Читать книгу A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time - Various - Страница 17

THOMAS TALBOT,

FOUNDER OF THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT,

Died 6th February, 1853.

We take leave of our worthy hero, in the words of an English song-writer:—

“God speed the stalwart pioneer!

Give strength to thy strong right hand!

And aid thee in thy brave intent

To clear and till the land.

’Tis men like thee that make us proud

Of the stubborn Saxon race:

And while old England bears such fruit

We’ll pluck up heart of grace.”

Barrett, M., B.A., M.D.—The late Dr. Barrett, who died on the 26th February, 1887, at Toronto, was the son of an English barrister, and was born in London, England, on 16th May, 1816. He was educated at Caen, Normandy, France. Coming to Canada in 1833 he engaged in the fishery business in the Georgian Bay, where he owned a fishing station and a vessel. In the spring of 1837 he accepted a position in a school at Newmarket. On the breaking out of the rebellion he joined the Queen’s Rangers, in which he filled the post of quartermaster of the regiment. Shortly after this he was married to Ellen McCallum, a sister of C. McCallum, of London. When the Queen’s Rangers disbanded he went to the Southern States, where he remained for three years. Returning to Toronto he was offered and accepted the position of second English master in the Upper Canada College, and was afterwards promoted to the position of first English master in the same institution. While pursuing his important duties in connection with the college, Dr. Barrett took a double course in the University of Toronto, and succeeding in obtaining the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. He was after this added to the professoriate of Rolph’s Medical School, which was subsequently merged into the Toronto School of Medicine. After being connected with the college for over thirty years, he was pensioned by the government. Up to the time of his death he was a lecturer in the Toronto School of Medicine, the Veterinary College, and the Women’s Medical School. His name is prominently connected with the latter school as one of the principal promoters of its institution and most ardent and active workers for its success. Dr. Barrett was a man of exceptional intellectual attainments and occupied an eminent and enviable position in his profession. He was highly esteemed by the members of the medical profession, and loved and respected by many friends.

Nettleton, John, Mayor of Collingwood, Simcoe county, Ontario, was born at Lofthouse, Yorkshire, England, on the 12th of November, 1832, his father, William Nettleton, and grandfather before him, carrying on the business of merchant tailors in that village. After learning the business with his father, Mr. Nettleton, jr., worked at the trade in the following places, viz.: Leeds, London, Manchester and Liverpool, and at the latter place he was married to Elizabeth Boardman Womersley, on the 9th May, 1853, in St. Peter’s Church. On the 4th of April, 1857, he and his wife and one child emigrated to Canada, arriving in Toronto on the 23rd of the same month. After staying there and at Markham village for a short time, he finally settled down in Collingwood, then a town only in its infancy. In 1859 he commenced business for himself, and has lived there continuously ever since. In 1867 he was elected by acclamation as town councillor for the Centre ward, and for sixteen years he has held the position of either councillor or deputy reeve. He was elected to the mayoralty in 1886, and re-elected in 1887. He has been connected with and has taken an active part in almost everything that has been advanced for the improvement of the town since the time he took up his abode in it. In February, 1862, he was initiated into Free Masonry, in Manitou lodge, No. 90, G.R.C., and after having passed through all the subordinate offices, he was elected Master in 1867, which position he held for two years. After being out for a short time, he subsequently was re-elected, and held the office for three years more. In 1870 he was appointed by the Grand Lodge of Canada a grand steward; in 1873 he was elected grand registrar, and in 1879 district deputy grand master for the Georgian district, which position he held for two years. He was also the means of instituting Caledonia lodge, No. 249, Angus, and Granite lodge, No. 352, Parry Sound. In both instances he was elected their first master, and now holds the position of honorary member in each lodge. He was also presented by these lodges with a full set of Grand Lodge regalia, in recognition of his services. In Royal Arch masonry he has taken the same interest as in the Blue lodge, having been elected first principal Z in Manitou chapter, No. 27, which office he has held for several years. He is also past eminent commander of Hurontario Encampment of Knights Templars, and was elected honorary member of Mount Calvary Preceptory, No. 12, G.R.C., Barrie. He has also taken an active part in other benevolent societies as well as Masonic, and was mainly instrumental in organizing the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Select Knights, and also the Sons of England Benevolent Society, in all of which he was their first master. Mr. Nettleton has also taken an active part in every political movement that has taken place in the county during his residence in Collingwood, and has always worked for and voted with the Liberal-Conservative party. He is a member of the Church of England and has held the position of church warden in All Saints’ Church. His family consists of eight children, six boys and two girls, the former all being grown up and established in business.

