A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1840. His ancestors emigrated from France, and were among the early
6199 words | Chapter 146
settlers, of the seigniory of Terrebonne; but the father of Mr. Chapleau
was an humble, hard-working mechanic, of whom the son was not ashamed,
and who instilled into the latter principles of honor and devotion to
duty. From the earliest age the boy displayed a taste for learning, and
his mind was so active that means were found to put him to school, where
he grounded himself in the elements of grammar. Thence he was sent to
the neighbouring village of Terrebonne, where a college had been
established by Madame Masson, mother of the ex-lieutenant-governor of
the province of Quebec, and where he pursued his studies until
transferred to St. Hyacinthe, and put through a course which left its
impression on the whole of his subsequent career. On leaving college he
wended his way to Montreal, in search of a profession suitable to a
youth of his tastes and aptitudes. He chose the law, and, encouraged by
his success, devoted himself to criminal practice, acquiring a position
therein which set him, within a short time, in the highest rank among
his youthful associates. But this was not sufficient for his buoyant
nature. He launched into politics at the age of nineteen, mounting the
hustings with assurance, and maintaining himself thereon in the midst of
the most violent campaigns. He went further, and took up the pen in
defence of his political views and principles. With a couple of
congenial spirits he founded a newspaper called _Le Colonisateur_, and
for three years used its columns in an attempt to reach those readers
whom his voice could not attain. From these very beginnings Mr. Chapleau
made his mark, and the political leaders soon foretold that he would
lose no time in taking high rank. His physical appearance was in his
favor. Tall, well built, with a shapely head, wavy black hair thrown
back over his neck like a plume, a musical, flexible voice, an abundance
of animal energy, a fearless spirit that shrank from no difficulty, he
readily placed himself at the head of his companions, with their full
acquiescence, and as if by natural right. Another advantage which the
future statesman enjoyed at the opening of his career was that he found
himself the representative of the young men coming after the radicalism
of 1848, when the French revolution of that year had its echo on this
side, and the cry of annexation rang through the whole of Lower Canada.
This period of acute crisis was followed by a long term of bewilderment
and unrest, called the decade of transition, when party lines were only
faintly drawn, because every one felt that there should be a reunion of
all forces in order to insure the future of the common country. From
1860 to the year of Confederation the young men kept on growing in the
school of strife and trial, but none grew more perceptibly, and with
fuller promise of future strength, than the subject of this sketch. His
opportunity came at length, and he was not slow to seize it. In 1867 the
British North America Act proclaimed to the world a new nation, and the
province of Quebec, without knowing it, and almost in spite of herself,
entered into full possession of her autonomy. She was presented with her
own lieutenant-governor; her own legislature, consisting of two Chambers
and a long scroll of rights and privileges, which practically made the
people of French Canada their own masters. The general election took
place, and Mr. Chapleau, going straight into his native county, asked to
be made its first representative in the Provincial parliament. He was
returned by acclamation, and retained the seat till 1882, through the
ordeal of at least a half-dozen elections. That first session at Quebec
was a memorable one, with such members as Chauveau—a man of high temper
and noble spirit—as premier; Joly, the political Bayard, as leader of
the opposition; Cartier, Langevin, Irvine, Chapais, Marchand, and others
of hardly less note. In such a presence the representative of Terrebonne
took his place, at the age of seven and twenty. Within a few hours he
arose, and the eyes of a crowded house were fastened upon him, as he
proceeded to discharge the honorable function of moving the Address in
reply to the Speech from the Throne. His first effort settled his
position at once, both as an orator and a public man, and thenceforth
the legislative career of Mr. Chapleau was secure. He went along quietly
for several years, making himself acquainted with the new order of
things under Confederation, when the province took an upward bound, and
everything revived—business, agriculture, literature, and the national
spirit—imbuing himself with the principle of practical politics,
whereby the development of the country’s material resources should be
fostered. The time came soon when he was called upon to apply these
schemes in a higher sphere, and another forward step was taken. Mr.
