The sincere radical abolitionists, with whom Dr. Ross was labouring, were despised, hated and ostracised by the rich, the powerful and the so-called higher classes; but Dr. Ross always possessed the courage of his opinions, and prefers the approval of his own conscience to the smiles or favours of men. During the Southern rebellion he was employed by President Lincoln as confidential correspondent in Canada, and rendered very important services to the United States government. For this he received the special thanks of President Lincoln and Secretary Seward. When the war ended, with the downfall of the Confederacy, Dr. Ross offered his services to President Juarez, of Mexico, and received the appointment of surgeon in the Republican army. The capture of Maximilian, and the speedy overthrow of the empire, rendered Dr. Ross’s services unnecessary, and he returned to Canada and to the congenial and more peaceful pursuits of a naturalist. The object of his ambition now was to collect and classify the fauna and flora of his native country, a labour never before attempted by a Canadian. He has collected and classified five hundred and seventy species of birds that regularly or occasionally visit the Dominion of Canada; two hundred and forty species of eggs of birds that breed in Canada; two hundred and forty-seven species of mammals, reptiles, and fresh water fish; three thousand four hundred species of insects; and two thousand species of Canadian flora. The Montreal Herald of August 19, 1884, says:—“Dr. Ross has been a member of the British Association of Science for the last fourteen years, and of the French and American Associations for the past ten years. The following brief sketch will, therefore, prove doubly interesting in view of the approaching gathering of scientific men (meeting of the British Association, Sept., 1884), in this city. He has devoted special attention to the ornithology, ichthyology, botany and entomology of Canada; has personally made large and valuable collections of the fauna and flora of Canada; has enriched by his contributions the natural history museums of Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, Athens, Dresden, Lisbon, Teheran and Cairo, with collections of Canadian fauna and flora. He is author of “Birds of Canada” (1872), “Butterflies and Moths of Canada” (1873), “Flora of Canada” (1873), “Forest Trees of Canada” (1874), “Mammals, Reptiles, and Fresh water Fishes of Canada” (1878), “Recollections of an Abolitionist” (1867), “Ferns and Wild Flowers of Canada” (1877), “Friendly Words to Boys and Young Men” (1884), “Vaccination a Medical Delusion” (1885), and “Natural Diet of Man” (1886). He received the degrees of M.D. (1855), and M.A. (1867); and was knighted by the Emperor of Russia (1876), King of Italy (1876), King of Greece (1876), King of Portugal (1877), King of Saxony (1876), and received the Medal of Merit from the Shah of Persia (1884), the decoration of honour from the Khedive of Egypt (1884), and the decoration of the AcadÉmie FranÇaise from the government of France (1879). He was offered (and declined) the title of baron by the King of Bavaria, in recognition of his labours as a naturalist, and was appointed consul to Canada by the King of Belgium and the King of Denmark. Dr. Ross was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Linnean and Zoological Societies of England; the Royal Societies of Antiquaries of Denmark and Greece; the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Russia; the Imperial Botanical and Zoological Society of Austria; the Royal Academy of Science of Palermo, Italy; a member of the Entomological Societies of Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Bohemia and Wurtemburg; member of the Hygienic Societies of France, Germany and Switzerland; honorary member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and member of the European Congress of Ornithology. For several years past Dr. Ross has laboured with his characteristic zeal and energy in behalf of moral and physical reform. He is the founder (1880) of the Canadian Society for the Diffusion of Physiological Knowledge, and enlisted the sympathy and active support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Earl Shaftesbury, the Archbishop of Toronto, and two hundred and forty clergymen of different denominations, and three hundred Canadian school-teachers in the work of distributing his tracts on “The Evils Arising from Unphysiological Habits in Youth”; over one million copies of these tracts were distributed among the youth of Britain and Canada, calling forth thousands of letters expressing gratitude from parents and friends of the young. Dr. Ross is one of the founders of the St. Louis Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons, in which he is professor of hygiene, sanitation and physiology. He is always on the side of the poor and the oppressed, no matter how unpopular the cause may be. He does his duty as he sees it, regardless of consequences to himself. The philanthropic Quakeress, Lucretia Jenks, thus speaks of Dr. Ross: —

When Dr. Ross had attained his fiftieth birthday, he was the recipient of many tokens of regard and congratulations from friends and co-workers. From the poet Whittier the following: —

From Wendell Phillips:—

From Harriet Beecher Stowe:—

During the small-pox epidemic in Montreal in 1885 Dr. Ross was a prominent opponent of vaccination, declaring that it was not only useless as a preventive of small-pox, but that it propagated the disease when practised during the existence of an epidemic. In place of vaccination, he strongly advocates the strict enforcement of sanitation and isolation. He maintains that personal and municipal cleanliness is the only scientific safeguard against zymotic diseases. When the authorities attempted to enforce vaccination by fines and imprisonment, Dr. Ross organized the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League, and successfully resisted what he considered an outrage on human rights. Dr. Ross is a radical reformer in religion, medicine, politics, sociology and dietetics, and a total abstainer from intoxicants and tobacco. He is a graduate of the allopathic, hydropathic, eclectic and botanic systems of medicine, and a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.

To the Reverend H. Pickard, D.D.:

Dear Brother,—The members of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Conference, assembled in annual session, desire to express to you their hearty congratulations upon the completion of Fifty Years in the honourable work of your ministry. We also express our gratitude to God, that he has so long spared you to see the growth, prosperity, and influence of the church to whose interests you have given such rich qualities of learning, wisdom, and piety.

We rejoice that through all these years your moral and ministerial character has been preserved without a stain. We are profoundly conscious of the far-reaching influence of your life in our Academic and College work. The ministry of this and other churches, as well as the business and professional life of our provinces, have been enriched by the ripe scholarship and godly zeal of those who owe much to you for their culture and their ability in their callings. We are not unmindful that other departments of our church work have been benefited by your consecrated zeal and wisdom. As early life directs and tinges the thoughts of advanced age, we fail not to discern in you the earnestness of purpose, the singleness of aim that mark the years of the early itinerant. Your company has almost gone before, and while with the few venerable men whom we lovingly call Fathers, you wait the summons of the Master, you say —

We desire that your day, as it draws to its close, may be brightened by the glory of the sunset, full of the golden promise of the eternity of light.

Signed by order of the Conference,

C. H. Paisley,         Robert Wilson,

Secretary.                President.

Marysville, N.B., June, 1887.

Mr. Pickard was twice married, first at Boston, on October 2nd, 1841, to the daughter of Ebenezer and Hannah M. Thompson, by whom he had two children—Edward Dwight and Charles F. Allison, who died in early childhood and infancy. Mrs. Pickard died at Sackville, the 11th of March, 1844. She was a lady of superior ability, and much literary talent, her memoirs and selections from her writings were published at Boston, by the Rev. Edward Otheman, A.M., in a duodecimo volume of upwards of 300 pages, in 1845, which is now out of print. He was married again on the 5th of September, 1846, to Mary Rowe Carr, who was born at Portland, Maine, United States, the daughter of John and Avis Preble Carr. This second wife bore him two daughters, the first, Mary Emarancy, is the wife of Andrew M. Bell, hardware merchant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the mother of two boys, Winthrop P. and Ralph P. The second, Amelia Elizabeth, is the wife of A. A. Stockton, D.C.L., M.P.P., of St. John, New Brunswick, and mother of six living children, three daughters and three sons. The second Mrs. Pickard died on the 24th of January, 1887, in the 77th year of her age.