Fowler, Rev. Robert.—Rev. Mr. Fowler was born in Chester, England, in 1823, and died in London, Ontario, on the 4th March, 1887. He first acquired the training of an apothecary and then studied medicine, graduating with the degree of M.R.C.S. Subsequently he became a Methodist minister, and began to preach in 1853, filling many posts in the Toronto Conference. Afterwards he was appointed to the Ingersoll circuit in the London Conference, thence going to Clinton, Listowel, and lastly to London West. Three years before his death he was superannuated on account of ill-health, and took up his residence in London. Rev. Dr. Fowler was a man of ability and originality, with a strong sense of duty which he faithfully laboured to fulfil, and was highly respected by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

McEachran, Professor Duncan McNab, F.R.C.V.S., Principal of Montreal Veterinary College, chief inspector of stock, &c., was born at Campbeltown, Argyleshire, Scotland, on the 27th of October, 1841. He is the oldest son of the late David McEachran, who for many years was a member of the town council, and for five years preceding his death was senior bailie of Campbeltown. The family is one of the oldest in Kintyre, descended from McEachran of Killellan and Penygowan. The Ionic cross of Campbeltown, one of the oldest in Scotland, bears the names of Edward and Malcolm McEachran, and the family tombstones, which are found within the ruins of the old church of St. Kiarian, date back as far as the fourteenth century. David McEachran is also buried here. Duncan received his earlier education in the schools of his native place, and at the age of seventeen entered in his professional studies at Edinburgh, under the late Professor Dick. In the autumn of 1862, he came to Canada, and took up his abode in Woodstock, Ontario, where he practised his profession for nearly three years with marked success, at the same time being engaged during part of the winter in giving lectures at Toronto, and by this means rendered valuable service in the establishment of the Veterinary College in that city. During his residence in Woodstock, he contributed in various ways to the advancement of his profession, by lectures at farmers’ meetings, by contributions to the agricultural press, and by the publication of a manual of veterinary science. The work on the “Canadian Horse and his Diseases,” under the joint editorship of himself and his friend, Professor Andrew Smith, of the Toronto Veterinary College, soon ran through two editions, and although a third edition is now called for, Professor McEachran will not consent to its issue, as he fondly hopes to find time in the near future, to publish a larger work on the same subject. In 1866, he left Ontario and settled in Montreal, but before he left for that city, the Board of Agriculture for Upper Canada passed a very complimentary resolution, expressing regret at his departure, and he was entertained by a large number of his friends at a public dinner at Woodstock. On his arrival in Montreal, thanks to his good reputation which had preceded him, and the influence of his numerous friends, his success was speedily assured. Through the influence of the late Major Campbell, president of the Board of Agriculture, aided by principal (now Sir) J. W. Dawson, and the late G. W. Campbell, dean of the medical faculty of McGill University, an arrangement was made for Professor McEachran to deliver a course of lectures on veterinary science, in connection with the medical school, which was the commencement of the now widely-known Montreal Veterinary College. In 1875, the present commodious college buildings were erected on Union Avenue, at the expense of the founder and principal, the government guaranteeing $1,800 per annum toward its expenses for ten years, with the privilege of sending to it thirteen French and seven English students annually free. This college is now considered the first of its kind in America, and justly ranks high, even when compared with many of the schools in Europe, owing to the appreciation of its head for thorough education. While the veterinary schools at Toronto and New York admitted students without matriculation, and graduated them in two sessions, here a matriculation is required, and the course extends over three sessions of six months each. This plan was adopted by the Montreal College before the English schools; even the Royal Veterinary College of England was led by the Montreal school in this very important matter. Professor McEachran has associated with him in teaching the learned Principal and Professors of McGill University, whose classes his students attend for collateral studies. Year by year since the establishment of this college, its progress has