1766. The Lovitts have always been identified with the best interests of

Yarmouth. They have been prominently connected with the shipbuilding and other industries, and the county is at present represented in the Dominion House of Commons by one of the family. * * * * * =Moore, Alvan Head=, Magog, Quebec, was born in Hatley, county of Stanstead, province of Quebec, April 20th, 1836. His father, Thomas Moore, was born in Concord, N.H., United States, Dec. 5th, 1787. His mother, Margaret Moore, whose maiden name was Margaret Dickey, was born near Concord, N.H., July 24th, 1795. They were married Dec. 6th, 1812, and came to Canada in the beginning of the present century. They were amongst the early pioneers who settled Stanstead county. His father was on duty during the war of 1812-14 and the rebellion of 1837-8. He held a commission dated August, 1811, as lieutenant in the Eastern Townships Royal Volunteers and ensign in the militia of 1837-8. The subject of this sketch was liberally educated in Canadian academies and United States collegiate institutes, and at the present time is mayor of Magog, postmaster, commissioner of Superior Court, superintendent of the Government Fish Hatchery, justice of the peace for the district of St. Francis, president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company, director in the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad Company, director in the Magog Textile and Print Company, was for years president of the Stanstead County Agricultural Society, chairman of the school commissioners of Magog, and secretary and treasurer of the above mentioned W. & M. R. Co., which office he resigned in 1887 to take the presidency of the company. He has been connected with and was one of the principal promoters of all the public enterprises of the place, the most important of them being the Waterloo & Magog Railway and Magog Textile and Print Works. He was an active promoter of both schemes, and has a large amount of money invested in them. He is an active politician, and has been engaged in every political contest which has taken place in the county since confederation. Being a protectionist, he is consequently a Conservative. He has been looked upon as the successor of the present member in the House of Commons, but so far has steadily refused to accept any nomination for parliamentary honors. He is and has always been a temperance man and opposed to the license system, and one of the few men of his age who never signed a requisition for a license. The adoption of the Temperance Act of 1878 in the county of Stanstead was largely due to his exertions. He is a Protestant in religion, and in favor of the alliance and amalgamation of all Christian denominations, and the destruction of sectarian walls that serve to divide and weaken the members of the Christian church. He was married August 12th, 1858, to Julia Ann Merry, eldest daughter of the late Ralph Merry, of Magog, who was one of the most prominent and most public-spirited men of his time, and was for many years mayor of Magog. At the time of his death he was president of the Waterloo & Magog Railway Company; vice-president of the Stanstead, Shefford & Chambly Railroad; and one of the early promoters of both schemes. Mrs. Moore was born at Magog, March 13th, 1838, was educated in Canadian and United States academies, and was also for some time a student in the convent at Longueuil, near Montreal. Immediately after their marriage they went to Kentucky, U.S.A., where they lived for nearly two years and engaged in teaching in the Pleasant Green Seminary until it was accidentally burned, Jan. 1, 1860. The war cloud being about ready to burst over the slavery question, they returned to Canada in the spring of 1860. Mr. Moore became associated in that year with his father-in-law (Mr. Merry) in building the Waterloo & Magog Railroad and in mercantile business. They continued in partnership until 1867, when Mr. Merry retired from the firm and Mr. Moore continued, and is now one of the largest and most successful merchants in the eastern townships. They have three children living, Ralph Merry Moore, born in Kentucky; Catharine Louise Moore and Elizabeth Florence Moore, the two last born in Magog, province of Quebec. * * * * * =Freer, Lieut. Harry Cortlandt=, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regt., and Lieutenant and Brevet Captain and Adjutant, B Company, R.S.I., St. John’s, Quebec, was born at Sherbrooke, Quebec, on the 9th of May, 1859. His father, Cortlandt Freer, of the Grand Trunk Railway engineer staff, is a son of Noah Freer, late captain in the Nova Scotia Fencibles, and at one time A.D.C., or military secretary, to Sir George Prevost. His mother, M. A. Sicotte, is the eldest daughter of the Hon. L. V. Sicotte, judge of the Superior Court, St. Hyacinthe. The subject of this