Chapter VII: Preface (7)

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

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

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

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

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

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=Milligan, Rev. George Macbeth=, B.A., Pastor of Old St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto. This rising and popular divine was born at Wick, Caithnessshire, Scotland, on the 11th of August, 1841, and when a mere lad came to Canada, and shortly after his arrival the family made Kingston their home. His parents were William Milligan and Catharine Macbeth. George received the first rudiments of his education at Pulteney Academy, Wick, and for some time after his arrival in this country he devoted himself to mechanical pursuits, but finding his inclinations lay in another direction, resolved to educate himself for the ministry, and with this object in view he entered Queen’s College, Kingston, and from this seat of learning he graduated in 1862, taking the first place in all his classes, and highest honours as a B.A. On the 4th of February, 1868, he was ordained to the ministry, and his first charge was at English Settlement, about fourteen miles distant from London, Ontario, and in this charge he remained until July, 1869, when he was called to Detroit. Here he laboured until the fall of 1876, doing good work for the Master, and making for himself many friends in the church, which in a great degree was built up under his pastorate. In 1876 Old St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, was without a pastor, and the members invited the young preacher to cast in his lot with them. He therefore left Detroit and came to Toronto, and in October of that year he took charge of the congregation. At this time Old St. Andrew’s Church was in a weak condition, the greater part of its members having left the old building and gone with the Rev. Mr. Macdonnell, who for several years had preached in it, to the new St. Andrew’s Church, erected on the corner of King and Simcoe streets. Therefore Mr. Milligan had a hard task before him but he resolved to do his best to keep together the members that remained in the old church edifice, which was situated on the corner of Church and Adelaide streets. At this time the membership only numbered forty-eight persons, but he went to work, and in a very short time enthused his people to such an extent—the membership and congregation having considerably increased in the meantime—that they resolved to abandon the old building and erect a more handsome one on the corner of Jarvis and Carlton streets, which was soon done, and the Rev. Mr. Milligan had the satisfaction of taking possession of the new pulpit in March, 1878. Since then everything has progressed most satisfactorily, and he can now boast of having one of the largest and most influential congregations in the city. Its present membership is 500, and last year the congregation raised, for all purposes, $15,000. But Rev. Mr. Milligan did not confine himself entirely to his duties as pastor. He found the Ministerial Association in a very languid condition, and he resolved to raise it to more vigorous action. He was elected its president during the second year of its existence, and under his presidency it began to be recognised as a power for good in the community, and to-day it exerts an influence far beyond its narrow city bounds. He has also been connected in Toronto with various other public associations, such as temperance, and that for the suppression of crime. He was for years one of the examiners in connection with the intermediate examinations; has been invited by the trustees of Queen’s College, Kingston, to become lecturer on Church history; and for a long time has occupied a position in the Senate of Knox College, and taken a prominent part as an examiner in the same institution. During the election campaign in Ontario, in 1886, he took a prominent part in the discussion then raging with regard to Roman Catholic interference in the Central prison, and in educational matters in our public schools, and helped to clear the atmosphere, to a considerable degree, of the fog some of our politicians attempted to introduce into the controversy. Rev. Mr. Milligan, though a busy man, often finds time to communicate his thoughts through the columns of the newspapers and magazines, and a short time ago the Executive committee of the Foreign Mission Board of his church induced him to write a series of letters to the _Globe_ on the foreign mission work of the Presbyterian Church, which attracted considerable attention at the time. Several of his sermons have been published, and have been well received, and his articles on scientific and ecclesiastical subjects in the magazines always find readers. During his summer vacations he frequently visits Britain. In 1881 he made an extensive tour through Europe, first visiting Britain, and penetrating as far north as John o’ Groat’s, which, by the way, is not very far from where he was born, and then travelled through France from Dieppe to Marseilles, along the shores of the Mediterranean through Cannes to Geneva, where he remained some time, and afterwards visited Paris, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Milan. While on this trip he took copious notes of what he saw, and afterwards embodied them in a course of lectures which he delivered in Toronto, and other places in Ontario, to large and appreciative audiences. He is also familiar with the greater portion of the Dominion from Prince Edward Island to Calgary in the North-West Territory. Rev. Mr. Milligan, it is needless to say, has been from his youth up a Presbyterian, and is conservative in some of his views on theology; yet he is in deep sympathy with many of the other branches of the Christian church. On the 19th November, 1867, he was married to Harriet Eunice Rowse, of Bath, Ontario. This lady is descended from the U. E. loyalists, who settled on the Bay of Quinté, and her grandfather was one of the elders of the Rev. Mr. McDowell, the founder of Presbyterianism in Western Canada. The fruit of the union is one son and three daughters.

