L'ANNÉE TERRIBLE

“The reaction which commenced this year was in part the inevitable result of undue speculation. Public improvements had been made in advance of the population, the wealth, and the commerce of the country ; and the increase, in the progress of time, of these elements of national greatness, could alone restore the healthy equilibrium of the financial condition of the body politic.”—MacMUuLLEN’S History of Canada, p. 539,

NN EYOND those already mentioned, there were no political events of much importance in Canada during the year 1850, which, after the prorogation, glided calmly to its close. Meanwhile the work of railway construction went rapidly on. In July the Grand Trunk was opened from Toronto to Guelph, and in November from Guelph to Stratford. Before the close of the year there was direct communication all the way from Montreal to Sarnia. The Buffalo and Lake Huron — now incorporated with the Grand Trunk — was opened through to Stratford in December, The year also beheld the close of the Crimear war. Peace was proclaimed in the spring, and in July the Crimea was evacuated by the allied troops. The Chinese outbreak occurred several months later, These events were watched with sympathetic interest in Canada, where, as a result of the Eastern complications, there had for two years been a steadily increasing tightness of the money market, Nor were Canadians devoid of topics of interest nearer home. It was in 1856 that the public mind first became thoroughly aroused on the subject of the Hudson's Bay Company's possessions in the North-West, It was then that Cana-

L'Année Terrible. 349

dians for the first time awoke to the importance of bringing about a union with those little-known territories, and that a general agi tation was set on foot with a view to breaking up the monopoly that had existed for nearly two hundred years. Among those who gave a decided impetus to the movement a conspicuous place must in justice be assigned to Mr. William McDougall, who has already been referred to in connection with The North American newspaper. That journalistic enterprise had come to an end, The North American having been absorbed by The Globe, and Mr. Mc- Dougall himself having joined the editorial staff of the last-named journal. He was a trenchant writer, and took up the question of the North-West with much enthusiasm in the columns of The Globe. The movement steadily gained strength,* and finally resulted, as every Canadian knows, in the destruction of the monopoly, and in the absorption of the North-West into the Dominion of Canada. It will be sufficient in this place to add that the agitation made such rapid progress that communications with the Hudsons Bay Company were set on foot before the close of the year, with a view to the acquirement of the territory on behalf of Canada ; and that early in 1857 Chief Justice Draper was sent over to Eng-

land to represent the Province in the negotiations. The chief local

topics of political discussion were those relating to separate schools

and representation by population: themes which furnished the

newspapers with never-failing matter for acrid comment. In January of the new year a great gathering of Upper Canadian Reformers

was held at Toronto for the purpose of organizing a united Oppo-

* The movement, however, had to encounter very strong opposition from many representatives of the Canadian press, who did their utmost to stem the current of popular opinion, and to depreciate the value of the territory. Some of those representatives wrote what they honestly believed to be true, Others merely wrote in the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company. In the light of our present knowledge, it is refreshing to read in The Montreal Transcript of twenty-six years ago that the climate of the North-West is ‘“altogether unfavourable to the growth of grain,” and that the summer is 80 short as to make it difficult to ‘mature even a small potato or a cabbage.”

350 The Last Forty Years.

sition to the Government, and the two questions above referred to were made distinct planks in the platform. Upon the whole, however, the Government advanced in popular favour during the recess, and when they next met the Houses, on the 26th of February (1857), they felt a well-crounded confidence in their ability to carry through the session in safety.

The opening Speech was of unusual length, but it contained nothing of historical importance except a reference to a communication received from the Colonial Secretary, announcing that Her Majesty's Government had determined to submit “certain questions connected with the affairs and territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company ” to the consideration of a Committee of the House of Commons. In connection with the same subject, reference was made to Mr. Draper’s mission to England, to ‘“ watch over the interests of the Province.” Among several amendments moved in the Assembly to the Address in Reply was one by Mr. A. A. Dorion, expressive of regret that His Excellency should have been advised to despatch to England, on à mission relating to the Hudson’s Bay Territory, a gentleman who occupied a judicial position in the Province. In the course of the ensuing debate the Government were loudly censured by the Opposition for taking so momentous a step without first submitting the matter to Parliament. The Ministry defended their action upon the ground that Parliament had not been in session at the time of Mr. Draper's appointment. The case, it was said, had been urgent, and to have delayed the sending of an emissary until his appointment could be sanctioned by Parliament would have been prejudicial to Canadian interests, inasmuch as the Committee of the House of Commons would in that case have been some time in session before the emissary could reach his destination, It was further contended that Mr. Drapers knowledge and talents were such as to specially fit him to represent the interests of Canada in such a contingency. Several Conserva-