sketch was educated at Trinity College School, Port Hope, and afterwards graduated at the Royal Military College, Kingston. He entered the British service, and served a year each in Malta and Ireland. On the breaking out of the Egyptian war he served with the 1st battalion South Staffordshire regiment, and served throughout the campaign of 1882, receiving the Queen’s and Khedive’s medals for his gallantry. After his return to Canada, the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 again called him to active service, and he was appointed A.D.C. to Major-Gen. Sir Frederick Middleton, K.C.M.G., and was present at Batoche. For his gallantry on that occasion he was mentioned in the despatches, and received the medal with clasp. He has been an extensive traveller both in Europe and the East, as well as in our own country, having travelled as far west as British Colombia. In religion he is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is unmarried. * * * * * =Montgomery, Donald=, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Chief Superintendent of Education for Prince Edward Island, was born at Valleyfield, 3rd May, 1848. His parents came to the island from Scotland in 1840. Mr. Montgomery received his education at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, the foremost seat of learning in Prince Edward Island, and at McGill University, Montreal. He progressed rapidly in his chosen profession of teacher, and in 1874 was appointed principal of the Provincial Normal School. This position he held for three years. The progress of education in the island has been very gradual. At the original distribution of the land in 1767, thirty acres were reserved in each township for a schoolmaster, and there the matter rested until 1821, when a national school was opened at the capital. Later on a board of education was appointed for the island and other schools were opened. In 1836 a central academy was established in Charlottetown. In 1837, John McNeil was appointed the first superintendent of schools. At this time the total population of the island was about thirty-five thousand, and there were only fifty-one schools, with a total attendance of 1,533. Means were scanty and the schoolmaster was literally “abroad” most of his time, removing from house to house, as he got his board among the different families of his district. In 1842, there were 121 schools and 4356 pupils. In 1852, a free school act was passed by the Legislature. In 1853, the office of general superintendent for the island, abolished in 1848 (a county superintendent for each county being substituted), was re-established. In 1855, a bill was passed establishing a Normal School, which was opened in 1856. The question as to whether the Bible should be read in the Central Academy and the Normal School was earnestly debated by the people and brought to the notice of the Legislature in 1858. The House decided against the use of the Bible in the schools. In 1861, however, was passed an act admitting the Bible into the schools. The Prince of Wales College was established in the same year. Many of the best men in the island have received their earlier education at this institution, which, however, they frequently supplement by a course at other seats of learning in the Dominion, the United States and Great Britain. In 1878, Mr. Montgomery embarked in politics, and on the 20th September in that year was elected to a seat in the local legislature for his native district of Belfast. This was a bye-election caused by the resignation of William Welsh. At the general election, Mr. Montgomery again offered, and was re-elected in April, 1879. He was a moderate Conservative. He resigned his seat in the House in the summer of that year, and on the 26th September, 1879, was appointed to the position of chief superintendent of education. This position he has continued to hold up to the present time. He is connected with the Presbyterian denomination. He married, on 10th August, 1887, Mary Isabella, daughter of William McPhail, of Orwell. His residence is situated on Prince street, in Charlottetown. A man in the very prime of life and usefulness, Mr. Montgomery occupies a position of the highest importance. * * * * * =Rivard, Antoine Majorique=, M.D., Sheriff for the district of Joliette, was born on the 24th September, 1838, at St. Leon, district of Three Rivers, province of Quebec. He is descended from a family that came from France, and settled at Batiscan, province of Quebec, in 1660. His father was Pierre Celestine Rivard, merchant at St. Leon, and his mother Marie Angèle Caron. He was educated at the Lanigan Academy, Three Rivers, and Nicolet College. He was admitted as a physician and surgeon on October 8th, 1861, and practised at St. Leon until 1865, when he removed to Joliette, where he has since resided. He has been councillor