subordinate, then as associate principal, and from April, 1864, sole principal of the school. He was a very successful teacher from the first, being full of energy, and ambitious to devise new and improved methods of illustrating and impressing the truth. Nor were the class-room walls the limit of his intellectual horizon, but he was constantly seeking some better plan of organizing the educational work immediately in hand, and over the whole state. He was quickly recognized by the regents of the University as one of the foremost teachers and principals in the state. In August, 1865, he, by appointment, read a paper before the convocation of that body on Internal Organization of Academies, which looked towards and proved the first step towards putting in practice regent’s examinations in the academies as a basis for distribution of the income of the literary fund. He was shortly afterwards appointed by the chancellor, chairman of a committee of principals of academies to consider the practical workings and results of the system of regent’s examinations just being instituted. During these years of his connection with the Collegiate Institute, he took a lively interest in the subject of the so-called normal training in academies, and became convinced that the utmost that could be done for teachers’ classes under the circumstances was too little to meet the needs of the common schools of the state. He, therefore, with the advice and cooperation of friends of education in Brockport and Rochester, and the Hon. Victor M. Rice, then state superintendent, proposed to the State Legislature, in 1865-66, a bill authorizing the establishment of a Normal and Training School at Brockport, and offering to transfer the Institute property to the state for that purpose on very liberal terms. Subsequently this measure was so modified as to provide for four schools instead of one, and to leave the location of them to a board consisting of the governor, state superintendent and state officers and others. In this form the bill became law. It now became necessary to adopt some definite plan of organization for the new schools, and Superintendent Rice at once turned to Professor MacVicar for assistance. The professor submitted a plan, which, with some slight modifications, was adopted and became the basis for the organization of all the schools under the law. In consideration of the services rendered by Professor MacVicar and other friends of the cause, the first school was located in Brockport, with Professor MacVicar as its principal, and he immediately set to work to organize this school, and opened it in the spring of 1867, having among the members of his faculty, Professor Charles McLean, William J. Milne and J. H. Hoose, now the Principals of the Normal schools of Brockport, Genesee and Courtland. The first year of Normal school work, carried on as it was in connection with planning and supervising the erection of the new buildings, proved a very trying one to Principal MacVicar, and his health giving way under the pressure, he resolved to offer his resignation at the end of the school year of 1867-8. This he accordingly did, but the state superintendent, preferring not to lose him from the state, granted him a year’s leave of absence, instead of accepting his resignation. He then took a trip west, during the summer of 1868, and was invited to become superintendent of the schools of the city of Leavenworth; after some consideration, he accepted this position, and remained there until the following April, in the meantime reorganizing the schools from bottom to top, a work that had been neglected hitherto. His western trip having restored him to perfect health, he returned to New York state, but thought it best not to again take up his work at Brockport. A Normal School having been located in Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, and about ready to open, he was invited to become its principal, and accepted the office. He at once gathered around him a corps of teachers, and opened his second Normal school, three weeks after he left Leavenworth. The regents of the University welcomed him back to the state, and expressed their estimation of his ability by conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the summer of 1869, and his _alma mater_ added an LL.D. the following year. The school at Potsdam was no sooner organized than he gave himself anew to the study of methods of instruction and the philosophy of education, for which he possessed a peculiar aptitude. Being encouraged by the other principals to work out his ideas into permanent shape for the general good, he became the author of several books on arithmetic; he also became the author and inventor of various important devices to illustrate, objectively, principles of arithmetic, geography and astronomy. Meanwhile there arose a degree of friction between the academies and Normal schools of the state, which made itself felt in the legislative session of 1876, in a threat to cut off the appropriations from the Normal schools, unless the academies were treated more liberally. At the next meeting of the Normal school principals, the matter was discussed, and the cause of the difficulty was found to be the double-headed management of their educational system. It was agreed that the remedy for the existing difficulties was found in uniting the management of all the schools of the state under one head. Dr. MacVicar and Dr. Sheldon, of the Oswego Normal school, were appointed to urge this view on the State Legislature at its next session. They conferred with a deputation of academy principals, and won their approval of the plan prepared. It was then embodied in a bill, and brought before the legislature in 1877. Although much time was spent in bringing the matter before the committees of the assembly and the senate, and many of the prominent men of both houses, who generally approved of the measure, yet the private interests of aspirants to the office of state superintendents conflicted with it, and it was thrown out when it came up for a hearing. In the autumn of 1880, Dr. MacVicar was invited to take the principalship of the Michigan State Normal school, at Ypsilanti, and finding it the only school of the kind in that state, and there being no diversity of interest in the educational management of the state, it seemed to offer an opportunity for something like ideal Normal school work, so he accepted the position. He remained there, however, but one year, when, being thoroughly worn out with hard work, and being urgently pressed to join the faculty of the Toronto Baptist College, just then opened, he resigned his position in Michigan and came to Canada. Dr. MacVicar excels as a mathematician and metaphysician, having read extensively in both directions, as well as in the natural sciences. He has also made the relation of science and religion a special study, and is now investigating the wide field of Christian Apologetics. As a writer and in the classroom, he is characterized by the utmost clearness and force, and his career as an educator has been eminently successful. It has fallen to his lot to perform a vast amount of hard work in all of which he has shown a spirit of self-sacrifice in a remarkable degree, through which he has been the means of advancing many others to positions of high trust and usefulness. His investigations in the science of education are critical and original, being based upon extensive observation and a large induction of facts. Having for twenty-five years taught a wide range of subjects, and being naturally possessed of strong and well trained logical powers, he is well qualified to analyze the human mind and all that is concerned in its proper education and harmonious development. To this work he now devotes such time as can be spared from strictly professional duties. As a theologian his views are definite and comprehensive, thoroughly evangelical and uncompromisingly opposed to the materialistic pantheism, and philosophical and scientific scepticism of the present day. On the 1st of January, 1865, Dr. MacVicar was married to Isabella McKay, of Chatham, and has a family consisting of three sons and one daughter.