7 Ce rm ©

L'Année Terrible. 351

tives spoke and voted with the Opposition on the motion, but the Government were strong enough to override the defection, and Mr. Dorion’s amendment was lost by a vote of 52 to 30. In the Upper House the Address was carried by 16 to 6.

With the exception of a brief adjournment during the Easter holidays, Parliament sat continuously until the 10th of June. During the interval no fewer than 227 Acts were added to the statute book. Several of these were of such importance as to deserve special mention.

Second to no Act 0! the session in practical utility was one making provision for a codification of the Civil Laws and Laws of Procedure in Lower Canada. The system of jurisprudence in that section of the Province was largely founded upon that of Imperial Rome, as modified in mediæval France, and imported by the French colonists into Canada under the title of the Custom of Paris. This mixed system was supplemented by certain edicts of the French Kings and colonial Intendants promulgated before the Conquest, and by divers Ordinances introduced by successive Governors during the interval between the Conquest and the passing of the Constitutional Act of 1791. In addition to these, there were the Provincial statutes. It is scarcely to be wondered at if the Lower Canadian system of laws, with such various and frequently conflicting sources of derivation, was in a most confused and unsatisfactory condition. ÆEminent jurists had long been in favour of attempting to evoke order out of such a confused chaos of authority, and of rendering it possible for a person of ordinary intelligence to acquire some approach to an accurate knowledge of the laws of the land without spending half a lifetime in archæological researches. The abolition of the feudal system by the Seigniorial Tenure Act of 1854 had effected a legal as well as a social revolution, and rendered it imperative, in the public interest, that the arduous task of codification should no longer be delayed. Upon Mr. Cartier, as Attorney-

TE

352 The Last Forty Years.

General East, the responsibility of taking the initiatory steps properly devolved. He acquitted himself of the responsibility by introducing and successfully carrying through a Bill for the desired object. It authorized the Governor to appoint three commissioners, being barristers of Lower Canada, with two secretaries, also barristers, “to reduce into one code, to be called the Civil Code of Lower Canada, those provisions of the laws of Lower Canada which relate to civil matters, and are of a general and permanent character.” The measure was opposed, as to some of its details, by Mr. Drummond. Mr. Brown moved for a committee to report as to the practicability of codifying the laws of Upper and Lower Canada, and framing a system adapted to the whole Province; but the motion was negatived, and Mr. Cartier’s measure was passed by both Houses. Judges Morin, Day and Caron were in due course appointed Commissioners under the Act. It may here be noted that they began their labours in 1859, and completed them in 1864; and that in 1865 an Act was passed whereby the code was broughc into operation.

Another important measure carried through the Assembly under Mr. Cartier’s auspices was an Act for the Decentralization of Justice, whereby Lower Canada was divided into nineteen judicial districts, in place of the seven which had previously existed. Its object was to render the attainment of justice easy and cheap, by providing more accessible tribunals and increasing the number of judges. It was a great boon to the people of Lower Canada, and Mr. Cartier won high and deserved prestige among his compatriots for his labours in preparing it and passing it through Parliament. Various important legal reforms relating to Upper Canada were also enacted during the session under the auspices of Attorney-General Macdonald. Mr. Spence is entitled to the credit of an Act to improve the organization and increase the efficiency of the Civil Service. It classified the officers and clerks in the various departments, and established a permanent deputy-minister in each.