Chapleau was sworn in of the Executive Council, and appointed
Solicitor-General in the beginning of 1873, with the sanction of his
whole party and the approval of his political adversaries. And away, in
a quiet London street, and on a bed of sickness from which he was never
to rise, Sir George Cartier heard of the promotion, and wrote that it
was no more than the reward of merit. The great man, who was the friend
of young men, and who took pains to train them in public life, was
comforted at the last with the thought that one of his favorites had
entered on the paths of responsible office. But this new period, from
1873 to 1879, was a stormy one, and not the least exciting incident was
the defence, at Winnipeg, by Mr. Chapleau, of Lépine and other
Half-breeds, implicated in the North-West troubles of that period. In
September, 1874, the Ouimet government went down on the outcry about the
Tanneries Land Swap, and Mr. Chapleau, after a vigorous defence of his
conduct in a public speech, withdrew into private life. But in January,
1876, he was recalled as provincial secretary, and remained in office
till the disruption of the Boucherville cabinet, by Governor Letellier
de St. Just, in 1878. Another opportunity was here afforded, of which he
took prompt advantage. In a mass meeting, held in Montreal, he was
chosen leader of the Conservative party and of the Opposition, and at
once set to work to prepare the way for the downfall of the Joly
ministry. This he accomplished within a little beyond the year. In
October, 1879, Mr. Joly resigned, and his opponent was summoned to form
a government, which he at once did, adding to his position as first
minister the department of Agriculture and Public Works. The same tact,
energy, and general ability which he displayed as leader of the
Opposition, where the best qualities of a public man are tested, Mr.
Chapleau manifested as head of the government, and lost no time in
turning to a business policy. The chief measure of his administration
was the sale of the North Shore railway, to relieve the exchequer of the
province. The subject gave rise to violent debates, and led to a
division in the Conservative party itself, but subsequent events have
justified it in a measure, and effectually removed the danger of a
powerful corporation being turned into a mere party machine, with
nameless resources of corruption. The general elections came on in 1881,
and Mr. Chapleau swept the province, carrying fifty-three seats out of
sixty-five. This seemed to crown his provincial career, and the project
long cherished by his friends of his promotion from Quebec to Ottawa was
urged upon him with great force. Strong objections were adduced on the
other hand, however, and Mr. Chapleau was warned against taking a false
step; but there is reason to believe that the state of his health,
shattered by the wearing and worrying labors of the previous two years,
turned the scales at the end. In the summer of 1882 Mr. Chapleau
resigned his position, as prime minister, and accepted the portfolio of
State in the government of Sir John Macdonald. It is only those who are
acquainted with the modes, the habits, and the general situation of
French Canada who can measure the difference existing between Quebec and
Ottawa. Many of Mr. Chapleau’s critics foretold that he would be out of
place in his new field; that the showy qualities which had won him so
much distinction and power among his own people would go for very little
with the cool, practical politicians of the Dominion capital, and that
while he was supreme in the provincial arena, he would prove only third
or fourth rate in the federal competition. Our readers can judge for
themselves how far these predictions were fulfilled. Foes will agree
with friends in stating, as a simple matter of justice, that the
influence of Mr. Chapleau has not waned since he became a member of the
Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. On the contrary, he increased his
strength before the whole country by the bold and consistent stand which
he took in the Riel affair. None but those who know the French Canadian
people, how they are attached to their race, some of them cherishing the
odd feeling that they are not treated with becoming justice and respect
by the other elements of the population, and none but those who dwelt in
the province at this time, and witnessed the morbid excitement, the
hopes, the fears, the anxiety which prevailed throughout the whole
crisis, can have the faintest notion of the gravity of the situation.
Against this universal outburst Mr. Chapleau, with his two Quebec
colleagues, had to make a stand, and in the large Montreal district,
over which he has recognized control, he was obliged to bear the brunt
of the onset alone. All agencies were set to bear against him. At first
he was tempted and cajoled. If he put himself at the head of the
movement, all parties would join in his wake, and he would be the master
and idol of the province. Then intimidation was hinted at. If he
ventured to set his foot in Montreal, he would be hooted and mobbed.
