The Canadian Portrait Gallery Part 11

Bishop Bond, Dr. Oxenden's successor in the See of Montreal, was born at Truro, a seaport of the county of Cornwall, England, in the year 1815.

He received his education partly in Cornwall, and partly in London, at various public and private schools. He was a diligent student, and displayed much fondness for, and proficiency in, the cla.s.sics, as well as considerable apt.i.tude for elocution. In his early youth he emigrated from England to the Island of Newfoundland, where, after a brief period spent in secular pursuits, he studied for holy orders under the direction of Archdeacon Bridge. In 1840, under the advice and influence of the late Rev. Mark Willoughby, he proceeded to Quebec, where, upon the completion of his studies, he was ordained Deacon; and in 1841 he was ordained Priest at Montreal, by the late Right Rev. George Jehoshaphat Mountain, Bishop of Quebec. Immediately after his ordination he again proceeded to Newfoundland, where, on the 2nd of June, in the last-mentioned year, he married Miss Eliza Langley, with whom he returned to Montreal. For some years subsequent to his ordination he was a travelling missionary, with residence at Lachine, near Montreal. Under instructions from Bishop Mountain he organized several missions in the Eastern Townships, and in addition to his clerical duties interested himself in organizing schools in connection with the Newfoundland School Society, establishing eleven in the township of Hemmingford alone. In 1848 he was appointed to the large and important parish of St. George's, Montreal, as a.s.sistant to Dr. Leach. His connection with that parish subsisted without interruption for a period of thirty years. He successively became Archdeacon of Hochelaga, and (later) Dean of Montreal. While holding the office of Dean he took an active interest in the Volunteer force, being chaplain of the 1st or Prince of Wales's Regiment. He was out at Huntingdon during the raid of 1866, and in 1870 marched with the regiment from St. Armand's to Pigeon Hill.

On the 1st of July, 1878, the Right Rev. Ashton Oxenden, who had held the bishopric of Montreal since 1869, resigned his position; and on the 16th of January following (1879) Dean Bond was elected as his successor by the Synod of the Diocese. His consecration took place in St. George's Church, Montreal, on the 25th of January, 1879, in the presence of the Bishops of Fredericton, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Algoma, Ontario and Niagara; the consecration sermon being preached by the Right Rev. John Travers Lewis, Bishop of Ontario. He was installed in the Episcopal Throne, in the Cathedral Church at Montreal, on the day following his consecration, upon which date he likewise performed his first Episcopal act by administering the rite of confirmation in the church of his old parish of St. George's.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM BENNETT BOND, signed as W. B. MONTREAL]

Bishop Bond has a fine and commanding presence, is an eloquent preacher, and an excellent platform speaker. He is very popular among the clergymen of his diocese, and takes a warm interest in promoting their welfare. His only published work, so far as known to the present writer, is a sermon on the death of his old friend the Rev. Mark Willoughby, already mentioned, which was published at Montreal in 1847.

Bishop Bond is President of the Theological College of the Diocese of Montreal. He received his degree of M.A. from Bishop's College, Lennoxville, and that of LL.D. from the University of McGill College, Montreal.

The Diocese over which Bishop Bond's jurisdiction extends was originally const.i.tuted in 1850. Montreal was the Metropolitan See of Canada from the year 1860, (when letters patent were issued to the late Dr.

Fulford), until Bishop Oxenden's resignation as above mentioned, in the month of July, 1878.

THE HON. LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT, D.C.L.

It is permitted to few persons to achieve, and permanently retain, so high and well deserved a reputation as for nearly half a century has attached to the name of the late Judge Wilmot. In the course of his long and active public career he was called upon to play many important and difficult parts. In none of them did he encounter failure, and in most of them he achieved an unusual degree of credit and success. Alike as a lawyer and a legislator, as Premier and Attorney-General, as a member of Parliament, and as the leader of a not always manageable political party, as a Judge and as a Lieutenant-Governor, he stamped his name upon the history of New Brunswick. Robert Baldwin and Joseph Howe are not more intimately identified with the cause of popular rights in the histories of Upper Canada and Nova Scotia than is Lemuel Allan Wilmot in the history of his native Province. One of whom so much can truthfully be alleged must be admitted to have been a remarkable man. His life was pa.s.sed in the conscientious discharge of multifarious duties; and in whatsoever aspect it may be viewed, it was a life which it is thoroughly wholesome to contemplate. He was a man, and as such he doubtless had the imperfections incidental to humanity; but happy is that individual upon whose memory rests no graver charge than imperfection. He was often placed in positions which subjected his manhood to a crucial test, and never failed to come out of the ordeal without blemish. In recounting the various phases of his public life, it never becomes necessary for the biographer to apologize for acts of corruption; and his personal character has left behind it a memory without a stain.