L'Année Terrible. 353

The question of Representation by Population had by this time assumed formidable proportions, and kept constantly intruding itself into the debates. The agitation on the subject had been largely fomented by Mr. Brown, who took good care that it should not subside. As was to be expected, the doctrine was almost universally accepted in Upper Canada. During the previous year a great number of petitions had been sent in to Parliament in its favour from various parts of the western section of the Province. Mr. Brown's strenuous advocacy of the doctrine did much to increase and extend his local popularity, and it was also evident that his Parliamentary influence was widening. On the 27th of April he introduced into the Assembly a resolution, “ That in the opinion of this House the representation of the people in Parliament should be based on population, without regard to a separating line between Upper and Lower Canada.” He was unable to carry it, but the language evoked during the debate proved how strong a hold the doctrine had obtained upon the sympathies of many Upper Canadian members. It was evident that both the contending parties must be prepared to speak with no uncertain sound on the question at the next general elections. As for the Ministry, their position with regard to their Lower Canadian supporters rendered it impossible for them to assent to the demands of Upper Canada, and it is simple justice to say that when the time came for them to take a positive stand they went boldly to the hustings without subterfuge,

The annual discussion respecting the Seat of Government was loud and long during the session of 1857. As previously narrated, the Assembly, during the last session, had decided upon establishing the capital permanently at Quebec, and had voted a sum of money for the erection of public buildings ; but the Supply Bill had been rejected by the Upper House in consequence of the item, so that the question was still practically an open one. The Government now decided to ignore the Assembly’s vote in 1856, aud to avoid further

354 The Last Forty Years.

heartburnings by submitting the selection of a permanent Canadian capital to Her Majesty. This decision evoked a tremendous outcry from the Opposition, who considered that to submit so purely local a question to the Crown was a tampering with Responsible Government, Various amendments were moved, and the succeeding debates were conducted with great vigour and acumen, but the Ministry finally, by a majority of nine,* carried a resolution in favour of an Address to Her Majesty, praying her to select the Seat of Government. The Address was duly transmitted to England. After a short delay, Her Majesty accepted the responsibility, and selected Tttawa as the capital of Canada.

At the end of April, Mr. Cauchon, being unable to induce his colleagues to consent to grant further aid to the North Shore Railway, resigned his portfolio. He possessed great administrative capacity, and had made a very energetic and efficient Commissioner of Crown Lands ; but he had been spurred on by his Parliamentary supporters, who were interested in the North Shore line, to make very imperative demands upon his colleagues in the Government, and the latter had not on this occasion thought proper to yield. After Mr. Cauchon’s withdrawal, the opposition of his supporters was indirectly mollified by the grant of 1,500,000 acres of land to a company which eventually amalgamated with the North Shore enterprise. As matter of fact, Mr. Cauchon does not seem to have contemplated actual resignation, but certain phrases employed by him in a communication to Colonel Taché were construed by that gentleman as implying a wish to resign, and were accepted as such. Colonel Taché took upon himself the duties of the office which Mr. Cauchon had vacated,

When Parliament was prorogued on the 10th of June, the ministerial organs were able to boast that Government had gone through

* There were 111 members present, and the vote stood 61 to 50, See Journals, Tuesday, March 24th, 1857.

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an exceptionally busy and productive session without encountering a single defeat. A week later Sir Edmund Head and his family set out from Toronto on a visit to England. During the Governor’s absence his viceregal functions were discharged by Lieutenant- General Sir William Eyre, K.C.B., Commander of the Forces in Canada,

The year 1857 was one long to be remembered in this country. It was signalized by the first terrible railway accident that ever occurred in the Province—a calamity which carried desolation to many a Canadian home. On the 12th of March, a Great Western Raïlway passenger train, proceeding from Toronto to Hamilton, crashed through the bridge spanning the Desjardins Canal, in the immediate neighbourhood of Hamilton, and caused the loss of about seventy lives. On the 26th of the following June a catastrophe attended with still more appalling results occurred in the St. Lawrence river. The Montreal, a steamer plying between Quebec and Montreal, having on board several hundred emigrants, principally Scotch and Norwegians, took fire when a short distance above Cape Rouge, and was consumed with such rapidity that about 250 persons lost their lives. As these were the first casualties of their kind in Canada they caused much consternation throughout the Province, and even, it is said, affected the receipts from passenger traffic for an entire season, But there were other reasons for a serious falling off in the traffic. The autumn of the year ushered in the most disastrous commercial crisis through which Canada has ever been compelled to pass. Various causes contributed to bring about such an

unpropitious state of affairs. The harvest, generally speaking, was

not much more than half a crop, either in Canada or in the chief grain-growing districts of the United States. The crisis began in the New York market early in September, and its echo was soon heard throughout the republic. Erelong the effect made itself felt in Canada, But the chief cause of Provincial disaster was to be