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=Heavysege, Charles=, the gifted author of “Saul,” was born in Liverpool, England, May 2nd, 1816. On his arrival in Canada in 1853, he took up his residence in Montreal, where for a time he worked as a machinist, earning by hard labour a modest subsistence for himself and his family. Afterwards he became a local reporter on the staff of the Montreal _Daily Witness_; but, as has been the case with many another son of genius, his life was one long struggle with poverty. Through all his earlier years of toil and harassing cares, he devoted himself to study and poetical composition, but published nothing till he was nearly forty years of age. A poem in blank verse saw the light in 1854. This production, crude, no doubt, and immature, met with a chilling reception, even from his friends. Some time afterwards appeared a collection of fifty sonnets, many of them vigorous and even lofty in tone, but almost all of them defective in execution, owing to the author’s want of early culture. “Saul,” his greatest work, was published in 1857, and fortunately fell into the hands of Hawthorne, then a resident of Liverpool, who had it favourably noticed in the _North British Review_. Longfellow and Emerson, too, spoke highly of its excellence, the former pronouncing it to be “the best tragedy written since the days of Shakespeare.” Canadians then discovered that Heavysege was a genius, and made partial atonement for their neglect; but even to the end the poet’s struggle with fortune was a bitter one. In 1857, he published “Saul: A scriptural tragedy.” “Count Flippo or, The Unequal Marriage:” a drama in five acts (1860). This production is inferior to “Saul,” not only because it does not possess the epic sublimity of the sacred drama, but because in it there is too much straining after effect, the characterization is defective, and the criticism of life displayed is not of the highest quality. “Jephthah’s Daughter,” (1865): a drama which follows closely the scriptural narrative, and, so far as concerns artistic execution, is superior to “Saul.” The lines flow with greater smoothness; there are fewer commonplace expressions, and the author has gained a firmer mastery over the rhetorical aids of figures of speech. His mind, however, shows no increase in strength, and we miss the rugged grandeur and terrible delineations of his earliest drama. “The Advocate:” a novel (1865). Besides these works, Heavysege produced many shorter pieces, one of the finest of which, “The Dark Huntsman,” was sent to the _Canadian Monthly_ just before his death. To Art Heavysege, so his critics say, owed little. Even his most elaborate productions are defaced by unmusical lines, prosaic phrases and sentences, and faults of taste and judgment. But he owed much to Nature; for he was endowed with real and fervid, though unequal and irregular, genius. To the circumstances of his life, as much as to the character of his mind, may be attributed the pathetic sadness that pervades his works. Occasionally, it is true, there is a faint gleam of humour; but it is grim humour, which never glows with geniality or concentrates into wit. Irony and quaint sarcasm, too, display themselves in some of the Spirit scenes in “Saul.” But for sublimity of conception and power of evoking images of horror and dread, Heavysege was unsurpassed except by the masters of our literature. He possessed also, an intimate knowledge of the workings of the human heart; his delineations of character were powerful and distinct; and his pictures of impassioned emotion are wonderful in their epic grandeur. Every page of his dramas betrays an ardent study of the Bible, Milton, and Shakespeare, both in the reproduction of images and thoughts, and in the prevailing accent of his style. But he had an originality of his own; for many of his sentences are remarkable for their genuine power, and keen and concentrated energy. Here and there, too, we meet with exquisite pieces of description, and some of the lyrics in “Saul” are full of rich fancy and musical cadence. Without early culture, and amid the toilsome and uncongenial labours of his daily life, Heavysege has established his right to a foremost place in the Canadian Temple of Fame: what might he not have done for himself and his adopted country, had he been favoured by circumstances as he was by Nature! His death took place at Montreal, in August, 1876.