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=Wilson, Rev. Robert=, St. John, New Brunswick, was born on the 18th of February, 1833, in Fort George, Scotland. His father, Peter Wilson, was a sergeant in the 93rd Highlanders, and saw service during the reigns of Kings George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. He came to Canada with his regiment previous to the rebellion of 1837-38, and helped as a true British soldier to suppress it. At Toronto, in 1841, he got his discharge, and then went to Prince Edward Island, where he resided until his death. He was for many years a Methodist local preacher, and died on the 24th of April, 1883. Robert received his educational training at the public school, New Glasgow Road, and at the Central Academy, Charlottetown (now the Prince of Wales College). After leaving school he adopted the profession of teacher, and taught a district school for some years. During this time, and since, he has taken an active part in everything that has a tendency to elevate his fellow man—politics, temperance, and religion. He was foremost in the advocacy of the confederation of the provinces, using the platform and the press in its advocacy; of temperance, in divisions and the lodge-room, having held the position of W. P. in the Sons of Temperance, and W. C. and chaplain in the Order of Good Templars; and of religion by his pulpit ministrations and practical Christian life. Rev. Mr. Wilson is a warm advocate of Imperial federation, having been one of the first, if not the very first, in the Maritime provinces to press it upon the public attention. As a writer and lecturer on secular subjects he occupies a front position. His lectures rank high as thoughtful literary efforts, and his sermons are generally admired. In short, there is no minister of any denomination down by the sea who has more friends within and beyond his own church, or who so frequently and cheerfully responds to the calls of lecture committees. In politics, Mr. Wilson is a Liberal-Conservative, and had editorial charge of _The New Brunswick Reporter_, of _The Albert County Advocate_, and _The Maple Leaf_. He has also for years been a regular contributor to several newspapers. He has written and published several books, among others, “Tried but True,” 300 pages; and “Never Give Up,” 300 pages (works well spoken of by the provincial press), besides, “Judea and the Jews,” “British North America,” and “Britain among the Nations,” in pamphlet form. He has travelled extensively through Canada, New England, and as a Dominion immigration agent in Great Britain. Mr. Wilson was brought up in the faith of the Kirk of Scotland, but since 1851 he has been connected with the Methodist church. He entered the ministry in 1853, and has been chairman of the Sackville and St. John districts of the New Brunswick Conference, Secretary of the conference for five sessions, and first delegate in the General conference held in Toronto in 1886. He was strongly opposed to the basis of union by which the various Methodist bodies were made one, especially to the general superintendency, because of its tendencies to Prelacy, and its curtailment of the privileges of the Annual conference. He believed in the unification of the non-Episcopal Methodist churches, but thought it wiser to allow the Episcopal to work out their destiny in their own way, than to grant the concession demanded, which meant the complete revolutionizing of the Wesleyan economy. Rev. Mr. Wilson was married on the 7th of February, 1856, to Mary Anne Lane, daughter of William Ford, Prince Edward Island, formerly of Ring’s Ash, Devonshire, England. The fruit of this marriage is five daughters and one son. The latter, Albert Edward, is an officer in the postal service at Fredericton, New Brunswick. We may add that the Rev. Mr. Wilson was elected president of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Conference in June, 1887.

