A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose
1887. In 1885, Mr. Shakespeare was elected to the presidency of the
6054 words | Chapter 61
British Columbia Agricultural Association; and in 1886, he was also made
president of the British Columbia Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of
which he was the principal organizer in Victoria. He is a friend of all
movements adopted for the good of his race. He was president of the
Anti-Chinese Association of Victoria, in 1879; was elected grand worthy
chief of the Grand Lodge of Good Templars of Washington Territory and
British Columbia, in 1877; again elected to the same position in 1878;
and in 1886, he filled the honourable office of president of the Young
Men’s Christian Association of Victoria. In 1884 he introduced and
succeeded in getting carried a resolution in favor of restricting
Chinese immigration into the Dominion of Canada. He is a justice of
peace for the Province of British Columbia. In politics, he is a
Liberal-Conservative; and in religion, an adherent of the Methodist
church. On December 26th, 1869, he was married to Eliza Jane Pearson.
* * * * *
=Fielding, Hon. William Stevens=, Premier of Nova Scotia, and M.P.P. for
the city and county of Halifax, was born at Halifax, on the 24th of
November, 1848, and is of English descent. He was educated in his native
city, and has devoted the greater part of his life to journalism. At the
age of sixteen he entered the office of the _Morning Chronicle_, in
Halifax, the leading Liberal paper in Nova Scotia, as a clerk, and
gradually worked through the reportorial and editorial departments to
the position of managing editor, which office he resigned in 1884, when
called upon to fill a high position in the government of his native
province. During these twenty years, he did not confine his writing
exclusively to his own province, but contributed to various journals
abroad. For fourteen years he was connected with the Toronto _Globe_, as
Nova Scotia correspondent. In 1882, at a convention of the Liberal party
held at Halifax, after the resignation of the Thompson government, the
positions of premier and provincial secretary were offered to Mr.
Fielding, but he declined the honor. He, however, entered the
administration of the Hon. W. T. Pipes, on the 22nd of December, of the
same year, without a portfolio, having previously declined the offer of
a seat in it. In May, 1884, he resigned. On the retirement of the Hon.
W. T. Pipes, on the 15th of July following, he was called upon to
reorganize the cabinet, which he succeeded in doing, and became premier
and provincial secretary, on the 28th of July, 1884, and this position
he still holds. He was first returned to the House of Assembly at the
general election held in 1882, re-elected on his accepting office, 20th
of August, 1884, and again at the last general election in 1886. The
Hon. Mr. Fielding is a Liberal in politics, and favors the withdrawal of
the Maritime provinces from the Canadian confederation, and the
formation of a Maritime union. As will be seen, he has for the past five
years played an important part in the politics of his country, and being
yet a comparatively young man, there is yet a brilliant future before
him. In religion, he is attached to the Baptist church. On the 7th of
September, 1876, he was married to Hester, daughter of Thomas A.
Rankine, of St. John, New Brunswick.
* * * * *
=Hetherington, George A.=, M.D., L.M. (Dublin), St. John, New Brunswick,
was born at Johnston, New Brunswick, on the 17th March, 1851. His
father, James Grierson Hetherington, was of English descent, his father
(the grandfather of the subject of our sketch) having been born in
England, and came out to St. John, N.B., about seventy years ago, and
established a merchant tailoring business there, which was one of the
first in that then very young and small city. Mary Jane Clark, his
mother, was a native of New Brunswick, and of U. E. loyalist descent.
George A. Hetherington received the rudiments of his education at the
place of his birth; then he went to the Normal School at St. John, N.B.,
where he took a teacher’s certificate in 1860, and taught school for a
short time. Subsequently, for two years, he attended the Baptist
Seminary at Fredericton, N.B., and then spent a year in the medical
department of the University of Michigan, United States. He then
received an appointment in the Washtenaw Almshouse Hospital and Insane
Asylum, as resident physician, and this office he held for a year,
during which period he took a partial course, after the first year’s
full course, in the same university. He then went to Cincinnati, where
he further prosecuted his studies in medicine and surgery in the General
Hospital and in the Cincinnati College, and graduated M.D., in 1875.