The two families to which he owed his origin were both identified with the struggle of the American colonies for independence. His paternal grandfather was Major Lemuel Wilmot, of Long Island, a U. E. Loyalist, who held a commission in the Loyal American Regiment, engaged in much active service on behalf of his king and country, and, soon after the close of hostilities, settled under British rule, on the banks of the St. John River, near Fredericton, in the then recently-formed Province of New Brunswick. After his migration, the Major married Miss Elizabeth Street, a sister of the Hon. Samuel Street, of the Niagara District. One of the fruits of this marriage was the late Mr. William Wilmot, of Sunbury, N.B., who married Miss Hannah Bliss, a daughter of Mr. Daniel Bliss, and a descendant of Colonel Murray, of St. John, whose name also figures conspicuously in the history of the U. E. Loyalists. Several children resulted from this latter marriage, one of whom, Lemuel Allan Wilmot, who was born in the county of Sunbury, on the 31st day of January, 1809, is the subject of the present memoir.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT, signed as L. A. WILMOT]

The incidents of his early boyhood, so far as known to the writer of these pages, were few, and of little material interest to the public. He was educated at the Fredericton Grammar School, and afterwards at the Provincial University of that town. His career at college was more remarkable for diligence than for brilliancy, though he became a good cla.s.sical scholar, and kept up his acquaintance with the princ.i.p.al Greek and Latin authors throughout his after life. He was fond of athletic exercises and aquatics, devoting sufficient attention to such matters to build up a sound and vigorous const.i.tution. He also belonged to one of the local volunteer companies, and acquired considerable proficiency in military drill. Upon leaving the University he chose the law for a profession, and after the usual course of study was admitted as an Attorney in 1830, immediately upon coming of age. He settled down to practice in the Provincial capital, and in 1832 was called to the Bar. He was not a born orator, and during the early years of his professional life had to contend with a diffidence of manner and a slight impediment in his speech. It is said that when he first announced his determination to qualify himself for the Bar, his father, referring to the last-mentioned infirmity, endeavoured to dissuade him from a pursuit in which his stammering tongue would inevitably place him at a great disadvantage. The young man, however, was self-confident, and his subsequent career proved most incontestably that his confidence was not misplaced. All things are possible to a man endowed with a strong will, and a fixed determination to succeed. Young Wilmot possessed both these qualifications for forensic success, and had also other advantages which contributed to place him in the high rank which he eventually attained at the New Brunswick Bar. He had a fine and commanding presence, keen susceptibilities, a clear, ringing voice, a capacious memory, and an unusual amount of industry. There was a strong vein of poetry in his character, and he was possessed of a considerable share of histrionic power. Aided by such adjuncts, and backed by a const.i.tution of unusual vigour, he well knew that his success was only a question of time and unremitting labour. He applied himself with indefatigable diligence to every case entrusted to him, and did not disdain to make himself master of the minutest details. He never went into court until he had seen his way through his case. He soon overcame the defect in his utterance, and there was a sincerity and self-a.s.surance about his manner of addressing a jury which told greatly in his favour. In less than two years from the date of his call to the Bar he had an a.s.sured practice and position. His mind grew with the demands from day to day made upon it, and at an age when many lawyers of greater brilliancy are content to wait for fame, Mr. Wilmot had succeeded in establishing a reputation which was co-extensive with his native Province. His fame was not of ephemeral duration, but grew with his increasing years, and long before his retirement from practice he was recognized as the most eloquent and effective forensic orator of his day in New Brunswick. In an obituary notice of him, published shortly after his death in a Boston newspaper, we find the following strong testimony to his professional attainments: "As an advocate at the Bar, few in any country could surpa.s.s him. The court was full when it was known that Wilmot had a case. He scented a fraud or falsehood from afar. He heard its gentlest motions. He pursued it like an Indian hunter. If it burrowed, he dragged it forth, and held it up wriggling to the gaze and scorn of the court. When he drew his tall form up before a jury, fixed his black, piercing eyes upon them, moved those rapid hands, and pointed that pistol finger, and poured out his argument, and made his appeal with glowing, burning eloquence, few persons could resist him." This estimate is worth quoting, as, though florid, and doubtless overdrawn, it conveys a not altogether inaccurate idea of his power as an advocate. If he was not a counsel whom "few in any country could surpa.s.s," he was at all events a counsel who could hold his own against such forensic luminaries as Archibald, and Stewart, and Johnson, all of whom were orators of the highest rank at the Bar of the sister Province of Nova Scotia, and all of whom were in frequent request in the courts of New Brunswick. Against one or more of these he was constantly pitted, and it is high praise to say, as may be said with perfect truthfulness, that he was able to maintain his argument with credit against the best of them.