Yet he is not an eclectic in the narrow sense of the word, which is now practically synonymous with homoeopath. A thorough knowledge of anatomy, a complete acquaintance with the physiological effect of every drug or remedy, a no less complete acquaintance with pathology, and a virility of character sufficient to elevate the mind above the crude ideas of past generations, whether sanctioned by usage or made sacred by great names, must in future, he contends, be characteristics of the successful medical practitioner. A determined opponent of everything irrational or unintelligent in medicine, Dr. Gaynor has ever raised his voice against that hit-or-miss method, facetiously yet correctly styled “shot-gun practice,” which combines, for example, in one prescription three, four, or six different remedies, with the hope that if one misses some of the others will touch the target. He is, by consequence, a strong believer in the single remedy in every prescription. Dr. Gaynor is also a specialist in gynecology, his practice in St. John being almost limited to this department of his profession. He resides at number 2 Germain street.

THOMAS TALBOT,

FOUNDER OF THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT,

Died 6th February, 1853.

We take leave of our worthy hero, in the words of an English song-writer: —

And the Quebec Mercury of the 10th July, 1878, has the following in relation to a second letter from the same source: “It will be remembered that in February, 1877, Mr. BaillairgÉ received an official letter from the Minister of Public Instruction, of St. Petersburg, Russia, informing him that his new system of mensuration had been adopted in all the primary and medium schools of that vast empire. After a lapse of eighteen months, the system having been found to work well, Mr. BaillairgÉ has received an additional testimonial from the same source, informing him that the system is to be applied in all the polytechnic schools of the Russian empire.” Mr. BaillairgÉ has since that time given occasional lectures in both languages on industrial art and design, and on other interesting and instructive topics, and is now engaged on a dictionary or dictionaries of the consonances of both the French and English languages. In 1866 he wrote his treatise on geometry and trigonometry, plane and spherical, with mathematical tables—a volume of some 900 pages octavo, and has since edited several works and pamphlets on like subjects. In his work on geometry, which, by the way, is written in the French language, Mr. BaillairgÉ has, by a process explained in the preface, reduced to fully half their number the two hundred and odd propositions of the first six books of Euclid, while deducing and retaining all the conclusions arrived at by the great geometer. Mr. BaillairgÉ, moreover, shows the practical use and adaptation of problems and theorems which might otherwise appear to be of doubtful utility, as of the ratio between the tangent, whole secant, and part of the secant without the circle, in the laying out of railroad and other curves running through given points, and numerous other examples. His treatment of spherics and of the affections of the sides and angles is, in many respects, novel, and more easy of apprehension by the general student. In a note at foot of page 330, Mr. BaillairgÉ shows the fallacy of Thorpe’s pretended solution of the trisection of an angle, at which the poor man had laboured for thirty-four years, and takes the then government to task for granting Mr. Thorpe a patent for the discovery. In February, 1874, he visited Europe, and it was on the 15th of March of that year that he received his first laurels at the “Grand Conservatoire National des Arts et MÉtiers,” Paris. Some of Mr. BaillairgÉ’s annual reports on civic affairs are very interesting and instructive; that of 1878, on “The Municipal Situation,” is particularly worthy of perusal. His report of 1872 was more especially sought after by almost every city engineer in Canada and the United States, on account of the varied information it conveyed. It may also be remembered, as illustrative of the versatility of his talent and of his humouristic turn of mind, that a comedy, “Le Diable Devenu Cuisinier,” written by him in the French language, was, in 1873, played in the Music Hall, Quebec, and again in the Salle Jacques Cartier, Quebec, by the Maugard Company, then in the city, to the great merriment of all present. Nor will the members of “Le Club des 21,” composed as it is of the literati, scientists and artists of Quebec, under the presidency of the Count of Premio Real, consul-general of Spain for Canada, soon forget how, in March, 1879, Mr. BaillairgÉ, in a paper read at one of the sittings of the club, around a well-spread board, successively portrayed and hit off the peculiarities of each and every member of the club, and of the count himself, while at the same time doing full justice to the abilities of all. Mr. BaillairgÉ is a close and industrious worker, devoting fourteen hours out of the twenty-four to his professional calling, and again robbing the night for the time to pursue his literary and scientific pursuits. In politics, if he may be said to have any, he is inclined to liberalism, but he is of too independent a character to be tied to a party, preferring to treat each question on its merits, irrespective of its promoters. The subject of this sketch is brother to G. F. BaillairgÉ, deputy minister of Public Works of the Dominion, and grand nephew to FranÇois BaillairgÉ, an eminent painter and sculptor “de l’AcadÉmie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, France,” who carved some of the statues in the Basilica, and whose studio in St. Louis street, Quebec (the quaint old one-story building, now Campbell’s livery stable), was at that time so often visited by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, during his sojourn in Quebec. A portrait of Mr. BaillairgÉ, accompanied by a brief biographical notice, appeared in “L’Opinion Publique,” of the 25th April, 1878. The “Rivista Universale,” of Italy, also published his portrait and a biographical sketch of Mr. BaillairgÉ’s career in February of 1878. Since 1879 Mr. BaillairgÉ has been the recipient of the following additional testimonials:

In July, 1882, Mr. BaillairgÉ was unanimously elected president of the newly incorporated body of Land Surveyors and Engineers of the province of Quebec, which position he continued to fill till 1885.

In 1887, Mgr. Lorrain travelled 1,700 miles on his pastoral visit to the Indian missions on the Upper Ottawa, Rupert’s Land and the Upper St. Maurice. His route was from Ottawa, via Pembroke, to Lakes Temiscamingue, Obaching, Kepewa, etc., thence to the source of the River du Molhe; from here through a chain of lakes to the “Lac BarriÈre” mission, now on Lake Wapous; thence to Lake Wassepatebi, lying between the province of Quebec and Rupert’s Land; through Cypress Lake, River Pekeskak, by a chain of five lakes, the Laloche river to Lake Waswanipi. The return trip was made by the same route as far as Lake Waswanipi, to the Mekiskan river and the upper waters of the St. Maurice; thence through various lakes, Lake Long, Lake Coucoucache and others to the Grand Piles. This involved a trip of 1,700 miles, mostly by water in bark canoe, occupying two months and six days, and 1,172 miles being travelled by canoe. The portages were from an arpent to four miles long, and there were 157 of them. During the five years Bishop N. Z. Lorrain has been in Pembroke he has paid an old debt of $11,000 on the church; built a magnificent episcopal residence at a cost of $18,000, upon which sum $8,000 has been paid; bought twenty-nine acres of land for a graveyard; purchased plots of sixteen acres of ground in the most beautiful part of the town, as sites for charitable institutions in the future. Mgr. Lorrain is an eminent English scholar. There is no doubt he is destined to do a great work for his country, and that his wise counsel will always have weight in the periodical councils of his church.