and mayor of the town of Joliette, vice-president of the Agricultural Society, county of Joliette, president of School Commissions, director of La Compagnie Manufacturier de Tabac Canadien de Joliette, secretary of the Medico-Surgical Association of the district of Joliette, and surgeon of the 83rd battalion since 1874. He was a governor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province of Quebec from 1877 to 1880, collector of inland revenue from 1880 to 1882, and was made sheriff on the 24th February, 1885. Dr. Rivard was married on the 16th February, 1863, to Marie Corine Asilda Lemaitre Angé, of Rivière du Loup, _en haut_, and has always been a strict adherent of the Roman Catholic faith. He is an ornament to the profession which he has made the study of his life, and his talents are only second to his indomitable energy and perseverance. * * * * * =Cartier, Sir George Etienne.= This illustrious statesman was born in the village of St. Antoine, in the county of Verchères, on the 6th of September, 1814. It was claimed for him that he was descended from one of the nephews of Jacques Cartier, the adventurous Breton navigator, who showed to France the ocean pathways to a western empire. But George Etienne stood in no need of the dim and flickering lustre reflected from remote family achievement. He made for himself, in the history of his country, a name and a fame which, by right of native ability and resolute and fortunate effort, are permanently his own. His immediate ancestors were of the better class of French Canadians. His grandfather, a successful merchant, was one of the first members chosen for the county of Verchères, when the Constitutional Act of 1791 gave to Lower Canada the right to representative institutions. In Lower Canada, in the early days of George Etienne Cartier, two avocations possessed, and still possess, a strong attraction for the more gifted amongst the younger population. These avocations were the church and the bar. Cartier chose the latter. To qualify himself for his intended profession, he pursued, for eight years, a course of study at the college of St. Sulpice, in the city of Montreal. There is no tradition to show that he was a brilliant student. In this respect he adds another to the number of eminent men who reserved, not for the ideal world of the school-room, but for the actual world of after life, powers and faculties previously unsuspected, because undisplayed. After leaving college he entered upon the study of the law, and in 1835 he began practice in the city of Montreal. The legal profession, crowded at that period, overcrowded at the present time, still affords, to use the simile of Daniel Webster, “room in the upper story.” To that place of vantage Cartier made his way. The explanation of his success is not far to seek. He possessed at that time, and until the end of his life, an industry that never knew cessation, an energy that never faltered, and an ever-present consciousness of his own ability. But, for young Cartier, another pursuit besides law presented imperative claims to attention. This was politics. To him, and to the majority of his countrymen, they seemed to mean political existence, and the preservation of their language and institutions. Cartier had scarcely begun the practice of his profession when he was drawn into the vortex. Louis Joseph Papineau, speaker of the Legislative Assembly since the year 1817, had been flaming, like a portentous meteor, in the troubled sky of Canadian politics. Under his influence, Cartier, like the overwhelming majority of French Canadians, fell. It was no wonder. Papineau was an impetuous leader; he had a popular cause; he appeared to be fighting an unequal battle. To narrate in detail the causes which created a leader out of Papineau, and which attracted to his banner all the more enthusiastic among the French Canadians, would be to fill volumes: to write a history of a country, and not the brief biography of a man. But a few words may serve to convey a faint idea of the political condition of Lower Canada, at the time when Cartier ventured into the perilous pathways of the provincial politics of that epoch. From the conquest of Canada, in 1760, to 1791 (the year of the passing of the Constitutional Act), Canada was a portion of the British empire, but was an alien in respect to British institutions. This Act divided what was known as the Province of Quebec into two new provinces—Upper and Lower Canada. A legislature was, by the Act, established in each province. It consisted of a House of Assembly and a Legislative Council. The people elected the Assembly; the Crown nominated the Council. Herein lay the monstrous defect of the Constitutional Act; the poisonous leaven that corrupted the body politic in Upper and Lower Canada; the pestilent germ that developed into outrageous misgovernment, jeopardy of British connection, and ultimate rebellion. The Upper House, nominated by the Crown, was not only irresponsible to the people, but set their wishes at absolute defiance. The popular Assembly might pass necessary measures; the Council expunged the provisions that made them useful, or trampled them under foot. The oligarchy, which was continually in a minority in the Assembly, but always in a majority in the Council, lorded it over Lower Canada in contemptuous indifference to the wishes of the French Canadian majority.