356 The Last Forty Years.

found within our own borders. The country had been passing through an era of extravagance. Costly public works had been set on foot, and railway development had proceeded at a rate altogether incommensurate with our needs. We were called upon to pay the penalty which properly attaches to the acts of those who live beyond their means. Ere the setting-in of winter, trade had become almost stagnant. Some of the leading wholesale houses in the chief commercial centres were unable to meet their engagements, and their failure involved the ruin of numberless retail merchants throughout the Province. Not an insignificant town or village but felt the effect of the terrible ordeal through which the country was passing. There was an almost total collapse of mercantile credit, and every industry was smitten by paralysis. The agricultural community shared in the general gloom. The unexampled prosperity which had attended them during the progress of the Crimean war had induced hundreds of Canadian farmers to launch out into unnecessary expenditure, and to embark in enterprises which they were incapable of conducting to successful issues. Numbers of them were now compelled to mortgage their farms, and to pay exorbitant interest, in order to meet unprofitable engagements which had been entered upon with high hopes. For the time, railway enterprise was over, and the various companies were involved in pecuniary embarrassments. One line was seized for non-payment of interest on the Government bonds. The public revenue of the Province fell off to such an extent that the year’s expenditure was $340,000 in excess of the income. It was evident that Canada had entered upon a period of serious mercantile disaster, and that the return of prosperity would not be a matter of weeks or months, but of years.

Such crises are almost always fraught with more or less of peril to a Ministry. The Taché-Macdonald Government formed no exception to the general rule, but though they for a time felt

L'Année Terrible. 357

the strain keenly, they surmounted the first effects with signal success, In November some important ministerial changes occurred. Mr. Terrill, whose private affairs required his personal attention, resigned his portfolio on the 9th of the month, though he nominally retained it until the appointment of his successor on the 25th. Colonel Taché, who had sat in the Cabinet continuously ever since the formation of the second Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry in March, 1848, and had grown weary of ministerial life, also withdrew from the Government on the 25th. As he was the Premier, his withdrawal implied a dissolution of the Cabinet, but Mr. John A. Macdonald, at the Governor’s request, successfully applied himself to the work of reconstruction. The Upper Canadian members agreed to resume their places. Mr. Cartier became the head of the Lower Canada section of the Cabinet, and continued to hold the portfolio of Attorney-General East. Mr. Sicotte resigned the Speakership of the Assembly, and accepted the Commissionership of Crown Lands. Mr. Narcisse Fortunat Belleau, à member of the Upper House,* succeeded Colonel Taché as Speaker of the Legislative Council. The Commissionership of Public Works, which had just been vacated by Mr. Lemieux, was accepted by Mr. Charles Alleyn, a gentleman not hitherto mentioned in these pages. He was a successful lawyer of Irish birth who had long been resident at Quebec, and had sat in the Assembly for that city since the general election of 1854 Asa politician he cannot be said to have presented any very salient features, but his abilities were above the average, and he possessed a courtly presence and manner. The Provincial Secretaryship, lately held by Mr. Terrill, was offered to Mr. A. A. Dorion, and declined by him; whereuponit was offered to and accepted by Mr. Thomas Jean Jacques Loranger, member for Laprairie, a gentleman of great talents and considerable oratorical power, who now occupies an honoured position on the judicial bench in his native Province. Mr. Henry

* See ante, p. 266.

358 The Last Forty Years.

Smith continued to be Solicitor-General for Upper Canada. The corresponding office for Lower Canada was assumed by Mr. John Rose,* an eminent Montreal lawyer of Scottish birth and parentage. Mr. Rose had not up to this time taken any part in active political life, and had no seat in either House of Parliament, but at the ensuing general election he was returned as one of the members for Montreal.