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=Torrance, Rev. Robert=, D.D., Guelph, Ontario, was born at Markethill, county of Armagh, Ireland, on the 23rd of May, 1825, and was the youngest of seven sons. His ancestor on his father’s side—M. Torrance—left Ayrshire, Scotland, during the times of the persecution, and settled in the north of Ireland, and their descendants have lived there, in the same locality, ever since. Robert Torrance, the subject of this sketch, went to school at an early age in his native village, and remained under the same tutor until he was ten years old, when he began the study of the Latin and Greek languages. In 1837, his parents removed to Glenluce, Wigtonshire, Scotland, and here Robert entered the school in this place, and continued the studies he had already begun before leaving Ireland, and began others preparatory to the life-work selected for him by his parents. In 1839, he was enrolled as a student in the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, then or shortly afterwards affiliated with the London University; then he studied Greek and logic, and _belles-lettres_; mental and moral philosophy under Dr. Robert Wilson; mathematics under Prof. Young; natural philosophy, including astronomy and optics, and Hebrew under Professor Harte, assistant to Dr. Hincks, who was then an old man, and confined his attention to the senior class. This Dr. Hincks, was the father of the celebrated Oriental scholar, Dr. Hincks, and of the late Sir Francis Hincks, whose name is well known in Canada. After the completion of his art course and passing the usual examination by the Presbytery in whose bounds he resided, he entered on the study of divinity, in the halls of the United Secession Church in Scotland. His first session was spent in Glasgow, and the subsequent ones in Edinburgh. His course was completed in 1845, with the exception of one session, and, as there was great want at that time for missionaries to go out to Canada, he offered his services, and was accepted, it being agreed, under the circumstances, to exempt him from attending the last or fifth session on his furnishing testimonials as to fitness for the field and work. These having been produced to the satisfaction of the Committee on Foreign Missions, of which Dr. John McKerrow was convener, the Presbytery of Kinross was instructed to take him on trials for license, with a view to his proceeding to Canada. According to appointment, these trials were delivered in the church at Inverkeithing, a village in Fifeshire, about four miles south from Dunfermline. Having passed the Presbytery and been licensed, he preached two Sabbath days in Scotland, one for Rev. Dr. MacKelvie, in Balgedie, in whose family he had been tutor for three seasons; and the other for Rev. Mr. Puller, in Glenluce, where he had spent his boyhood. He then at once left for Liverpool, taking his parents with him, and from that port sailed, in a few days, for New York, which was reached safely after a voyage of four weeks. Without delay, he proceeded to Toronto, and there occupied the pulpit of Rev. Mr. Jennings for a few Sabbaths, Mr. Jennings being at the time in Scotland recruiting his health. Mr. Torrance spent one year as a probationer, travelling through the western section of Canada, from Toronto to Goderich and Detroit, as he had determined not to settle down in a charge till he had gone over a good part of the mission field, and given as much supply as in his power. Travelling in those days was far from possessing the conveniences and comforts now enjoyed. There were no railways; in several of the districts there were no stage coaches. The probationer was thus under the necessity of purchasing a horse, and making his journeys on horseback. In winter he was exposed at times to intense cold, and in summer to prostrating heat. He had to clothe himself for such changes of temperature. Roads were sometimes obstructed with snow, and he had to wait till parties turned out and made them passable, or opened up a way through adjoining fields; in spring and fall there was deep mud and often the horse had difficulty in getting through, and some of the stations were difficult of access from other causes, such as their recent formation. Accommodation when he reached his destination, was not always such as he had been accustomed to in the fatherland. But the people were uniformly kind and courteous; they gave the best they had ungrudgingly, often wishing it were better; and extended a cordial welcome. Many an event then befell him which interested him at the time and still lingers in his recollection. After receiving and declining calls from three or four congregations, he accepted a call from a congregation in Guelph, and was ordained and inducted on the 11th of November, 1846. He remained in this charge till January, 1882, when his resignation was placed in the hands of the Presbytery, and its acceptance pressed. Towards the close of the same month the pastoral relationship to his congregation was dissolved, the General Assembly giving permission to retain his name on the Roll of Presbytery. Since that time he has not had a stated charge, but has been frequently employed as moderator of sessions of vacant congregations