There were several weeks, after the meeting in the Champ de Mars, when
the tide of passion ran high, argument was useless, and but for the good
sense and honest purpose of the best classes, a serious rupture might
have ensued. From their point of view this indignation was natural, and
it was respectable, springing from motives of injured patriotism, and
aggravated by the definite promises which the party papers published,
even on the eve of the unfortunate man’s execution. There are two sides
to every question of this kind, and the readers in Ontario and the other
provinces should take the particular circumstances into consideration in
judging of the movement which almost rent the province of Quebec
asunder. The record is that the Secretary of State remained calm and
collected through it all. Knowing his people as he does, he understood
all that he was risking, and the bright prospects which his ambition was
throwing away; but, on the other hand, he seems to have seen his duty
clear from the start, and, like a man, he did it. Without being defiant,
he was fearless throughout. And he was outspoken. In a letter addressed
to his countrymen, on the 28th November, 1885, he broaches the question
face to face, saying that his oath of office was inviolable, even at the
risk of losing friendships and emoluments, and that he had the profound
conviction of the injustice of what was demanded of him as detrimental
to the best understood interests of the province. “I saw,” he adds, “as
a logical consequence of this movement, the isolation of French
Canadians, causing an antagonism of race, provoking retaliation,
combats, and disasters. I felt that there was more courage in breasting
the current than in drifting with it, and, without failing in my duty, I
let pass the misguided crowd who overwhelmed me with the names of
traitor and poltroon.” The letter then goes on to discuss the whole
question in all its bearings, and coming from a statesman, on his
defence, who was acquainted with even the most secret details of the
controversy, it possesses an intrinsic value which future historians
will not overlook. Mr. Chapleau closes with these brave words: “My
conscience tells me that I have failed, in this instance, neither to my
Maker, nor to my Sovereign, nor to my countrymen. . . . I have served my
native land, as a parliamentarian, for eighteen years with joy and
pride. I shall continue to do it on one sole condition, that of keeping
my freedom, with no other care than my honor and my dignity.” In other
respects, as minister of the Crown at Ottawa, Mr. Chapleau may be said
to have pressed hard the claims of his province in the cabinet and in
parliament, and in certain cases he is charged with having done so at
the risk of serious dissensions in the ministerial ranks. Here, as
elsewhere throughout, the difficulties of the French Canadian province
must be taken into account, and many things, very well meant from that
point of view, are quite inexplicable when judged according to Saxon
standards. Very few, if any, among partizan writers, will refuse Mr.
Chapleau the quality of statesmanship, however they may differ on the
principles that actuate it, or the results which it is likely to
accomplish. But on the question of eloquence there can hardly be two
opinions. He is a born orator, with almost all the physical gifts which
go to the making of the perfect master of speech. A volume of his
speeches has just been published, a perusal of which gives the further
assurance of solidity, logical reasoning, rhetorical taste, and generous
sentiment. To the persons who have the pleasure of his acquaintance he
is the accomplished gentleman, lettered and sociable, full of agreeable
information, and willing to oblige. Having married, on the 25th
November, 1874, Marie Louise, a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel King, of
Sherbrooke, Mr. Chapleau is thoroughly conversant with the English, and,
indeed, uses it in public speeches with judgment and fluency. As he is
still a young man, there is reason to hope that he may long be spared to
serve his country, and, while naturally leaning a little to his own
Quebec, devote his fine gifts to the welfare of the Dominion at large.
* * * * *
=Magnan, Adolphe=, Notary Public, Joliette, Quebec province, was born at
Berthier (_en haut_). His father, J. B. Magnan, was a brave and honest
farmer of that place, and his mother was Marie Louise Raymond. The
subject of this sketch was educated at the College of L’Assomption,
where he took a classical course of studies. L’Assomption College, it
may be mentioned, has given to the church and state many eminent men.
Mr. Magnan entered college in 1838, and left it in 1845. In November of
the same year he entered as a student in the office of Firmin Perrin, a
notary at Berthier, and in 1847 left this place for Montreal, where he
engaged in the office of Mr. Denis Emery Papineau, who was then
practising in partnership with the late Pierre Lamothe. He was received
as a notary in 1850, and shortly afterwards settled in the village of
L’Industrie, now the town of Joliette. Mr. Magnan created for himself in
a short time an excellent practice as a notary and as a man of business.
He was soon appreciated as a laborious, honest and conscientious notary,
and commanded public confidence on account of his legal knowledge
acquired under so distinguished a patron as D. E. Papineau. He, in
company with Dr. Michel S. Boulet, founded in 1851, at Joliette, the St.
Jean Baptiste Society, of which he was for several years the president.
Mr. Magnan was official assignee for the Joliette district, under the
acts of 1869 and 1875, and also occupied the position of justice of the
peace for the same district. He was member also of the board of notaries
for the province of Quebec, as well as councillor for the town of
Joliette, and acting mayor for some time. Mr. Magnan has been agent for
the Seigneurial lands of Tarrieu, Joliette and Taillant, in the old
seigniory of Lavaltrie, for more than thirty years; and was also agent
for the seigniory of Daillebout and Ramsay. He practises as a notary at
Joliette, in partnership with Alexis Cabana; and has been notary to the
Bank of Hochelaga at Joliette, since 1874, the date the bank was first
opened at this place. Mr. Magnan is a Liberal in politics. Since 1854 he
has taken an active part in electoral struggles on behalf of that party.
