The authority of Dr. Wolfred Nelson must be accepted as conclusive evidence respecting the personal courage of Cartier, who, it would seem, acted in the capacity of aide-de-camp to the valiant doctor. Cartier, at this battle, was in the twenty-third year of his age. It was also charged against him by some of his political opponents, that for his participation in the events of 1837, a reward was offered for his head. The present writer has not been able to verify this fact. The name of Cartier does not appear in the lists of those for whose apprehension the governor proclaimed rewards. Some time after the fight at St. Denis, Cartier took refuge in the United States. Although he was unnamed in the proclamations, his course of action was well known to the government. He would have been arrested at the time if it had been possible, and his fate would probably have been like that of his commander at St. Denis—banishment. He returned secretly from the United States to Canada, and remained in hiding for a time. His seclusion, however, was not of very long duration. An intimation from the authorities assured him that on presenting himself in public he would not be arrested. The promise was faithfully kept. The result of Mr. Cartier’s participation in the rebellion of 1837 was that for nearly ten years after its close he took no active part in public life. In 1848, yielding to the pressure of his friends, he was returned to parliament as the representative of his native county of Verchères. He could not have made his entry into public life at a more favorable moment for a man of the liberal tendencies which then dominated him. The governor-general was the Earl of Elgin, the greatest man, with the exception of the Earl of Durham, ever commissioned by the British government to perform the functions of viceroy of Canada. The Lafontaine-Baldwin cabinet, never before or since excelled for ability and administrative talent, swayed the political destinies of the province. A seat in the House of Assembly, for two sessions, in the time of Baldwin and Lafontaine, was in itself a political education. Cartier was an apt learner. In the session of 1850 he showed how well he understood the needs of his native province. In that year Lafontaine proposed, in the House of Assembly, a series of resolutions for the abolition of the Seignorial Tenure. Like every other abuse which has the plea of age for its defence, the Seignorial system found determined advocates. But its opponents were not only more numerous, but had an infinitely better cause. Some great debates arose on this subject, for it was one that went home to the whole body of the French Canadian peasantry. It appealed, also, to the dearest interests of the seigneurs. Cartier was one of those who offered strong opposition to the tenure. As the representative of a purely agricultural county he could take no other course, but the position he assumed was in accordance with his convictions. In his place in the house he boldly stated that that portion of the province which had been settled under the Seignorial Tenure had not made as much progress as the part which had been settled under the Free Tenure. He contended that it was as much the advantage of the seigneur as of the tenant to abolish the Feudal System; and that the proper time for so doing had presented itself. The general opinion of the house was that the session was too far advanced to deal effectively with the question. It was also considered that the seigneurs had not had time enough afforded them to plead their cause. The Hon. Robert Baldwin and Mr. Cartier were in favor of settling the Seignorial question at once, and would have prolonged the session for that purpose; but Mr. Lafontaine refused to consent. He considered that the legal remedies proposed would not lead to a definite settlement of the problem. He had no desire to reform and perpetuate the Tenure; he wished to sweep it out of existence. The Tenure was abolished in the year 1854, by the Hincks-Morin administration. Those two leaders having retired in 1855, Sir Edmund Head, then governor-general, called upon Sir Allan MacNab to form a Cabinet. Sir Allan allied himself with Colonel E. P. Taché; and the latter on the 27th of January, 1855, selected Mr. Cartier as provincial secretary. He was not eager for office. Under the previous administration he had refused the position of commissioner of public works. The Legislature, in 1856, devoted a great deal of attention to the subject of public education. Mr. Cartier entered heartily into the question. He had the principal share in preparing two measures which were adopted by the house. The one provided for the establishment of a Council of Public Instruction for Lower Canada, and for allowing school municipalities to levy their own quotas. The other authorized the establishment of Normal schools in Lower Canada, and erected a permanent fund of $88,000, to be devoted to superior education in that province. Part of this money was made up out of the revenues of the Jesuits’ estates; $20,000 of it came from the Consolidated Fund. A sum of $20,000 was at the same time voted for the purposes of superior education in Upper Canada. The opposition endeavored to alter these two measures. It was contended that the distribution of $88,000 by the superintendent of education, under an Order in Council, would be placing means of corruption in the hands of the government. It