Mr. Murphy is a justice of the peace for the city and district of Quebec; a director of the Quebec Central Railroad; has been president of the St. Patrick’s Society; president of St. Patrick’s Literary Society; for four years president of the Quebec Turf Club, and was one of the committee of management of St. Patrick’s Church, prior to the change being made in the temporal administration of that church. In 1880 he was elected president of the Quebec Board of Trade, and the following year was again unanimously elected for another term. At the general election held in 1866 he was elected to represent Quebec West in the local legislature. In politics he is a Liberal, but is in favour of the national policy. In religion he is an adherent of the Roman Catholic church. He was married in 1857 to Elizabeth, daughter of the late James Loughry.

The charge of murdering her husband brought against Mary Dunlop, of Mink Lake, was investigated last week before S. E. Mitchell, Esq., police magistrate, at great length, occupying five days and the half of the intervening nights. Many questions of an important nature had to be decided by his worship, and the ability and learning with which he disposed of them are shown by the fact that at the close of the evidence the counsel on both sides expressed their entire satisfaction and appreciation of the fairness shown to each by the bench. It is almost needless to say that no other justice of the peace for the county could have displayed as much ability and skill in the hearing of this important case. At the close his worship delivered a most eloquent and instructive address on the gradual development of our criminal law and the duties of the court on such a case arising. There was no evidence brought out that would point to the guilt of the prisoner. She was consequently discharged, and the matter remains as great a mystery as ever.

The same paper again, in its edition of the 25th January, 1887, thus alludes to Mr. Mitchell: —

The Pembroke Observer (Liberal) of 28th January, 1887, has also a good word to say in favour of Mr. Mitchell: —

Although the council, being decidedly anti-Scott Act, failed to recommend Mr. Mitchell for the office, nevertheless the Ontario government, to its credit, on the recommendation of the License Board and the county branch of the Dominion Alliance for the suppression of the liquor traffic, appointed him to the office. Mr. Mitchell has had a hand in almost every public and private movement inaugurated in Pembroke during his long residence of about thirty years. Among others, the establishment of the Pembroke Philharmonic Society; the building up of the Pembroke lodge, No. 128, G.R.C. Free and Accepted Masons, the mastership of which he held during the years 1870 and 1871; the Pembroke lodge of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, and temperance societies in general. He delivered an address on “Oddfellowship” at the anniversary celebration of the Renfrew lodge, which at the time was characterised by the Noble Grand as the finest presentation of objects of the order he had ever listened to, and after hearing Mr. Mitchell give a song, the same high dignitary said “Mr. Mitchell had proved himself as good a singer as he was an orator.” Mr. Mitchell is a staunch Reformer, and was for many years president of the Pembroke Reform Association, up until 1886, when he found the position somewhat incompatible with that of police magistrate, and resigned. He has always occupied a foremost place in the councils of his party in his district, and has on some occasions been spoken of as the coming man for legislative honours, but various considerations have prevented him from complying with the kind solicitations of his political friends. He was brought up in the Church of England, but in 1859 he joined the Methodist church of Canada, and has continued to be a member of that church over since. He has served on some of the most important of the church committees for about a quarter of a century, and was a member of the General Conference of 1878. Mr. Mitchell has been twice married. First, in 1860, to Mary Ann, daughter of D. B. Warren, of Allumettes Island, county of Pontiac, Quebec province, who died in 1868, leaving three children, who still survive. Second, in 1869, to Ellen Jane, daughter of John Deacon, J.P., of South Sherbrooke, county Lanark, Ontario, and sister of John Deacon, county judge of Renfrew, by whom he has two surviving children.

Dr. Moody was married on the 14th of September, 1830, to Sarah Bond, eldest daughter of the late Henry G. Farish, M.D., of Yarmouth. His widow survived him, but entered into her rest on the 20th of May, 1887, universally beloved and revered. They had a family of nine children, only four of whom; three daughters and one son, survive them. Their eldest son, John T., rector of Tusket, N.S., died on the 4th of October, 1864, leaving a widow and three children. Their second son, Henry G., was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, and died on the 30th of July, 1873, leaving a widow. James C., the only surviving son, is a graduate of the University of New York, and is engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery at Windsor, Nova Scotia.

His Eminence Cardinal Taschereau accordingly addressed the following letter to Mr. BaillairgÉ, on the 21st of August, 1886:

The Hon. Mr. Fabre, who published this letter in the Paris-Canada, a newspaper which is printed at Paris, adds:

Cardinal Taschereau’s letter was followed by his “Pastoral Letter” of the 8th of December, 1886, respecting the Laval University, and alluding to the chair founded in that institution by Mr. BaillairgÉ. On the 18th of May, 1887, his Holiness the Pope Leo XIII., nominates Mr. BaillairgÉ “Chevalier-Commandeur of the illustrious order of St. Gregory the Great,” by Apostolical Letters-patent of the same date. These Letters-patent were presented by order of his Eminence Cardinal Taschereau to Mr. BaillairgÉ, by Monseigneur LÉgarÉ, the Grand Vicaire, and by Monseigneur Marois, secretary of his eminence, acting as his special delegates on this occasion. His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni, chief of the Propaganda, is said to have contributed to this nomination. The uniform and insignia of a Chevalier-Commandeur is as follows:—Uniform—A dark blue, long-tailed dress-coat, with silver embroidery of laurel leaves, and silver buttons on the front; collar, facings, and the lower portion on the back, also embroidered with silver; long white chamois pantaloons, with a silver band on the sides; small black boots; black cocked hat with short black spiral plumes and silver clasp. Insignia:—Maltese cross of gold with a circular medallion at the centre, containing the miniature of Gregory the Great; gold-hilted sword at the side, etc. In 1887 a statue of the Saviour was presented by Mr. BaillairgÉ to the Grey Nuns of Quebec. It was blessed by his Eminence Cardinal Taschereau, and placed on the summit of the tower above the main entrance of the Grey Nuns’ Church, on the 18th of September of the same year. The statue is about fifteen feet in height, is plated on the outside with gilded sheet lead, and weighs about 4,000 lbs. It was sculptured by Mr. Jobin, an artist of the old capital.