With such endowments, it was a matter of course that he should sooner or later enter the political arena. He had been only two years at the Bar, when (in 1834) he was elected by acclamation to represent the county of York in the New Brunswick a.s.sembly. His return under such circ.u.mstances was a notable event, for he was only twenty-five years of age, and was the first candidate ever returned by that const.i.tuency without a contest. Prior to his return he held several political meetings in different parts of the county, at which he addressed the people in a fashion to which they had theretofore been wholly unaccustomed. He described the fundamental points of the const.i.tution, and showed that the rights of the people had been systematically violated for a great many years. It is said that during one of these addresses a member of the ruling faction rode up to the hustings and demanded that Wilmot should be pulled down, or that he would yet become Attorney-General of the Province. The story sounds too good to be true. However that may be, he was not long in making his presence felt in the a.s.sembly. He arrayed himself as the champion of Liberal principles--principles which had a much more slender following in those days than they have had in later times. The Family Compact had an existence in New Brunswick, as well as in the other British American colonies, and any aspiring young politician who refused to bow his head beneath the yoke, had to make up his mind for a large measure of obloquy and determined opposition. Young Wilmot had to bear his share of the burdens which fell to the lot of all advocates of popular rights in the days when Responsible Government was sneered at by those in authority. The New Brunswick oligarchy were somewhat less besotted and tyrannical than were those of Upper Canada and Nova Scotia, but there were abuses which called imperatively for removal, and grievous wrongs which cried aloud for redress. All the important offices were in the hands of the members of the Compact and their sycophants, and the only road to public preferment lay through their favour. Political power was confined to the Legislative and Executive Councils; for, although there was a Body called the a.s.sembly, which was supposed to be the guardian of the rights of the people, it was a shadow without substance. Its votes produced no direct influence upon the advisers of the Sovereign's representative in the colony, who were permitted to keep their places of power and emolument, no matter how distasteful themselves and their policy might be to the popular branch of the Legislature. This oppressive domination was not confined to secular matters, but extended likewise to matters ecclesiastical.

There was a dominant State Church. Dissenters were regarded by the adherents of that Church with disfavour, and were sometimes treated with contumely. A dissenting minister was not permitted by law to solemnize matrimony, and if he did so he was subject to fine and imprisonment. It is said that Mr. Wilmot's father, William Wilmot, who was a member of the a.s.sembly, was refused admission to the House upon the ground that he was in the habit of conducting religious services on the Sabbath day.

It at one time seemed not improbable that the subject of this sketch would be subjected to a similar indignity. The latter was a Dissenter from conviction. He had been awakened to an active sense of religion by the ministrations of the Rev. Enoch Wood, now of Toronto, but then pastor of the Methodist Church in Fredericton. No account of Mr.

Wilmot's life which does not take cognizance of the devotional side of his character can give anything like an accurate estimate of the man.

Further reference to it will be made at a later stage. When he first took his seat as a member of Parliament he felt that it was inc.u.mbent upon him to contend, not only for his political freedom, but for his rights as a member of a religious body which was practically proscribed.

The oligarchy, it is to be presumed, well knew that the end of their reign was at hand, but they fought every inch of the ground with a spirit and determination worthy of a better cause. There is no need to go through the _minutiae_ of the struggle. Though differing as to local details, the principles at stake in New Brunswick were precisely the same as in Upper Canada and Nova Scotia, and readers of the sketches of Robert Baldwin, Lord Metcalfe, and Joseph Howe, are sufficiently informed as to how much was involved in those principles. Mr. Wilmot soon became the acknowledged leader of the Reformers of his native Province, and to his vigour, eloquence, and statesmanship the successful establishment of Responsible Government there in 1848 is mainly due. In this connection it would be unjust to omit a reference to the late Hon.

