HIS EMINENT SERVICES
His death evoked expressions of sympathy and regret from all parts of the empire and from many states of the union. The letters and telegrams of condolence which Lady Tilley received during the first days of her widowhood would of themselves fill a volume, showing how widely he was known and respected. The funeral, which took place on the Saturday following his death, was one of the largest ever seen in St. John, and was attended by the Board of Trade, the Loyalist Society, the various temperance organizations, the members of the provincial government, and a vast concourse of prominent citizens. The services took place at St. John's Episcopal Church, and were conducted by the rector, the Rev. John deSoyres, assisted by the Rev. R. P. McKim, rector of St. Luke's Church, with which Sir Leonard had been identified in his earlier years. The interment took place in the Rural Cemetery. Many references to the decease of this eminent man were made from the pulpits of St. John and other parts of the province on the Sunday following his death, and all the newspapers had long notices of the event and editorials on his life and character. We may fittingly close this work by quoting a portion of what was said of him by the St. John Telegraph, a paper that was politically opposed to him for many years:—
"It is greatly to the honour of Sir Leonard Tilley that no scandal, public or private, was ever attached to his name. A consistent temperance man to the end of his life, he was faithful to the cause which he had espoused when he was young, and he enjoyed the confidence and received the steady support of a vast majority of the temperance men of the province, who looked upon him as their natural leader. His capacity for friendship was great, and his friends might be numbered by thousands, for he had a peculiar faculty of strongly attracting men to himself. This may be ascribed, in part, to the magnetism of a buoyant and strong nature, but it was more largely due to the extreme simplicity of his character, which remained wholly unspoiled by the favours which fortune had showered upon him. No man, however humble, had any difficulty in obtaining an interview with Sir Leonard Tilley; he was every inch a gentleman, and was, therefore, as polite to the poorest labourer as to the richest in the land. Such a man could not fail to be loved even by those who had been his most bitter opponents in former years, when he was in active political life.
"It is one of the drawbacks of this human life that the wise, the learned, the good, and those whom we most love and honour, grow old and feeble, fall by the wayside and pass away. So while we lament the death of Sir Leonard Tilley, we must recognize it as an event that was inevitable, and which could not long have been postponed. His lifework was done; his labours were ended; his active and brilliant career was closed; he was but waiting for the dread summons which sooner or later must come to all. The summons has come, and he has gone from among us forever. His venerable, noble face will no longer be seen on our streets, his kindly greeting will no longer be heard. But his memory will live, not only in the hearts of all his countrymen, but enshrined in the history of this his native province, and of the great Dominion which he did so much to create, and which he so fondly loved."