been most marked in the number and educational standing of the pupils, and students have been attracted to it from all parts of the United States and Canada. A veterinary medical association has been established in connection with the college, for the reading of papers and the discussion of professional and kindred subjects, and a well-furnished library, containing most of the old works, and all the new ones, embraced in veterinary literature, has been added to the college, mainly through the efforts of its energetic principal. Professor McEachran, during the past few years, has contributed many valuable articles to professional journals and the agricultural press as well as by public lectures, on his favourite theme. In 1875, he earnestly pressed upon the attention of the Dominion government, the necessity for the establishment of a quarantine system, to prevent the importation of certain cattle diseases from Europe, where they were then prevailing to a deplorable extent. Acting on his advice, the government created, in April, 1876, a quarantine station at Point Levis, Quebec, and made the professor chief inspector for the Dominion, and this position he still continues to occupy. In January, 1879, he was sent by the Dominion government to the United States, to investigate the lung-plague—pleuro-pneumonia—and visited New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the district of Columbia; and on his return he reported the prevalence of this serious disease in all the states he had visited. The result was that shortly afterwards an embargo was placed on the importation of cattle from the United States to Canada and Great Britain, requiring that they should be slaughtered at the port of debarkation, within fourteen days after landing. This action of the British government entailed a heavy loss on cattle exported from the United States, but Canada, owing to her freedom from the diseases, and the perfect condition of her quarantine system, became a gainer in proportion to a large amount. Professor McEachran’s name will ever be associated with the early history of the export cattle trade of Canada, as one, who at the proper moment gave sound advice to the government, which, being promptly acted upon, helped in these early days to assist a trade that has since grown to vast proportions. The efficiency of the quarantine for cattle under his management has been thoroughly tested on two occasions, viz., 1885, when the contagious disease, “foot and mouth,” or vessicular epizootic, was twice brought into the quarantine from Great Britain, so thorough was the quarantine that not only did it not extend beyond, but it did not even affect any other cattle, of which there were several hundreds within the enclosure. The prompt and effective manner in which pleuro-pneumonia was dealt with in 1886, when that fell destroyer was imported in a herd of Galloways, proved beyond doubt the efficiency of the quarantine, and the ability of the inspectors to deal with contagious diseases. If Canada to-day is free from contagious disease, it is due in a great measure to his energy and knowledge of disease. In acknowledgment of his professional attainments he was elected one of the original Fellows of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, on that body being raised to the rank of a university in 1875, being the only one in Canada on whom that honour was conferred. He has been intimately connected with the cattle ranching business in the district of Alberta, Senator Cochrane and he being the pioneers in that business on a large scale in Canada. Together they visited Alberta in 1881, going via the Missouri river to Fort Benton, thence driving across the plains to where Calgary is now built. On his return he published a series of interesting letters, being a narrative of his trip, and description of the country. He was vice-president of the Cochrane Ranche Co. till 1883, when he became general manager of the Walrond Cattle Ranche Co., of which Sir John Walrond, Bart., is president, and which is now the largest and one of the most successful ranches in Canada. Professor McEachran was married on the 9th of June, 1868, to Esther, youngest daughter of the late Timothy Plaskett, Esq., St. Croix, West Indian Islands, to whom two children were born, viz., Evelyn Victoria, born 24th May, 1869, who died May, 1874, and Jeanie Blackney, born 19th September, 1871. In politics, Professor McEachran is a Conservative, but in consequence of his devotion to professional work he has never taken a very active part in politics. He served in the militia force for ten years as Veterinary Surgeon to the Montreal Field Battery of Artillery. He became a justice of the peace in 1886, with jurisdiction over the entire Province of Quebec.

