Carswell, James, Renfrew, President of the South Renfrew Agricultural Society, was born in 1837, in the township of Pakenham, in the county of Lanark, Ontario. His parents were Scotch, and emigrated from Glasgow, settling in the above township many years ago. Mr. Carswell received his education in the common school of his native place, and while still in his teens started out in the lumbering business, first as foreman and clerk to Jonathan Francis, whose rafts of square timber he frequently accompanied to the port of Quebec. In 1866, he removed to Renfrew, and embarked in business with Messrs. Thistle and Francis in the limits on the Madawaska. This firm having sold out their business in this locality to Jonathan Francis, purchased limits on the Petawawa, and there carried on operations under the name of Thistle & Carswell. This arrangement was continued for several years, when Mr. Francis became one of the partnership, each of the partners being equally interested in the now combined business on the Madawaska and the Petawawa. In 1884, J. H. Francis purchased his father’s interest in the business, and then the firm of Francis, Carswell & Co. built the fine saw-mill at Calabogie. After two years, J. H. Francis sold out his interest to Edward Mackay, of Renfrew, and the firm name was changed to Carswell, Thistle & Mackay, and under this name operations are now carried on. Although thus busily engaged in lumbering operations, Mr. Carswell has found time to devote considerable attention, as a pastime, to the cultivation of the large farm which lies around and below his handsome residence, which stands prominently on the hill top, overlooking the village. The farm, by purchase after purchase, has grown to large dimensions, and extends from the residence right down to the banks of the Bonnechere. By careful and judicious, though liberal, expenditure, Mr. Carswell has brought this property into excellent producing condition; and by employing a number of men and availing himself of all the improvements in machinery, is able to enjoy the life of a “gentleman farmer,” with probably more profit than usually falls to the fate of that class of agriculturists. Mr. Carswell’s most active public duties have probably been in connection with the Agricultural Society, to the advancement of the interests of which he has devoted both his time and his money. And when we state that he is ever ready to take vigorous hold of work in connection with the institutions in which he holds either membership or office, it will be readily understood why for the last eight years he has been unanimously re-elected president. But he has also an open heart for the general good in other ways. He gave to the Renfrew Lacrosse Club at a nominal price five acres of valuable property adjoining the centre of the village, on the condition that it was to be always and only used for the purposes of healthful recreation by the young men of the neighborhood. Mr. Carswell was for two years a member of the Renfrew village council, but declined to act after that time, though hard pressed to do so. He has been for years a valuable member of the business committee of the Presbyterian church, and though offered he declined the proffered position of elder in the same denominational body. And in the matter of politics, if he has not taken any very prominent part, it is certainly not the fault of his friends, who time after time have pressed him to accept the nomination for both houses as the candidate of the Conservative party. This honor, however, he has steadily refused to accept, though his personal popularity would undoubtedly have made him a very strong candidate. Altogether, Mr. Carswell comes under the head of a “good citizen,” whose character and heart have not been spoiled by the somewhat dangerous endowments of riches and success in life. He was married, in 1865, to Jane White, of Fitzroy, and the union has been blessed with nine children, six sons and three daughters, six of whom, three boys and three girls, are living.