was further contended that it was unconstitutional to deprive the House of Assembly of the right to vote, annually, the public moneys. The arguments of the opposition were sound, but were urged in vain, and the government measures were carried. The MacNab-Taché administration, in 1856, fell to pieces. There was weakness within its membership. There was, in addition, the disturbing question of the settlement of the seat of government. The house, at the end of a long and exciting debate, resolved that, after the year 1859, the city of Quebec should be the permanent capital of Canada. A considerable number of the representatives of Upper Canada were discontented with this arrangement. They considered that Quebec was too far removed from the centre of the province. The government, in accordance with the resolution of the house, placed in the estimates the sum of $200,000 for the erection of public buildings. The Hon. Luther Hamilton Holton proposed the following amendment:—“That the conduct of the administration on the subject of the question of the seat of government, and on other questions of public importance, has disappointed the just expectation of the great majority of the people of this province.” The discussion which followed lasted some days. The amendment of Mr. Holton was defeated by a majority of twenty-three. But, among the forty-seven yeas, were thirty-three members from Upper Canada; while, from that province, twenty-seven only voted with the ministry. The vote was followed by the resignation of two members of the government, Messrs. Spence and Morrison. These gentlemen belonged to the Upper Canada section of the ministry. The Hon. John A. Macdonald was the next to secede. He was of opinion that the vote on the question of the capital had weakened the government, and as there was no security that the same votes would not be repeated he thought it best to remain no longer in the Cabinet. The Hon. Mr. Cayley, also from Upper Canada, followed the footsteps of Mr. Macdonald. Sir Allan MacNab was reluctantly forced to resign. The governor-general requested Colonel Taché to form a new administration. He chose for his colleague the Hon. John A. Macdonald, in the stead of Sir Allan MacNab. The new ministry was virtually a continuation of the old one, with two exceptions: Mr. Vankoughnet replaced Sir Allan MacNab in the Upper Canada section; Mr. Terril replaced Mr. Drummond in the Lower Canada section. Mr. Cartier, in passing from one ministry to the other changed his portfolio. He became attorney-general for Lower Canada, in the place of Mr. Drummond. His new office was no sinecure. The session which opened on the 26th of February, 1857, was signalized by a ministerial project which was of far-reaching importance to Lower Canada. This was the codification of the Civil Laws, and of the Laws of Procedure. The measure was the work of Attorney-General Cartier. He expended on it great industry; he made it a labor of love. As he himself observed, the necessity of codification made itself felt the more because the province was settled by people of different races. The knowledge which everyone should possess of the laws of his country could only be attained by codification. The sources whence those laws were derived were so varied that an acquaintance with them demanded great research. Part of the civil laws of Lower Canada had been borrowed from the Roman law; part from a body of jurisprudence known as the Custom of Paris; part was found in the Edicts and Ordonnances, and in the Provincial Statutes. The time was ripe for this great and beneficent work. The peasantry of Lower Canada had been emancipated from the control of the seigneurs. The land laws which had ruled them had been swept away, and an improved system of jurisprudence, suited to the new state of things, was demanded. Mr. Cartier was determined to satisfy this demand. But there were those in parliament who wished to proceed farther than he then wanted to go. The Hon. Mr. Drummond, attorney-general in the late administration, and an able jurist, was of opinion that the laws of both provinces should be assimilated, so that there might be but one code for Canada. The reply of Attorney-General Cartier was to the effect that it was necessary to begin first with the codification, of those laws which Lower Canada imperatively demanded. After this, it would be time to think about accomplishing what was proposed. The measure passed through the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council without opposition. The commissioners appointed by the government to codify the laws began their labors in 1859, and finished them in 1864. Some readers of this sketch will remember the occasion on which, in the Legislative Assembly in the city of Quebec, Attorney-General Cartier rose to move the resolution which would make the Civil Code the law of the land. He addressed the house in French, and with more seriousness and deliberation than marked his ordinary utterances. He spoke with the feeling of a man who is conscious that he is placing the crowning stone on an edifice which has cost him years of labor and anxiety to build. As he finished with the words, “I desire no better epitaph than this—‘He accomplished the Civil Code,’” the house did honour to itself and to him by a hearty burst of applause. The eastern townships of Lower Canada are peopled mainly by an English-speaking population. But the French