Holmes, Hon. Simon H., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was born near Springville, East River township, Pictou county, N.S., on the 30th July, 1831. His father, Hon. John Holmes, came from Ross-shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1783, to Nova Scotia, and settled in the province in 1803, and represented Pictou county in the Nova Scotia legislature, from 1839 to 1847, and from 1851 to 1855, and was called to the Legislative Council in 1858. At the time of Confederation in 1867 he was made a member of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada. His mother, Catherine Fraser, was a native of Nova Scotia. Simon H. Holmes received his educational training at the New Glasgow Grammar School and at the Pictou Academy. He adopted law as a profession, and studied in the office of the Hon. James McDonald, now chief justice of Nova Scotia, and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in August, 1864. He practised for a number of years as a barrister in Pictou, and during that time acquired the honourable distinction of being a logical and able speaker, and one who always made a favourable impression on a jury. Mr. Holmes entered political life in 1867, and yet though he failed to carry Pictou county at the general election of that year, he was successful in 1871; and in 1874 he was re-elected by acclamation, and chosen leader of the opposition. After the contest in 1878, he was called upon to form an administration, of which he became premier and provincial secretary, which position he occupied during the four years following, when he accepted the office of prothonotary of the Supreme Court for Halifax, which office he now holds. Hon. Mr. Holmes was for twenty-four years editor and proprietor of the Colonial Standard, Pictou, an outspoken Liberal-Conservative paper, which he conducted with marked ability, and which exercised a great influence in shaping the politics of the province. When quite a young man he took an active interest in the volunteer movement, and rose to the rank of captain; subsequently he held the same rank in the militia, and was, before severing his connection with the corps on entering public life, promoted to the rank of major.