Returning to his native country he successfully practised his profession
for nearly five years, and then went to Great Britain. Here he spent a
short period in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and then went to Dublin,
where he took the full qualification of Rotunda Hospital for Women
(_Lic.Mid._); also a special course certificate for diseases of women
and children. After this Dr. Hetherington received an appointment in the
same hospital as assistant clinical instructor and clerk, having charge
of an extensive maternity department. At the close of his engagement he
returned to St. John, N.B., in 1882, and began a general practice, and
is now one of the leading practitioners of that city. He is a licentiate
of the Council of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick; and a member
of the British Medical Association. In 1871 he attended the Military
School at Fredericton, N.B., and was the recipient of a second-class
certificate. In 1877 he was appointed coroner for the county of Queens,
and, after removing to St. John, surgeon to the St. John Firemen’s
Mutual Relief Association in 1885. The doctor is also a past chancellor
of the Knights of Pythias; supreme vice-chief ranger of the Independent
Order of Foresters, and past high physician of the same order, and a
member of the brotherhood of Freemasons. He has travelled considerably,
having visited all the important points in the Maritime provinces,
Quebec, Ontario, the Eastern States, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky,
and Great Britain and Ireland. In politics he is a Liberal; and in
religion a Baptist. He was married on 5th September, 1876, to Sybil
McIntyre, of Sussex, New Brunswick.
* * * * *
=Wallace, Joseph James=, Truro, Nova Scotia, Superintendent of the
Halifax and St. John District of the Intercolonial Railway, was born in
Albert county, New Brunswick, on the 20th of April, 1847. His parents
were David and Mary Wallace. Mr. Wallace received his education in the
High School, Hillsboro’, New Brunswick. He entered the service of the
European and North-American Railway Company, on the 25th of May, 1865,
and continued in its service until November, 1872, during which period
he filled the various positions of telegraph operator at Salisbury, New
Brunswick; clerk and telegraph operator in the superintendent’s office,
at St. John, New Brunswick; station master, telegraph operator, and
postmaster, at Salisbury, New Brunswick; assistant accountant in the
superintendent’s office, at St. John, New Brunswick; and in November,
1872, and on the absorption of the above railway by the Intercolonial
Railway Company, he was made auditor of the latter company. This office
he held until May, 1883, when he was appointed to the more important
position of superintendent of the Halifax and St. John district, which
office he holds to-day. Mr. Wallace has shewn by his integrity,
industry, and perseverance, what a young man can do when he once
determines to rise in his profession. In 1870, he joined the Masonic
brotherhood, and is now a past master of his parent lodge. In May 26th,
1868, he was married to Ruth M. Hopper, and the fruit of this union has
been five children, three of whom survive.
* * * * *
=Loranger, Hon. Louis Onesime=, one of the judges of the Superior Court
of the province of Quebec, with place of residence in Montreal, was born
at Ste. Anne d’Yamachiche, on the 10th April, 1837. He is the son of
Joseph Loranger and Marie Louise Dugal, and a brother to the late Hon.
Justice T. J. J. Loranger, commandeur of the Order of Pius IX., who died
in 1885; to the late Rev. C. A. Loranger, and to J. M. Loranger, Queen’s
counsel, now practising at the bar of Montreal. Justice Loranger was
educated at the College of Montreal, where he went through a brilliant
course of classical studies, and was admitted to the bar of the province
of Quebec on the 3rd of May, 1858. He at once entered into partnership
with his two brothers, the late Hon. T. J. J. Loranger, who was then a
member of the Macdonald-Cartier administration, and J. M. Loranger, Q.C.
He continued in active practice of the law until the 5th of August,
1882, when he was appointed to the puisné judgeship of the Superior
Court of Quebec, the position he now holds. In February, 1868, Judge
Loranger was elected an alderman of the city of Montreal, and twice
re-elected by acclamation. In 1874, the citizens of Montreal, wishing to
recognize the important services he had rendered the city, elected him
vice-president of the St. Jean Baptiste Society, and president of the
committee entrusted with the organization of the celebration of the
_Fête Nationale_ of that year. The sister societies had been invited to
co-operate, and the invitation met with a hearty response from all parts
of the American union and the Dominion of Canada, delegates being sent
from every society on the continent, and in some cases societies
themselves coming to Montreal with their full membership. The idea of
the St. Jean Baptiste Society, as founded by the late Ludger Duvernay,
in 1834, had been to form a tie of cohesion among the diverse groups of
French Canadians who were divided among themselves, and bring them all
under one banner, with “Our Religion and Our Language” as motto. Mr.