Canadians, in course of time, found their way into these districts. The result was, that there were two systems of civil law. To remedy this evil, Mr. Cartier prepared and carried through parliament a measure which introduced the French Civil laws into the eastern townships, and rendered uniform the holding of lands. Another most important measure which he succeeded in passing during the session of 1857 was an Act for the Decentralization of Justice. Its object was to cheapen justice, and to render it more easily attainable. “The administration of justice in criminal cases, and in all civil matter where the amount involved was over fifty pounds, was confined to seven places: Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, St. Francis, Aylmer, Sherbrooke and Gaspé, in a country exceeding seven hundred or eight hundred miles in length.” The act divided Lower Canada into nineteen judicial districts, adding twelve to those already mentioned. It provided for the erection of courts of justice and prisons in the new districts, increased the number of the judges of the Superior Court to eighteen, and the number of the judges of the Court of Appeal to five. The act provided that there should be four terms of the Court of Appeal in Quebec, and made other regulations respecting procedure and the salaries of the judges. The care and labor which this statute imposed on Mr. Cartier, in originating it, in passing it through the house, and in devising the multifarious machinery necessary to put it into successful operation, were enough to have overcome a man of less mental and physical energy. The majority of the people of Lower Canada welcomed the Act with open arms, and it endeared its author to his French Canadian fellow-countrymen. The parliament of 1857 had not been long in session when the question of the permanent seat of government again came to the front. In the previous session, as we have seen, the Assembly had decided that Quebec should be the capital and had authorized the expenditure of $200,000 for the erection of necessary buildings. But the Legislative Council had refused its assent to the supplies. The question, therefore, in 1857, was practically undecided: and so thought a great many of the members. The ministry decided to overlook the Assembly’s vote last session in favor of Quebec; and resolved to leave the question of the permanent seat of government to the decision of the Queen. The ministry further proposed that a vote of $900,000 should be taken for the erection of new parliamentary and departmental buildings. Attorney-General Cartier was of opinion that many of the members could not have been serious in voting in favor of Quebec; his reason being that they had voted immediately afterwards against the expenditure of the $200,000. Besides, the Legislative Council had refused assent to the supplies. The government would not act unless the two branches of the legislature were in agreement; but it was impossible to have the consent of the Council. The better plan, therefore, in his opinion, was to leave to her Majesty the selection of the future capital of Canada. This proposition was opposed by many members from the lower province. Mr. J. E. Thibaudeau moved an amendment to the effect that it was not expedient to take into consideration the question of the seat of government, because it had been decided the previous session. He contended that the rejection of the supplies by the Legislative Council was not a sufficient ground for annulling the decision of the Legislative Assembly, the more especially as many councillors from Lower Canada were absent when the vote was taken. The amendment was lost. The same fate befell a motion to make Montreal the seat of government. The result was that an address to the Queen, praying her to select the capital, was carried by a majority of nine. Her Majesty selected Ottawa as the seat of government. On the 25th of November, 1857, Colonel Taché the nominal head of the administration, resigned office, and the Hon. John A. Macdonald was called upon to form a new government. He made no change in the Upper Canada section of the cabinet. At his request, Mr. Cartier proceeded to select the ministers for Lower Canada. His object was to combine the two political parties in his native province. Two moderate Liberals, Messrs. Belleau and Sicotte, accepted office under Mr. Cartier. The offer of a portfolio to the Hon. A. A. Dorion was, with the consent of Mr. Cartier, made through Mr. Sicotte. But Mr. Dorion refused the inducement, and remained true to his political allegiance. The Macdonald-Cartier administration was formed on the 26th of November, 1857. Mr. Cartier was the only Lower Canadian minister who belonged to the old cabinet. His colleagues from that province were all new men. On the 28th of July, 1858, Mr. Piché moved an amendment: “That, in the opinion of this chamber, the city of Ottawa ought not to be the seat of the government of this province.” The amendment was carried by a majority of six. The ministry, on account of this vote, tendered their resignation next day, the 29th of July. Sir Edmund Head requested Mr. George Brown to form an administration. This gentleman, as the leader of the Opposition, had for years waged a resolute battle against the party represented by the defeated ministry. Following constitutional precedents, it was the duty of the governor-general to ask Mr. Brown to form a cabinet. It was