And though before the union was consummated he had retired from public life, and was therefore in no way responsible for the details of the scheme, yet his advocacy of the measure on its broad basis tended in no slight degree to create and educate public opinion, and smoothed the way for those who eventually succeeded in effecting the important change in the constitution he was the first to advocate. In the year 1857 Hon. Mr. Johnston, then attorney-general and leader of the government, pursuant to a resolution passed in the House of Assembly, proceeded to England to adjust the differences that for years existed between the province and the General Mining Association, who, as assignees of the Duke of York, to whom they had been granted, claimed the exclusive right to the mines and minerals of Nova Scotia, and who, by virtue thereof, possessed a practical monopoly of the coal trade. After a protracted negotiation, a compromise was effected and an agreement entered into by which the General Mining Association ceded to the government all their right and title to, and over, all the unworked mines and minerals. Thus was a grievance of long standing amicably settled, and their right to the great wealth hidden in the bowels of the earth secured to the people of Nova Scotia. In the year 1863, after a labourious and active professional life, and a somewhat turbulent political career, Hon. Mr. Johnston accepted a seat on the bench as judge in Equity and judge of the Supreme Court. The duties of his office were discharged with assiduity and the strictest integrity, and his decisions were received by the bar as clear, logical, and exhaustive expositions of the law. In the summer of 1872, Hon. Mr. Johnston obtained leave of absence, and proceeded to the south of France in the hopes that a milder and more genial climate might remove a bronchial affection from which he was suffering, but the beneficial results anticipated did not follow. He was offered in the following year the lieutenant-governorship of his adopted country, vacant by the demise of the late Hon. Joseph Howe, but this position the state of his health compelled him to decline. Early in life Mr. Johnston connected himself with the Baptist Church, and to the end continued a member of that communion. For years he devoted his time, energies and talents to the advancement of that body, socially, politically and educationally. The Baptist Academy at Wolfville, as well as Acadia College, owe their existence in a large measure to his personal labours, influence, and untiring exertions both in parliament and out. Of the latter institution he was one of the first governors, and continued to hold the office uninterruptedly, by repeated re-elections, to the time of his death. He was several times elected president of the Baptist Convention of the Maritime provinces, who, on his leaving the country, marked their great appreciation of his character and their sense of their lasting obligations to him by the unanimous adoption of the following resolution: —

Hon. Mr. Johnston was twice married. His first wife was Amelia Elizabeth, daughter of the late William James Almon, surgeon, who was assistant surgeon to the Royal Artillery in New York, in June, 1776, and Rebecca Byles, granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Byles, of Boston, Massachusetts. By her he had three sons, the eldest of whom is now the judge of the County Court for the metropolitan city and county of Halifax, and three daughters. Of these, two sons and one daughter are alive. His second wife was Louise, widow of the late Captain Wentworth, of the Royal Artillery, by whom he had one daughter and three sons; the daughter and two sons are living. Mr. Johnston’s physicians advised that his state of health would not permit of his return to Nova Scotia, and he determined to pass the winter of 1873 at Cheltenham, England, where, on the 21st day of November, in that year, at the ripe age of eighty-one years, and in the full possession of his mental faculties, he died, full of honours, leaving behind him a name untarnished, a character above reproach, and a reputation as a statesman, jurist and judge worthy of emulation by those who shall hereafter fill the places vacated by him.

              I.

Later on, when the war feeling was at its height in Canada, and when hostilities were expected to break out between England and the United States on account of the Trent affair, he contributed to form a drill association, for the purpose of raising volunteer regiments, to assist the regulars in defending the country. One of the associations was called “Les Chasseurs de QuÉbec,” and he wrote for them the following song, so far inedited:

Some time after, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the reserve militia. His intention had been to devote his life to politics, and the practice of his profession, having adhered for some time in politics, to the views of the late Hon. Joseph Cauchon, subsequently lieutenant-governor of Manitoba; but in 1861, he was offered, by the administration of Sir George Cartier, and accepted the office of joint prothonotary of the Superior Court, and still retains the position. Having exhibited such a taste for literature in his early youth, it is not surprising to find him with a strong tendency to poetry, which was developed so far that he is familiarly known as one of the poets of Lower Canada, for he has written some of the most graceful poems and lyrics published in this country. Upon the occasion of the visit of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to Canada in 1860, M. FizÉt was invited by Sir Hector Langevin, at that time mayor of Quebec, to compose the ode of welcome for that city to the young prince, which was much admired, and for which he was complimented and received the thanks of our good Queen’s son. Mr. FizÉt was jointly with the Hon. M. A. Plamondon, the founder of the Canadian Institute of Quebec (“l’Institut Canadien de QuÉbec”) of which he afterwards became president, and for several terms subsequently held, and still holds, the office of honorary president. In 1856, while holding this office, he offered thirty pounds for the best essay on the subject: “Quels seraient les moyens À adopter pour crÉer en Canada une littÉrature nationale.” In 1878, he also put up to competition a prize of twenty-five pounds, to be adjudged by the said institute for the best essay on the following subject: “Eloge de l’agriculture; de l’État de l’agriculture dans la province de QuÉbec; des moyens À prendre pour en activer le progrÈs.” Hon. Senator Fabre, at present Canadian agent in Paris, France, in a public lecture delivered in Quebec, said, regarding the subject of this sketch, Mr. L. G. C. FizÉt, “Imagination charmante, au vol gracieux; poÈte dÉlicat, au vers ÉlÉgant.” Most of his published poems have appeared in La Ruche LittÉraire, Les SoirÉes Canadiennes, La LittÉrature Canadienne, Le Foyer Canadien, Le journal de l’Education, and some of the leading French journals. The following extracts from “L’Histoire de la LittÉrature Canadienne,” by Lareau, of Montreal, may possibly tend to show the high repute in which M. FizÉt is held in that city. In 1867, Mr. FizÉt obtained the silver medal, at a poetical competition, opened to all comers, by the Laval University, on the following subject, viz., “The Discovery of Canada.” The competitors were numerous, and the report of the jury, speaking of his poem, read as follows; “A happy variety of rhythm, adapted with great art to the different parts of the subject, a great elevation of style and ideas, life and brilliancy, real lyrical inspiration which sustains itself nearly from one end of the poem to the other. The first two chants have merited a very particular mention for their loftiness of ideas, and the sustained beauty of the versification.” In 1873, M. FizÉt was preparing a complete edition of his poems and lyrics, most of which were unpublished when his manuscripts were burnt and lost in the Court house of Quebec, which was destroyed by fire on the 1st of February, of that year. Ever since, his numerous official and other occupations have prevented him from devoting any of his time to the restoration of his lost manuscripts, and the further culture of literature, but with the high commendation he has so deservedly received, emanating from the source it does, it may well be remarked, that Quebec, with honest pride, gratulates itself that she possesses such a poet and scholar in one of her sons, as we find the subject of our sketch, who in various situations, some of them very trying, as we are told, has always shown a kindly disposition, a high sense of honor, a remarkable combination of powers, great sagacity, integrity of motive, energy of character and undaunted will-power as testified by general report. His motto is, “Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra.”