The Macdonald-Cartier Government assumed the reins of power on the 26th of November, and Mr. Macdonald was thenceforward the head of the Administration in name as well as in fact. Two days afterwards Parliament was dissolved, and the general elections, to which Canadians had for some months been looking forward with anxiety, were fixed for December and January. Both parties plunged into the contest with ardent enthusiasm. The principal issues submitted to the people of Upper Canada were Separate Schools and Representation by Population, on both of which questions party lines were very sharply drawn. The Ministerialists, for reasons already referred to, advocated Separate Schools, and opposed Representation by Population. Mr. Brown, the most redoubtable opponent of the Government, by his persistent advocacy of the other side of these questions, had made a good many converts. He employed the full weight of his personal and journalistic influence, and his paper and himself were most important factors in the contest. The result, so far as Upper Canada was concerned, was discouraging for the Ministry, three members of which—Messieurs Cayley, Morrison and Spence—failed to secure election in their respective constituencies. Mr. Cayley subsequently found a seat in Renfrew, but Mr. Morrison and Mr. Spence were less fortunate. Mr. Brown enjoyed the triumph of a double return, having been elected both for Toronto and the North Riding of Oxford.

* Now the Hon. Sir John Rose, Bart., K.C.M.G., of the well-known banking firm of Messieurs Morton, Rose & Co., London, England,

+ Ante, pp. 325, 353.

L'Annee Terrible, 359

Many of his warmest adherents were also returned by considerable majorities, and long before the last writ was returnable it was evident that there would be à preponderance of anti-ministerial Upper Canadian votes in the Assembly. In Trwer Canada a different order of things prevailed. An overwhelming majority of Ministerialists were elected, and two-thirds of the Rouge members who had sat in the last Parliament sustained defeat, Mr. A. A. Dorion, their leader, was among the half dozen or so who were successful in the contest, As to the rest, their alliance with the Upper Canadian Clear Grits was fatal to them. Even Mr. Holton, who personally was both popular and respected, was defeated in Montreal by the new Solicitor-General East. The French Canadian electors could not be brought to vote for candidates who had allied themselves with Mr. Brown and his following—the advocates of unsectarian schools and representation according to population. With the exception of Messieurs Spence* and Morrison, all the members of the Ministry who were not Legislative Councillors found seats in the Assembly. In addition to the gentlemen already referred to as having been successful in securing their elections, the complete returns contained the names of many old members whose personalities are familiar to the reader, including those of J, $. Macdonald, W. L. Mackenzie, David Christie, George Sherwood, Henry Smith, Malcolm Cameron, W. H. Merritt, M. H. Foley, William Notman and Joseph Hartman from Upper Canada; and Joseph Cauchon, L. T, Drummond, A. T. Galt, J. C. Chapais, C. J. Laberge, F. Lemieux, Dunbar Ross and T. L. Terrill from Lower Canada. Conspicuous among a host of new members were John Rose, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Hector Louis Langevin, Christopher Dunkin, Oliver Mowat, John Sheridan Hogan, William P. Howland and John Carling. Mr. Rose, the new Solicitor-General, has just

* During the following session Mr. Spence withdrew permanently from political life, and accepted the appointment of Collector of Customs at the port of Toronto.

360 The Last Forty Years.

been introduced to the reader. Mr. Dunkin has al. eady been encountered at the bar of the Assembly as the able advocate of the

Lower Canadian seigniors, in connection with the subject of the Seigniorial Tenure.* He now took his seat in Parliament for the constituency of Drummond and Arthabaska. Mr. Hogan and his tragical fate were referred to some time back.+ He was returned for the county of Grey. Each of the other five gentlemen above named is entitled to à brief introduction.

Thomas D’Arcy MeGee, one of the most brilliant orators known to our Parliamentary history, had at this time been a resident of Canada only a few months, but his reputation had preceded him hither, and a considerable degree of interest had long attached to his name, for he had “a past behind him,” as well as a future before him. He was one of that band of ardent young Irishmen who had been compromised in the Irish troubles of 1848, and had been compelled to seek personal safety beyond the limits of the United King lom. He was a native of Carlingford, County Louth, where he was born in 1825. His genius developed itself under somewhat untoward circumstances, for his parents were people in humble circumstances, and unable to afford him many advantages. But the genius was there, and would not be repressed, He was endowed with a glowing, poetic imagination, was full of enthusiasm, and even in his early youtl -ossessed in an eminent degree the national gift of eloquence. ‘Luese qualifications, however, proved to be unmarketable commodities in his native land, and soon after entering upon his seventeenth year he emigrated to the United States, where he enterel upon the career of a journalist, and, notwithstanding his extreme youth, won considerable fame among the irish Catholic population as a writer and speaker of uncommon power, His repute extenaed across the Atlantic, insomuch that in 1845 he returned to Ireland to take the editorship of The Freeman's