[4] The Governor, who was commissioned to represent the King, was the mere puppet of the oligarchy. While they flattered him they ruled him, and cajoled while they enslaved. Thus, for long and weary years, was enacted the wretched drama of despotism under a constitutional mask. There seemed no sign of relief. The governors and the oligarchy, by their machinations, had gained the ear of the imperial authorities, and tricked them into the belief that to rule in contempt of British institutions was the only means of perpetuating British rule in Upper and Lower Canada. With the intention to act justly, the British government, above all others, seemed, at this period, to be beyond the reach of the warnings of experience; seemed doomed never to know the truths as to the dismal history of colonial misgovernment. The loss of the thirteen colonies had been a lesson taught in vain. Not until the Earl of Durham, in a state paper which eclipses, for ability, conscientiousness, vast industry, and fearless truthfulness, any other of the kind in the diplomatic literature of the British American colonies—not until he laid bare the ulcers and festering wounds on the Canadian body politic, did the imperial authorities learn the truth, and set themselves to prepare a remedy. In the year 1837 the patience and prudence of the French Canadian leaders gave way. The pleading for reform had been scouted as treason; now insurrection was about to take the place of argument. Among the deplorable elements engendered in the long struggle for a better state of things was that of race-hatred. For this dangerous passion, Papineau, often violent in language and unwise in denunciation, was more responsible than his opponents. To this passion, Cartier, even in his hot youth, would not surrender himself. But, when the movement which Papineau for nearly a quarter of a century had fostered, burst away from his control, and leapt from agitation into rebellion, George Etienne Cartier, throwing to the winds considerations of selfishness and prudence, boldly took his life in his hand, and appealed to the arbitrament of the sword. The autumn of 1837 was ominous of coming troubles. The government, even if no other source of information had been at their command, could not fail to perceive in the speeches of the more impetuous of the French Canadian leaders that an appeal to arms was in immediate contemplation. After waiting for a period which to their friends seemed perilously prolonged, the authorities determined at length to grapple with the incipient insurrection. On the 16th of November, 1837, warrants for high treason were issued against the Montreal agitators who were inciting the people to rebellion. Papineau was included in the number, but he had been warned in time. He placed the St. Lawrence between himself and arrest, and made good his way towards the Richelieu river. His arrival in that locality brought to a focus the latent elements of revolt. The disaffected peasantry of the surrounding districts trooped to their headquarters, a village named Debartzch, in the parish of St. Charles. But, in addition to the encampment at St. Charles, there was another and more memorable mustering-place of the “patriots.” This was at St. Denis, on the Chambly river. The leader of the patriots was Dr. Wolfred Nelson, a man whose energy, courage and principles won him the unshaken confidence of the peasantry. At St. Denis we find George Etienne Cartier. A British force under Colonel Gore, a Waterloo veteran, was sent against St. Denis. Accompanying the expedition was a deputy-sheriff armed with a warrant for the arrest of Dr. Wolfred Nelson on a charge of high treason. On the morning of the 23rd of November, 1837, the troops, after twelve hours’ march through the sloughs, mud, and pit-falls of a winter road in Lower Canada, approached the village of St. Denis. A contemporary account thus narrates the result of the attack on the position of the insurgents:— The necessary orders were given for the troops to advance; an order which was promptly obeyed, notwithstanding the harassing and fatiguing march of the night. Towards the north-eastern entrance of the village of St. Denis there is a large stone house, of three or four stories, which was discovered to be full of armed men, who opened a sharp and galling