in the bounds, and doing other work of a ministerial character. Shortly after his settlement in Guelph, he was appointed a trustee on the High School Board, and filled that position for a number of years. He succeeded for a time to the superintendence of the Common (now called Public) schools, in the south riding of the county, having the oversight of the townships of Erin, Eramosa, Guelph and Puslinch. Finding the labours too onerous in connection with his pastoral work, he resigned the position after two years occupancy to the hands of the County council. Previous to this, however, in 1855, he had been chosen by the Guelph Board of Trustees superintendent of the schools in the town, then only three or four in number. This situation he has since filled without interruption, and has seen the progress made up to this date, the number of schools having increased to twenty-six, and a class of buildings provided unsurpassed by any in Ontario. Shortly after the Rev. Mr. Torrance’s settlement in Guelph, a new presbytery was formed, called the Presbytery of Wellington, and of this he was chosen clerk, and this office he filled till the union of the churches, which took place in 1861, when Mr., now Rev. Dr. Middlemiss, who had been clerk of the Free Church Presbytery, was chosen clerk of the united one. In 1870, Mr. Middlemiss resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Torrance, who still occupies the office. The church with which he was connected was known in his early days as the “United Secession,” a name afterwards changed to “United Presbyterian,” when the union between the Relief and Secession churches was effected. For some years he filled the position of convener of their committee on statistics, and also of their committee on the supply of vacancies and distribution of probationers. In 1874, his name appears for the first time as convener of the committee of the united church on statistics, and he was continued in the office at the farther union, which took place in 1875, and still occupies it. For some time the supply of vacancies and allocation of probationers were under the charge of the Home Mission committee, but they chose a sub-committee for the purpose, and for a few years the burden of the work fell to him with the other members. Ultimately a distinct committee was appointed by the General Assembly, to whom this service was assigned, and he was chosen convener. In 1880 he was chosen moderator of the Synod of Toronto and Kingston, which met in St. James’ Square Church, Toronto, and occupied the office for the usual period of one year. In 1883, he tendered his resignation, when Rev. Mr. Laidlaw of St. Paul’s Church, Hamilton, was chosen to succeed him. The scheme fell out of use, and it was considered unnecessary to continue the committee after 1884, till 1886, when the want of it having made itself felt, a new committee was appointed under a revised scheme, of which Rev. Mr. Laidlaw was appointed convener by the Assembly, and Mr. Torrance clerk by the committee, Mr. Laidlaw feeling that he could not carry on the work of the committee in connection with the weight and responsibility of his labours as the minister of an important city charge. In 1884, Mr. Torrance was chosen a life member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at its meeting in Montreal. In 1885, he was installed as a member of the Canadian Postal College of the natural sciences, and in September of the same year, he was constituted a life member of the Canadian Short-Hand Society. For several years he has been a member, by the appointment of the General Assembly of the Board of Examiners of Knox College, Toronto, and the senate of that institute conferred upon him, in 1885, the honorary degree of D.D. In 1851, he revisited Scotland, for the restoration of his health, which had become impaired through the labours that had been undergone; and again in 1881 he visited the old country, accompanied by his wife. On this occasion he travelled over the greater part of Scotland, visited Ireland and its chief cities, with the lakes of Killarney, and crossed over to Paris, where a week was spent amid the scenes of that gay and enchanting city. Rev. Mr. Torrance’s religious views are Presbyterian; these he says he acquired from his parents and is satisfied with their scriptural character, and has not changed his mind since boyhood. Rev. Mr. Torrance may now be considered as having retired from very active duties. In 1857, he purchased ten acres of fine land in the neighbourhood of Guelph, and having built thereon for himself a comfortable house, he resides there and devotes his spare time to gardening and the cultivation of flowers, having gone to the expense of importing from Scotland, and even China, some very rare flower seeds. In August, 1854, he was married to Bessie Dryden, of Eramosa, whose father and mother had come from the neighbourhood of Jedburgh, in Scotland, and took up land in that township soon after it was thrown open to settlers. Four children, two sons and two daughters, were born, all of them now grown up; two of them married, one of the latter, a daughter, having gone with her husband to China, under an engagement for four years at the close of which they have returned.