He has always refused to become a candidate, preferring to remain
quietly at home. Mr. Magnan has been twice married, his first wife
having been Aurelie Blanchard. His second wife is Marie Louise Lefleur,
who bore him three children. Albina, his daughter, is married to Dr.
Louis L. Anger, of Great Falls, New Hampshire, U.S.; Arthur and Rosario,
his sons, are both engaged in Montreal in the hardware trade.
* * * * *
=Jones, Rev. Septimus=, M.A., Rector of the Church of the Redeemer,
Toronto, Ont., was born June 4th, 1830, at Portsmouth, county Hants,
England. He is the seventh son of Rev. James Jones, a presbyter of the
English church, and of Esther Budge, both natives of England. Rev. Mr.
Jones received his preparatory education at the city of London School,
England; and in 1848, the family having removed to Canada, he
matriculated at the University of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, in the
province of Quebec. Having graduated in arts, and finished the
theological course in 1853, he filled for a year the position of
classical master in the St. John’s High School, P.Q. In 1854 he was
ordained deacon by Bishop Fulford of Montreal, and preached the
following Sunday in the cathedral, and in St. George’s Church, of which
Bishop Bond, of Montreal, was then assistant minister under Venerable
Archdeacon Leach. His first charge was the mission of Cape Cove and
Percé, in the district of Gaspé, P.Q. In 1854, the only mode of reaching
that remote region, some five hundred miles below Quebec, was by means
of small schooners, in the fish carrying trade, the passage occupying
from three days to three weeks, and the fare, meals included was
$5,—and dear even at that price. The field was unpromising. The people
of the coast were given over to drunkenness, and a very low tone of
morality prevailed. Education, too, was at a very low ebb, and the
people were split up into factions. His nearest clerical neighbor was
forty miles distant on the one side, and sixty on the other. Mr. Jones
gave two hours each morning to the school. The Sunday’s work at Cape
Cove was, at 8 a.m. Sunday school; 10 a.m. morning service; 2:30 p.m.
Sunday school at Percé, nine miles distant, and had to travel this
distance often on foot owing to the state of the roads; 3:30 p.m.
afternoon service; and 7 p.m. evening service at Cape Cove. Cottage
lectures each week evening from house to house. The diet was almost
exclusively salt cod and potatoes; but on Sundays beef or mutton was
served. The mail came in once a week in summer and once a fortnight in
winter. Such is a fair specimen of a missionary’s life in those days. In
1855 Mr. Jones was admitted to the order of presbyter by Bishop Mountain
of Quebec. In the following year, his health having suffered from
overwork and the rigor of the climate (the snow lying from November to
the middle of May), he was removed to Quebec and appointed incumbent of
St. Peter’s Church in that city. In 1859, he went to Philadelphia,
Penn., where he was appointed rector of the Church of the Redeemer; but
in 1861, there being at the time imminent danger of war between Great
Britain and the United States, he returned to Canada. After filling, as
a temporary appointment, the position of assistant minister of St.
Thomas’ Church, Belleville, Ontario, he was appointed the first rector
of Christ Church in that city. In 1870 he was chosen as the first rector
of the Church of the Redeemer, Toronto, which since then has enjoyed a
large measure of prosperity. The present handsome edifice of stone, next
in seating capacity to St. James’ Cathedral, was erected in 1879,
opposite the north gate of Queen’s Park, one of the choicest sites in
the city of Toronto. Rev. Mr. Jones acted for some years as inspector of
schools in Belleville, and subsequently as one of the board of
Intermediate Examiners in Ontario. He has also been connected with
Wycliffe College, since its inception, as one of the council, and as a
teacher, chiefly of the subject of apologetics. He has acted in the
capacity of chaplain for the St. George’s societies, in Quebec,
Belleville, and Toronto. He takes an active part in the work of the
Anglican Synod, and, owing to his administrative ability, he is always a
member of its principal standing and special committees; and he took the
chief part in the preparation of that most useful handy-book, “The
Churchwarden’s Manual,” and was the author of the canon on the
superannuation fund, passed at the 1887 session of the Diocesan Synod.