Charles Fisher, Mr. Wilmot's colleague in the representation of York County, who for some years prior to his death in the month of December last occupied a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick.

A sketch of Mr. Fisher's life will appear in due course in these pages, but a casual reference to him in this place seems to be imperatively called for. Throughout all the contest which resulted in the triumph of Liberal principles, and in the establishment of Executive Responsibility, Mr. Fisher seconded his leader, Mr. Wilmot, with a loyalty and integrity which ent.i.tle him to a high place in the Provincial annals. His learning and eloquence gave him great influence in Parliament, and his name is a.s.sociated with some of the most important legislation in the colonial jurisprudence, as well as with the cause of popular freedom. To Lemuel Allan Wilmot and Charles Fisher the inhabitants of New Brunswick owe a heavy debt, and their names will deservedly go down to posterity side by side.

The struggle for Responsible Government may be said to have begun in earnest in New Brunswick about the time when Mr. Wilmot first entered the a.s.sembly of that Province in 1834. It proceeded with unabated ardour until the resignation of Sir Archibald Campbell, the Lieutenant-Governor, in 1837. In 1836 Mr. Wilmot proceeded to England as a co-delegate with Mr. William Crane on the subject of Crown Revenues and the Civil List, and then for the first time laid the grievances of his compatriots before the Imperial Government. Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary, was well inclined towards the colonies, and treated the two New Brunswick delegates with much kindness and courtesy. The state of affairs submitted by them was taken into careful consideration, and the a.s.sembly's view of the situation was approved of. At Lord Glenelg's suggestion, a Bill was drafted which granted all the most important reforms prayed for, and was transmitted to Sir Archibald Campbell for his approval. The approval was not forthcoming, and Sir Archibald quietly tendered his resignation. Messrs. Wilmot and Crane were received with an ovation upon their return to New Brunswick, and were the heroes of the hour. Next year they were again despatched to England with an address to the King, in which it was prayed that Sir Archibald Campbell might be recalled--the fact of his having sent in his resignation not having transpired. They were received with as much favour as before, and were informed that the contumacy of Sir Archibald would not be permitted to thwart the popular will. During this second visit they enjoyed the honour of being presented at Court to King William IV. His Majesty, upon Mr. Wilmot being presented to him, condescended to make some inquiries as to his family and ancestry. Mr.

Wilmot availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded to make a set speech in the presence of royalty, in which he "burst the awful barriers of State, and, in loyal phrase, thanked His Majesty for generous consideration of colonial interests."[12]

The delegates had good reason to congratulate themselves upon the success of their mission. Sir John Harvey, an English officer who had served with distinction in Upper Canada, and in various other parts of the world, was sent out as Lieutenant-Governor, and the Civil List Bill became law. The House of a.s.sembly of New Brunswick, by way of testifying its appreciation of Lord Glenelg's conduct, had a full-length portrait of him painted, and suspended behind the Speaker's chair, where it hangs to the present day. Upon the return of Messrs. Crane and Wilmot from their second mission a vote of thanks was unanimously pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly in recognition of their diplomatic services. They also received more substantial marks of favour. Mr. Crane was called to the Executive Council, and Mr. Wilmot was invested with a silk gown. For the time, Liberal principles were decidedly in the ascendant. The pa.s.sing of the Civil List Bill had a most mollifying effect upon public opinion. New Brunswick was spared the turmoil of a rebellion such as disturbed the peace of Upper and Lower Canada. There was not even any attempt at insurrection, nor apparently any feeling of sympathy with the violence begotten of the times. Mr. Wilmot, whose martial spirit has already been hinted at, raised and commanded a troop of volunteer dragoons, which performed despatch duty pending the border troubles of the time; but he was happily never called upon to take part in any active measures of suppression.