fire upon the troops. The skirmishing party here consisted of the light company of the 32nd, under Captain Markham. Within a quarter of an hour after the firing commenced, Captain Markham was severely wounded in the leg; and, almost at the same moment, received two dangerous wounds in the neck, which brought him to the ground. In conveying him to the rear, he received another wound, a proof of the dexterity and precision of the fire kept up by the patriots. It was found by Colonel Gore that the infantry, deprived of the assistance of Colonel Wetherall’s force, was inadequate to cope with the terrible fire of the musketry that was kept up and directed against them from the stone house. The field-piece, accordingly, was brought to bear upon this fort of the insurgent army, and injured it considerably, sending many of the inmates to their final account. Notwithstanding, as the ammunition was nearly exhausted, it was deemed prudent to retire, in order to maintain the communication with Sorel, as many of the inhabitants were seen gathering from all directions to the scene of action. About half-past two in the afternoon, the order to fall back was given; and, with the loss of six men killed and ten wounded, a retreat was commenced. The roads were so bad it was impossible to get farther than three miles that night, and Colonel Gore was under the necessity of bivouacking till daylight of Friday morning (24th), when he again commenced his march upon Sorel, which he reached that afternoon. On the 25th of November, 1837, Lieutenant-Colonel Wetherall and a British force drove the patriots from their position at St. Charles. A few days after this event Colonel Gore, with his command reinforced marched upon St. Denis. But the victory at St. Charles had caused defections in the ranks of Dr. Nelson. He did not wait a second attack, but abandoned his position, and sought to make his escape to the United States. Thus ended the operations on the Richelieu, and with them the rebellion south of the River St. Lawrence. George E. Cartier was with Dr. Nelson in the combat at St. Denis. In after life, a political opponent would sometimes taunt him with cowardice on that occasion. To such reproaches he never replied, and hence there were some persons who suspected that there might be truth in the accusation. But Cartier himself knew better, and could afford to be silent. Ten years or so after St. Denis his conduct was described by Dr. Nelson, who was qualified to speak on the subject. In _La Minerve_, of Montreal, under date of September 4th, 1848, Dr. Nelson’s “attestation,” dated Montreal, 21st August, 1848, was published in French. “Seeing,” says the Doctor, “that an appeal has been made to me to give my testimony concerning certain events at St. Denis, in 1837, I will do so in the interest of truth and justice. I owe this to my friends, and to the country in general.” It is true that _M. Henri Cartier_[5] remarked that it would be well to retreat, seeing the destruction caused by the discharges of the enemy, the want of munitions, and the flight of a number of persons of consequence. I strongly opposed this retreat; but, notwithstanding that, Mr. Henri Cartier vigorously supported us during all the day. M. GEORGE CARTIER never made allusion to the retreat, and he like his cousin, M. H. Cartier, valiantly and effectively contributed to the success of this struggle. And these gentlemen only left me when I was myself obliged to leave, nine days after this event, when the second expedition of troops moved against St. Denis; resistance then having become impossible, I sent M. George Cartier, towards two o’clock in the afternoon, for some stores to St. Antoine, and he promptly returned with succour, after about an hour’s absence. Mr. George Cartier did not wear a _tuque bleu_[6] on the day of the battle. WOLFRED NELSON. MONTREAL, _21st August, 1848._ The authority of Dr. Wolfred Nelson must be accepted as conclusive evidence respecting the personal courage of Cartier, who, it would seem, acted in the capacity of _aide-de-camp_ to the valiant doctor. Cartier, at this battle, was in the twenty-third year of his age. It was also charged against him by some of his political opponents, that for his participation in the events of 1837, a reward was offered for his head. The present writer has not been able to verify this fact. The name of Cartier does not appear in the lists of those for whose apprehension the governor proclaimed rewards. Some time after the fight at St. Denis, Cartier took refuge in the United States. Although he was unnamed in the proclamations, his course of action was well known to the government. He would have been arrested at the time if it had been possible, and his fate would probably have been like that of his commander at St. Denis—banishment. He returned secretly from the United States to