Duvernay, the first journalist of note among the French, was the first
to understand that if the systematic course of petty persecution which
obtained in his days were not stopped, the French Canadian element would
soon be lost in the flood of British emigration then setting in towards
this fair country. The Briton, with his keen commercial insight and his
eminent qualities as a colonist, had discovered that the land which
Voltaire had described as “a few acres of snow-covered ground” had a
future before it, and he at once resolved to make the country what it is
to-day. The St. Jean Baptiste Society struggled on for several years
with a slight membership and scanty financial resources until 1860, when
a determined effort was made to place it on an efficient footing. Then
with the help of such men as Cartier, Langevin, L. O. David, the
Lorangers, and scores of others who were carried forward by the
enthusiasm and patriotic fire of their leaders, it took gigantic
strides, and to-day it numbers over one hundred thousand members. In
1874, Mr. L. O. Loranger, as a member of the executive committee of the
society, rendered great services. In July, 1875, Judge Loranger
presented himself for the first time to the electorate of the county of
Laval, and was sent to the Legislative Assembly as a supporter of the de
Boucherville administration. An unswerving adherent of the Conservative
party, he was soon recognized as one of its leaders, and considered one
of the strongest debaters in the Assembly. He took a leading part in the
discussion on the Letellier _coup d’état_. He was re-elected three times
consecutively by acclamation in his county. After the defeat of the Joly
administration he was offered the portfolio of attorney-general, which
he accepted (November, 1879), and retained until his elevation to the
bench in 1882. The codification of the Provincial statutes and the
judicial reforms now being completed (1887), were commenced when he was
attorney-general under the Chapleau-Loranger administration. Judge
Loranger is a hard worker, having in the midst of his parliamentary
duties attended to the needs of an extensive _clientèle_, and he was
considered one of the most noted lawyers of the Montreal bar. He is a
fluent and graceful speaker; he is also distinguished for his practical
mind, sound judgment, and impressive, though cautious, disposition. He
married, on the 3rd October, 1867, Marie Rosalie, daughter of the late
Hon. M. Laframboise, founder of _Le National_, who afterwards was
appointed one of the judges of the Superior Court for the province of
Quebec, and Rosalie Dessaulles, a niece of the late Hon. Louis Joseph
Papineau. Mrs. Loranger died in 1883, leaving seven children, three sons
and four daughters.
* * * * *
=Alexander, Rev. Finlow=, M.R.C.S., (England), and L.S.A., sub-Dean of
Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born on the
17th April, 1834, at Walkhampton, near Tavistock, Devonshire, England.
He is a son of the late Rev. Daniel Alexander, M.A., vicar of Bickleigh,
near Plymouth, England. The Rev. F. Alexander received his educational
training at Mount Pleasant House Academy, Milbay Road, Plymouth, and
subsequently at Marlborough College, in Wiltshire. After leaving school,
in 1850, he entered on the study of medicine at the Middlesex Hospital,
London; and in 1855 received the diploma of the Royal College of
Surgeons, adding in 1857 that also of the Society of Apothecaries,
Blackfriars Bridge, London. After visiting the East, in the employ, as a
surgeon, of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, Mr. Alexander, in 1860,
came to Canada, and engaged for three years in the practice of his
profession, at Gore’s Landing, Ontario. In 1863 he married Anna Cecille,
daughter of Thomas S. Gore, of Gore Mount, county Antrim, Ireland; and
determining on taking holy orders, removed to Cobourg, Ontario, where he
pursued the studies necessary to that end, under the direction of the
Venerable Archdeacon Bethune, afterwards Bishop of Toronto. In February,
1866, Mr. Alexander was admitted to the diaconate by the Right Rev.
Bishop Strachan; and in May, 1867 was ordained to the priesthood. He was
appointed in the first place to the curacy of Port Hope, Ontario, in
1866; and in the following year was transferred, on the death of the
rector, the Rev. Jonathan Shortt, D.D., to the curacy of Guelph,
Ontario. This appointment he held until the resignation of the rector,
the Venerable Archdeacon Palmer, in 1875. In the autumn of that year the
offer was made to him by the bishop of the diocese of Fredericton, New
Brunswick, now Metropolitan of Canada, of the position of sub-dean in
his cathedral; this office he accepted and still (1887) retains.