During Sir John Harvey's four years' tenure of office as Lieutenant-Governor, the internal affairs of the Province of New Brunswick were carried on with but little friction between the branches of the Legislature. The Reform Party were gratified with the signal victory they had gained in the matter of the Civil Service Bill, and were not disposed to be captious without serious cause. Sir John Harvey was a popular Governor, and his moderate policy reacted upon both the political parties. Soon after the accession of Sir William Colebrooke, in 1841, the old hostilities began to re-appear. It was a time of great commercial depression. For several years the public funds had been spent somewhat lavishly, and the Provincial credit had begun to suffer. An era of economy and Conservatism set in. At the general elections of 1842 the Reform Party made a determined stand on the question of Responsible Government. Mr. Wilmot, who had sat in the a.s.sembly for the county of York for a continuous period of eight years, again presented himself to the electors of that const.i.tuency. Tremendous efforts were made by his opponents to oust him, and the contest was one of the sharpest ever known in the annals of New Brunswick. He and his colleague, Mr. Fisher, were successful in securing their election, but the state of public opinion was abundantly proclaimed by the fact that these two were the only successful Reform candidates in an a.s.sembly consisting of forty-one members. The progressive party was badly beaten, but not disheartened, and a banner bearing the motto "Responsible Government," was unfurled in the streets of Fredericton. The two Reformers had to maintain the sole burden of Opposition on their shoulders during the following session.

Notwithstanding their numerical weakness, they made their influence powerfully felt in the a.s.sembly.

In 1844 Mr. Wilmot was offered a seat in the Executive Council. He accepted it, without portfolio, but did not long retain his place, owing to a circ.u.mstance which compelled his resignation. The Lieutenant-Governor, without consulting his Ministers, appointed his son-in-law, Mr. Reade, to the office of Provincial Secretary. This proceeding, which was a direct subversion of the doctrine of Responsible Government, gave offence, not to Mr. Wilmot alone, but to three other members of the Council. After a fruitless remonstrance with Sir William Colebrooke, they all four promptly resigned their seats. The Colonial Secretary declined to confirm Mr. Reade's appointment, and another gentleman less distasteful to the a.s.sembly became Provincial Secretary.

From this time forward a Liberal reaction may be said to have set in. At the general election of 1846 a fair proportion of Liberal candidates was returned, among whom were Mr. Wilmot and his colleague, Mr. Fisher.

Responsible Government, however, was not yet an accomplished fact, though its accomplishment was nigh at hand. In 1847, the Colonial Secretary, Earl Grey, in a despatch to Sir John Harvey, who was at that date Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, clearly defined the principles upon which the Government of that colony should be carried on. The principles enunciated were precisely those for which the Reformers had all along been contending. It was declared that members of the Executive Council should be permitted to hold office only so long as they possessed the confidence of a majority of the people, as signified by the votes in the a.s.sembly. The heads of the various departments, it was said, should retain office only during pleasure; and Government officials were neither to be permitted to occupy seats in the Legislature nor to be removable on a change of Government. These concessions implied neither more nor less than Responsible Government.

The principles were evidently as applicable to New Brunswick as to Nova Scotia. Soon after the opening of the session in 1848 Mr. Fisher introduced a resolution approving of Earl Grey's despatch, and accepting its doctrines on behalf of the Province. The debate which followed was big with the fate of New Brunswick. Many of the more advanced Conservatives coincided with the principles enunciated, and supported the resolution, which was finally carried by a large majority. Thus was Responsible Government finally adopted in New Brunswick.

The speeches made by Mr. Fisher and Mr. Wilmot during this debate were emphatically the speeches of the session. That of Mr. Wilmot was published in pamphlet form and circulated throughout the Maritime Provinces. It was considered as sufficiently important to be noticed in the _North American Review_, published at Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, where it was stated that "He (Mr. Wilmot) possesses brilliant powers, and as a public speaker ranks with the most effective and eloquent in British America."

Mr. Wilmot was called upon to form a new Government, which, though the result of a coalition, was of a Liberal complexion. He himself became Premier and Attorney-General. During his tenure of office his name is a.s.sociated with several important Legislative measures, among which may be mentioned the Consolidation of the Criminal Laws (1849), and the Munic.i.p.al Law (1850). During the latter year he attended as the representative of his Province at the International Railway Convention held at Portland, Maine, where he delivered a speech which we have not read, but which, judging from the encomiums which have been lavished upon it, must have been an effort of very uncommon eloquence. Mr.