Archibald, Hon. Sir Adams Geo., K.C.M.G., D.C.L., P.C., Q.C., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. This illustrious statesman was born at Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 18th May, 1814. His father was Samuel Archibald, grandson of one of two brothers who came from the North of Ireland, though of Scottish descent, settled at Truro, Colchester county, N.S., in 1761, and both of whom married and had families, and from these brothers sprung most of the families of that name now scattered over the Maritime and other provinces of the Dominion, some of whom honoured the liberal professions, and filled nearly every position of responsibility and trust in the legislature and government of Nova Scotia. His grandfather, James Archibald, was, on the 23rd June, 1796, appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Colchester, Nova Scotia, and held this position till his death. The mother of Sir Adams Archibald was Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Archibald, who was appointed coroner of Colchester in 1776, and represented Truro in the local parliament for many years. Adams George Archibald was educated at Pictou College under the late Dr. McCulloch, who had at that time the training of many young men who now fill various high positions in public life. He studied law in Halifax in the office of the late William Sutherland, afterwards recorder of the city; was admitted in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as an attorney in 1838, and as barrister to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1839; and for many years practised his profession successfully both at Truro and Halifax, during which time he filled some very important positions. In 1851 he entered public life, and was elected to represent the county of Colchester in the Nova Scotia assembly, and sat as such until 1859, when the county was divided, and he was returned for South Colchester, which constituency he continued to represent until Confederation in 1867. During three years he occupied prominent positions in the government of Nova Scotia. In 1856 he was appointed solicitor-general of his native province, and in 1857 was sent as a delegate, in company with the late Hon. J. W. Johnstone, to England to arrange the terms of settlement with the British government and the General Mining Association, in regard to the mines of the province, and to ascertain the views of that government on the question of the union of the provinces. And one of the happy results of their labours was to effect a settlement of a long standing dispute between the province and the company, whereby certain collieries were allotted to the company on their surrendering all other collieries and all mines and minerals to the province, except the coal in the areas so allotted. In 1860 he was made attorney-general, and the following year (1861), he was a delegate to the Quebec Conference to discuss the question of an Intercolonial Railway. In 1862 he was appointed advocate-general of the Vice-Admiralty Court. Mr. Archibald being one of the foremost among the advocates of Confederation, he attended as a delegate the Charlottetown Union Conference in June, 1864; the Quebec Conference, held a few months later in the same year, and the final conference held in London (England), during the winter of 1866–7 to complete the terms of confederation. In 1867 he was made secretary of state for the provinces in the Dominion government. In 1869 he was elected to a seat in the Dominion parliament at Ottawa, by the county of Colchester, but resigned the next year (1870), on his being appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. In 1872 he was created a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by her Majesty the Queen for his services in Manitoba, and in 1886 was advanced a step in the order, being created K.C.M.G. On his return from the North-West he was appointed, on the 24th June, 1873, judge in equity for Nova Scotia; but only held the office until the 4th of the next month, when, on the death of the late lieutenant-governor, Joseph Howe, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, and this high office he filled with great dignity and satisfaction to all concerned from the 4th July, 1873, to 4th July, 1883, when he was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Henry Richey. Governor Archibald was one of the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1873; and in 1884 he was chosen chairman of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie College; and in 1885 he was elected president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, of which he has been an active member from the time of its formation in 1878 to the present. In conclusion, we may add that the Hon. Mr. Archibald is a man of broad views and generous impulses, and a statesman whom the country is pleased to honour. In religious matters he has followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, and is a staunch Presbyterian. He was married on the 1st June, 1840, to Elizabeth Archibald, daughter of the Rev. John Burnyeat, an able and accomplished Anglican divine, the first clergyman of the Church of England, in the parish of St. John, Colchester, whose wife was Livinia, daughter of Charles Dickson, and sister of Elizabeth, wife of the late Hon. S. G. W. Archibald, and mother of the late Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Archibald.