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=Moore, Paul Robinson=, M.D., Sackville, New Brunswick, was born on the 30th of March, 1835, in Hopewell, Westmoreland county, New Brunswick. (Since the county was divided, Hopewell is in Albert county). His father, Thomas Benjamin Moore was a lawyer in Albert and Westmoreland counties, and died in Moncton, Westmoreland county, April, 1875, aged sixty-eight years. His mother’s maiden name was Apphia Robinson, daughter of Deacon Paul C. Robinson, of Hopewell. She bore thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters, of whom three sons and four daughters still survive, the subject of this sketch being the third child. His paternal grand-father was John W. Moore, sergeant of the 1st battalion of Royal Artillery, and died a pensioner in Ballymena, Ireland, at eighty-five years of age. His paternal ancestors resided in the north of Ireland, and it is a family tradition that at the siege of Londonderry there were seven brothers Moore, engaged in the fighting, five of whom were slain in one attack. The remaining two survived the perils of the siege, and their descendants are still for the most part settled in the north of Ireland. His father was five years old when he came to this country in 1813, when the regiment to which his grand-father belonged was ordered out to defend Fort Cumberland. Paul Robinson Moore received a mathematical and classical education at the Mount Allison Institution, in Sackville, New Brunswick, up to the age of fifteen, when on account of ill health his studies were abandoned. Three years later, having regained his health, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Wm. T. Taylor, of Philadelphia, U.S., but had to give it up at the end of the first year, on account of another serious attack of illness which threatened to end in phthisis. He then returned to New Brunswick, and after recruiting his health, took a clerkship at the Albert mines in Hillsborough, New Brunswick, for eighteen months, and afterwards he was employed as bookkeeper and pay-master of the Boudreau stone quarries in Westmoreland county for a year. His health being then perfectly restored, he went to New York, and resumed his medical studies at the university of the city of New York, receiving private instruction at the same time from Dr. Gaillard Thomas. He graduated in March, 1859, and was appointed house physician and surgeon of Brooklyn City Hospital the following May, which position he held till May, 1860, when he returned to Albert county, New Brunswick, and commenced the practice of his profession. In January, 1875, he removed to Sackville, and entered into a professional co-partnership with Dr. Alexander Fleming, which continued till April, 1881, when Dr. Fleming removed to Brandon, North-West Territory, since which time Dr. Moore has been attending closely to his professional duties in Sackville. He was appointed coroner for Albert county in 1866, and magistrate for the same county in 1873. The doctor has taken an interest in various companies, and is at present a stockholder in the Moncton Cotton Company, the Sackville Music Hall Company, and the Baptist Publishing Company. He joined the Howard lodge of Free Masons in 1867, and Sackville division of the Sons of Temperance in 1875; became honorary member of the Glasgow Southern Medical Society in 1880, and president of the New Brunswick Medical Society in 1885. He is also a member of the Medical Council. He has never taken an active part in politics, but supports a Liberal government, and is an uncompromising Prohibitionist. He has travelled in England, Ireland, France, Scotland, and the United States. He has been a member of the Baptist church since 1865. On the 12th of December, 1866, he was married to Rebecca, eldest daughter of John Weldon, of Dorchester, Westmoreland county, by whom he has had nine children, four boys and five girls, of whom one boy and five girls survive.

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=Archambault, Urgel-Eugène=, Principal of the Catholic Commercial Academy, Montreal, was born at L’Assomption, on the 27th of May, 1834. His parents were Louis Archambault, farmer, and Marie-Angélique Prud’homme, belonging to a very old family of the province of Quebec. The Archambault family came from France and settled on the Isle of Montreal about the year 1650, thence off-shoots established themselves in different parts of the province of Quebec, especially at L’Assomption, from which place three or four members of this family were, at various times, elected to the Canadian parliament. Urgel-Eugène having attended school at Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan and at L’Assomption, became a teacher at the age of seventeen years (1851), taught during six years at Saint-Ambroise de Kildare, L’Assomption, Chateauguay, and finally completed his own studies at the Jacques-Cartier Normal School, from which institution he received an academic diploma. In 1858, he taught at Saint-Constant, and the following year he became head-master of the Catholic Commercial Academy of Montreal, the principal work of his life, and which he still directs. This school, established in Coté street, was transferred to the Plateau in 1871; it has become one of the principal educational institutions of the city, and even of the province of Quebec. In 1873, Mr. Archambault was named local superintendent of all the schools controlled by the Catholic Board of School Commissioners. The interior plans of the Plateau, Belmont and Olier schools are the work of his hands. This same year, 1873, he laboured successfully to bring about the foundation of an institution destined to form civil, mining, and industrial engineers. This was the Polytechnic School of Montreal, founded by the Catholic school commissioners and the Honorable Gedéon Ouimet, superintendent of education for the province of Quebec. Intended principally for Catholics, it was annexed to the Laval University in January, 1887. The university, which retains Mr. Archambault as principal of the Polytechnic School, has named him titular professor of the arts faculty. Much of the success attending the Jacques-Cartier Normal School conventions has been due to the active interest which he has taken in them. He is the author of the Teachers’ Pension Fund Bill, which became law in 1880, and was amended in 1886. In 1870, Mr. Archambault visited Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond (Virginia), and became acquainted with the best educators in the United States. Since then he has kept himself informed of their methods of teaching and management. With the same object in view, he visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876. In 1878, Mr. Archambault was sent to the Paris Exhibition, to represent the Educational department of the province of Quebec; and while in France he was named member of the International Educational Jury, and was the first Canadian ever decorated with the _Palmes Académiques_, and honored with the title of _Officier d’Académie_. On this occasion he was commissioned, by the Minister of Public Instruction in France, to deliver the _Palmes Académiques_ to Dr. J. B. Meilleur, and to the Honourable P. J. O. Chauveau and G. Ouimet, who, each in turn, had directed the Educational department of the province. To allow him to fulfil his mission at the Paris Exhibition, he was granted a seven months’ leave of absence, during which time he gathered an ample store of pedagogic ideas, which he has since utilized for the benefit of his country. In 1883-4, he made a second trip to Europe and to Northern Africa, during a six months’ leave of absence granted to him on account of his health. These voyages brought him into communication with several eminent persons, and with different societies. Already a member of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste and of the Historical Society of Montreal, he became a member of the Geographical Society of Paris; in 1882, he received the title of Knight of the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and in 1886 he was named honorary member of the first degree of the Universal Humane Society of Knight-Saviors. In 1860, Mr. Archambault married Marie-Phélonise Azilda, daughter of Dr. Robitaille, of Saint-Roch de l’Achigan. Of the eleven children born to them, six, a son and five daughters, are still living (1887).