Lathern, in the work already quoted from, says of it: "There were many able and eloquent speeches at that Portland Convention, from Parliamentary and public men, but to Attorney-General Wilmot, by common consent, was awarded the palm of consummate, crowning oratory. He carried the audience by storm. To people across the border, accustomed to political declamation, it was a matter of amazement that their most brilliant men should be completely eclipsed. It was a still greater cause of mystery how a style of oratory, of the imaginative and impa.s.sioned type, regarded as peculiarly a production of the chivalrous and sunny South, could have been born and nurtured amidst the frigid influences and monarchical inst.i.tutions of a bleak and foggy forest Province. There were accompanying advantages which stamped the effort as supreme of its kind. Dramatic action, consummate grace of rhetorical expression, a voice of matchless power and wondrous modulation, contributed to the heightened effect. To a very considerable extent the eloquence was impromptu, and therefore largely took its caste and complexion, apt allusions, and rich surprises, from the immediate scene and its surroundings. That magnificent burst of oratory swept over the audience like fire amongst stubble, and like the tempest that bends forest trees. Reporters are said to have dropped their pencils, and yielded to the magnetic, resistless spell; and the people, gathered in dense ma.s.s, were wrought into a frenzy of excitement and enthusiasm."

Making due allowances for the unconscious exaggeration of a writer who seems to have revered Mr. Wilmot as his "guide, philosopher and friend,"

the Portland speech must have been an effort of which any orator might justly feel proud. During this same year (1850) Attorney-General Wilmot visited Washington as a delegate from his Province on the subject of International Reciprocity; and a few months later, in company with the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Edmund Head, he attended a meeting of the Canadian Government held at Toronto, for the purpose of discussing important matters relating to the British North American colonies.

In the month of January, 1851, he retired from the Administration, and accepted a seat on the Judicial Bench, as a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. At the time of his appointment to this position the still higher office of Chief-Justice was vacant, and he, as Attorney-General might not unreasonably have expected to succeed to that dignity. His acceptance of the less exalted position was the cause of some surprise, as he would have had the entire Reform Party of the Province at his back in any dispute with the Lieutenant-Governor, and might have brought much pressure to bear upon him. His acceptance was probably due to the fact that politics are an uncertain pursuit, and that there was no saying what the morrow might bring forth. He never experienced defeat on the hustings in the whole course of his sixteen years of political life, but at the last election for York he had been returned by a very slight majority. He was sensitive to public opinion, and had no ambition to remain on the stage until he might possibly be hissed. He was at this time enabled to retire with honour, and the consciousness that he retained public confidence and respect. Other reasons may probably enough have influenced him. His professional business had necessarily suffered through his constant attendance upon his Parliamentary and official duties. His income had dwindled down to less than a third of what it had once been, and his expenses had greatly increased. The position of a Puisne Judge is a high and honourable one, such as no lawyer, however eminent, need disdain to accept. His choice was made, and for more than seventeen years thereafter he discharged his duties as a Judge with usefulness and dignity. During this interval he frequently delivered lectures before Mechanics' Inst.i.tutes and Lyceums in St. John, Fredericton and elsewhere; and some of these discourses were as remarkable for learning and eloquence as any of his public utterances. His convictions as a Protestant were unusually strong, and some of his remarks on sectarian themes occasionally caused irritation among persons whose theological faith differed from his own, but in no case does the irritation seem to have been more than temporary. His exemplary life, and his evident sincerity of purpose, induced even opposing theologians to allow him a lat.i.tude of expression which would scarcely have been tolerated in an ordinary personage. During his tenure of office as a Judge he also took an active part in forwarding the cause of education, and in support of many voluntary a.s.sociations of a benevolent and religious character. Among numerous other offices conferred upon him, he was appointed a Member of the Senate of the New Brunswick University, from which he received the degree of D.C.L.

Though Judge Wilmot had been for many years removed from the arena of politics, it was well understood that he was a firm friend of British American Union, and ardently desirous to see Confederation prove a lasting success. From his high local standing, from the judicial position he had held so long having raised him above the confines of political party strife, and from his acknowledged abilities, he was singled out for the office of first Lieutenant-Governor of his native Province, under the new order of things which came into being on the 1st of July, 1867. The appointment was not made until rather more than a year afterwards, during which period the duties of Lieutenant-Governor were performed by Major-General Charles Hastings Doyle, probably for the same reasons that a.s.signed to some of the other Provinces military Governors during the first year of Union. When, however, the appointment was made on the 27th of July, 1868, it gave very general satisfaction throughout New Brunswick. It was felt that such an appointment was a fitting tribute to a man who had spent the greater part of his life in the public service, and who had at all times preserved his honour untarnished. There is not much of special interest to tell about his Lieutenant-Governorship. His public addresses, and even his official speeches in connection with the opening and closing of the Legislature, were distinguished by sentiments of fervent patriotism, and by the expression of broad and enlightened ideas as to the duty of the people in sustaining the consolidation of British power on this continent. He held office until the expiration of his term, on the 14th of November, 1873, when he received a pension as a retired Judge, and laid down his governmental functions, with the public respect for him undiminished.

