In 1873, Mr. Machin returned to Canada, and in 1874 he was appointed the first inspector of public offices of the province of Quebec. His executive and financial abilities soon pointed him out for preferment, and in October, 1874, he was elevated by the Quebec government to the still more important and responsible position of assistant treasurer of the province, which office he still holds. In his official capacity he has been connected with all the financial operations of the province since 1874, and in 1878 he was sent by the government to New York, where he materially assisted in the successful negotiation of the provincial loan for $3,000,000. He has been chiefly instrumental in bringing the organisation of the treasury department to its present state of efficiency. He has never taken a leading part in politics, but has had the confidence and respect of every administration, whether Conservative or Liberal, that has been in office since his appointment as a deputy minister of the Crown. As one of the founders of the Quebec and Levis Electric Light Company, of which he is a director, the city of Quebec is indebted to his enterprise and spirit for a vast improvement in street and interior lighting, the electric current being generated at the famed Falls of Montmorency, nine miles from the city. Mr. Machin is a member of the Church of England, is a Freemason, and has held a commission in the militia. In 1863, he married Lucy Anne, daughter of the late Hon. Edward Hale, of Sherbrooke, a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec, and grand-daughter of the late Hon. Chief Justice Bowen, of Quebec.
Martin, Joseph, LL.B., Advocate, Quebec, is one of the rising members of the Lower Canadian bar, and a young man of considerable note and influence in the politics of that province. He was born at Champlain, in the Three Rivers district, on the 1st May, 1855, his parents being Zephirin Martin and Sophie Vivier, both French Canadians. He was educated at the Christian Brothers’ Commercial School, Three Rivers, and the De La Salle Institute, Toronto, and studied law at the Montreal branch of the Laval University, where he took his degrees. Admitted to the bar of the province of Quebec, after a brilliant examination, on the 14th January, 1881, he practised law in Montreal till 1882, when he was appointed one of the secretaries to the commission named to revise and consolidate the statutes of the province, and took up his residence in Quebec. A Conservative in politics, he separated from the party represented by the Ottawa government on the question of the North-west rebellion, and the execution of its leader, and took a very active and prominent part in the Riel agitation and the formation of the National party in the province of Quebec, besides contributing in no slight degree by his exertions to the wave of popular opinion which carried the present premier of that province, Hon. H. Mercier, and his friends, into office at the general elections in October, 1886. In January, 1887, on the eve of the general elections for the Dominion, Mr. Martin resigned his position of secretary to the commission, on being chosen as the National-Conservative or Opposition candidate for the important county of Quebec, against the minister of militia, Sir A. P. Caron, and, although almost a complete stranger to the constituency, was only defeated by a very narrow majority. In religion, Mr. Martin has always been a Roman Catholic. On the 9th May, 1883, he married Olierie de Bondy, daughter of Dr. A. Douaire de Bondy, of Sorel, by whom he has had three children.
Mackay, William, M.D., M.P.P., Reserve Mines, C.B., was born on 11th Sep., 1847, at Earltown, in the county of Colchester, Nova Scotia. For a sketch of his parents, John Mackay and Dolina Mackay, see “Paterson’s History of the County of Pictou,” page 278. His father was one of the pioneer settlers in Earltown, and took a prominent and leading part in all the public affairs of the place from the time of settlement there until his death, in 1869. A granite monument from his native hills, Rogart, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, presented to the family by his Grace the Duke of Sutherland, was shortly afterwards erected to commemorate a life largely devoted to advancing the interests and ameliorating the wants of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in which he lived. His mother is still living and among the few who can recall the incidents relating to the early history, both of church and state in eastern Nova Scotia, her residence being often the temporary home of churchmen and statesmen. The subject of this sketch was educated at Truro, and graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, in 1873, and after graduating he practised medicine for one year with his brother, Dr. D. G. Mackay, at Little Glace Bay, Cape Breton. In May, 1874, he was appointed resident physician to the Loway, Emery, and Reserve collieries, in Cape Breton county, In 1879, Dr. D. G. Mackay removing from Little Glace Bay, he received the appointment (in addition to the former) of physician to the Little Glace Bay, Caledonia, and Ontario collieries, and in 1885, was appointed physician to the old Bridgeport mine, in addition to the above. The appointment to the Caledonia mine he has since resigned. He was instrumental in organizing and perfecting a system of quarantining of infectious and contagious diseases for the mining districts which worked so satisfactorily that the municipal council have caused it to apply to the whole county. He has been a member of the board of health of Cape Breton county for the last five years, and is also a member of the provincial medical board. He has been twice elected president of the Cape Breton Medical Society, and is now president of the Nova Scotia Medical Society; he is also a P.M. of Tyrian Youth Lodge, No. 45, R.N.S., A. F. & A. M., and a past high priest of Prince of Wales Chapter No. 10, R.A.M., of Nova Scotia. Dr. Mackay is a Liberal-Conservative in politics, and was elected to represent Cape Breton county in the local legislature of Nova Scotia at the election in June, 1886. A liberal government being in power, and it having been sustained at the election, Dr. Mackay was, at the first meeting of the newly elected legislature, honoured with the position of leader of the opposition. In religion, he is a consistent and honoured member of the Presbyterian church. He was married on November 10th, 1875, to Catherine Campbell Sutherland, youngest daughter of Gilbert Sutherland, of “the Falls,” Colchester county, N.S., by whom he has one son and two daughters.
