Rousseau, Joseph Thomas, Artist, St. Hyacinthe, Province of Quebec, was born on the 9th of August, 1852, at St. Elzéard de la Beauce, P.Q. His father was Louis Rousseau, of the same place, a prominent merchant, who in later years devoted himself exclusively to agricultural pursuits. His mother’s maiden name was Luce Huard. He was educated at St. Elzéard, and also had private tuition. Having at an early age shown a decided talent for painting and drawing, his parents, knowing well the obstacles to be overcome and encountered, endeavored to dissuade him from adopting art as a profession. However, the germs of an artistic career were too strong to be lightly overcome. He went to Montreal, and there studied for three years under M. Ravau, after which he commenced church decoration, to which he devoted himself with great success for the space of five years. His great desire for improvement, and a dim sense of latent undeveloped power, induced him to go to Florence, Italy, to study the old masters and rare works of art to be found there. While thus engaged he took private lessons from the celebrated Professor Ciceri, commandant of the Artists’ Society, Florence, which art school he also attended, and passed successfully the examination imposed upon all those who are desirous of entering. After two years’ close application to his profession, he returned to Canada, and painted those many historical religious subjects which have made him famous throughout this continent. His celebrated oil painting of “Christ being Carried to the Tomb” was sold to St. Louis church, Nashua, N.H., for the handsome sum of $1,000. The paintings and decorations in the chapel of the Convent of the Precious Blood, at St. Hyacinthe, are masterpieces of art, and there is nothing in Canada or the United States to compare with it. The following is a list of some of Rousseau’s most celebrated pictures:—“The Dying Christ,” “Crucifixion,” “Mater Dolorosa,” “The Flight into Egypt,” “Adoration of the Magi,” “The Trinity in Three Figures at the very moment of the Annunciation,” “Christ Falling under the Weight of the Cross,” “Christ Giving the Keys to Peter,” “The Triumph of the Church,” a very large composition, containing more than sixty personages. In religion Mr. Rousseau is an earnest Roman Catholic, and in politics a staunch Conservative. He was married on May 2nd, 1875, to Hermine Gendron, daughter of Jacques Gendron, merchant, of St. Rosalie, by whom he has five children. Comparatively a young man, and judging by what he has already accomplished, it is safe to prophesy a still more brilliant future, and an immortal artistic fame.
Hale, Hon. Edward.—The Hon. Edward Hale, second son of the Hon. John Hale, of Quebec (formerly of “Plantation,” Yorkshire, England), a descendant of the Hales of Codicote and King’s Walden, in Hertfordshire, England, and Elizabeth Frances, daughter of Gen. William Amherst, A.D.C. to the King, lieut.-governor of Portsmouth, governor of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and adjutant-general of his Majesty’s forces, was born in Quebec, on the 6th December, 1801. His father had been A.D.C. and private secretary to his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, who stood sponsor to the subject of this sketch. He was educated at Kensington, England. Returning to his father’s home in Quebec, he entered the office of the committee of audit as secretary, which post he held for three years, until, in the winter of 1823, he received the appointment of private secretary to his uncle, Earl Amherst, governor-general of India, and, accompanied by his father, set out at once on sledges for Boston, U.S.A., whence he sailed with Captain Heard, in the good ship Bengal, for Calcutta. During his stay in India he acted for a time as military secretary, and accompanied the governor-general in his expeditions through the different provinces of India, visiting, among others, the king of Oude, the Rajah of Benares, the king of Delhi and some of the young princes who afterwards took such a conspicuous part in the Indian mutiny. A few remarks from Mr. Hale’s diary of that date may not be out of place here:
October 16th, 1816.—Having breakfasted, we prepared to hold a native durbar in the house of the Rajah of Benares, which had been placed at the governor’s disposal, and native gentlemen began to collect in the compound. Long before the appointed hour we were turned out of the billiard room, to make place for some princes of the Delhi family, who had arrived much before their time, but could not be allowed to remain outside. At eleven o’clock Lord Amherst took his seat on the throne, surrounded by his suite, while Lady Amherst and the other ladies were spectators in another room. The first was a private audience granted to the princes above mentioned, who were ushered in, and were met by his lordship at the door, who embraced them all, and they then sat down. The princes were a most wild-looking set of fellows, dressed principally in fur, and had all a cast of countenance that seemed to bespeak their readiness for any sort of desperate enterprise. They were, with one or two exceptions, nearly of the same age, being the sons of different Begums, and he who sat first on the right was a much younger man than some of the others, but the son of the eldest Begum. They requested leave to make their salaam to Lady Amherst, and having done so, took their leave. The other members of the same family then followed and took their leave; when notice was sent to the Rajah of Benares, Oodut Narrain, that he might now come. He had been waiting in his tonjon at the gate of the compound for an hour before. His procession accordingly entered, commencing with flag-bearers, then camels, elephants, a native band, empty tonjons and palanquins, tribes of sotaburdars, punkaburdars, assaiburdars, burchyburdars, and all sorts of burdahs, when the tonjon bearing the mighty man himself followed, and was accompanied by numbers of horsemen, who galloped about in all directions, going through an indiscriminate sham fight. The procession passed along the back of the house, round it to the front, and the “mighty” was ushered in, a visitor in his own house. He was so immensely fat that he could with difficulty walk, and he waddled into the room, occupying a space of at least two yards. He salaamed low, very low, much lower than I thought he could, and Lord Amherst, advancing three paces, embraced him, when he sat down in a chair which was purposely meant for him, but the exertion of coming up stairs and salaaming had deprived him of the necessary breath for talking, and he was obliged to remain mute for a short time. He was most splendidly ornamented with jewels, his turband was surmounted by a coronet of diamonds, with large emerald drops; his necklace was composed of immense diamonds, and his arms and various other parts were profusely covered with precious stones. Having offered his nuzzur to Lady Amherst he also retired, and his lordship then went down stairs to hold the public durbar.