In the Ministerial Association of Toronto he is greatly interested, and
seldom fails to attend its meetings; and also, when occasion calls, he
is found advocating every movement having for its object the spiritual
and moral improvement of the people. On the 28th April, 1862, Mr. Jones
married Catherine Eliza Bruce Hutton, youngest daughter of the late
William Hutton, secretary to the Bureau of Agriculture. The issue of the
marriage has been eight children, two of whom died in infancy.
* * * * *
=Payan, Paul=, St. Hyacinthe, Quebec province, is a member of the firm
of Duclos & Payan, Tanners, Manufacturers of buff, split-leather, shoe
stock and curriers’ grease. He is the son of Louis Payan and Sophie
Susanne Beranger, and was born the 14th day of February, 1840, in the
city of Mens, department de l’Isère, France. At the early age of twelve
he entered as apprentice in a tailoring establishment. In 1854, when the
Crimean war broke out, his father, who had served under Napoleon the
1st, and accompanied the emperor in most of his campaigns, decided to
send his two sons to America, feeling unwilling to expose them to the
hardship of war, as his eldest son had attained the age of conscription.
On the 7th of July they left for Havre, from which seaport they sailed
for New York, leaving behind them their father and mother to dispose of
their business of smallwares and stationery. After forty-six days’
sailing, the _Arlington_ dropt her anchor in the bay of New York. Then
began their anxieties, greatly increased by the fact that they could not
understand the language of the country. Abused by overcharges in a
hotel, and threatened by bullies, they passed out into the street where
they wandered the whole night. It was only at the close of the next day
that they bought their tickets for Champlain by boat to Albany; and
after many troubles, baggages lost, delays, and disappointment of all
kinds, they landed at Rouse’s Point, where sad news awaited them. A
sister, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Charbonnel, then living at Roxton, had
gone to her rest a few weeks before. His elder brother soon got
employment in a carpenter’s shop, and Paul Payan entered as an
apprentice in a tin shop; but soon discovering it would take a life-time
to make a mere living, he followed the advice of his brother-in-law;
gave up tailoring and the tinsmith business, and concluded an engagement
with the owner of a small tannery. He soon passed to a larger leather
establishment at Roxton Falls, and later on came to St. Pie and St.
Hyacinthe. By that time he had learned his trade and made some money. He
was married to Louisa Tenny, but having to support his young family, and
his father and mother, who arrived in America a year after their son,
his capital did not accumulate very fast. He made two unsuccessful
attempts at starting a tannery business at Roxton Pond and at St.
Hyacinthe. He then went into the bark business, but freight being high,
he reduced its bulk by planing it thin; and was the first to send to the
State of Massachusetts pressed bark. Competition having soon reduced the
profit to a minimum, he gave this up, and went into the grocery business
in Granby. After the death of his wife, he left Granby and became an
agent for J. Daigneau, in an extensive and remunerative bark business.
While in his employ he met with an accident, having broken his leg.
After another attempt at bark business with a young friend, he came back
to a long cherished idea of starting a tannery. With this object in
view, he visited the western part of the United States and Canada; but
finding no more advantages there than in the province of Quebec, he
returned, and was married to his second wife, Olympe Duclos. In 1873 he
formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Silas Duclos, and began to
put up a building of 75 feet long. In 1879 he bought Cotes’ tannery, and
in 1882 doubled its capacity, which now employs 120 hands.
Notwithstanding severe losses through failures, Mr. Payan grew in wealth
and influence. In 1880 he was elected city councillor, which position he
held till 1884, when he resigned. It was during his wise administration
that the city of St. Hyacinthe underwent many improvements, that a
public park was planned, a fire engine house and police station built, a
more efficient fire service organized, the granite mill and a large shoe
factory started, and a gas company put on a working footing. In 1881 Mr.
Payan visited Europe in the interest of his business, seeking a new
market for their manufactured goods. He is a worthy offshoot of a most
faithful Huguenot family, was born and educated a Protestant, and is
still a strong, quiet, unostentatious and consistent professor of the
Presbyterian church of Canada.