Carson, Rev. W. Wellington, Pastor of the Dominion Methodist Church, Ottawa, Ontario, was born in the township of Osgoode, county of Carleton, Ontario, on the 7th of January, 1845. He is a son of Thos. and Maria Carson, who came to Canada from Ireland in the year 1833, and who were among the pioneer settlers in that now prosperous part of Ontario. The subject of this sketch attended the Ottawa Grammar School, and the academy in Iroquois, being assistant teacher in the latter previously to commencing a course of theological study. He was called to the ministry of the Methodist church in 1867, and was received into full connection and ordained by the late Rev. W. Morley Punshon, in 1871. After ordination he held the pastorate of the First Methodist Church, Hamilton; Brant Avenue Church, Brantford; the Woodstock Church, and Centenary Methodist Church, Hamilton. He was missionary treasurer of the London conference four years; examiner of ministerial candidates on apologetics and hermeneutics, and also held the office of chairman of district, 1884-5. He has travelled extensively over this continent, and over nearly half the world, including, of course, various parts of Europe, England, and France, all this being done with the view of enlarging his knowledge of mankind, and the religious institutions of other nations. His religions views may be known by his identification with the Methodist church, but his credal beliefs are wider than those of any denomination. His present charge is the Dominion Church, Ottawa, where he is exceedingly popular and, what is better, useful. His congregations are large, and the church prosperous. An intimate friend of the reverend gentleman writes as follows: “I have known Mr. Carson from the time of his commencing his theological studies, and his entrance on the work of the ministry. He is one of the most devoted and studious of the Methodist ministry, not confining himself to the literature of his own sect, but making himself master of most lines of modern thought. His firm and unwavering belief in the verities of Holy Scripture guards him against the reception of every wind of doctrine that blows from this or that point of the compass. In preaching, he is calm at the beginning, energetic as he proceeds, fervent and eloquent in his perorations. Hearing him frequently, it may be added that he is progressive, and capable of grasping the highest and best form of thought, distinct in annunciation, and clear in his modes of expressing his conclusions.”
Reed, Robert, St. John, New Brunswick, was born in the north of Ireland, on the 28th April, 1814. After a shipwreck on the Atlantic in 1820, he arrived with his parents at their original destination, St. John, New Brunswick, in June of the following year. In January, 1830, he became chief clerk in the shipping and steam-boat office of James Whitney, who was then entering upon that fuller development of steam communication on the Bay of Fundy and River St. John for which he afterwards became famous. In 1835 Mr. Reed joined his brother in general business, the partnership continuing until 1886, under the firm of J. and R. Reed. The fact of this name having now, after a successful and creditable career of half a century’s duration, passed from the arena of commercial life with an honorable record for the strictest business integrity, into a mere historical item, warrants more than a passing notice. Hence it may be said the affairs of this house were from the first of a progressive character, reaching to business relations with nearly every important sea-port in the several oceans and seas, and thus their operations as importers, as exporters, as manufacturers and as shipowners became at times among the largest of a New Brunswick character. And in order to show the business habits and precautionary financial arrangements of its members, it may be mentioned that throughout the many commercial panics and business convulsions which occurred during the long period of the firm’s existence, its financial engagements,whether at home or abroad, were in all cases duly met, free from protest. Mr. Reed having had no aspirations towards political distinction, holds no office or title in the gift of any government. His political record is embraced in the following. In 1856 he consented to be one on a ticket formed to run a provincial election in support of a prohibitory liquor law passed the previous session; but the whole party being defeated, a repeal of the law followed. This, and the acceptance, during a temporary residence in England the following year, of a government appointment in connection with the purchase of rails and bridge material for the European and North American Railway, then under construction, embrace his entire association with active political life. But as a private citizen he has ever been noted for a generous public spirit, willing to assist in any movement which he deemed for the interest of the city and province of his adoption. He has travelled much, coupled with observation, consequently his ideas, whether of a private or public character, have always kept pace with the progress of the age. He is president of the Owens Art Institution, of St. John, to the development of which, as a leading art educational establishment, he has, from its inception in 1884, devoted much of his personal attention. His latest effort for the general good is set forth in a prospectus for a first-class hotel, of large capacity, having in view making St. John “a grand central rendezvous and diverging centre” for summer tourists visiting the maritime provinces. For that purpose he proposes the utilization of his private residence, with other and prospective erections within a plot covering eight acres, situate on the summit of an eminence overlooking the city and its surroundings as far as the eye can reach. The scheme appears feasible, and got up with a due regard to existing facts bearing upon its financial success. Its consummation would undoubtedly be a benefit to St. John, and the province generally. Mr. Reed, though well advanced in years, is at this writing still full of energy, and bids fair to yet see many years of usefulness added to his already full and useful life.