Norquay, Hon. John, Ex-President of the Council, Secretary of the Railway Commissioners, and Ex-Premier of the province of Manitoba, was born in St. Andrews, Manitoba, on the 8th of May, 1841. Mr. Norquay is not only a native of Manitoba, but he has a strain of Indian blood in his veins, and is all the more remarkable, therefore, as being not only the greatest man the province ever produced, but as standing on a plane in point of ability in public affairs high above that occupied by any resident of the province up to this time. Mr. Norquay first came to the front after the troublesome times of 1869-70 when the first Riel rebellion set the whole country on fire with anxiety and excitement. His peculiar position as one in whom both half-breeds and whites could have confidence, together with a forcible way of stating sound and moderate views made him the centre of the common ground upon which all soon agreed to stand, and marked him out as a leader. He was made Minister of Public Works in the first ministry after the settlement of the troubles in 1871, and from that time until the present he has had an almost uninterrupted career of ministerial successes. He stood for the Commons in Marquette, in 1872, but was defeated. This contest, however, did not affect his position as a provincial representative. In the Assembly, he sat for High Bluff, from 1870 to 1874, but since then he continuously represented St. Andrews, being three times elected by acclamation and twice by large majorities. He resigned, with his colleagues, in 1874, but became Provincial Secretary in the following year, in the Davis administration, and resumed the office of Public Works in 1876. Two years later he became Premier, being the head of what was known as the Norquay-Royal Administration in which he held the portfolio of treasurer. Mr. Royal, differing with his leader on a question of public policy, resigned, as did also Mr. Delorme, Minister of Agriculture. Two English-speaking members of the government were appointed, but after the general election of 1879, in which he was sustained, Mr. Norquay was able to fill the place with two French-speaking members. This administration has held power since, though changes have been made in its membership which leaves Mr. Norquay the only member who has held a place in it from the first. Mr. Norquay has held several different portfolios at different times, but always retained the lead, being always the dominating power of the province. Under his rule Manitoba has grown from a straggling settlement along the Red River to a province of great size and marvellous industrial development. His vigorous and far-sighted policy in relation to railways has caused the extension of important lines to all parts of the province including the first forty miles of the Hudson’s Bay road which Manitobans fondly believe some day will give them access to their own sea coast on the “Mediterranean of America,” the vast inland ocean of Hudson’s Bay. Within the last few months the province has been in a ferment over the demand of a portion of the people for the building of a line from Winnipeg southward to connect at the American boundary with a branch of the Northern Pacific Railway. Mr. Norquay, true to his record, championed this course and sought, by every means in his power, to secure the construction of the road. The Dominion government, with the general policy of which Mr. Norquay is in accord, sought in every way to block this enterprise, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, whose monopoly was threatened, also opposed it. Notwithstanding Mr. Norquay’s utmost efforts, the opposition he met from all sides prevented the sale on fair terms of the provincial bonds, with the proceeds of which it was intended to construct the road. The original contractors withdrew, but another firm stood ready to assume the contract, on condition that a margin of cash was placed in the hands of responsible parties. The citizens of Winnipeg were appealed to for the necessary advance, and steps were taken to raise the money, but owing to the intrigues of a faction, who adopted this means to promote their own political ends, the negotiations were rendered abortive, and the construction of the road is postponed, at least until the summer of 1888. Mr. Norquay and Mr. Hamilton, attorney-general, were the only delegates from Manitoba to the Inter-Provincial conference, to whose deliberations he brought the results of his long experience and great ability. Owing mainly to complications arising out of the failure to build the railway within the season, it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to carry on the government as then constituted; Hon. Mr. Norquay and Hon. Mr. Lariviere therefore resigned their places in the administration, which has since been reorganized, with Hon. Mr. Harrison as Premier. Mr. Norquay announces himself as a supporter of the ministry thus constituted. The ex-Premier of Manitoba owes his long continuance in power to a combination of talents, prominent among which are moderation, boldness tempered with judgment, eloquence and the capacity for ceaseless work.