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=Stewart, Rev. Wm. James=, Minister of the Baptist Church, Portland city, St. John county, New Brunswick, was born at Second Falls, St. George, Charlotte county, New Brunswick, on the 22nd of April, 1850. His parents, David and Agnes Stewart, were born in Newtownards, county Down, Ireland. They came to America with their parents, and were married in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, soon after their arrival. Shortly after this event they removed to Second Falls, where they lived happily together and raised a family of eleven children, William being the youngest. In February, 1857, his mother was removed from her family by death, and laid to rest by loving hands in the village church-yard. His father married again, his second wife being a Mrs. Manzer, a widow lady, who still survives him. He had no issue by this wife. In July, 1876, his father was called to his reward, and buried beside his first wife. Both were consistent members of the Baptist church. William James Stewart, the subject of this sketch, was not a very rugged boy, and was therefore kept constantly at school from his earliest boyhood. At the age of sixteen he finished the studies in the primary schools, and as there was no high school near his home, he was allowed to drop his studies for a few years. In the meantime he went on a visit to his brother and sister, both of whom were married and lived in the State of Minnesota, and after a year and a half he returned home a young man of twenty years, with no very definite idea of life or what he should do in the future. Not long after this, however, there came a change into his life which decided the future for him. The sermons of Rev. Edward Hickson, then pastor of the Baptist church in his native place, made a very deep impression on his mind. His father was a deacon of that church, and a very godly man, his life and influence being in perfect accord with the truth preached from the pulpit; and so after a good deal of anxiety of mind and earnest prayer to God, William was led to give his heart to the Saviour, and experience in his life that “peace which passeth all understanding.” On the 16th of June, 1872, he was immersed in the name of the Trinity by the Rev. E. Hickson, and received into the fellowship of the Second Falls Baptist church. He at once felt a desire in his heart to do something for Him who had done so much for the world, and his first work was to organize a Sunday school in connection with the church of which he was then a member. He also resolved to take up his long neglected studies and prepare himself for a life of usefulness, in the world. In October, 1872, he entered the Baptist Collegiate School in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He did not at that time have the ministry in view, but not long afterward it was pressed upon him with such weight that he could not rest day or night until he yielded to the voice of God in his soul, and began to shape his course with this in view. On 21st May, 1874, he received a license from the church of which he was a member, signed by George Allen, clerk, to preach the gospel according to the faith and practice of the Baptist church. He spent the vacations of each year of his student life in preaching the word as opportunity offered. The vacation of 1876 he spent at Musquash, near St. John, New Brunswick, and God poured out His Holy Spirit wonderfully upon the people and many precious souls were saved. There was no minister near to baptize, and he consented to be ordained, although he was but a student. His ordination took place on the 23rd day of May, 1876, in the Carleton Baptist church. In May, 1877, he finished his studies at Acadia College, and received a unanimous call to the churches at St. George and Second Falls, the latter of which he was a member. He at once entered upon his work, and was greatly blessed in his labours among his own people. On 1st July, 1878, he was married to Lillie S. Hanson, daughter of Vernon and Helen Hanson, in the city of Boston, by the Rev. Dr. Lorimer. After a pastorate of about four years in his native place, he received and accepted a call to the Baptist church in Parrsborough, Nova Scotia. He spent one year with this church, and then received and accepted a call to the Baptist church in Portland city, St. John county, N.B., and on 1st June, 1882, he entered upon his duties in the church of which he is at present (1887) the pastor. About two hundred souls have been added to this church since he took up the work, and God is now very graciously blessing it. The church edifice has been improved at a cost of about fifteen hundred dollars, and a fine parsonage purchased since he began his ministry in it. The outlook for the future is very hopeful. To God be all the praise. Rev. Mr. Stewart has had two children, a boy and a girl. The eldest is now a bright boy of seven years. The little girl, too sweet and pure for earth, was taken at the age of four by Him who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