The remainder of his life was pa.s.sed in retirement, from which he only emerged for a short time in 1875, when he succeeded the Right Hon. H. C.

E. Childers, as second Commissioner under the Prince Edward Island Purchase Act of that year. He was nominated as one of the arbitrators in the Ontario and North-West Boundary Commission, but did not live long enough to act in that capacity. During the last two or three years of his life he suffered from chronic neuralgia of a very severe type, and was sometimes prevented from stirring out of doors. As a general thing, however, he continued to take active exercise, and to lend his a.s.sistance in the organization of religious and benevolent enterprises, and he did so up to within a few days of his death. He died very suddenly at his house in Fredericton, on the afternoon of Monday, the 20th of May, 1878. While walking in his garden after returning from a drive with some members of his family he was attacked by a severe pain in the region of the heart. He entered his house and medical aid was at once summoned, but he ceased to breathe within a few minutes after the seizure. The immediate cause of death was presumed to have been rupture of one of the blood vessels near the heart.

Reference has been made to the religious side of Judge Wilmot's character, but something more than a pa.s.sing reference is necessary to enable the reader to understand how greatly religion tended to the shaping of his social and public life. It has been seen that he first began to take an active interest in spiritual matters in 1833, the year after his call to the Bar. The interest then awakened in his heart was not transitory, but accompanied him through all the phases of his future career. This is not the place to enlarge upon such a theme, but it is in order to note that his spiritual experiences were of an eminently realistic cast. "Through the whole course of my religious experience"

(to quote his own words), "I never once had a doubt in regard to the question of my personal salvation. The a.s.surance of my acceptance as a child of G.o.d, and the firmness of my confidence, are such that Satan cannot take any advantage on that side, and cannot even tempt me to doubt or fear in regard to the reality of my conversion." This conviction strengthened with his advancing years, and left its impress upon all his acts. He bestirred himself actively at cla.s.s-meetings, and for more than forty-four years taught a cla.s.s in Sunday-school. Only the day before his death he took part in these exercises for the last time.

Though a sincere and zealous member of the Methodist Church, he was no bigoted sectarian, but interested himself in the prosperity of all religious bodies, and fraternized with the clergy of all denominations.

He had a critical knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures such as few laymen can pretend to, and his own copy of the Bible bears on almost every page traces of his diligent study of what he regarded--and that in no mere metaphorical sense--as the Word of G.o.d.

Judge Wilmot was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Balloch, daughter of the Rev. J. Balloch. His second wife, who still survives, was Miss Black, a daughter of the Hon. William A. Black, of Halifax, a member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia. It may also be mentioned, in conclusion, that during the visit of the Prince of Wales, in 1860, Judge Wilmot raised and commanded a troop of dragoons for escort duty, for which service he personally received the thanks of His Royal Highness.

THE HON. HENRY ELZeAR TASCHEREAU.

Judge Taschereau is the eldest son of the late Pierre Elzear Taschereau, who, prior to the union of the Provinces, was for many years a member of the Legislative a.s.sembly of Lower Canada, and after the union, of that of the United Provinces. His mother was Catherine Henedine, a daughter of the late Hon. Amable Dionne, who was at one time a member of the old Legislative Council. He is descended from Thomas Jacques Taschereau, a French gentleman who settled in the Province of Quebec many years before the Conquest. Various members of the Taschereau family have achieved high distinction in Canada, no fewer than seven of them having occupied seats on the Judicial Bench. The present Judge was born at the Seignorial Manor House, Ste. Marie de la Beauce, on the 7th of October, 1836. He was educated at the Quebec Seminary, and after completing his scholastic education, studied law in the office of his cousin, the Hon.