* * * * *
=Ross, Hon. David Alexander=, Q.C., Barrister, “Westfield,” St. Foye
Road, Quebec city, member of the Legislative Council of the province of
Quebec, was born at Quebec, on the 12th March, 1819. His father was the
late John Ross, who for many years filled the position of joint
prothonotary of the King’s Bench, at Quebec. His mother, Margaret Ross,
was a native of Prince Edward Island. His paternal grandfather, John
Ross, who was born in Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland, with a number of other
Highlanders, formed themselves into a volunteer company to fight during
the French war only, and having been attached to the 78th Highland
regiment, were among the brave men who in the pitchy darkness of the
early morn of the 13th September, 1759, climbed, with the immortal
Wolfe, the cliffs near Cape Diamond, Quebec, and won for Great Britain,
on the Plains of Abraham, one of the finest possessions of the British
Crown. Mr. Ross was severely wounded in the engagement; and after the
conquest he became a citizen of Quebec, and commanded a company of
militia in 1776, when Montgomery and Arnold attempted to retake Quebec,
and did good service for the Crown. The Hon. Mr. Ross received a
classical education in the school taught by the late Dr. Daniel Wilkie,
and at the Seminary of Quebec, and then followed a course of civil and
Roman law at the University of Laval. He is conversant with both
languages. He adopted law as a profession; was called to the bar of
Lower Canada in 1848, and appointed a Queen’s counsel in 1873. Being
fully imbued with the spirit of his ancestors, he entered the Military
College, and obtained a first-class certificate for company and
battalion drill; and during the first Fenian invasion raised a company
of fifty men, fully equipped, and ready to march to the frontier when
called upon. He is now a lieutenant-colonel in the militia. He entered
political life in 1878, and was returned to the Quebec legislature, at
the general election of that year, for the county of Quebec, and sat for
that constituency until the general election of 1881, when he withdrew
from politics for a time. On the 8th March, 1878, he was sworn in a
member of the Executive Council, and became attorney-general in the Joly
administration, and held office until the 30th of October, 1879, when he
resigned with his colleagues. In 1887 he was called to the Legislative
Council of his native province, and was appointed a member of the Hon.
Mr. Mercier’s cabinet, without a portfolio. The Hon. Mr. Ross is a
director of the Lake St. John Railway. For several years he was
president of the St. Andrew’s Society; of the Quebec Literary and
Historical Society; of the Quebec Auxiliary Bible Society; and has been
twice elected _bâtonnier_ (president) of the Quebec bar. He has made
himself very familiar with the Dominion of Canada, and has found time
from his numerous duties to visit the United States of America, England,
Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Gibraltar, Sicily and Egypt, and upwards
of fifty cities and towns. In politics Mr. Ross is a Liberal; and in
religion an adherent of the Presbyterian church. He was married in
March, 1872, to Harriet Ann Valentine, widow of the late James Gibb, in
his lifetime one of the leading merchants of Quebec.
* * * * *
=Ingram, Andrew B.=, St. Thomas, M.P.P. for West Elgin, was born on 23rd
April, 1851, at Strabane, county of Wentworth, Ontario, and is the
second son of Thomas and Mary Ann Ingram, of that place. His paternal
grandfather, Andrew Ingram, was a native of the county Tyrone, Ireland,
and served his country for nineteen years under Lord Wellington,
participating in the Peninsular campaign, as well as Quatre Bras and
Waterloo. The subject of our sketch received a common school education
at Morristown, Ontario, and his early youth was passed in agricultural
pursuits. Becoming dissatisfied with a rural life, he bade adieu to the
farm and proceeded to London, where his uncle, who was a resident of
that city, prevailed upon him to learn a trade. Having selected that of
a collarmaker, he served the usual apprenticeship, and in 1870 was duly
accredited a journeyman. For some years he labored at the occupation of
his choice. In August, 1879, he connected himself with the Canada
Southern Railway, commencing at the foot of the ladder as brakeman, and
by strict attention to the duties of that position, soon won the
confidence of the officials, and was promoted to a conductorship. A
place was then offered to him on the Wisconsin Central in a similar
capacity, which he accepted, but owing to unforeseen circumstances, he
resigned and returned to St. Thomas, when he entered the employ of the
Grand Trunk Company, and faithfully performed the duties assigned him
for about three years, when he was elected standard-bearer by the
Conservatives of West Elgin, on the 15th July, 1886. When it came to the
knowledge of his employers that he had been selected to contest West
Elgin, they notified him to decline the honor or leave the service.
