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Archambault, Urgel-Eugène, Principal of the Catholic Commercial Academy, Montreal, was born at L’Assomption, on the 27th of May, 1834. His parents were Louis Archambault, farmer, and Marie-Angélique Prud’homme, belonging to a very old family of the province of Quebec. The Archambault family came from France and settled on the Isle of Montreal about the year 1650, thence off-shoots established themselves in different parts of the province of Quebec, especially at L’Assomption, from which place three or four members of this family were, at various times, elected to the Canadian parliament. Urgel-Eugène having attended school at Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan and at L’Assomption, became a teacher at the age of seventeen years (1851), taught during six years at Saint-Ambroise de Kildare, L’Assomption, Chateauguay, and finally completed his own studies at the Jacques-Cartier Normal School, from which institution he received an academic diploma. In 1858, he taught at Saint-Constant, and the following year he became head-master of the Catholic Commercial Academy of Montreal, the principal work of his life, and which he still directs. This school, established in Coté street, was transferred to the Plateau in 1871; it has become one of the principal educational institutions of the city, and even of the province of Quebec. In 1873, Mr. Archambault was named local superintendent of all the schools controlled by the Catholic Board of School Commissioners. The interior plans of the Plateau, Belmont and Olier schools are the work of his hands. This same year, 1873, he laboured successfully to bring about the foundation of an institution destined to form civil, mining, and industrial engineers. This was the Polytechnic School of Montreal, founded by the Catholic school commissioners and the Honorable Gedéon Ouimet, superintendent of education for the province of Quebec. Intended principally for Catholics, it was annexed to the Laval University in January, 1887. The university, which retains Mr. Archambault as principal of the Polytechnic School, has named him titular professor of the arts faculty. Much of the success attending the Jacques-Cartier Normal School conventions has been due to the active interest which he has taken in them. He is the author of the Teachers’ Pension Fund Bill, which became law in 1880, and was amended in 1886. In 1870, Mr. Archambault visited Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond (Virginia), and became acquainted with the best educators in the United States. Since then he has kept himself informed of their methods of teaching and management. With the same object in view, he visited the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876. In 1878, Mr. Archambault was sent to the Paris Exhibition, to represent the Educational department of the province of Quebec; and while in France he was named member of the International Educational Jury, and was the first Canadian ever decorated with the Palmes Académiques, and honored with the title of Officier d’Académie. On this occasion he was commissioned, by the Minister of Public Instruction in France, to deliver the Palmes Académiques to Dr. J. B. Meilleur, and to the Honourable P. J. O. Chauveau and G. Ouimet, who, each in turn, had directed the Educational department of the province. To allow him to fulfil his mission at the Paris Exhibition, he was granted a seven months’ leave of absence, during which time he gathered an ample store of pedagogic ideas, which he has since utilized for the benefit of his country. In 1883-4, he made a second trip to Europe and to Northern Africa, during a six months’ leave of absence granted to him on account of his health. These voyages brought him into communication with several eminent persons, and with different societies. Already a member of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste and of the Historical Society of Montreal, he became a member of the Geographical Society of Paris; in 1882, he received the title of Knight of the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and in 1886 he was named honorary member of the first degree of the Universal Humane Society of Knight-Saviors. In 1860, Mr. Archambault married Marie-Phélonise Azilda, daughter of Dr. Robitaille, of Saint-Roch de l’Achigan. Of the eleven children born to them, six, a son and five daughters, are still living (1887).