Canada, and remained in hiding for a time. His seclusion, however, was not of very long duration. An intimation from the authorities assured him that on presenting himself in public he would not be arrested. The promise was faithfully kept. The result of Mr. Cartier’s participation in the rebellion of 1837 was that for nearly ten years after its close he took no active part in public life. In 1848, yielding to the pressure of his friends, he was returned to parliament as the representative of his native county of Verchères. He could not have made his entry into public life at a more favorable moment for a man of the liberal tendencies which then dominated him. The governor-general was the Earl of Elgin, the greatest man, with the exception of the Earl of Durham, ever commissioned by the British government to perform the functions of viceroy of Canada. The Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet, never before or since excelled for ability and administrative talent, swayed the political destinies of the province. A seat in the House of Assembly, for two sessions, in the time of Baldwin and Lafontaine, was in itself a political education. Cartier was an apt learner. In the session of 1850 he showed how well he understood the needs of his native province. In that year Lafontaine proposed, in the House of Assembly, a series of resolutions for the abolition of the Seignorial Tenure. Like every other abuse which has the plea of age for its defence, the Seignorial system found determined advocates. But its opponents were not only more numerous, but had an infinitely better cause. Some great debates arose on this subject, for it was one that went home to the whole body of the French Canadian peasantry. It appealed, also, to the dearest interests of the seigneurs. Cartier was one of those who offered strong opposition to the tenure. As the representative of a purely agricultural county he could take no other course, but the position he assumed was in accordance with his convictions. In his place in the house he boldly stated that that portion of the province which had been settled under the Seignorial Tenure had not made as much progress as the part which had been settled under the Free Tenure. He contended that it was as much the advantage of the seigneur as of the tenant to abolish the Feudal System; and that the proper time for so doing had presented itself. The general opinion of the house was that the session was too far advanced to deal effectively with the question. It was also considered that the seigneurs had not had time enough afforded them to plead their cause. The Hon. Robert Baldwin and Mr. Cartier were in favor of settling the Seignorial question at once, and would have prolonged the session for that purpose; but Mr. Lafontaine refused to consent. He considered that the legal remedies proposed would not lead to a definite settlement of the problem. He had no desire to reform and perpetuate the Tenure; he wished to sweep it out of existence. The Tenure was abolished in the year 1854, by the Hincks-Morin administration. Those two leaders having retired in 1855, Sir Edmund Head, then governor-general, called upon Sir Allan MacNab to form a Cabinet. Sir Allan allied himself with Colonel E. P. Taché; and the latter on the 27th of January, 1855, selected Mr. Cartier as provincial secretary. He was not eager for office. Under the previous administration he had refused the position of commissioner of public works. The Legislature, in 1856, devoted a great deal of attention to the subject of public education. Mr. Cartier entered heartily into the question. He had the principal share in preparing two measures which were adopted by the house. The one provided for the establishment of a Council of Public Instruction for Lower Canada, and for allowing school municipalities to levy their own quotas. The other authorized the establishment of Normal schools in Lower Canada, and erected a permanent fund of $88,000, to be devoted to superior education in that province. Part of this money was made up out of the revenues of the Jesuits’ estates; $20,000 of it came from the Consolidated Fund. A sum of $20,000 was at the same time voted for the purposes of superior education in Upper Canada. The opposition endeavored to alter these two measures. It was contended that the distribution of $88,000 by the superintendent of education, under an Order in Council, would be placing means of corruption in the hands of the government. It was further contended that it was unconstitutional to deprive the House of Assembly of the right to vote, annually, the public moneys. The arguments of the opposition were sound, but were urged in vain, and the government measures were carried. The MacNab-Taché administration, in 1856, fell to pieces. There was weakness within its membership. There was, in addition, the