After consulting his friends, he decided on the latter course, and
entered into active politics. When the general elections were held on
the 28th December, 1886, he was declared elected to represent West Elgin
in the Ontario legislature, and has since served in the capacity of
representative. Mr. Ingram took an active part in the formation of the
St. Thomas Feather Bone Company, in which he is a stockholder, and which
promises to become one of the leading enterprises in the city of his
adoption. He joined Forest City lodge, I.O.O.F., London, on the 21st
August, 1871, and remained an active worker in the same until the 5th
November, 1877, when he took his withdrawal card. In 1881 he joined the
Brakemen’s Benevolent Association of Canada and the United States,
served as president one term, and was elected grand vice-president at a
convention held in Brockville in March, 1882. On the 25th June, 1885, he
joined Local Assembly Knights of Labor, St. Thomas; and in July of the
same year attached himself to Headlight Assembly, No. 4,069. He served
as master workman of the same for two terms; and was elected a member of
District Assembly, No. 138, in which he holds the position of
statistician. He was a delegate to the General Assembly convened at
Richmond, Va., U.S., on 8th October, 1886. He originated the St. Thomas
Trades and Labor Council in January, 1886, and was elected its first
vice-president for the first term, president for the second term, and
now fills the position of honorary president. He is also a member of the
Independent Order of Foresters. Mr. Ingram has taken an active part in
provincial, federal and municipal politics since confederation, in the
counties of Wellington, Perth, Huron, Essex, and Elgin, and been a hard
worker in various Conservative associations. He held a position of trust
under the Clarke administration in Manitoba, and was one of the
sheriff’s _posse_ who arrested Andrew Nault and others for complicity in
the murder of Thomas Scott. Although returned to parliament as a
Liberal-Conservative, Mr. Ingram has ever in view and will support any
measure brought forward that will advance the true interests of the
toiling masses, who in him have an able and conscientious advocate, and
who from actual experience is conversant with the disadvantages under
which they labor. In religious matters he is an adherent of the
Episcopal church. And to sum him up in a few words, is an able, honest
man, who commands the respect of the community which he so ably
represents. In 1882 he married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Allen
McIntyre, of Aberfoyle, whose great grandfather was the Earl of Home, a
Scottish nobleman.
* * * * *
=McGee, Hon. Thomas D’Arcy=, B.C.L., M.R.I.A., was born on the 13th of
April, 1825, at Carlingford, Ireland. His father, James McGee, was in
the coast-guard service, and his mother was Dorcas Catharine Morgan, a
daughter of a Dublin bookseller, who had been imprisoned and financially
ruined by his participation in the conspiracy of 1798. Both on his
father’s and his mother’s side he was descended from families remarkable
for their devotion to the cause of Ireland. When he was eight years of
age his family removed to Wexford, and shortly afterwards he suffered a
heavy blow in the death of his mother. Of his father he was wont to
speak as an honest, upright, religious man; but his mother he loved to
describe as a woman of extraordinary elevation of mind, an enthusiastic
lover of her country, its music, its legends, and its wealth of ancient
lore. Herself a good musician and a fine singer, it was to the songs of
her ancient race she rocked her children’s cradle, and from her dear
voice her favorite son, the subject of our sketch, drank in his music.
His passionate and inextinguishable love for the land of his birth, her
story and her song, may be traced to the same source. He attended a day
school in Wexford, obtaining there the only formal education he ever
received. But the boyish years of the future statesman and historian
were not passed in mean or frivolous pursuits. His love for poetry and
for old-world lore grew with his growth, and by the age of seventeen he
had read all that had come within his reach relating to the history of
his own and other lands. He was a little over seventeen, and seeing
little prospect of advancement at home, he, with one of his sisters,
emigrated to America. After a short visit to his aunt in Providence,
Rhode Island, he arrived in Boston, just at the time the “repeal
movement” was in full strength amongst the Irish population of that
city, warmly aided by some of the prominent public men of America of
that day. He arrived in Boston in June, 1842, and on the 4th July he
addressed the people. The eloquence of the boy-orator enchained the
multitudes who heard him then, as the more finished speeches of his
later years were wont “the applause of list’ning senates to command.” A
day or two later he was offered and accepted a situation on the _Boston
Pilot_, and became chief editor two years later. It was a critical
period in the history of the Irish race in America; they were proscribed
and persecuted on American soil, disgraceful riots occurring in
Philadelphia, which resulted in the sacking and burning of two Catholic
churches. With all the might of his eloquence, young McGee advocated the
cause of his countrymen and coreligionists against the hostile party,
the “Native Americans,” as they were called. This outburst of fanaticism
soon subsided, but the popularity which the young Irish editor gained
during the struggle continued to grow and flourish until O’Connell
himself referred to his splendid editorials as the “inspired writings of
a young exiled Irish boy in America.” He was invited by the proprietor
of the Dublin _Freeman’s Journal_, the leading Irish paper, to become
its editor. So at the age of twenty he took his place in the front rank
of the Irish press. But the _Freeman_ was too moderate in its tone, so
he accepted an offer from his friend, Charles Gavin Duffy, to assist him
in editing _The Nation_, in conjunction with Thomas Davis, John
Mitchell, and Thomas Devin Reilly. In such hands _The Nation_ became the
organ of the “Young Ireland” party. The immediate result was the
secession of the war party from the ranks of the National or Old Ireland
party led by O’Connell. But the end came, and a sad end it was. The
great “Liberator” died, while on foreign travel, a broken-hearted man.