* * * * *
=Wells, Hon. Rupert Mearse=, Toronto, Barrister, was born in Prescott
county, Ontario, on the 25th November, 1835. He is descended, on the
paternal side, from an English family, members of which emigrated to
America, and settled in the town of Scituate, in the state of Rhode
Island, towards the end of the seventeenth century. His
great-grandfather, James Wells, came to Canada during the American
revolutionary war. James Pendleton Wells, the father of the subject of
our sketch, was born in Montreal, in 1803, and while a young man removed
to the county of Prescott, where he resided for upwards of fifty years.
He took an active and prominent part in public and political affairs,
and for many years, until he was appointed sheriff, was the recognized
leader of the Reform party in that county. Few men in that district were
more widely known or more generally respected than Sheriff Wells. His
wife was Emily Hamilton Cleveland, a native-born Canadian of
Scotch-English descent. Hon. Mr. Wells, the subject of our sketch,
received his educational training at home and at Brockville, and in 1850
was sent to the University of Toronto. Here he won the Jameson gold
medal for history, and was silver medallist in ethics. Graduating B.A.
in 1854, he began the study of law with Alexander McDonald, then one of
the firm of Blake, Connor, Morrison & McDonald, leading barristers in
Toronto, and on the completion of his law course, was called to the bar
of Upper Canada, Trinity term, 1857. He then removed to L’Orignal, the
county town of the united counties of Prescott and Russell. Mr. Wells
remained here for about three years, during which time, in addition to
his professional duties, he edited and published _The Economist_
newspaper. Removing to Toronto, in 1860, he associated himself with the
Hon. Edward Blake in the law business—the firm name being Blake, Kerr &
Wells. A dissolution of this partnership having taken place in 1870, he
formed another with Angus Morrison, Q.C., who for several years was
mayor of Toronto, the new firm being known by the name of Morrison,
Wells & Gordon. On the death of Mr. Morrison, a few years ago, a change
took place in the firm, and now Mr. Wells carries on his law business in
partnership with Angus MacMurchy, B.A., under the name of Wells &
MacMurchy, barristers, 110 King street west. In 1871 Mr. Wells was
appointed to the office of county attorney for York county and Toronto
city, but this office he only held for about a year when he resigned, to
become the Reform candidate for the South Riding of Bruce, for which
constituency he was elected to the Ontario legislature in October, 1872.
Shortly after entering the house, on the resignation of the Hon. J. G.
Currie, 7th January, 1872, he was elected Speaker, and this high and
honorable position he held until the dissolution of the parliament. He
was elected to the same office on 23rd November, 1875, and held it until
January, 1880. In 1882 he resigned his seat in the Ontario legislature,
and was elected to represent East Bruce in the House of Commons. This
seat he held until the general election of 1887, when he failed to
secure his re-election. The Hon. Mr. Wells is now solicitor for the
Canadian Pacific Railway. In politics he is a staunch Reformer.
* * * * *
=Stuart, Sir Andrew=, Knight, Quebec, is the distinguished Chief Justice
of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, and one of the most
eminent of living Canadian jurists. Chief Justice Stuart may be said to
have been “to the manner born,” and to have inherited the profound legal
abilities, and splendid judicial mind, which make him one of the
greatest ornaments of the Lower Canadian bench. “_Bon chien tient de
race_” is a favorite French-Canadian maxim, which seems to have much
application to his case. Legal and judicial talent runs, so to say, in
his blood. His father, the late Andrew Stuart, Q.C., of Quebec, was her
Majesty’s solicitor-general for Lower Canada, just before the union, and
one of the most brilliant and remarkable lawyers of his day. Sir James
Stuart, baronet, one of the most conspicuous figures in Canadian
history, and for many years chief justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench
for Lower Canada, was another member of the gifted family, as was also
the late Hon. George O’Kill Stuart, for some years one of the
representatives of the city of Quebec in parliament, and, at the time of
his death, judge of her Majesty’s Vice-Admiralty Court at the port of
Quebec. Our distinguished subject’s patronymic indicates his Scottish
extraction. He was born at Quebec, on the 16th June, 1812, and was
educated at Chambly, P.Q., in the Rev. Mr. Parkin’s school, which was
conducted under the auspices of the Lord Bishop of Quebec. After the
usual course of legal study in those days, he was called, in 1834, to
the Quebec bar, and rapidly rose to distinction among his brethren of
the long robe. On his father’s death, he succeeded to the most of his
extensive and lucrative practice, and became the trusted adviser of the
leading merchants and business men of the ancient capital, his services
being retained in nearly all the important cases which came before the
Quebec courts during the next twenty years. In 1854, he was raised to
the dignity of a Q.C., in recognition of his eminent professional
talents, and in the course of the same year he was also appointed a
commissioner to consolidate the Statutes of Canada. In 1859, on the
appointment of the late Hon. Justice Morin, as a member of the
codification commission, he was named an assistant judge of the Superior
Court for Lower Canada, and appointed a puisné judge of the same court
at Quebec, on the death of Hon. Justice Chabot, in 1860. In 1874, he was
offered a seat in the Court of Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec,
but declined it, and in March, 1885, on the retirement of Sir William
Collis Meredith, he was elevated to the more important position of chief
justice of the Superior Court for the province of Quebec, which he still
fills, with honor to himself, satisfaction to the bar, and benefit to
the country. In fact, Sir Andrew Stuart is one of the most popular, as
he is also one of the most eminent, of the Lower Canadian judiciary.