Mr. Clark remained unmarried for sixteen years, when he was united in marriage to Amelia Torrance, widow of Thomas Gibb, of Quebec. She has been to him a wise counsellor, a true and affectionate wife, and while she was able, a help meet for him in his great work. After some time, however, she was seized with rheumatism, which at first gave little inconvenience; but it gradually increased in severity, till at last, in the winter of 1872, it completely prostrated her. Towards the summer of 1873 she recovered a little, and it was thought advisable to try the effect of a sea voyage upon her. Mr. Clark, also feeling his strength giving way, after having labored in Quebec for upwards of twenty years, thought himself justified in resigning that important and laborious charge. Accordingly they sailed for the old country in the autumn of 1873; and Mrs. Clark felt more benefit from the sea voyage than from all the medical treatment which she had received. After visiting Mr. Clark’s sister, the widow of Henry Scott Riddell, at Tiviot Head, they spent the winter partly at a hydropathic establishment, near Melrose; partly in Edinburgh, and partly in Dumfries. They then started for the south, spending a short time in London, a week in Paris, and then started for Aix-les-Bains, in Savoy, famous for its hot sulphur springs. After spending some time there they returned to Scotland, through Switzerland and France, arriving in Edinburgh near the end of May, a little before the closing of the Free Church General Assembly. They spent the remainder of the summer very pleasantly among their friends in the rural parts of the counties of Roxburgh, Peebles, and Dumfries, and in the neighborhood of Glasgow, from which port they sailed, and reached Quebec in safety in September, 1874. Mr. Clark was now too old to think of looking after another ministerial charge, but preached occasionally at Quebec and elsewhere as circumstances required till 1880, when he was called to be professor of Church History in Morin College, Quebec, which situation he still holds. While in Half-Morton he prepared a book for family worship, which was published by T. Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh, and obtained a large circulation. While in Maxwelltown, after the death of his only son, he wrote a little volume entitled, “Asleep in Jesus,” which was also published by the Nelsons, and extensively circulated. This little book was afterwards published in Philadelphia without the author’s knowledge. Mr. Clark produced another little work, entitled “The Promise of the Spirit,” which was published by Robert Kennedy, at Prescott. This book did not attract much attention, and was never republished.

And grand enough for Milton are the concluding lines:

Of Miss Mountcastle’s prose writing, we would say, that her novelette, “A Mystery,” lately published by Hunter, Rose & Co., Toronto, shows, as a first work, great ability. It is written in a pleasing, vivacious style. We take the following extract from a local paper, which does it no more than justice: “The plot is good, the moral inculcated equally so. The characters are well sustained. There is much wit and dry humor in their development, and the sketches of character and scenes show a close observation of nature; and without being in any way sensational, the interest in the story is well sustained to the end.” We would here remark, that the beautiful lines that appear in this volume, under the title of “Only a Little While,” emanate from the pen of the author’s sister, Ellen, who has written several short poems of much merit. Miss Mountcastle has written three essays on questions of the day, showing great power and originality of thought, and is now engaged on a tale of Canadian life, entitled, “Crow’s Hollow,” which we hope soon to see in print. To sum up the whole, we feel assured that, though now comparatively unknown, “Caris Sima” will ere long be recognized as one of the greatest poets of her time, and likewise rank as one of the most brilliant writers of fiction, on account of the vivid life, and intense human feeling, that is evinced in all her writings, whether in prose or verse. “Carissima,” that well-known Italian term of endearment, from which she derives her nom de plume, was an appellation conferred upon her in early girlhood by her father’s friend, the late Henry William Cole, M.D., a physician of great ability, to whom she was much attached, and is well adapted to the sweet, tender, womanly style of her writings, which show that, though in childhood she dwelt in a wilderness, she was reared in the lap of refinement. As a girl, “Caris Sima” was peculiarly simple and unsophisticated, and these traits of character still cling to her, as she, even now, gives little attention to the conventionalities of life. In stature, she is tall and commanding. Her features, which are irregular, are marked, when in repose, by an expression that might be termed sad, severe or stern; but when she speaks or smiles, her whole face illuminates like the sun breaking through a cloud, and she keeps on illuminating with expressions as versatile as her genius. In conclusion, we may say Miss Mountcastle is one of a family of twelve children, seven of whom died in infancy and early childhood. Of her sisters, Ellen, the eldest surviving, is, as we have already mentioned, a clever writer of fugitive verse. Eliza, the second daughter, is an amateur artist, and we may likewise say an amateur physician, as she studied medicine for six years under the late Dr. Cole, and practises among her own family with great success. The youngest, Alice, is married, and has one child, a bright boy, who seems likely to follow in the footsteps of his mother’s race. While her only surviving brother, Edmund Mountcastle, is a practical engineer of rare abilities, and, as we have seen, a descendant of the Andrew Meikle before mentioned, who was the first inventor of the threshing machine now in use.

Ah! wad that he was here the nicht,

  Whase tongue was like a faerie lute!

But vain the wish: McGee! thy might

  Lies low in death—thy voice is mute.

He’s gane, the noblest o’ us a’—

  Aboon a’ care o’ warldly fame;

An’ wha se proud as he to ca’

  Our Canada his hame?

The Hon. Mr. Abbott wrote from London, under date May 5, 1873: —

To-day the road is completed, and whoever is entitled to merit should receive it. Everyone knows that in consequence of unforeseen difficulties the future of the road was threatened even after the work had been undertaken. Father Labelle had arranged to get one million dollars voted by the city of Montreal, and he induced the ministry of the province to take the road under its control and to complete it. It is also said that the idea of getting the “Grand Trunk of the North” built by the government originated with him. The part he had taken in these events was recognized in a measure by the commissioners who named one of the first engines placed on the line, “Rev. A. Labelle.” On the fiftieth anniversary of Father Labelle’s birthday, at a dinner given at St. Jerome, on the 29th November, 1884, were gathered together ministers, journalists, members of parliament, aldermen and representative men from all parts of the province, and all with common accord applauded the work he had done. And we may say here that the tact he displayed in the circumstance justified what had been said of him on a previous occasion by a citizen distinguished among his English and Protestant brethren: “Father Labelle,” he said, “should be prime minister of Canada instead of curÉ of St. Jerome.” The following is an extract of a speech delivered on that eventful occasion: —

