On assuming office as Superintendent, Dr. Allison found the important sphere of intermediate education out of proper relation to the higher and lower departments of instruction. A system of self-terminated common schools of an elementary type, and a system of colleges mainly without a trustworthy source of supply, he refused to believe adapted to the wants of his Province and the genius of the age. His efforts to secure a better distribution of educational appliances, and better inter-working of educational forces, have already, we believe, been crowned with some success. Though not without aptitudes for other departments of public service, he has hitherto refused to listen to all propositions involving departure from the strict path of educational effort and usefulness.
Dr. Allison is a man of broad political sympathies. Residing in the United States during those years of intense feeling which immediately preceded the great Civil War, and having abundant opportunity of hearing those passion-stirring appeals by which fiery orators accelerated the awful crisis, his early prepossessions towards political and historical studies were greatly strengthened. The reading and thought spent in this direction have no doubt resulted in the formation of strong, well-developed opinions. If, as some suspect, these opinions are somewhat radical, they are held in judicious equilibrium by the practical conservatism of his conduct. The liberality of his religious sentiments admirably qualify him for a position in relation to which the distinction of creeds is ignored. He is a member of the Methodist Church of Canada, and as a lay representative has taken a prominent part in the two General Conferences of that influential denomination, and has been appointed a delegate to the General Congress of Methodism to be held in London in 1881. This is the sphere of private opinion and action, but even in that he has always thrown his influence in favour of fraternity and peace. As regards public relations, the universal confidence in his impartiality is a prime element of his strength.
He received the degree of B.A. in 1859, and of M.A. in 1862, in due course from the Wesleyan University, and in 1873 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Victoria College, Cobourg, Ont. In 1876 he was appointed by the Executive Government of Nova Scotia a Fellow of the Senate of the University of Halifax. In the hope of unifying and improving the higher education of the Maritime Provinces Dr. Allison had given the scheme for establishing such a University, modelled on that of London, an earnest, and at a critical juncture, most valuable support, and still vigorously sustains the experiment of an Examining University as under the circumstances of the case contributing to the satisfactory solution of a difficult problem. That the proposed scheme was open to some of the objections vigorously urged against it by the Rev. Mr. (now Principal) Grant and others he did not attempt to deny. But who could propose any measure directed towards the improvement of advanced education in Nova Scotia which was not open to objection? The existing Colleges, five or six in number, were feeble and ill-equipped, but they had become strongly entrenched in the affections of religious denominations, whose unwillingness to surrender real or seeming advantages in connection with these institutions was proportioned to the sacrifices by which these advantages had been secured. Assuming this unwillingness of the Colleges to surrender their chartered privileges, as the first and indeed fundamental condition of the establishment of a genuine Provincial University to be inexpugnable, the projectors of the University of Halifax sought to give a steady and appreciable value to Collegiate degrees conferred in the Province, to reduce to something like order the chaos of divergent systems, and to send down into the strata of primary and intermediate education an uplifting influence from above. Should even these more limited objects be unattained through the failure of the Colleges to practically aid a measure designed at least in part for their benefit, it may in the end appear that the indifference of these institutions was not dictated by the highest wisdom even as regards their own interests.
THE HON. THOMAS GALT.
Judge Galt is the second son of the late John Galt, who was for some time the Canadian Commissioner of the Canada Company, and who was the author of numerous dramas and works of fiction which once enjoyed great popularity. Some account of the life of the late Mr. Galt has been given in the sketch of the life of his youngest son, the Hon. Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, which appeared in the second volume of this series.
The subject of this sketch was born in Portland Street, Oxford Street, London, England, where his father at that time resided, on the 12th of August, 1815. His early life was passed alternately in England and in Scotland. He received his education at various public and private schools. He was for about two years a pupil at a private establishment at Musselburgh, a small seaport town in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. The late Hon. George Brown was also a pupil at this establishment. Mr. Galt was removed from Musselburgh in 1826, and placed under the tuition of Dr. Valpy, a classical scholar of high reputation. In 1828 he came out to Canada, and was for two years a pupil in the establishment of Mr. Braithwaite, at Chambly, where he had for fellow-pupils, the present Bishop of Niagara and the late Thomas C. Street. In 1830 he returned to Great Britain, where he spent three years, when, having nearly completed his eighteenth year he emigrated to Upper Canada, and settled in what was then Little York. This was in the autumn of 1833, and in the month of March following, Little York became the city of Toronto, with William Lyon Mackenzie as its first mayor. Mr. Galt has ever since resided in Toronto, and has thus had his home in our Provincial capital for more than forty-seven years.
Upon his arrival at Little York he entered the service of the Canada Company, of which his father had been one of the original promoters, and most active spirits. He remained in that service about six years, when, having resolved upon studying law, he entered the office of Mr.—afterwards the Hon. Chief Justice—Draper, where he remained until his studies had been completed. During a part of this period he occupied the position of chief clerk in the office of his principal, who was then Attorney-General for Upper Canada. In this capacity it fell to his duty to prepare the indictments, which required not merely an accurate knowledge of the criminal law, but a close familiarity with the highly technical system of criminal pleading which prevailed in those days. In Easter Term, 1845, he was called to the Bar of Upper Canada, and immediately afterwards settled down to the practice of his profession. He was possessed of excellent abilities, a fine presence, and a remarkably prepossessing manner, which qualifications combined to place him in a foremost position before he had been long engaged in practice. He became solicitor for numerous corporations and public companies, and had always a very large business.