McCaul, Rev. John, D.D., late President of University College, Toronto, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and died at Toronto, on the 16th of April, 1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was educated at Trinity College in his native city, and after a very successful university career, graduated with the highest honours in classics. At the request of the authorities of Trinity College, he for some time filled the post of classical tutor and examiner in that institution. While occupying this position, he devoted himself passionately to the pursuit of classical literature, and edited several editions of recognized value of various Greek and Latin texts. In 1838, Dr. Harley, then archbishop of Canterbury, hearing of his repute as a scholar, offered him the principalship of Upper Canada College, in Toronto, and Mr. McCaul having accepted the office, entered upon its duties the following year. In 1843, he became the president and professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres in King’s College, which by the Act of 1849, became the University of Toronto, and was freed forever from sectarian control. From that time up to the date of his retirement, some years ago, from all literary work, Dr. McCaul uninterruptedly filled the chair of classics in the university, of which for some years he was also the president. While zealously maintaining the pre-eminence of his own department, he actively assisted in introducing into the university curriculum the subjects of modern languages and natural sciences. His individual work is seen on every hand in the distinguished men who are to be found in every part of the province, and who cheerfully acknowledge their indebtedness to the late lamented president of University College, for the accuracy and thoroughness of their academic training. Among the works which have been issued from Dr. McCaul’s pen are exhaustive treatises on the Greek Tragic Metres and the Horatian Metres; on the Scansion of the Hecuba and Medea of Euripides; lectures on Homer and Virgil; an edition of Longinus, of selections from Lucian and Thucydides. His edition of the Satires and Epistles of Horace has long been looked upon as a standard one of this favourite author. His researches in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, and his work on “Britanno-Roman Inscriptions,” and “The Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries,” entitle him to take high rank among the greatest classical scholars which the century has produced. Dr. McCaul married in 1840, Emily, the second daughter of the late Hon. Justice Jones. His wife, three sons and three daughters survive him.

Cross, Hon. Alexander, Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench, Montreal, was born on a farm situated on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 22nd of March, 1821, and came to Montreal with his parents when only a boy of five years of age. His father, Robert Cross, was a gentleman farmer, and was a scion of the Cross family who for many generations lived in Old Monklands, and were among the well-to-do farmers in that part of Scotland. His mother, Janet Selkirk, was from an adjoining parish. Mr. Cross, sr., died about a year after his arrival in Canada, and this sad event rendered it necessary for the family to remove to a farm on the Chateauguay river, the land on which the celebrated battle of that name was fought between a handful of Canadian militia and a strong force of United States troops—the Canadians coming off victorious—during the war of 1812–14. Alexander, who was the youngest son of the family, as he grew up to manhood, showed a strong leaning towards literary pursuits instead of towards agriculture; and in his laudable desire for knowledge he was encouraged by his elder brother, who had been educated for the Scottish bar, and who, while he lived, helped him in every way possible to gratify his literary aspirations. In 1837, at the age of sixteen, he left the farm and went to Montreal to study. Here he entered the Montreal College as a pupil, but after being a short time in this institution he found the classes did not progress fast enough to suit his restless craving for knowledge, when he left and put himself under private tutors. He also entered the office of John J. Day, of Montreal, to study law; and the rebellion at this time breaking out, he enlisted as a volunteer in Colonel Maitland’s battalion, and served in this corps until the close of the rebellion in 1838, retiring with the rank of sergeant. When the rebels were defeated at Beauharnois, Sergeant Cross was among the first to enter the village. And in this connection we may say that while a law student he was chosen clerk of the first municipal council of the county of Beauharnois, then embracing three or four times its present area, and so well did he perform his duties at the first meeting of the council that he was highly complimented for the ability he displayed, by such gentlemen as Lord Selkirk and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who were guests at the Seigniory house, staying there to observe the working of the new institution. Mr. Cross was called to the bar in 1844, and practised his profession in Montreal more than thirty years, at first with the late Duncan Fisher, Q.C., and subsequently with Attorney-General Smith (who afterwards became the Hon. Judge Smith). During this long period Mr. Cross had an extensive and remunerative practice, and on several occasions he represented the Crown while connected with the distinguished gentlemen mentioned above. During the administration of Viscount Monck, in 1864, he was created a Queen’s counsel. On the 30th of August, 1877, he was appointed one of the judges of the Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and took his seat the first of the following month, at a session of the court held in the city of Quebec. Judge Cross, while in practice at the bar, held a foremost position among the legal fraternity. On the bench he has met the expectations of his many admirers, and his judicial opinions have been received by the Supreme Court and the Privy Council with marked consideration. He has been identified with Montreal since his boyhood days, and has seen the great progress that city has made since he first entered it at his mother’s side. In 1837–8, as we have seen, he helped to quell the rebellion, and in 1849 he was present at the burning of the parliament houses incident on the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and assisted the late Sir Louis H. Lafontaine and some others of the notable politicians of that day in making their escape from the burning building, escorting them unmolested through the turbulent crowd of rioters, among whom he exercised a certain amount of influence. Judge Cross seems always to have had an aversion to public life, and even in his younger days when he was offered political positions of honour, he always declined them. In 1863 he was offered by the Liberal government then in power the position of secretary to the commission for the codification of the laws of Canada, and at a later date the office of attorney-general in the de Boucherville administration, but he refused to accept either of these important offices. He has, nevertheless, suggested and assisted in framing legislative measures of general utility, among which may be mentioned the first statute passed in Canada for the abolition of the Usury laws. He is also the inventor of a new and ingenious method of rotation of numbers. In politics the judge leans to the Liberal side, and his ideas, as well on the subject of finance as on the theory of the popular principle in the election of representatives, are noted for their originality and depth of thought. In religion he is a member of St. Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church, and has been an office bearer in that church. He is a man of good impulses, and is very generous to the poor. In 1848 he married Julia, daughter of the late William Lunn, in his day a prominent citizen of Montreal, and they have five sons and one daughter living, and have buried three children, the last, an exceedingly promising youth, in his sixteenth year.