Brock, Rev. Isaac, M.A. (Oxford), D.D., Canon, of St. Luke’s Cathedral, Halifax; President of King’s College, Nova Scotia, was born near Winchester, Hants, England, in 1829. His father was the Rev. William Brock, M.A., rector of Bishops Waltham, Hants, and a native of the Isle of Guernsey; his mother belonged to the family of Gossett, and was a native of the adjoining Island of Jersey. The father of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock (the hero of Upper Canada), and father of our subject’s grandfather (Rev. Thomas Brock, M.A., rector of St. Pierre du Bois, Guernsey) were brothers, so that Sir Isaac Brock was first cousin to our subject’s grandfather. Canon Brock was educated at Clifton school, York, and Queen’s college, Oxford. He graduated, in 1851 with first class honors in mathematics. He was ordained in the diocese of Tuam, Ireland: deacon in 1852; priest in 1853; was missionary of the Irish Church Missions in Connemara and Galway, 1852-1858. He was secretary of the Islington Protestant Institute (London), 1858-1861; incumbent of the Jews’ Episcopal Chapel, Palestine place, Bethnal Green, 1861-1866; rector of the Chapel of Ease, Lower Holloway, London N., 1866-1868; principal of Huron College, London, Ontario, 1868-1872; rector of Galt, Ontario, 1872-1873; assistant rector of Sherbrooke, Quebec, 1873-1882; rector of Bishop’s College School, Lennoxville, 1882-1883; rector of Londonderry, N.S., 1883-1885. In August, 1885, our subject was appointed by the Board of Governors of King’s College, acting president of that institution and professor of divinity in the same. May 1st, 1886, he was installed as canon of St. Luke’s Cathedral, Halifax, N.S., by the late Bishop of Nova Scotia, the Right Rev. Hibbert Binney, D.D., and on the 8th of June of the same year was made president of King’s College, which position he now holds. Canon Brock is an intensely loyal Churchman, and ever ready to defend and propagate the principles of the English branch of the Holy Catholic church. He married, in Dublin in 1855, Ruby Roberta, eldest daughter of Thomas Crawford Butler, of Carlow, Ireland, and has issue living three sons and three daughters. Canon Brock is known in the theologico-literary world by a volume of sermons, published in England, on the Apostles’ Creed, and which attracted considerable attention. Since his arrival in Canada he has also published several detached sermons and addresses upon the following, amongst other, subjects, viz.:—“The English Reformation,” “The Two Records; or, Geology and Genesis,” “The Modern Doctrine of Force and Belief in a Personal God,” “Apostolical Succession,” “The Anglican Doctrine of Holy Baptism.” That Canon Brock possesses peculiar fitness for the position he now so worthily fills may readily be imagined, for, to profound scholarship he adds a ripe experience, gained by contact with a variety of classes of his fellow beings in many quarters of the British dominions. The University of King’s College, of which he is president, is the oldest university of British origin in the colonial empire of our Queen, being founded by the first Bishop of Nova Scotia, the Right Rev. Charles Inglis, D.D., in A.D. 1788, the year after the latter’s consecration to the episcopate. Canon Brock apparently has yet many years of usefulness before him, being full of vigor and gives promise of reaching a ripe old age.
Fournier, Hon. Telesphore, Ottawa, Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, was born in St. François, Riviére du Sud, Montmagny county, P.Q., in the year 1823. He received his education at Nicolet College, and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1846. He practised his profession with success, having remarkable gifts, not only as a speaker, but in the mental grasp necessary to understand the bearings of the law upon any case brought to his attention. He held the honorable position of Bâtonnier of the Quebec bar, an office which has been an object of ambition with some of the greatest men the province has produced, and afterwards was made president of the general council of the bar of the province of Quebec. In 1863 he was made Queen’s counsel. Judge Fournier, like so many of the politicians of Quebec, had the training, not only of a legal practice, but also of editorial experience. From 1856 to 1858 inclusive, he was one of the editors of Le National newspaper, of Quebec, his writing attracting wide attention, because of its clear, original thought and vigorous method. In 1857, Mr. Fournier was married, his bride being Miss Deniers, of Quebec. He entered the arena of Dominion politics in August, 1870, when he was nominated as the Liberal candidate for Bellechasse, on M. Casault, the sitting member, being appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. No other nominations were made, and Mr. Fournier was returned by acclamation. He continued to represent the same constituency as long as he remained in the House of Commons. Beginning his parliamentary career before dual representation was abolished, Mr. Fournier held a seat in the Legislative Assembly of his native province while still a member of the Dominion parliament. In 1871 he was elected to the Assembly for Montmagny, and held that position until 7th November, 1873, when he resigned. His resignation was made necessary by his being called to the Privy Council of the Dominion as a member of the Hon. Mr. Mackenzie’s cabinet. He took first, the portfolio of inland revenue, but on 8th July, 1874, was given a place of greater usefulness, to succeed the Hon. (now Sir) A. A. Dorion on the appointment of that gentleman to be chief justice of Quebec. As minister of justice, he introduced and conducted through Parliament the bill establishing the Supreme Court. This was no light task, for the measure was attacked, not only as being undesirable, but as being unconstitutional. In his defence of the measure, Mr. Fournier exhibited remarkable breadth of knowledge as well as great power as a debater. The Insolvent Act of 1875, one of the ablest efforts ever made to settle the vexed and complicated question of dealing with insolvent debtors, was also conducted through parliament by him. In May, 1875, he became postmaster general, but resigned that office in October following to take a judgeship in the Supreme Court. Judge Fournier is recognised by his colleagues and the public as one of the ablest men on the bench. His wide and accurate knowledge of the law of his native province, makes him a particularly valuable addition to the Supreme Court bench. He does not feel the trammels of legal traditions so much as to cause him to regard these rather than the ends of justice which they are intended to serve. At the same time, his fine legal insight enables him to decide upon broad grounds of principles or long-established practice points which minds less fully trained could only deal with by slavish following of precedent.