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=Wallis, Herbert=, Montreal, Mechanical Superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, was born at Derby, England, on March 10th, 1844, and comes of a family long resident in Derby, whose head was for several generations engaged in the business of stage-coaching. His father, William Wallace Wallis, abandoned the business on the advent of railways, and became one of the carriers or cartage agents of the Midland Railway, from which he retired, in favour of one of his sons, some years prior to his death. Herbert Wallis was educated at the Commercial College, near Halifax, England, and here he was specially trained in that branch of the engineering profession which he now follows. On the completion of his education he entered the service of the Midland Railway Company as a pupil of Matthew Kirtley, then locomotive superintendent, and was engaged in the drawing office and workshops of that railway at Derby till August, 1866, at which date he was appointed foreman of the locomotive and carriage departments at Bradford, Yorkshire. In March, 1871, he accepted the position offered to him by Mr. Richard Potter (the then president), of assistant mechanical superintendent of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, and sailed for Montreal on May 4th of that year; and in January, 1873, he was appointed chief mechanical superintendent. Mr. Wallis is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers of England, and one of the council of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers. He is a staunch supporter of the Church of England. He married Mary Ellen, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Walklate, formerly goods manager of the Midland Railway Company, in August, 1870.

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=Long, Thomas=, Merchant, Collingwood, county of Simcoe, Ontario, was born in the county of Limerick, Ireland, on the 7th of April, 1836, and is the son of Thomas and Margaret Long. After procuring such education as he was able at the national school of his native village, he emigrated to this country when he was fourteen years old, arriving in the year 1850, and apprenticed himself to the general mercantile business with P. O’Shea, of Mono Centre, for a term of three years, during which he acquired such further educational advantages as could be obtained from time to time by attendance at the public school and by private study. On the expiration of his engagement with Mr. O’Shea, in the spring of 1853, Mr. Long came to Nottawasaga, and worked on the Northern Railway, then under construction, for about twelve months, after which he obtained another situation in a general store, which he held up to the 1st of December, 1858, when he embarked on his own account as a general merchant and buyer of grain and produce. In 1865 he was joined by his brother, John Joseph Long, and the firm thus formed traded under the style of T. Long & Brother. In 1868 a branch store was opened at Stayner, Simcoe county, and the business was carried on in this place under the name of Long Brothers & Gartlan, and in 1870 another branch was opened at Thornbury, Grey county. This enterprising firm, of which Thomas Long is now the senior partner, soon developed a wholesale trade, and they became large direct importers, which has since necessitated frequent visits of Mr. Long and his partners to the markets of Europe. In 1871 they erected fine new premises at Collingwood, which were unfortunately destroyed by fire in September, 1881, only, however, to be replaced by more commodious premises, in which the firm now carries on its principal business. In 1874 the firm erected, in connection with their business operations at Stayner, a flour mill, which proved a successful venture. Mr. Long has always taken the lead in all local enterprises carried on with the view of developing the business of the town and port of Collingwood. He was associated as stockholder and director with the late F. W. Cumberland, W. E. Sandford, and others in the establishment of the Lake Superior Navigation Company, which built the first steamer—_The Cumberland_—which traded with the Lake Superior ports. He was also one of the leading promoters of the Georgian Bay Transportation Company, and has otherwise greatly helped to promote the lake trade of his adopted country. Mr. Long served seven years in the town council, and eight years as a member of the Ontario legislature, in the Conservative interest, and is at present president of the North Simcoe Conservative Association. In addition to his business connection with the firm of T. Long & Bro., he has also the honours and responsibilities of the following public offices: vice-president and managing director of the Merritton Cotton Mill Company, Merritton; director of the Bank of London in Canada; secretary-treasurer of the Great Northern Transit Company; president of the Farmers’ North-West Land and Colonization Company; and president of the Great Northern Exhibition Company. Mr. Long is a member of the Roman Catholic church. He was married on the 13th of May, 1861, to Ann Patton, daughter of the late Charles Patton, builder, of Collingwood, by whom he has had fourteen children, of whom six are now living—three sons and three daughters.