disturbing question of the settlement of the seat of government. The house, at the end of a long and exciting debate, resolved that, after the year 1859, the city of Quebec should be the permanent capital of Canada. A considerable number of the representatives of Upper Canada were discontented with this arrangement. They considered that Quebec was too far removed from the centre of the province. The government, in accordance with the resolution of the house, placed in the estimates the sum of $200,000 for the erection of public buildings. The Hon. Luther Hamilton Holton proposed the following amendment:—“That the conduct of the administration on the subject of the question of the seat of government, and on other questions of public importance, has disappointed the just expectation of the great majority of the people of this province.” The discussion which followed lasted some days. The amendment of Mr. Holton was defeated by a majority of twenty-three. But, among the forty-seven yeas, were thirty-three members from Upper Canada; while, from that province, twenty-seven only voted with the ministry. The vote was followed by the resignation of two members of the government, Messrs. Spence and Morrison. These gentlemen belonged to the Upper Canada section of the ministry. The Hon. John A. Macdonald was the next to secede. He was of opinion that the vote on the question of the capital had weakened the government, and as there was no security that the same votes would not be repeated he thought it best to remain no longer in the Cabinet. The Hon. Mr. Cayley, also from Upper Canada, followed the footsteps of Mr. Macdonald. Sir Allan MacNab was reluctantly forced to resign. The governor-general requested Colonel Taché to form a new administration. He chose for his colleague the Hon. John A. Macdonald, in the stead of Sir Allan MacNab. The new ministry was virtually a continuation of the old one, with two exceptions: Mr. Vankoughnet replaced Sir Allan MacNab in the Upper Canada section; Mr. Terril replaced Mr. Drummond in the Lower Canada section. Mr. Cartier, in passing from one ministry to the other changed his portfolio. He became attorney-general for Lower Canada, in the place of Mr. Drummond. His new office was no sinecure. The session which opened on the 26th of February, 1857, was signalized by a ministerial project which was of far-reaching importance to Lower Canada. This was the codification of the Civil Laws, and of the Laws of Procedure. The measure was the work of Attorney-General Cartier. He expended on it great industry; he made it a labor of love. As he himself observed, the necessity of codification made itself felt the more because the province was settled by people of different races. The knowledge which everyone should possess of the laws of his country could only be attained by codification. The sources whence those laws were derived were so varied that an acquaintance with them demanded great research. Part of the civil laws of Lower Canada had been borrowed from the Roman law; part from a body of jurisprudence known as the Custom of Paris; part was found in the Edicts and Ordonnances, and in the Provincial Statutes. The time was ripe for this great and beneficent work. The peasantry of Lower Canada had been emancipated from the control of the seigneurs. The land laws which had ruled them had been swept away, and an improved system of jurisprudence, suited to the new state of things, was demanded. Mr. Cartier was determined to satisfy this demand. But there were those in parliament who wished to proceed farther than he then wanted to go. The Hon. Mr. Drummond, attorney-general in the late administration, and an able jurist, was of opinion that the laws of both provinces should be assimilated, so that there might be but one code for Canada. The reply of Attorney-General Cartier was to the effect that it was necessary to begin first with the codification, of those laws which Lower Canada imperatively demanded. After this, it would be time to think about accomplishing what was proposed. The measure passed through the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council without opposition. The commissioners appointed by the government to codify the laws began their labors in 1859, and finished them in 1864. Some readers of this sketch will remember the occasion on which, in the Legislative Assembly in the city of Quebec, Attorney-General Cartier rose to move the resolution which would make the Civil Code the law of the land. He addressed the house in French, and with more seriousness and deliberation than marked his ordinary utterances. He spoke with the feeling of a man who is conscious that he is placing the crowning stone on an edifice which has cost him years of labor and anxiety to build. As he finished with the words, “I desire no better epitaph than this—‘He