Baillairgé, Chevalier Chas. P. F., M.S., Quebec. The subject of this who is a Chevalier of the Order of St. Sauveur de Monte Reale, Italy, was born in September, 1827, and for the past forty years has been practising his profession as an engineer, architect and surveyor, in the city of Quebec. Since 1856 he has been a member of the Board of Examiners of Land Surveyors for the province, and since 1875 its chairman; he is an honorary member of the Society for the Generalization of Education in France; and has been the recipient of thirteen medals of honour and of seventeen diplomas, etc., from learned societies and public bodies in France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Mr. Baillairgé’s father, who died in 1865, at the age of sixty-eight, was born in Quebec, and for over thirty years was road surveyor of that city. His mother, Charlotte Janverin Horsley, who is still living, was born in the Isle of Wight, England, and was a daughter of Lieutenant Horsley, R.N. His grandfather on the paternal side, P. Florent Baillairgé, is of French descent, and was connected, now nearly a century ago, with the restoration of the Basilica, Quebec. The wife of the latter was Cureux de St. Germain, also of French descent. Our subject married, in 1845, Euphémie, daughter of Mr. Jean Duval, and step-daughter of the Hon. John Duval, for many years chief justice of Lower Canada, by whom he had eleven children, four of whom only survive. His wife dying in February, 1878, he, in April of the following year, married Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Benjamin Wilson, of the British navy, by whom he has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Baillairgé was educated at the Seminary of Quebec, but, finding the curriculum of studies too lengthy, he left that institution some time before the termination of the full course of ten years, and entered into a joint apprenticeship as architect, engineer and surveyor. During this apprenticeship he devoted himself to mathematical and natural science studies, and received diplomas for his proficiency in 1848, when only twenty-one years of age. At that period he entered upon his profession, and for the last twenty years has filled the post of city engineer of Quebec, manager of its water works, engineer of its new water works under the Beemer contract of 1883; engineer, on the part of the city, in and over the North Shore, Piles and Lake St. John railways during their construction. Mr. Baillairgé has held successive commissions in the militia, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain; and in 1860, and for several years thereafter, was hydrographic surveyor to the Quebec Board of Harbour Commissioners. In 1861 he was elected vice-president of the Association of Architects and Civil Engineers of Canada. In 1858 he was elected, and again in 1861 unanimously re-elected, to represent the St. Louis ward in the City Council, Quebec. In 1863 he was called for two years to Ottawa, to act as joint architect of the Parliament and Departmental buildings then in course of erection. Interests of considerable magnitude were then at stake between the government and the contractors, claims amounting to nearly half a million of money having to be adjusted. In connection with his employment by the government, Mr. Baillairgé found that to continue his services he must be a party to some sacrifice of principle, which, rather than consent to, he was indiscreet enough to tell the authorities of the time. This excess of virtue was too moral for the appointing power and more than it was disposed to brook in an employé of the government. The difficulty was, therefore, got over by giving Mr. Baillairgé his feuille de route, a compliment to his integrity of which he has ever since been justly proud. He shortly afterwards returned to Quebec. During his professional career, Mr. Baillairgé designed and erected numerous private residences in and around Quebec, as well as many public buildings, including the Asylum and the Church of the Sisters of Charity, the Laval University building, the new Gaol, Music Hall, several churches, both in the city and in the adjoining parishes—that of Ste. Marie, Beauce, being much admired on account of the beauty and regularity of its interior. The “Monument des Braves de 1760” was erected in 1860, on the Ste. Foye road, after a design by him and under his superintendence. The government, the clergy and others have often availed themselves of his services in arbitration on knotty questions of technology, disputed boundaries, builders’ claims, surveys and reports on various subjects. In 1872, Mr. Baillairgé suggested, and in 1878 designed and carried out what is now known as the Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, a structure some 1,500 feet in length, overlooking the St. Lawrence from a height of 182 feet, and built along the face of the cliff under the Citadel. This terrace was inaugurated in 1878 by their Excellencies the Marquis of Lorne and H.R.H. the Princess Louise, who pronounced it a splendid achievement. In 1873 Mr. Baillairgé designed and built the aqueduct bridge over the St. Charles river, the peculiarity about which is that the structure forms an arch as does the aqueduct pipe it encloses, whereby, in case of the destruction of the surrounding wood-work by fire, the pipe being self-supporting, the city may not be deprived of water while re-constructing the frost-protecting tunnel enclosure. At the age of seventeen the subject of our sketch built a double cylindered steam carriage for traffic on ordinary roads. From 1848 to 1865 he delivered a series of lectures, in the old Parliament buildings and elsewhere, on astronomy, light, steam and the steam engine, pneumatics, acoustics, geometry, the atmosphere, and other kindred subjects, under the patronage of the Canadian and other institutes; and in 1872, in the rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, Quebec, under the auspices of that institution, he delivered an exhaustive lecture on geometry, mensuration, and the stereometricon (a mode of cubing all solids by one and the same rule, thus reducing the study and labour of a year to that of a day or an hour), which he had then but recently invented, and for which he was made honorary member of several learned societies, and received the numerous medals and diplomas already alluded to. The following letter from the Ministry of Public Instruction, Russia, is worthy of insertion as explanatory of the advantages of the stereometricon:

