Chapter IV: Part 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE HON. WILLIAM HUME BLAKE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE REV. ALEXANDER TOPP, D.D.

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

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

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

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

THE HON. HENRI GUSTAVE JOLY.

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

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

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

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

THE HON. MACKENZIE BOWELL,

_MINISTER OF CUSTOMS._

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

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

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

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

THE REV. JAMES RICHARDSON, D.D.,

_LATE BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN CANADA._

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

"Rochambeau their armies commanded,
Their ships they were led by De Grasse."

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

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

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

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

During the early months of their residence at Presque Isle Harbour, both Mr. Richardson and his wife became impressed by serious thoughts on the subject of religion. In August, 1818, they united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. That Church was then in its infancy in this country, and was struggling hard to obtain a permanent foothold. With its subsequent history Mr. Richardson was closely identified. He was very much in earnest, and felt it to be his duty to do his utmost for the salvation of souls. His piety was not spasmodic or fitful, but steady and enduring. His education at that time, though it was necessarily imperfect, and far from being up to the standard of the present day, was better than was that of most of his fellow-labourers. He at once became a man of mark in the denomination, and was appointed to the offices of steward and local preacher on the Smith's Creek circuit. His labours were crowned with much success. His pulpit oratory is described as being "full of vitality--adapted to bring souls to Christ, and build up in holiness."[8] In 1824 he was called to active work, and placed on the Yonge Street circuit, which included the town of York, and extended through eight of the neighbouring townships. This rendered necessary his removal from Presque Isle, and his resignation of his office as Collector of Customs. His field of labour extended from York northwardly to Lake Simcoe--a distance of forty-five miles--with lateral excursions to right and left for indeterminate distances. The state of the roads was such that wheeled vehicles were frequently unavailable, and the greater part of the travelling had to be done on horseback, the preacher carrying his books, clothing, writing materials, and other accessories in his saddle-bags. His life was necessarily a toilsome one, and his financial remuneration was little more than nominal. During his second year on circuit he had for a colleague the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, with whom he worked in the utmost harmony, and with very gratifying pastoral results. Dr. Richardson has left on record his appreciation of his colleague's services at this time. He says: "A more agreeable and useful colleague I could not have desired. We laboured together with one heart and mind, and God was graciously pleased to crown our united efforts with success--we doubled the members in society, both in town and country, and all was harmony and love. Political questions were not rife--indeed were scarcely known among us. The church was an asylum for any who feared God and wrought righteousness, irrespective of any party whatever. We so planned our work as to be able to devote one week out of four exclusively to pastoral labour in the town, and to preach there twice every Sabbath, besides meeting all the former appointments in the townships east and west bordering on Yonge Street for forty-five or fifty miles northward to Roach's Point, Lake Simcoe. This prosperous and agreeable state of things served to reconcile both my dear wife and myself to the itinerant life, with all the attendant privations and hardships incident to those times."