* Ants, p. 271, + Ante, Vol, I,, pp. 187, 188, and note on latter page,

L'Année Terrible. 361

Journal, at Dublin. Mr. O'Connell's policy, however, was altogether too moderate for a fiery young Celt of twenty years of age, whose judgment was subordinated by his imagination, and who had lived in the United States long enough to imbibe Irish- American ideas. He soon threw the Journal overboard, and joined Charles Gavan Duffy and the band of hot-headed young students who had founded The Nation. Thenceforward he glided naturally enough into Smith O'Brien's insurrection. When the collapse came he made his escape in the disguise of a priest, and fled to New York, where he established The New York Nation, a weekly newspaper written for the Irish population of America. His want of judgment was signally displayed at the very outset of this enterprise. He editorially assailed the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and attributed the failure of the recent insurrection in Ireland to their conduct in dissuading their parishioners from embarking in the undertaking. This was not to be tolerated. Bishop Hughes, of New York, quietly set his foot upon the Nation, and it was no more heard of, Then, untaught by experience, Mr, MeGee began a similar enterprise in Boston, under the title of The American Celt. By degrees, however, light began to dawn upon him. He began, not only to perceive the folly of kicking against the pricks, but to take broader and more sensible views of life. In a word, he imbibed some of the civilizing influences by which he was surrounded in the intellectual centre of America, and recognized the fact that hatred and revenge are not the noblest sentiments whereby the human mind can be dominated, By slow and imperceptible degrees he was led to perceive that his past life had been a mistake, The tone of his writings and speeches underwent a gradual revolution, and he began to preach a gospel of peace and good-will. He became reconciled to the hierarchy, and thenceforward received their support. In 1852 he removed to Buffalo, where he continued the publication of the Cet for about

five years, during which time he gained a very high repvtation 24—2

362 The Last Forty Yeurs.

throughout the republic as a lecturer and writer on Irish affairs. His paper was par excellence the exponent of Irish Catholic opinion on this continent, and the fame of its editor extended to Canada, for his eloquence was constantly quoted in the newspapers, and he delivered occasional lectures in Montreal and other Canadian towns. His pecuniary success, however, was not great, as the Celt did not champion the cause of any political party, and received no appreciable support except from the Irish population. From time to time some of his well-wishers advised him to remove to Montreal, where the want of a ruling mind was sensibly felt among his fellowcountrymen. In 1857 he acted npon the advice, and removed thither with his family. He founded a newspaper called The New Era, wherein he began to advocate an early union of all the British North American colonies. The paper did not live long enough to make any strong impression, for within a short time after its commencement the general elections came on, and its founder was returned to the Assembly as one of the members for Montreal, He then abandered journalism, and devoted his time te. s:quiring such a knowledge of Canadian affairs as might fit him for the proper discharge of his duties as a member of Parliament, He was at this time still a young man, being only in his thirty-third year. He joined the ranks of the Opposition, and caused no little annoyance to the Government by his raillery. It must be confessed, however, that at the outset of his career in Parliament he did not justify the sanguine expectations which had been formed of him. He manifested a fondness for saying irritating and ill-natured things, the saying of which sould answer no good purpose, and which reflected no credit upon either the intellect or the disposition of the utterer, There was a constant effort to be “smart,” with results which were usually by no means commensurate therewith. As the sessions passed by, however, his intellectual range became wider, and the genuine side of his character asserted itself. Long before the occurrence of

L'Anné Terrible. 363

the tragedy which deprived the country of his services, Thomas D'Arcy McGee had come to be known as something much more than a clever writer and speaker. He had given the world assurance of a man who recognized the responsibilities of the trying position in which he had been placed. Throughout his life he was an omnivorous reader, and he thus managed to pick up a great deal of miscellaneous knowledge which his brilliant parts enabled him to turn to good account; so that, without being in the strict sense of the word a scholar, he was emphatically a scholarly man, with an inherent reverence for learning. He lived to hold high and honourable office under the Sovereign against whom he had rebelled in the hey-day of youth and inexperience, and had his life been spared there is reason for believing that the land of his adoption would have been better for his having lived in it,