Jean Thomas Taschereau. The last named gentleman was one of the most eminent lawyers in his native Province, and became a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion upon its formation in 1875. He was superannuated about two years ago.

Upon the completion of his legal studies, in October, 1857, the subject of this sketch was called to the Bar of Lower Canada, and immediately afterwards entered into partnership with his cousin, the eminent jurist already mentioned, at Quebec. He attained high rank in his profession, and subsequently formed partnerships with M.M. William Duval and Jean Blanchet. He entered political life in 1861, when he was elected to a seat in the Legislative a.s.sembly for his native county of Beauce. He continued to represent that const.i.tuency until Confederation, when, at the general election of 1867, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Commons. During the same year he was appointed a Queen's Counsel. The following year he was appointed Clerk of the Peace for the District of Quebec, but resigned that office after holding it only three days. For some time afterwards he confined his attention to professional pursuits. On the 12th of January, 1871, he was appointed a Puisne Judge of the Superior Court for the Province of Quebec, and held that position until his forty-second birthday--the 7th of October, 1878--when he was elevated to his present position--that of a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion.

He is the author of several important legal works, the most noteworthy of which is "The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts of 1869, 32, 33 Vic., for the Dominion of Canada, as amended and in force on the 1st November, 1874, in the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and on 1st June, 1875, in British Columbia; with Notes, Commentaries, Precedents of Indictments, &c., &c." This work extends to two volumes, the first of which, containing 796 pages, was published at Montreal in 1874. The second volume, containing 556 pages, was published at Toronto in 1875. Both volumes display much erudition, and have been highly commended by competent legal authorities; among others by Mr. C. S. Greaves, an English Queen's Counsel, who is one of the most eminent living writers on Criminal Jurisprudence. In 1876 Judge Taschereau published "Le Code de Procedure Civile du Bas Canada, with Annotations," which has also received high commendation from legal critics.

On the 27th of May, 1857, he married Marie Antoinette Harwood, a daughter of the Hon. R. U. Harwood, a member of the Legislative Council, and Seigneur of Vaudreuil, near Montreal, by whom he has a family of five children. Judge Taschereau resides at Ottawa, and is joint proprietor of the Seigniory of Ste. Marie de la Beauce, which was conceded to his great-grandfather in the year 1726.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALFRED GILPIN JONES, signed as A. G. JONES]

THE HON. ALFRED GILPIN JONES.

Mr. Jones, the leader of the Reform Party in the Province of Nova Scotia, and one of the most prominent citizens and merchants of Halifax, is descended from an English family, the head of which emigrated from England to Ma.s.sachusetts during the early years of the history of that colony, and settled in Boston. The family resided in New England until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, when they espoused the royalist side in the quarrel, and endured their full share of the persecutions of that memorable period. Stephen Jones, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a graduate of Harvard College, who accepted a commission in the King's American Dragoons, and fought in the royal cause until the proclamation of peace. He then, like many scores of his compatriots, gathered together what property he could save out of the wreck, and removed, with his family, to Nova Scotia, where he thenceforward resided until his death, which took place in 1830. His son, the father of the subject of this memoir, was named Guy Carleton Jones, in honour of Lord Dorchester. He was a man of influence and good social position in the county of Digby, where he held the office of Registrar of Deeds.

Alfred Gilpin Jones was born at Weymouth, in the county of Digby, Nova Scotia, in 1824. He received his education at Yarmouth Academy, and after leaving school embarked in commercial life in Halifax, where, in course of time, he became a member of the firm of Messrs. Thomas Kinnear & Sons, West India commission merchants. He subsequently founded the firm of Messrs. A. G. Jones & Co.--engaged in the same trade--of which he has long been the senior partner. His commercial ventures were prosperous, and he became, and now is, one of the most extensive ship-owners in the Maritime Provinces. He was known as a man of energy and public spirit, and took a keen interest in all the political questions which agitated the country for some years prior to the formation of the Dominion. Like many of his compatriots, he was a strenuous opponent of the Confederation scheme, and spoke and wrote against it with much vigour. He regarded the terms upon which Nova Scotia was admitted into the Union as financially disadvantageous to that Province; and he disapproved of the plan adopted by the Tupper Administration to impose those terms upon the people. When Confederation finally became an accomplished fact, and when further opposition could be productive of no practical result, he acquiesced in the new order of things, and gave a loyal support to all measures for advancing the interests of the new nationality.