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=Bayly, Richard=, B.A., Q.C., Barrister-at-law, London, Ontario, was born in Dublin, Ireland, on the 25th of May, 1834. He is the son of Rev. Benjamin Bayly, and Cassandra Henrietta Bayly, who, previous to coming to Canada, resided in Dublin, Mr. Bayly’s ancestors having resided in or near that city for over three hundred years. The Rev. Mr. Bayly occupied the important position of principal of the London Grammar school (afterwards the London Collegiate Institute) for over thirty-five years, until the 17th January, 1879, when he died, greatly respected by all who had the honour of his acquaintance. Richard received his education at the London Grammar school, in London, and at the University of Toronto, where he graduated with the degree of B.A. He then studied law in the office of the Hon. John Wilson (afterwards Justice John Wilson), and became a barrister and solicitor in 1857, and has successfully practised his profession in London ever since. He occupied a seat on the London Board of Education from 1876 to 1885 inclusive, and was chairman of the board for one year, and chairman of the School Management Committee for four years. For nine years Mr. Bayly was a warden of St. Paul’s Episcopal church, and for several years a delegate to the Diocesan and Provincial synods. In politics, he belongs to the Liberal-Conservative party, and for many years has taken an active interest in political issues. He was brought up in the Episcopal fold, and has seen no reason to change his religious belief. On the 22nd June, 1864, he was married to Eliza, eldest daughter of the late Dr. Chas. G. Moore, of London, and the issue of this marriage has been ten children, eight of whom survive—five boys and three girls.

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=Mowatt, Rev. Andrew Joseph=, Pastor of St. Paul’s (Presbyterian) Church, Fredericton, New Brunswick, is a native-born Canadian, having first seen the light on the 11th of February, 1838, in the town of Woodstock, Carleton county, N.B. His father, Thomas Mowatt, and mother, Elizabeth Scott Moffatt, emigrated from Great Britain to New Brunswick, and settled in Woodstock in 1837, where they remained for about two years, and then moved to Harvey, York county, where Andrew, the subject of our sketch, was brought up, and whose early recollections of the place is a little log hut in the forest, and a small log school-house where he received a common school education. After leaving this school, he went for two winters to the Collegiate school in Fredericton, then in charge of Dr. George Roberts, and afterwards he spent three terms at the Presbyterian college at Truro, Nova Scotia, taking the regular arts course there. He then studied theology under Rev. Dr. King, at Gerrish Theological Hall, Halifax, N.S., and completed his studies in 1866. On the 2nd of May of the same year, he received a license to preach the gospel from the Presbytery of Pictou, was called to the new congregation of Sharon church, Albion Mines, now Stellarton, and was ordained pastor on the 5th of June following. The Rev. Mr. Mowatt retained the charge of this church for seven years, and then left on receiving a call from St. John’s church, Windsor, N.S., and was inducted its pastor by the Presbytery of Halifax on the 8th of July, 1873. Here he laboured in the Lord’s vineyard for six and a half years. He then was called to the pastorate of St. Paul’s church in Fredericton, and was inducted into this charge on the 8th of January, 1880, by the Presbytery of St. John; and here he has laboured ever since. This church has greatly prospered under Mr. Mowatt’s able ministration, and, on the 10th of January, 1886, the congregation abandoned their old church edifice and moved into a fine stone building, which is an ornament to the town. Rev. Mr. Mowatt was brought up in the faith as taught by the Presbyterian church, and has so far seen no reason to change his opinion with regard to it. He has spent his life in his Master’s service, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has done something to advance His kingdom in this world, and, under God’s grace, fitted many a poor soul to enter the Father’s home of many mansions. He was married to Louisa Jane Annand, of Gay’s River, Colchester county, N.S., on the 30th of June, 1868. Her brother, the Rev. Joseph Annand, is a missionary on the island of Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides. Rev. Mr. Mowatt has a family of nine children.

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=Mitchell, Hon. James=, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, was born at the Scottish Settlement, York county, N.B., on the 16th March, 1843. His father, William Mitchell, was a native of Inverkip, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and came to America in 1827, settling in York county, N.B. His mother, Ann Dobie, was a native of Dumfries, in Scotland. James Mitchell received his education first in the public school, then in the Collegiate Institute, and latterly in the University of New Brunswick, at Fredericton, where, in 1867, he graduated with the degrees of B.A., and M.A. He afterwards studied law, and was called to the bar in October, 1870, and has since practised his profession at St. Stephen, Charlotte county, where he now resides. Mr. Mitchell was inspector of schools for Charlotte county from 1872 to 1875, and from 1877 to 1879, and during these years exercised a very material influence on the educational affairs of his town and county. He occupied the position of Census commissioner in 1881. He is at present a member of the Senate of the University of New Brunswick, and a member of the Alumni Society; also a member of the Lunatic Asylum Commission and of the Board of Education of the province of New Brunswick. At the general election in 1882 his fellow-citizens of Charlotte county chose him to represent them in the New Brunswick parliament; and, on the 3rd of March, 1883, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council, and surveyor-general of the province. On his presenting himself for re-election, he was returned by acclamation. He was again elected at the general election in 1886. Hon. Mr. Mitchell is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, having always identified himself with the party of progress in the country, and is an active promoter of railways, manufactures, and other public works. As a barrister he stands high at the bar of his native province. He is a past-master of the Free and Accepted Masons, and past-principal Z of the Royal Arch Chapter. He has followed in the footsteps of his parents, and is a consistent adherent of the Presbyterian church. On the 17th December, 1873, he was married to Miss Ryder, of St. Stephen.