Sir Hector Langevin is too well known to the Canadians of the present day to need any very prolonged introduction. He is a native of the city of Quebec, where he was born in 1826, and where the greater part of his life has been spent, He studied law at Montreal in the office of Mr. A. N. Morin, and was known during his student days as a clever journalist and pamphleteer, In 1850 he was called to the bar, and began practice at Montreal, but during the following year he removed to his native city, which has ever since been his home, In 1855 he gained the first of three extra prizes for an essay on Canada, written for circulation at the Paris exhibition, He was intimately connected with municipal and railway matters in Quebec, and was several times elected mayor of the city. At the general elections of 1857 he was returned to the Assembly for the county of Dorchester, in the Conservative interest, As will presently be seen, he made himself conspicuous before the close of his first Parliamentary session, He has ever since been a prominent figure in political life, and since the death of Sir Georg Cartier in 1873 he has been recognized as the most distinguished

ASE

rm ETF = SRG PE EST

364 The Last Forty Years.

French Canadian in Parliament. His knightly title had no existence in the remote times of which we are speaking, and was not conferred until 1881.

Oliver Mowat, the present First Minister of Ontario, is a native of Kingston, where his father, a native of the Scottish Highlands, was long engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was identified with the Conservative party, though he had from the first been an ad”ocate of Responsible Government, and an opponent of the exclusive claims of the Church of England to the Clergy Reserves. The son was reared amid Conservative influences, but gave little attention to politics until he had reached an age to form independent opinions. He studied law, and after his call to the bar began practice, first at Kingston and afterwards at Toronto. He devoted himself to the equity branch of his profession, and took the leading position at the Chancery bar. As he approached middle life he formed political ideas widely at variance with those in which he had been reared, and eventually joined the Reform party.* At the general elections of 1857, when he was in his thirty-eighth year, he naiïled his colours to the mast by offering himself to the constituency of South Ontario in opposition to the Hon. J. C. Morrison, Receiver- General, whom he defeated by à large majority. The Opposition justly regarded him as an important acquisition to their ranks, wherein he took a place second only to that oceupied by Mr. Brown himself.

Mr.—now the Hon. Sir William Pearce—Howland was then, as now, one of the commercial mgnates of Toronto. He is a native of the State of New York, but has resided in Canada since his

* ‘Some Conservatives regarded and spoke of his alliance with the Reform Party as a defection from their ranks, A defection, however, it certainly was not, as he had never been allied with the Tory party, as had his father, He had never recorded a Tory vote, or in fact taken any part in political life, His growing leanings in the direction of Liberalism were the outgrowth of the times, and of his own study and reflection,”— Canadian Portrait Gallery, Vol, IL,, p. 88,

L'Année Terrible. 365

youth, and has long been recognized as more Canadian in his sympathies than many persons to the manner born. He was returned in the Reform interest for the West Riding of York, a constituency in which many years of his life had been passed, and where he had laid the foundation of his fortunes, He was known as a man of great shrewdness, and of much business enterprise and judgment.

John Carling is of English descent, and was born in the township of London, Upper Canada, in 1828. He has all his life been connected with the brewing interest, with which the name of his fanily is inseparably associated in this Province. In politics he is, and has ever been, a Conservative of moderate views. He first entered public life at the period under consideration as member for the city of London, which he has ever since represented in Parliament, Without possessing any special gifts as a politician, he is known as an excellent man of business, of much enterprise and public spirit, and enjoying much personal popularity. |

Isaac Buchanan, though not strictly a new member, had been so long out of public life that he might almost be so regarded. We have already made his acquaintance as a member for the city of Toronto in the First Parliament under the Union.* He had resigned his seat on the 2nd of January, 1843, and during the intervening fifteen years had not offered himself as a candidate for any constituency. He was now returned for the city of Hamilton—in which he resided—as a supporter of the Government. He still called himself a Conservative Reformer, and continued to take a keen interest in all questions relating to finance and trade.

Malcolm Cameron, after an absence of more than three years from public life, now took his seat once more in the Assembly as member for Lambton. Though he had been one of the founders of the Clear Grit party, he for some time henceforth gave a general sup-

f port to the Macdonald-Cartier Government,

* Ante, Vol, I., pp. 104, 105,

CHarTER XXX VII,