McHenry, Donald C., M.A., Principal of the Cobourg Collegiate Institute, Cobourg, Ont., was born in Napanee, Ont., in 1840. He is son of Alexander McHenry (from county Antrim, Ireland), and Ellen Campbell, daughter of Archibald Campbell, Adolphustown, county of Lennox, a descendant of the Campbells of Argyleshire. Mr. McHenry, senr., was for some years engaged in the timber business on the Ottawa, but subsequently he was in the dry-goods business in connection with his brother-in-law, Alexander Campbell, Napanee. He died in 1847, leaving a widow and three children, the eldest, the subject of this sketch; a daughter, now Mrs. Alexander Henry, Napanee, and Miss Nellie, still living with her mother in their native town. The father, about the time of his marriage, united with the Wesleyan Methodist church, of which he remained a faithful member until his death. Upon Mrs. McHenry devolved the arduous task of bringing up her three children; and any success they have attained, they are proud to say, they largely owe to their devoted Christian mother. D. C. McHenry received his early education in Napanee. When thirteen years of age he went to learn the printing business, soon became fairly acquainted with its details, and rose to the position of foreman in the office of the Standard. The printing office proved, indeed, a second school to him, and his spare hours were given to reading and study. He longed for a higher education, and when about nineteen years of age, he closed the door of the printing office to open that of the academy, as an eager student, under R. Phillips, head master, a man beloved by all who have ever been under his instruction. After remaining here a year or two, he was induced to undertake the management of a new paper started in Napanee by the McMullen Bros., of Picton. At the end of one year the paper was removed to Newburgh, seven miles distant, but after eight months Mr. McHenry returned to Napanee. A vacancy having occurred in the second position in the Grammar school, he was advised to apply for the appointment. He did so, and was soon an occupant of a teacher’s chair, in the school where he had lately been a pupil. The work of teaching proved congenial, and he was soon fixed in this as his probable life-work. His ambition led him to desire a university course, and with this in view he devoted himself assiduously to the study of classics, being aided in Latin, but getting up his Greek with very limited assistance. After six years of very successful work in this position, he resigned, in 1869, and left for Victoria College, from which he graduated in 1873. His course was one of close application and uniform success—first-class honours in classics and moderns—receiving the second Prince of Wales’ medal for general proficiency, and the scholarship for excellence in moderns. Five months prior to graduation he was offered, and accepted the classical mastership of Cobourg Collegiate Institute—a substitute being accepted in the meantime. After one year he was promoted to the principalship, which position he has filled for the past thirteen years. It was at this time (1874), that he was united in marriage to Alice, daughter of John Grange, of Napanee. His school was, for many years, about the only one that prepared students for Victoria, and notwithstanding the multiplication of institutes (from four to eighteen), it has held its own, and sent up for arts alone about two hundred and fifty during Mr. McHenry’s thirteen years, besides a large number for teachers’ examinations, for law, medicine, theology, etc. In regard to Mr. McHenry’s personal and professional qualities, we quote from testimonials of well-known educationists: —
(1.) Rev. Chancellor Nelles.—“He is an accurate scholar, a good disciplinarian, and a most successful teacher, and, indeed, has few if any equals in the general management of High school work.”