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=MacFarlane, Foster=, M.D., Fairville, St. John, New Brunswick, was born in the parish of Studholm, Kings county, N.B., on the 12th December, 1834. His father, Matthew MacFarlane, was born in the parish of Dramore, county of Tyrone, Ireland, and was a descendant of a family of that name, who, with others, sought refuge from the persecution then prevailing in the Highlands of Scotland. The record of the family dates back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. The family name of “MacFarlane” took its origin from a grandson of the Earl of Lennox, named Bartholomew, the Gaelic of which is “Pharlan,” whose son was named MacFarlane (or son of Bartholomew). The seat of the Earl of Lennox was Dumbarton castle, which was held by his descendants the MacFarlanes, at intervals, and for six centuries they held possession of their original lands, the principal seat of which was Arrochar, at the head of Lochlong. The MacFarlane clan fought, and distinguished themselves, in the battle of Langside, May 13th, 1565, their valour mainly contributing to decide the fortunes of the day, and the defeat of Mary, Queen of Scots. For their bravery they received from the Regent their crest and motto which has ever since been inscribed on their family escutcheon, “This I’ll defend.” Chief among the descendants of this ancient family may be mentioned Walter MacFarlane, of MacFarlane, who is justly celebrated as the indefatigable collector of the ancient records of his country, and whose historical writings, according to Mr. Skeen, “form the best monuments to his memory; and as long as the existence of the ancient records of the country, or a knowledge of its ancient history remains an object of interest to any Scotchman, the name of MacFarlane will be handed down as one of its benefactors, which monument will be found more enduring than the barbaric splendour of his warlike countrymen, which has long since faded away, thus showing that it is not the destroyer but the benefactor of his fellow-creatures who is secure of immortality.” In 1815, when but a lad of twelve years of age, Matthew MacFarlane, accompanied his father, James MacFarlane, and other members of the family, to America, and on their arrival settled at Rockland, in Kingston, Kings county, N.B. Some years afterwards, and when the family had grown up, Mr. MacFarlane, sr., left his eldest son, Charles, on the homestead, and removed, with Matthew and his other sons and daughters, to Studholm, in the same county. About the year 1827, being amongst the pioneer settlers of that part of the country, Matthew MacFarlane married Sarah Foster, whose father, Ezekiel Foster, came from New England during the American war. One of his brothers fought at the battle of Lexington, and died in defending what he considered his rights, having espoused the cause of the colonists. Foster MacFarlane, the subject of our sketch, was the fifth child of this marriage, and first saw the light in a log cabin, the common abode of the pioneer farmers of those days. His earliest education was received in the parish school, and was limited to the rudiments of an ordinary English education. At the age of twenty, having passed the required examination before the local board then existing, he received a license to teach in the public school. After teaching for a time, he entered upon a course of study at the Baptist Seminary, Fredericton, and afterwards took a special course for a time at the University of New Brunswick. After leaving the university, he pursued a course in medicine at Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, and was privileged to sit at the feet of such men as Professor Agassiz, Jeffries Wyman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and E. Brown-Sequard, of Paris, graduating in 1868. He first practised medicine in his native parish for two years and a half. During this time he was appointed by the government a coroner for Kings county. He then removed to Fairville, St. John, N.B., where he has ever since practised his profession. He has been a member of the Senate of the University of New Brunswick since the spring of 1883, and a director of the Union Baptist Education Society since its incorporation. He was one of the promoters of the Dominion Safety Fund Life Association, filling for a number of years the position of director, and is now its medical superintendent. He united about thirty years ago with the Sons of Temperance, and has since belonged to other temperance organizations, being now a member of the Independent Order of Good Templars. He was brought up in connection with the Methodists, but in the year 1858 his views underwent a change, and he united with the Baptists, and is at present a member of the Fairville Baptist church. On July 20, 1868, he was married to Elizabeth A. Babbitt, daughter of Samuel Perry and Phœbe Babbitt, of St. John, N.B. He has five children—one son and four daughters.

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