Throughout his career at the bar, his practice was so extensive that he
may be said to have had no time to take any part in politics. At all
events, he never adventured actively on that stormy sea, and, even to
this day, his party proclivities, if he can be stated to have any,
remain in doubt, so evenly did he hold, and has always held, the
balance. This marked characteristic, together with his exalted office as
chief justice, naturally pointed him out as the fit and proper person to
represent the Crown on different occasions in the province of Quebec,
and during the illness of Lieut.-Governor Masson, he was appointed
provincial administrator, in April, 1886, and again in February, 1887,
acquitting himself on both occasions of his high and delicate trust with
a tact and impartiality which won golden opinions from all political
parties in the province. On the 9th May, 1887, Chief Justice Stuart
received, in the honor of knighthood, from her Majesty, a mark of his
Sovereign’s appreciation of his eminent services, in which the whole
country rejoiced, and none more so than the people of Quebec, his native
city and home. Although now past the scriptural three score and ten, Sir
Andrew is still a hale and vigorous man, with well preserved powers of
mind and body, and doubtless has yet many years of public usefulness
before him. On the bench, he is a model of dignity in his demeanor and
lucidity in his judgments, and especially kind to the younger
practitioners before him. In private life, he is essentially the
well-bred gentleman, noted for his affability, geniality, and the
old-time courtliness of his manners. In 1842, he married Elmire Aubert
de Gaspé, a daughter of the late Philip Aubert de Gaspé, seigneur of St.
Jean Port Joly, and a member of one of the oldest and most aristocratic
French families of Lower Canada, who received large grants of land from
the French kings before the conquest. One of Mrs. Stuart’s sisters is
the wife of Hon. Charles Alleyn, formerly commissioner of public works
in the government of Canada, and at present sheriff of Quebec; and
another is the widow of the late Hon. William Power, in his lifetime a
judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. By his marriage, Sir Andrew has
had issue eight children, four sons and four daughters. One of the
former, Henry McNab Stuart, now in British Columbia, is a barrister by
profession. His second son, Andrew Charles Stuart, now deceased, was
also a barrister, and for many years the popular lieut.-colonel and
commanding officer of the 8th battalion of Quebec Royal Rifles. A third
son, Gustavus G. Stuart, is a prominent and successful practitioner at
the Quebec bar, and one of the legal firm of which Sir A. P. Caron,
Dominion minister of militia, is also a member. His eldest daughter,
Lauretta Stuart, is the wife of Hon. Louis Beaubien, of Montreal,
formerly M.P.P. for Hochelaga, and speaker of the Legislative Assembly
of Quebec. Another daughter, Maud Margaret, is the wife of William G.
Lemesurier, and now in India with her husband. Sir Andrew Stuart is a
member of the Church of England.
* * * * *
=Dorion, Hon. Sir Antoine Aimé=, Knight, Montreal, Chief Justice of the
Province of Quebec, was born at Ste. Anne de la Pérade, district of
Three Rivers, on the 17th January, 1818. He is a son of Pierre Antoine
Dorion, who was a member of the House of Assembly for Lower Canada for
the county of Champlain, prior to the troubles of 1835 and 1837, and
Genevieve Bureau, his wife. He is a grandson of P. Bureau, who sat in
the Assembly for the county of St. Maurice, and nephew of Hon. Jacques
O. Bureau, who is a Senator for DeLorimer division. The subject of this
sketch received an excellent education at Nicolet College. After a
course of study in law he was called to the bar of Lower Canada,
January, 1842; was appointed a Q.C. in 1863, and created a knight in
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