Department of Public Instruction,

St. Petersburg, Feb. 14th, 1877.

To M. Baillairgé, architect, Quebec,

Sir—The Committee on Science of the Department of Public Instruction (of Russia) recognizing the unquestionable usefulness of your “Tableau Stéréométrique,” for the teaching of geometry in general, as well as its practical application to other sciences, is particularly pleased to add its unrestricted approbation to the testimony of the savants of Europe and America, by informing you that the above “Tableau,” with all its appliances, will be recommended in the primary and middle schools, in order to complete the cabinets and mathematical collections, and inscribed in the catalogues of works approved of by the Department of Public Instruction. Accept, sir, the assurance of my high consideration.

E. de Bradker,

Chief of the Department of Public Instruction.

And the Quebec Mercury of the 10th July, 1878, has the following in relation to a second letter from the same source: “It will be remembered that in February, 1877, Mr. Baillairgé received an official letter from the Minister of Public Instruction, of St. Petersburg, Russia, informing him that his new system of mensuration had been adopted in all the primary and medium schools of that vast empire. After a lapse of eighteen months, the system having been found to work well, Mr. Baillairgé has received an additional testimonial from the same source, informing him that the system is to be applied in all the polytechnic schools of the Russian empire.” Mr. Baillairgé has since that time given occasional lectures in both languages on industrial art and design, and on other interesting and instructive topics, and is now engaged on a dictionary or dictionaries of the consonances of both the French and English languages. In 1866 he wrote his treatise on geometry and trigonometry, plane and spherical, with mathematical tables—a volume of some 900 pages octavo, and has since edited several works and pamphlets on like subjects. In his work on geometry, which, by the way, is written in the French language, Mr. Baillairgé has, by a process explained in the preface, reduced to fully half their number the two hundred and odd propositions of the first six books of Euclid, while deducing and retaining all the conclusions arrived at by the great geometer. Mr. Baillairgé, moreover, shows the practical use and adaptation of problems and theorems which might otherwise appear to be of doubtful utility, as of the ratio between the tangent, whole secant, and part of the secant without the circle, in the laying out of railroad and other curves running through given points, and numerous other examples. His treatment of spherics and of the affections of the sides and angles is, in many respects, novel, and more easy of apprehension by the general student. In a note at foot of page 330, Mr. Baillairgé shows the fallacy of Thorpe’s pretended solution of the trisection of an angle, at which the poor man had laboured for thirty-four years, and takes the then government to task for granting Mr. Thorpe a patent for the discovery. In February, 1874, he visited Europe, and it was on the 15th of March of that year that he received his first laurels at the “Grand Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers,” Paris. Some of Mr. Baillairgé’s annual reports on civic affairs are very interesting and instructive; that of 1878, on “The Municipal Situation,” is particularly worthy of perusal. His report of 1872 was more especially sought after by almost every city engineer in Canada and the United States, on account of the varied information it conveyed. It may also be remembered, as illustrative of the versatility of his talent and of his humouristic turn of mind, that a comedy, “Le Diable Devenu Cuisinier,” written by him in the French language, was, in 1873, played in the Music Hall, Quebec, and again in the Salle Jacques Cartier, Quebec, by the Maugard Company, then in the city, to the great merriment of all present. Nor will the members of “Le Club des 21,” composed as it is of the literati, scientists and artists of Quebec, under the presidency of the Count of Premio Real, consul-general of Spain for Canada, soon forget how, in March, 1879, Mr. Baillairgé, in a paper read at one of the sittings of the club, around a well-spread board, successively portrayed and hit off the peculiarities of each and every member of the club, and of the count himself, while at the same time doing full justice to the abilities of all. Mr. Baillairgé is a close and industrious worker, devoting fourteen hours out of the twenty-four to his professional calling, and again robbing the night for the time to pursue his literary and scientific pursuits. In politics, if he may be said to have any, he is inclined to liberalism, but he is of too independent a character to be tied to a party, preferring to treat each question on its merits, irrespective of its promoters. The subject of this sketch is brother to G. F. Baillairgé, deputy minister of Public Works of the Dominion, and grand nephew to François Baillairgé, an eminent painter and sculptor “de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, France,” who carved some of the statues in the Basilica, and whose studio in St. Louis street, Quebec (the quaint old one-story building, now Campbell’s livery stable), was at that time so often visited by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, during his sojourn in Quebec. A portrait of Mr. Baillairgé, accompanied by a brief biographical notice, appeared in “L’Opinion Publique,” of the 25th April, 1878. The “Rivista Universale,” of Italy, also published his portrait and a biographical sketch of Mr. Baillairgé’s career in February of 1878. Since 1879 Mr. Baillairgé has been the recipient of the following additional testimonials:

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts,

Grenville St., Toronto, Jan. 7th, 1880.

Dear Sir—I am commanded by His Excellency the Governor-General (Marquis of Lorne), to inform you that he has been pleased to nominate you as an associate of the New Canadian Academy.

(Signed), L. N. O’Brien,

President.

Royal Society of Canada,

Montreal, March 7th, 1882.

Sir—I have the honour to intimate to you by request of the Governor-General (Marquis of Lorne), that His Excellency hopes you will allow yourself to be named by him as one of the twenty original members of the Mathematical, Physical, and Chemical Section of the New Literary and Scientific Society of Canada, the first meeting of which will be held at Ottawa on the 25th of May. Should you accept be good enough to state what work you wish associated with your name. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient,

T. Sterry Hunt,

President of the Mathematical, Physical, and Chemical Section.

C. Baillairgé, Esq.

In July, 1882, Mr. Baillairgé was unanimously elected president of the newly incorporated body of Land Surveyors and Engineers of the province of Quebec, which position he continued to fill till 1885.

Government House,

Quebec, 18th June, 1877.

Sir—As President of the Canadian Commission at Philadelphia, I have had occasion to show your “Tableau Stéréométrique” to the representatives of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and Portugal, and, with a single exception, it was known and highly appreciated by all of them. Monsieur Lavoine, engineer of roads and bridges, with whom I became acquainted in Philadelphia, where he was in charge of the exposition of models of the Public Works of France, spoke to me about it then, and also during a visit he paid me in Ottawa last fall, in the most flattering manner for you and for Canadians generally. I am happy, sir, to hear of such a testimony which does you credit, and also to know that your works, which have been crowned so often, both in your own and foreign countries, have just been duly appreciated at the Universal Exposition of 1876 at Philadelphia. I remain, sir, your obedient servant,

L. Letellier,

Lieut.-Governor of the Province of Quebec

M. C. Baillairgé, C.E., Quebec.