Famine had stricken the land, and the “Young Irelanders” were ripe for
rebellion. McGee was one of those deputed to rouse the people to action,
and after the delivery of a speech at Roundwood he was arrested, but
soon after obtained his release. Nothing daunted by his first mishap, he
agreed to go to Scotland, for the purpose of enlisting the sympathy of
the Irish in the manufacturing towns, and obtaining their co-operation
in the contemplated insurrection. He was in Scotland when the news
reached him that the “rising” had been attempted in Ireland, and had
signally failed—that some of the leaders had been arrested, and a
reward offered for the apprehension of himself, and others who had
effected their escape. He had been married less than a year before, and
a fair young wife anxiously awaited his return. He succeeded in crossing
in safety to Ireland, and in the far north was sheltered by Dr. Maginn,
the bishop of Derry. Here he was visited by his wife, as he would not
leave Ireland without seeing and bidding her farewell. He left Ireland
in the disguise of a priest, and landed in Philadelphia on the 10th
October, 1848, and on the 26th day of the same month appeared the first
number of his New York _Nation_. Feeling sore at the utter failure of
his party in Ireland, Mr. McGee threw the blame of the failure on the
priesthood, which brought him in conflict with Bishop Hughes, who
defended the Irish clergy, and as a consequence the New York _Nation_
never recovered the effect of this controversy. In 1850 he removed to
Boston, and commenced the publication of the _American Celt_. During the
first two years of the _Celt’s_ existence, it was characterized by
nearly the same revolutionary ardor, but there came a time when the
great strong mind of its editor began to soar above the clouds of
passion and prejudice into the region of eternal truth. He began to see
that the best way of raising his countrymen was not by impracticable
utopian schemes of revolution, but by teaching them the best of their
possibilities, to cultivate among them the acts of peace, and to raise
themselves, by the ways of peaceful industry and enlightenment to the
level of their more prosperous sister island. Some years after Mr. McGee
transferred his publication office to Buffalo. Besides his editorial
duties, he delivered lectures throughout the cities of the United States
and Canada to crowded audiences. At a convention of leading Irishmen,
convened in Buffalo by Mr. McGee, for the purpose of considering the
subject of colonization on the broad prairies for his countrymen,
instead of herding together in “tenement houses,” he was strongly urged
by Canadian delegates to take up his abode in Montreal. After some
negotiation on the subject, he sold out his interest in the _American
Celt_, and removed with his family to Montreal, where he at once
commenced the publication of a journal called _The New Era_. Before the
end of his first year in Montreal he was elected as one of three members
for Montreal, although his election had been warmly contested. It was
not long before he began to make his mark in the legislative halls of
his new country, and before the close of his first session, the Irish
member for Montreal was recognized as one of the most popular men in
Canada. Yet, at times, his early connection with the revolutionary party
was made the subject of biting sarcasm. On one of these occasions, when
being twitted with having been a “rebel” in former years, he replied:
“It is true, I was a rebel in Ireland in 1848. I rebelled against the
mis-government of my country by Russell and his school. I rebelled
because I saw my countrymen starving before my eyes, while my country
had her trade and commerce stolen from her. I rebelled against the
Church establishment in Ireland; and there is not a liberal man in the
community who would not have done as I did, if he were placed in my
position, and followed the dictates of humanity.” About the year 1865 he
was presented by his friends in Montreal and other cities with a
handsome residence in one of the best localities in that city, as a mark
of their esteem. In 1862 he accepted the office of president of the
Executive Council, and also filled the office of provincial secretary.