Father Labelle’s winning affability is proverbial, and in the midst of his enormous labors he always finds a moment to speak on any subject that might be of interest to his listeners. Ever ready to help the humblest of his parishioners, his generosity often oversteps the limit of his means, for he has not the leisure to figure up his fortune. The following incident is an example of his charity, which we publish at the risk of raising his ire: During a very severe winter the price of cordwood had risen in the city of Montreal to the fabulous figure of $20 a cord, owing to a “combine” of men who would have been insulted had anyone dared to assert that they were not honest. Father Labelle called on his parishioners, in the name of charity, to help the poor of Montreal in their sore need of fuel, and the result was that an immense procession of sleds loaded with cordwood, the good curÉ leading, was seen wending its way from St. Jerome to Montreal (a distance of thirty-three miles), and there distributed to the most needy and deserving poor of the city. This generous action was repeated the following winter. Besides his railroad undertakings, Father Labelle has been the means of a college being built in St. Jerome; a three-story brick building, having a frontage of eighty feet, with a lateral chapel, where the youth of the surrounding district receive a commercial, agricultural, and religious education under the direction of the Rev. Fathers of the Holy Cross. As soon as the railroad was completed to St. Jerome, Father Labelle undertook to supply the necessary traffic. He is convinced that the Laurentian range contains considerable mineral wealth, and geological reports prove his assertions. With the view of working and developing these mines, he immediately applied at every door to raise the necessary capital. His parishioners subscribed a few thousand dollars; but the resources are so slender, and the expenses so heavy to start on a solid basis, that he must receive more substantial help. It may be said, by the way, that minerals being one of the greatest sources of wealth of a country, there is no reason why the government should not give grants to the energetic men who undertake to search for those treasures in a practical manner. His many and varied occupations do not interfere with the exemplary regularity of the exercise of his holy ministry. His sermons are always remarkable for their characteristic clearness and practical common sense. Thoroughly orthodox, he never deviates from the strict doctrines of his church, which he believes accords with progress; as a result, in his parish, church and state go hand-in-hand, to the satisfaction of all parties. Far from feeling any pride in his successes, he makes them subservient to the glory of God, the primary cause and author of all greatness. The theological lore of Father Labelle is very profound, and he has had many occasions to elucidate very intricate questions. His lordship, Bishop Duhamel, honored him with his confidence, and delegated to him a part of his power for the purpose of erecting canonical parishes in the southern part of his diocese. Right Rev. Mgr. Conroy, delegated by the Holy See to adjust certain differences which had arisen in Canada in connection with the establishment of the branch of Laval University, at Montreal, wrote the following letter to Father Labelle, on the 19th March, 1877: “I reckon on your great and well-deserved influence. I shall always be glad to see you, and I shall do my best to meet your wishes as far as I possibly can do so.” After the decision of the Holy See in favor of Laval, Father Labelle was one of the most energetic workers, and did no small amount of work in connection with the establishment of the branch university in Montreal. The late Bishop Bourget was ably seconded by Father Labelle in the erection, for civil purposes, of the new parishes of Montreal. After the Guibord case had been settled, a bill was passed to prevent the recurrence of such difficulties and to meet the views of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, as intimated by her to Lord Dufferin; Father Labelle was entrusted with the drawing up of the bill. He was also instrumental, and did more than his share of the work, both here and at Rome, to obtain the division of the ecclesiastical provinces of Montreal and Ottawa. Since 1883, he has been sent to France by the Federal government for the purpose of making our country better known in Europe and promoting more extended commercial relations. At the present time (1887), he is engaged on the extension of the Montreal and Western Railway to Lake Temiscamingue, and there are already seventy miles under contract. He is also interested in a new cattle ranch at Wood Mountain, near Regina, N.W.T., etc. We cannot conclude this imperfect sketch without mentioning the charming bonhomie which in Father Labelle’s case, takes the place of the most refined courteousness. When his wine cellar is empty, his smoking-room is abundantly supplied, and in either case he receives the most illustrious men of the country with the greatest ease. Let us add that his venerable mother, who presides over the internal administration of his household, contributes, by her politeness and kind attentions, to make the presbytery of St. Jerome the most popular resort of the surrounding parishes. The priests of the neighborhood and the notable men of the province frequently visit the worthy pastor when in need of information, or in quest of rest and relaxation from their onerous duties.

Head-Quarters 1st Brigade

2nd Div. 2nd Army Corps,

Army of the Potomac, near Petersburg, Va.

Nov. 3, 1864.

Capt. Edson Fitch,

Brig. In. 2nd Brig. 2nd Div., 2nd A.C.,

Captain,—Having learned that you are about to retire from the military service of the United States government, I avail myself of what may be the only opportunity I shall have of communicating to you an expression of the high regard I entertain for you as a brave, competent, efficient and gentlemanly officer, and of the regret that you are to be even temporarily lost to the service which you have honored on so many occasions by your gallant conduct. As chief of staff of the brigade which I had the honor to command at the late battle at Hatcher’s Run, you in no small degree contributed to that success which won for our brave troops the encomiums of the generals commanding. To the consciousness of having faithfully discharged your whole duty, which you will carry with you to private life, I desire to add the assurance that you also have the confidence and kindest regards of your old comrades in arms, who still hope, at no very distant period, to welcome you again to the tented field.

I am, Captain, very truly yours,

Jas. M. Willet,

Col. 8th N. Y. H. Art’y,

Comdg. 1st Brigade.

In 1867, Captain Fitch came to Canada with the intention of organizing the business he is now engaged in, that of manufacturing match splints, and settled at Montmorency, Quebec, but was burnt out there. He then removed to Etchemin, county of Levis, where he established his business, and has had a most successful career. Twice he has seen his factory destroyed by fire, but his indomitable pluck and perseverance have carried him through. The business of manufacturing match splints is one the magnitude of which few outsiders can realize. The factory owned by Mr. Fitch is the largest of its kind in the world, making nearly ninety millions of matches in a single day To reach this almost inconceivable result, five hundred hands are employed, and no less than twenty millions of feet of timber are cut up in the course of a single year. Early in life Mr. Fitch connected himself with Masonry, having, in 1861, been initiated in Senate lodge, No. 456, G.R. of N.Y., held at Glen’s Falls. In 1868, desiring further knowledge in Masonry, he applied for the Royal Arch degrees to Stadacona Chapter, No. 2, G.R.Q., and was exalted in that chapter on 22nd October, 1868. In 1873, he affiliated with Tuscan lodge, No. 28, G.R.Q., held at Levis, and occupied the worshipful master’s chair in that lodge in 1876 and 1877. In 1877 he was elected grand senior warden of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, and in 1880 was appointed D.D.G. Master for Quebec and Three Rivers district, and held that office two years and a half. In 1882 he was unanimously elected deputy grand master of the Grand Lodge. In 1884, the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons chose him as their grand third principal; in 1885 and again in 1886 as grand second principal, and at the last meeting of the Grand Chapter, held in the city of Montreal, in January, 1887, he was placed, by the voice of the companions assembled, in the exalted position of grand first principal. He was one of the charter members of William de la More, the Martyr Preceptory of Knights Templars at Quebec, with which body he is still connected. He has been chairman of the Committee of Benevolence and Charity of the Grand Lodge since 1882. He is representative in Quebec of the Grand Lodge of California and Grand Chapter of Indiana. And he has always taken an active part in all matters pertaining to the craft in his district and province, and is an ardent supporter of the principle of Grand Lodge sovereignty. In politics Mr. Fitch is a Liberal; and in religion is an adherent of the Baptist church. He was married to Mary A., second daughter of the late James Bowen, of Quebec.

These lines are to be found on the first page of his volume, entitled “Orion, and other Poems,” and unquestionably show genius in the boy under twenty years of age, for it would have been impossible for any one not possessed of the soul of song to have conceived them. Had the first, third, fourth, eleventh, and thirteenth lines been equal to those we have quoted, the concluding line —

—would have made the picture of the dark-eyed, dark-haired aspirant for immortality, kneeling before the white-robed angel, a simply perfect creation. The poem “Orion” is an outcome of his early love for classical literature, and when we consider that it was written by a boy standing on the threshold of life, it is wonderful; and shows distinctly what he may attain in coming years, when at the zenith of his power. This poem contains many lines of unsurpassed beauty. We quote the following couplet, which is taken from that part of the poem which describes Orion lying upon the seashore in his utter wretchedness, when the drug administered by the king is beginning to affect him. The scene is described as, at the setting of the sun —

And again, later in the night, a slave comes with the king bearing a cup containing the juice with which he puts out Orion’s eyes, and a servitor bearing a torch, before whose light —

And how beautiful are the lines sung by the weeping sea-nymphs —

And again, when he regains his sight —

But it may be that the genius of Mr. Roberts is nowhere so apparent as in a short poem of his that we have seen somewhere, entitled, “Off Pelorus,” the first stanza of which is an exquisite piece of word-painting, combined with the very soul of song. We quote from memory —

