SPEAKER OF THE SENATE.
Senator Macpherson is a member of the famous sept whose hereditary feud with the McTavishes forms an episode in the history of the Highland clans, and likewise forms the groundwork of one of the most characteristic of Professor Aytoun's ballads. He is the youngest son of the late David Macpherson, of Castle Leathers, near Inverness, Scotland, where he was born on the 12th of September, 1818. He received his education at the Royal Academy of Inverness. He was enterprising and ambitious, and upon leaving school, in his seventeenth year, he emigrated to Canada, where one of his elder brothers had long been established in a very lucrative business as the senior partner in the firm of Macpherson, Crane & Co., of Montreal. The business carried on by this firm was known in those days as "forwarding," and consisted of conveying merchandise from one part of the country to another. They performed the greater part of the carrying business which is now conducted by the various railway companies, and their operations were on a very extensive scale. Their wagons were to be found on all the principal highways, and their vessels were seen in every lake, harbour, and important river from Montreal to the mouth of the Niagara, and up the Ottawa as far as Bytown. The future senator entered the service of this firm immediately after his arrival in the country, and remained in it as a clerk for seven years, when (in 1842) he was admitted as a partner. He directed such of the operations of the firm as came under his supervision with great energy and judgment, and achieved a decided pecuniary success. When the railway era set in, and threatened to divert the course of trade from its old channels, he seized the salient points of the situation, and began to interest himself in the various railway projects of the times. In conjunction with the late Mr. Holton and the present Sir Alexander Galt, he in 1851 obtained a charter for constructing a line of railway from Montreal to Kingston. This scheme was subsequently merged in the larger one of the Grand Trunk, and the charter which had been granted to the Montreal and Kingston Company was repealed. The principal members of that Company, including the subject of this sketch, then allied themselves with Mr. Gzowski, under the style of Gzowski & Co., and on the 24th of March, 1853, obtained a contract for constructing a line of railway westward from Toronto to Sarnia. Mr. Macpherson then removed to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. The result of the railway contract was to make him thoroughly independent of the world, and it is only justice to himself and his partners to say that the contract was faithfully carried out.
In conjunction with Mr. Gzowski, Mr. Macpherson has since engaged in the construction of several important undertakings, among which may be mentioned the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, the London and St. Mary's Railway, and the International Bridge across the Niagara River at Buffalo. Mr. Macpherson was also a partner in the Toronto Rolling Mills Company which was conducted with great success until the introduction of steel rails caused its products to be no longer in great demand.
David Lewis Macpherson, signed as D. L. Macpherson
Mr. Macpherson has never been known as a very pronounced partisan in political matters, though his leanings have always been towards Conservatism, and on purely political questions he has been a supporter of that side. The structure of his mind, however, unfits him for dealing effectively with party politics, and he never appears to less advantage than when he ascends the party platform. His natural bent is the practical. He believes in building up the country by means of great public works, and in making it a desirable place of residence. His entry into public life dates from October, 1864, when he successfully contested the Saugeen Division for the Legislative Council. He was at first opposed by the Hon. John McMurrich, who had represented the Division for eight years previously. That gentleman, however, retired from the contest, and another Reform candidate took the field, in the person of Mr. George Snider, of Owen Sound. His opposition was not serious, and Mr. Macpherson was returned by a majority of more than 1,200 votes. He sat in the Council for the Saugeen Division until Confederation, when, in May, 1867, he was called to the Senate by Royal Proclamation. He has ever since been a prominent member of that Body, and has taken an intelligent part in its discussions. His speeches on Confederation, and on the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown, were broad and liberal in tone, and won for him the respect of many persons who had previously known nothing of him beyond the fact of his being a remarkably successful railway contractor. In 1868, at the instance of the Ontario Government, he was appointed one of the arbitrators to whom, in the terms of the British North America Act, was to be referred the adjustment of the public debt and assets between the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. With him were associated the Hon. Charles Dewey Day, on behalf of the Province of Quebec, and the Hon. John Hamilton Gray—now one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of British Columbia—on behalf of the Dominion. The case on the part of Ontario was elaborately prepared by the Hon. E. B. Wood. Senator Macpherson discharged his duties as an arbitrator with perfect fairness and impartiality, alike to the Dominion and to the Province which he represented. The conclusion arrived at by him and the arbitrator on behalf of the Dominion, however, was not accepted by Mr. Day on behalf of the Province of Quebec. It was accordingly contended by that Province that the award was nugatory for want of unanimity. The matter was appealed to the Privy Council in England, and the decision of that body was confirmatory of the award. In 1869 he published a pamphlet on Banking and Currency, which was widely read and commented upon.
After British Columbia became an integral part of the Dominion in 1871, Senator Macpherson entered into negotiations with the Government at Ottawa with a view to obtaining the contract for constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway. A rival applicant for the contract was Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal. The subsequent history of the negotiations is too well known to need much recapitulation in this place. The Government contracted obligations to Sir Hugh Allan which were nullified by its fall in the month of November, 1873. Senator Macpherson not unnaturally felt himself aggrieved at the treatment to which he had been subjected, and for some time the cordial relations between him and his old political associates were interrupted. After a brief interval, however, harmony was reëstablished between them, and Senator Macpherson's support has ever since been loyally accorded. During the five years' existence of the Mackenzie Administration his opposition to that Administration was very conspicuous. On the 19th of March, 1878, he called attention in the Senate to the public expenditure of the Dominion; more especially to that part of it which is largely under administrative control. He arraigned the Government policy as extravagant and indefensible, and his remarks gave rise to a long and acrimonious debate. Senator Macpherson's speech on the occasion was considered by the Conservative Party as being one of exceptional power and research. It was published in pamphlet form, and distributed broadcast throughout the land. It was used as a campaign document during the canvass prior to the elections of the 17th of September, and was replied to by the Hon. R. W. Scott, Secretary of State. On another occasion during the same session the Senator assailed the policy of Mr. Mackenzie's Government with respect to the construction of the Fort Francis Lock, and other public works in the North-West. On the 10th of February, 1880, he was elected Speaker of the Senate, which position he now holds. Almost immediately after his election he was prostrated by a serious illness, and in order that business might not be interrupted he temporarily resigned office, the duties of which were for the time discharged by the Hon. A. E. Botsford.
In the month of June, 1844, he married Miss Elizabeth Sarah Molson, eldest daughter of Mr. William Molson, of Montreal, and granddaughter of the Hon. John Molson, who owned and (in 1809) launched The Accommodation, the first steamer that ever plied in Canadian waters. By this lady he has a family. He is connected with various important public and financial institutions, being a member of the Corporation of Hellmuth College, London; a Director of Molson's Bank; and of the Western Canada Permanent Building and Savings Society. He has been Vice-President of the Montreal Board of Trade, and President of the St. Andrew's Society of Toronto.