accomplished the Civil Code,’” the house did honour to itself and to him by a hearty burst of applause. The eastern townships of Lower Canada are peopled mainly by an English-speaking population. But the French Canadians, in course of time, found their way into these districts. The result was, that there were two systems of civil law. To remedy this evil, Mr. Cartier prepared and carried through parliament a measure which introduced the French Civil laws into the eastern townships, and rendered uniform the holding of lands. Another most important measure which he succeeded in passing during the session of 1857 was an Act for the Decentralization of Justice. Its object was to cheapen justice, and to render it more easily attainable. “The administration of justice in criminal cases, and in all civil matter where the amount involved was over fifty pounds, was confined to seven places: Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, St. Francis, Aylmer, Sherbrooke and Gaspé, in a country exceeding seven hundred or eight hundred miles in length.” The act divided Lower Canada into nineteen judicial districts, adding twelve to those already mentioned. It provided for the erection of courts of justice and prisons in the new districts, increased the number of the judges of the Superior Court to eighteen, and the number of the judges of the Court of Appeal to five. The act provided that there should be four terms of the Court of Appeal in Quebec, and made other regulations respecting procedure and the salaries of the judges. The care and labor which this statute imposed on Mr. Cartier, in originating it, in passing it through the house, and in devising the multifarious machinery necessary to put it into successful operation, were enough to have overcome a man of less mental and physical energy. The majority of the people of Lower Canada welcomed the Act with open arms, and it endeared its author to his French Canadian fellow-countrymen. The parliament of 1857 had not been long in session when the question of the permanent seat of government again came to the front. In the previous session, as we have seen, the Assembly had decided that Quebec should be the capital and had authorized the expenditure of $200,000 for the erection of necessary buildings. But the Legislative Council had refused its assent to the supplies. The question, therefore, in 1857, was practically undecided: and so thought a great many of the members. The ministry decided to overlook the Assembly’s vote last session in favor of Quebec; and resolved to leave the question of the permanent seat of government to the decision of the Queen. The ministry further proposed that a vote of $900,000 should be taken for the erection of new parliamentary and departmental buildings. Attorney-General Cartier was of opinion that many of the members could not have been serious in voting in favor of Quebec; his reason being that they had voted immediately afterwards against the expenditure of the $200,000. Besides, the Legislative Council had refused assent to the supplies. The government would not act unless the two branches of the legislature were in agreement; but it was impossible to have the consent of the Council. The better plan, therefore, in his opinion, was to leave to her Majesty the selection of the future capital of Canada. This proposition was opposed by many members from the lower province. Mr. J. E. Thibaudeau moved an amendment to the effect that it was not expedient to take into consideration the question of the seat of government, because it had been decided the previous session. He contended that the rejection of the supplies by the Legislative Council was not a sufficient ground for annulling the decision of the Legislative Assembly, the more especially as many councillors from Lower Canada were absent when the vote was taken. The amendment was lost. The same fate befell a motion to make Montreal the seat of government. The result was that an address to the Queen, praying her to select the capital, was carried by a majority of nine. Her Majesty selected Ottawa as the seat of government. On the 25th of November, 1857, Colonel Taché the nominal head of the administration, resigned office, and the Hon. John A. Macdonald was called upon to form a new government. He made no change in the Upper Canada section of the cabinet. At his request, Mr. Cartier proceeded to select the ministers for Lower Canada. His object was to combine the two political parties in his native province. Two moderate Liberals, Messrs. Belleau and Sicotte, accepted office under Mr. Cartier. The offer of a portfolio to the Hon. A. A. Dorion was, with the consent of Mr. Cartier, made through Mr. Sicotte. But Mr. Dorion refused the inducement, and remained true to his political allegiance. The Macdonald-Cartier administration was formed on the 26th of November,