It is impossible to separate true poetry from its sister, painting, and here the two walk hand in hand. The rich coloring of the painter, the subtle thought and music of the poet, and all developed strongly, so as to come within the immediate grasp of ordinary intelligence. We have not seen Mr. Roberts’ prose writing, but we are informed that he has written much that is masterly in thought and style; can do good battle in a political discussion, and has peculiar and abundant gifts in the field of criticism. In 1882 he was appointed head-master of York Street School, Fredericton. In 1883 he accepted the position of editor of The Week, a Toronto weekly, from which he, finding his tastes did not harmonize with the director’s, retired in four months, when he returned to New Brunswick, and was there engaged with several literary undertakings, till his call, in 1885, to the University of King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, as professor of English and French literature and political economy. In 1887 he published his most important work, “In Divers Tones” (Montreal: Dawson Bros.; Boston: D. Lothrop & Co.), which has been very favorably received. Professor Roberts is a contributor to most of the notable publications printed in the English language; among these may be mentioned “Longman’s,” “The Century,” “Wide Awake,” and “Outing.” Mr. Roberts is a member of the Church of England, and was married December 29th, 1880, to Mary Isabel Fenety, daughter of George E. Fenety, Queen’s printer, of Fredericton, New Brunswick. By this marriage he has three children.

Here, single-handed, in the bush, I battled on for years;

My heart sometimes buoyed up with hope; sometimes bowed down with fears.

I had misfortunes not a few, e’en from the very first;

But take them altogether, “Bright,” thy death’s the very worst.

And again he writes,

The reader of these lines, perhaps, at the moment, a judge of the supreme court, a member of parliament, or a minister of the Gospel, will instantly look back to his boyhood’s days and see the meek-eyed oxen standing before the log-cabin door, from which issues the form of his father, bearing a long slender switch, which he twirls round in front of the gentle animals as he says “haw, Buck, gee, Bright”; and again he will see them struggling in the yoke, their wide-spreading horns clashing together as they draw the great logs into a heap for the burning; and seeing the result of the early settlers’ efforts in the magnificent stretches of cleared land, and waving fields of grain, he will sing, with our poet, in patriotic strain:

It is, though portrayed in the humblest language, a very pathetic picture he draws of “Old Hannah,” poor old woman, husband and children all gone, sitting, on the Sabbath morn, on the doorstep of her desolate home, with her Bible on her knee, looking as sweetly patient as only those purified by affliction can look, and silently teaching us to thank God for the suffering that alone can fit us for the kingdom of heaven. We quote these lines:

For his poem, “Halls of Holyrood,” Mr. McLachlan, in a world-wide competition, won the prize offered some years ago by the Glasgow Workman newspaper, for a national song for Scotland. In 1863 he was appointed by the Canadian government to lecture throughout Great Britain in favor of emigration to Canada. He has also lectured in the principal Canadian towns and villages on various subjects. He speaks with much earnestness and simplicity. As a poet, we would say, Mr. McLachlan has written many pretty musical pieces, while all his work evinces much force, fervor, and simplicity. Here is a line of great beauty that he gives birth to when he speaks of the humming bird as

And here is a pretty stanza from “Indian Summer”:

Here our poet has left the logging-field and is enjoying the beauties of nature, while giving more attention to the rhythmic tone of the muse. We understand that Mr. McLachlan is now writing for Grip, and we have seen some lines of his entitled “May Song” which, as a lyric, is far in advance of his previous work. We give the first stanza:

Here is good word-painting, and shows what heights our poet is capable of attaining. We would say, in conclusion, that we think Mr. McLachlan should be looked upon as a benefactor to his country, in that he has thrown a halo over the humblest home. Well would it be, for those who are seized with the “brick and mortar craze” of the present day, to pause and read “The Old Settler’s Address to his Old Log House,” before he lays the foundation stone of the new brick mansion that too often leads to ruin, and sometimes to disgrace.

From hand to hand the ripened fruit went round,

And rural sports a pleased acceptance found;

The youthful fiddler, on his three-legged stool,

Fancied himself, at least, an Ole Bull;

Some easy bumpkin, seated on the floor,

Hunted the slipper till his ribs were sore;

Some chose the graceful waltz, or lively reel,

While deeper heads the chess-battalions wheel.

.     .     .     .     .     .

We were once witnesses of a scene of this description, where an aged, white-haired son of “Auld Scotia” was called upon to make an osculatory impress upon the damask cheek of a maiden of sixteen summers, and when the performance was over, the octogenarian turned to the assembled multitude and said: “Aye, but isn’t that refreshing.” We do not agree with the writer of “Life and Times of Sir John A. Macdonald,” when he says, with ill-advised harshness, that Mr. Sangster’s verse “is not worth a brass farthing.” In 1856, when Mr. Sangster published his first volume, Canadian literature was in its infancy; and we have not yet advanced so far that we can afford to scoff at his unassuming efforts to aid in a good cause. We think (Mr. Collins to the contrary) that there is much of Mr. Sangster’s work that is worth a great deal, as all writing must be that tends to elevate the soul of man; and Mr. Sangster’s work, however faulty it may be as poetry, is decidedly elevating. There has in the past been much poetry written that is gross and sensual; let us turn our backs on that, and foster the pure and true, until our country has a poetic literature without spot or blemish. Mr. Sangster has written much good verse in aid of this achievement. His “Falls of the ChaudiÈre” is very good, and we must do his ungenerous critic the justice to suppose that he never saw “The Light in the Window Pane,” or he could not have made such an uncalled-for assertion. We give the following: —

Pathos is the very soul of poetry, and here we have it in abundance. Who that has watched, night after night, when home returning, for the “Light in the Window-pane?”, who will not feel its power when he realizes, without any strain of imagination that the hand that placed it there is cold and dead? All is dark in the window-pane, and the darkness of desolation reigns in the heart of him who returns nightly to that doubly-desolate home. We cannot realize this and not feel that Mr. Sangster’s verse is well worthy of the place in Canadian literature that it has already won.

Mr. Worthington claimed descent through Bruen Worthington, of Ashton Hayes, in the county of Chester, and of Philpotstown, in the county of Meath, clerk in the Irish House of Commons, in 1734; from Hugh Worthington, of Worthington, in the county of Lancaster, and of the Manor of Adlington, in Standish parish. He held the lordship of Worthington in the 13th year of Edward IV., A.D. 1474.

(1.) Rev. Chancellor Nelles.—“He is an accurate scholar, a good disciplinarian, and a most successful teacher, and, indeed, has few if any equals in the general management of High school work.”

(2.) Rev. Dr. Burwash.—“It is not too much to say that in the teaching profession he has few equals in this province. Both as an editor of classical literature and as a writer on the science of teaching, he has proved himself a master in his work; while in the instruction of a class and in the organization and government of a large school he stands in the foremost rank of teachers. As a Christian gentleman, his life and personal character are a model for young men; while his quiet, dignified independence and energy commend universal respect.”

(3.) Dr. Haanel.—“His advice and counsel as a member of our senate has always been highly appreciated as sound, and calculated to advance real scholarship. Energetic and zealous in every good cause, Mr. McHenry has long been an important factor in educational and social circles here.”