In 1828, Lord Amherst’s administration being ended, Mr. Hale returned to England with the governor-general and his family, and after visiting Italy, Switzerland and France, sailed once more for Quebec, where, in 1831, he married Eliza Cecilia, daughter of the Hon. Chief Justice Bowen. Chief Justice Bowen was born in Kinsale, Ireland, in 1780. He was one of three brothers, the eldest of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel Bowen, C.B., Madras army, was killed at Seringapatam; and the youngest, while captain in the Royal Navy, won no little distinction for gallant conduct in H.M.’s frigate Apollo. The Bowens are descended from an old Welsh family, the name being originally Ap Owen. Mr. Bowen’s father, M.D. and surgeon in H.M.’s forces, died in the West Indies, whither he had gone with his regiment. His mother was the beautiful Isabella Cassan, daughter of Richard Sheffield Cassan, and grand-daughter of Alexander Hamilton, M.P., of Knock, county Dublin. In 1833, Mr. Hale moved to Sherbrooke, and there built for himself a homestead, now known as “Sleepy Hollow,” to which, to his dying day, he was much attached. He was a member of the Special Council for Lower Canada in 1839, and represented the county of Sherbrooke in the Legislative Assembly from 1841 to 1847; and, besides many other public offices, from 1866 to 1875 he held that of chancellor of Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, an institution for which he had a sincere affection, and which owes much of its present prosperity to his energy and good management. In 1867, he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council for the province of Quebec, which position he held for the remainder of his life. At the meeting of the Legislative Council (next following his death) November, 1875, the Hon. Messrs. De Boucherville, Ferrier and Fraser offered many tributes of respect to the memory of their venerable colleague, and Mr. Fraser, addressing the House in French, said:
Mr. Hale was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada in 1839 and 1840, and, as such, assisted in conferring important benefits on this province, such as the law which granted the seigniory of St. Sulpice to the seminary of that name, at Montreal, the acts or ordinances of registration, turnpike roads, and other measures, which powerfully contributed to the development of the country. His grandfathers were officers of high rank in General Wolfe’s army, and distinguished themselves in the important events of those times. On his father’s side his ancestors were persons of distinction in old England, and his mother was a sister of Earl Amherst, whose ancestors were followers of William the Conqueror, and one of whose descendants, Hamo de Herst, in the reign of Edward III. (1339), held large estates in the county of Kent, which the present Lord Amherst still holds. I feel it a most pleasing duty to recall to your memories his agreeable manners—those of the perfect gentleman—which were natural to him. He was open, frank and honest, never hiding his thoughts or opinions, but always expressing them in language at once courteous and elevated. He was as cheerful as he was amiable, his conversation was most attractive, his powers of narration were great, and his mind was filled with interesting and original anecdotes, at once lively and entertaining, which rendered him a most agreeable and much desired companion.
At a meeting of the Synod in Quebec, of which he had been a delegate for many years, his lordship Bishop Williams, made the following remarks in alluding to his death:
My reverend brethren and brethren of the laity.—Before proceeding to read, in accordance with our custom, the summary statement which I have prepared of the ecclesiastical events of the diocese, I must advert, however briefly, to a matter belonging to the history of the Synod itself. Since last we met, one who from the Synod’s first creation has been an honored member of the same, has been taken from us. The death of the Hon. Edward Hale caused us a loss not easily repaired. During the whole time of my residence in this country he has been my valued friend, but for a record of his fine qualities we need not go to the reminiscence of a friend. He carried it with him wherever he went. His prompt and punctual attention to all public duties, the kindness of his heart, and the courtesy of his demeanor are known to all. His genial presence we shall see no more, his peace-loving spirit will, I trust, remain with us for ever.
Mr. Hale died April 26th, 1875, at Quebec, whither he had gone to attend to his parliamentary duties, and was buried at Sherbrooke. Mrs. Hale died at Boston, United States, in 1850. She was the mother of seven children, of whom six are now living. The eldest son, Edward John, at Quebec, at the old house which has been the home of four generations of Hales. The second son, Edward Chaloner, at “Chaloner,” near Lennoxville; and the youngest, William Amherst, at the old homestead, “Sleepy Hollow,” near Sherbrooke. Two of the daughters live in Sherbrooke, and the third is the wife of Henry Turnour Machin, assistant treasurer of the province of Quebec. During a residence of upwards of forty years in the Eastern Townships, Mr. Hale aided materially, and watched with interest, the growth of Sherbrooke from an obscure hamlet of a few straggling houses to the large and prosperous town it now is. When the rebellion of 1837 and 1838 broke out, he joined the volunteers, refused a commission, and, for the sake of example, served in the ranks. Although a Conservative in politics, Mr. Hale placed individual merit far above party, creed, or class, and by his impartiality and just judgment, living above suspicion or reproach, he won the respect and esteem of all who knew him, and of him might truly be said, as he so often said of others, “the rank is but the guinea’s stamp, the man’s the gowd for a’ that.” But it was to his children and intimate friends that his noble Christian life was best known. Possessed of charity in the widest sense of the word, full of love and compassion for those in trouble or distress, ever ready to help the poor and needy, his active sympathy and generosity made him beloved and revered by all classes. The example of his pure, unselfish life is not forgotten, and he still lives in the hearts of those who loved him.