It was during this active time that he completed his “History of
Ireland,” in two 12mo volumes. In 1865 Mr. McGee visited his native
land, and while staying with his father in Wexford delivered a speech in
that city on the condition of the Irish in America, which gave offence
to his countrymen in the United States, as he took pains to show that a
larger proportion of them became more demoralised and degraded in that
country than in Canada. In 1867 he was sent to Paris by the Canadian
Government as one of the commissioners from Canada to the great
Exposition held in Paris. From there he went to Rome as one of a
deputation from the Irish inhabitants of Montreal, on a question
concerning the affairs of St. Patrick’s congregation in that city. In
London he met, by previous appointment, some of his colleagues in the
Canadian Cabinet, who had gone to England to lay before the imperial
government the plan of the proposed union of the British provinces. In
the important deliberation which followed he took a leading part. He was
then minister of agriculture and emigration, which office he continued
to hold up to the time when, in the summer of 1867, the confederation
was at last effected. But with all his great and well deserved
popularity, and the high position he had attained amongst the statesmen
of the Dominion, he had made for himself bitter enemies by his open and
consistent opposition to the Fenian movement, in which he saw no
prospect of permanent good for Ireland. But it was in regard to Canada
and their avowed intention of invading that country that he most
severely denounced them. He rightly considered that it was a grievous
wrong to invade a peaceful country like Canada, only nominally dependent
on Great Britain, and where so many thousands of Irishmen were living
happily and contentedly under just and equitable laws of the people’s
own making. At the general election of 1867 he secured his seat, but
only after a severe struggle, the Fenian element of his countrymen doing
all in their power to secure his defeat. The victory, however, cost him
dear, for the evil passions of the basest and most degraded of his
countrymen had been excited against him, and he was thenceforth a doomed
man. On the very night preceding his cruel murder he delivered one of
the noblest speeches ever heard within the walls of a Canadian
parliament on the subject of cementing the lately formed union of the
provinces by bonds of mutual kindness and good-will. He had reached the
door of his temporary home, when a lurking assassin stole from his place
of concealment, and coming close behind, shot him through the head,
causing instantaneous death. This was on the morning of April 7th, 1868.
His body was removed to Montreal, where a public funeral was held, the
streets along the procession being lined by regiments of the British
army. St. Patrick’s Church, in which his obsequies were solemnised, was
crowded with Protestants and other leading citizens to mourn over the
great loss the country sustained by his death. McGee had outgrown long
before his death the antipathy that many had to him on his arrival in
Montreal. With the Montreal Caledonian Society especially he was a great
favorite, and his orations at their concerts were the special feature of
the evening. At their annual celebration of “Hallowe’en,” when it is
customary to read prize poems on that old Scotch festival, of forty-six
poems sent in competition on the Hallowe’en following his death,
_thirty-seven_ contained some touching allusion to that sad event. From
one of the poems to which prizes were awarded, we quote the following
stanzas:—
Ah! wad that he was here the nicht,
Whase tongue was like a faerie lute!
But vain the wish: McGee! thy might
Lies low in death—thy voice is mute.
He’s gane, the noblest o’ us a’—
Aboon a’ care o’ warldly fame;
An’ wha se proud as he to ca’
Our Canada his hame?
The gentle maple weeps an’ waves
Aboon our patriot-statesman’s heed;
But if we prize the licht he gave,
We’ll bury feuds of race and creed.
For this he wrocht, for this he died;
An’ for the luve we bear his name,
Let’s live as brithers, side by side,
In Canada, our hame.
* * * * *
=Dunnet, Thomas=, Hat and Fur Manufacturer, Toronto, was born in the
Royal burgh of Wick, Caithness-shire, Scotland, on the 21st April, 1847.
His parents were William Dunnet and Janet Black, both natives of
Caithness; and Mr. Dunnet carried on the saddling business for many
years in Wick. He died about twelve years ago, and his widow is now a
resident of Portobello, near Edinburgh. Young Dunnet received his
education at the Free Church School in Wick, where he graduated. He then
for a number of years acted as one of the teachers in the same school,
and subsequently removed to the city of Aberdeen. Here he remained for
about nine months as organization master in Charlotte street school.
Feeling dissatisfied with the prospects in his native country, he
determined to leave for America, and reached Kingston in Canada, in
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