(4.) Dr. Burns, Hamilton.—“One of the most successful educators of our country. His scholarship is broad and reliable. Although a comparatively young man, he has secured a status among educators that he may well be proud of. His record is an exceedingly honourable one, both for talent, success, and personal character. Socially, he would be an acquisition to any circle.”

Mr. McHenry’s is one of those cases where a boy or young man has had the advantages arising from being early thrown upon his own resources. What he has accomplished or attained is evidently the result of personal energy and self-reliance.

George Fry, the father of our subject, though not a member of the Society of Friends, was educated in one of their schools, and a certain amount of quiet reserve, sedateness, and plainness of speech descended from the father to several of his sons, who are still apt to call a spade a “spade” and not an “agricultural implement.” Mr. Edward Carey Fry received his education at the grammar school of Bristol, a city famous for its schools, and by the time he had received all that his friends could give him in that respect, his elder brother Henry had become a Canadian ship-owner, while several of his other brothers were at sea. It was decided that the boy, Edward, should follow their example and he was accordingly apprenticed to Henry and served some time in one of his ships, the well known old Lotus. Although by this means he acquired a knowledge of the sea and of ships, which has since been very valuable to him in his capacity of Lloyd’s Agent, life in a timber ship was necessarily distasteful to a lad of his stamp and, as it was seen, that by education and a certain amount of refinement he was more fitted for his brother’s office in Quebec than for the forecastle of a timber ship, the change was made. There the business portion of his education commenced, progressed, and was completed under his brother’s fostering care, so that for experience of Canadian timber and shipping matters and especially of all that concerns the port of Quebec and its trade, he is probably excelled by none. He was finally taken into partnership by Mr. Henry Fry, a connection only to be dissolved by the lamented break-down of the latter gentleman’s health owing to overwork very largely honorary, philanthropic, and for the welfare of his fellow citizens of Quebec, by whom no one was more highly respected or deservedly regretted. The business has since been carried on by Mr. Edward Carey Fry, under the old and honoured name. After becoming a citizen of Quebec, Mr. Edward Fry added to his previous ties by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of the Revd. David Marsh, the well-known and esteemed Baptist minister of Quebec, who, like her young husband, was born in England, though transplanted to this country at a very early age. They have a large family of bright, intelligent boys and girls, undoubtedly showing in their physique their Anglo-Saxon origin, but Canadian born and with all the advantages of education that an excellent school system can supply. Mr. Fry has been associated from infancy with the Baptist church. In fact he was named after the great Baptist missionary, Edward Carey, and, as a child, attended Broadmead Baptist chapel, Bristol, well known to the religious world as having been the scene of the labours of Drs. Robert Hall, Foster, and Evans, whose names are historical. In politics, like his elder brother, it is understood that he declines to be tied to any party, his motto being “measures, not men,” and that he will support either side when he believes they are acting honestly for the welfare of his adopted country. If he has a bias, it is believed to be in favour of perfect liberty and equality in religion, politics and commerce, which is only what might be expected from one not very remotely connected with the freedom-loving Society of Friends. At one time his firm was largely interested in the timber business, but this branch has been abandoned by it for some years and its time and attention are now wholly devoted to shipping and commission. Mr. Fry’s position as Lloyd’s Agent and agent for other British and continental underwriters at Quebec, and representing, as he does, several large ship-owning houses, both sail and steam, have given him an extensive and unique experience in getting vessels and cargoes out of difficulties at the least possible cost to all concerned. Like most Quebecers, who have commercial relations with England, he takes periodical trips to his native land. In fact, he has crossed the Atlantic at least fifty times, and it must be said to the credit of his filial affection and sense of patriotism that he never allows his business on such occasions to prevent him, when in England, from paying a visit of love and reverence to the home of his ancestors in Somersetshire, and especially to his father’s native place, the pretty village of Winscombe, where, notwithstanding the march of modern improvement, all is still rustic simplicity. The beautiful old church, with its wealth of historic associations from the days of the Crusaders downwards, and its picturesque churchyard, which commands a series of views of a lovely country and contains one of the finest yew trees in England, are still just as his father knew them in his youth. Time has not perceptibly changed them; but the spot, more than all others, which always interests the son, is that immediately in front of the font in the sacred edifice, on which his father was held for baptism over a hundred years ago. On one of his visits to Winscombe church, Mr. Fry had the pleasure of examining its old register and has now in his possession a certified copy of his father’s baptismal record—a quaint interesting memorial of the past in the old English way of writing. It shows that the old man was born as far back as 1783, or seventeen years before the beginning of the present century, and it can be readily imagined that many notable events in the world’s history were embraced within the recollection of one whose span of existence was prolonged down to our own times in 1868. Mr. Fry still vividly recalls listening at his father’s knee to his stories of his long life, how he could just remember hearing in his boyhood the startling news of the execution of Louis XVI. and his queen Marie Antoinette, and how, as his memory became more vigorous with his growth, he retained more vivid impressions with regard to the battles of the Nile, St. Vincent, and Trafalgar, the nation’s mourning for Nelson, and the times of privateering in which Bristol took a very prominent part, and when wheat was nevertheless a guinea a bushel in the midst of all the ill-gotten wealth of that day. “Fine times those were for the landlords and farmers”—used the old man to say—“but the common people were reduced to the verge of starvation.” And he often added that, though he had probably outlived all the leading spirits of those privateering days, he could not remember any case in which the money so acquired appeared to have done any real good, and that he hoped to see the day when, in time of war, the rights of inoffensive private property would be respected and privateers receive the only rights to which, in his opinion, they were entitled—a good rope at the yard-arm as pirates. Other milestones in his memory, on which he frequently loved to descant for the benefit of his children, were the days of the Regency, the battle of Waterloo, the death of Napoleon, the trial of Queen Caroline, whose husband he thought a sensual brute, though he was styled “the first gentleman in Europe;” the passing of the Reform Bill, the opposition to which by the member for Bristol, Sir Charles Wetherall, contrary to the wishes of his constituents, caused fearful riots and loss of life in that city, the second and even the third French revolution, the abolition of slavery under the British flag in 1834, the accession and marriage of Queen Victoria, the abolition of the corn laws, and the abandonment by Great Britain of protection for the benefits of a vigorous free trade policy. It is scarcely necessary to say that these stirring reminiscences made a deep impression on young Fry’s mind and that, while as a man to-day his preference is for his adopted country and his faith strong in the greatness of its future, he still yields to none either in love for Old England or in unswerving adherence in public and private to the sturdy principles of rectitude which seem to have been so marked a characteristic of his worthy father. Ability and uprightness in business and straightforwardness in all things have won for him the respect of his fellow-citizens of Quebec, and few are held in higher or more deserved estimation by all classes of the population. Mr. Fry is a member of the Quebec Board of Trade, and, though adverse to accepting any prominent position in that or any other public body, because, owing to the demands of his business, he cannot give to them all the requisite time and attention, he nevertheless ever takes a deep and watchful interest in all that concerns the public good, whether in a commercial, municipal, political or religious sense, and can always be counted on to do his duty intelligently and as a good citizen when necessary.