Читать книгу A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography - Various - Страница 153

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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.