also his duty to smooth the way for the accomplishment of the object he wished Mr. Brown to accomplish. But the governor, instead of removing obstacles from Mr. Brown’s path, was the first to place them in that gentleman’s way. He would not give to Mr. Brown the promise of a dissolution, but he would consent to a prorogation, if one or two measures were passed, and if a vote of credit were taken for the supplies. Mr. Brown was thus over-weighted from the very beginning. Still, with that political courage which had always characterized him, he undertook the formation of a cabinet. He chose as his colleague, and as leader of the Lower Canada section of the government, the Hon. A. A. Dorion, a gentleman with an untarnished political record. On the 2nd of August, 1858, Mr. Brown had completed his task, and the cabinet took the oath of office. The existence of this administration was brief, in fact the shortest known to our history, it having existed for only two days when it resigned, being defeated on a motion of want of confidence. The governor-general having in vain requested Mr. Galt to form a cabinet, Mr. Cartier became the head of a new Administration. He chose the Hon. John A. Macdonald as the leader of the Upper Canada section. The government was completed on the 6th of August. Then followed what is known as the “Double-Shuffle.” By the Independence of Parliament Act of 1857, it was provided that if a cabinet minister in either house should resign his office, and within a month afterwards accept another, he should not go back to his constituents. Some of the members of the Macdonald-Cartier government, who had entered the Cartier-Macdonald government, took advantage of this law in order to avoid the ordeal of re-election. They accepted, on the 6th of August, in the Cartier-Macdonald cabinet, offices different from those they had held in the Macdonald-Cartier cabinet. But on the 7th of August they discarded their portfolios of the 6th, and resumed those which they had held in the Macdonald-Cartier administration when it resigned on the 29th of July. Mr. Cartier, when he resigned, on the 29th of July, was attorney-general for Lower Canada. On the 6th of August he became inspector-general. On the 7th of August he resumed the office of attorney-general. This constituted the “Double Shuffle.” The action cannot be defended, and he never attempted to defend it. The ministry seemed to be ashamed of the part they had played. Many of their own supporters blamed them. The political conscience of the country seemed to have become sensitive, when it fully realized the extent of the wrong which had been done to constitutional and parliamentary government. The ministry were forced, by public opinion, to repeal the Independence of Parliament Act, under which they had accomplished the “Double-Shuffle.” The Cartier-Macdonald administration, after it had been formed, announced that it would give serious attention to the question of a Federal Union of the Provinces of North America. They further promised that they would approach the imperial authorities on the subject, and also enter into communication with the governments of the Maritime provinces. After the session of 1858, Messrs. Cartier, Galt and Ross visited England in the interest of a Federal Union. To communications from the colonial secretary on the subject of union, the government of the Maritime provinces answered by requesting time for the consideration of the project. The result was that no action was at that time taken. The Cartier-Macdonald government proceeded no farther in the direction of union. On this visit to England, Attorney-General Cartier was, for three days, the guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle. Parliament was opened, in Toronto, in the month of January, 1859. The question of the seat of government again came to the front. The ministry stated that they were obliged to uphold the Queen’s decision in favor of Ottawa. Mr. Sicotte, who had left the cabinet on this question, proposed an amendment to the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne. He had seceded because he held that, after the vote of the Legislative Assembly at its last session, the government could not abide by the decision of the Queen without violating the principle that the majority should rule. The amendment he now proposed was to the effect that the principles of the Constitution required that the opinion of the majority should be respected; and that, in declaring, during the preceding session, that Ottawa should not be the capital, the house had expressed its views in conformity with the ordinary and constitutional exercise of its privileges. Mr. Langevin seconded the amendment. He was of opinion that Attorney-General Cartier could not make any one believe that Ottawa was the most convenient place for the seat of government. The capital ought not to be fixed before the question of Confederation was decided. Mr. Cartier argued that the conduct of the cabinet in this matter was constitutional. The simple declaration, by the house, that Ottawa ought not to be the capital, did not suffice to set aside the Queen’s decision, and bind the ministry to take account of it. The choice of Ottawa was a good one, because the immediate pressure of public opinion would make itself less felt there than elsewhere. The French-Canadians would find, in Ottawa, a population in part Catholic, and having the same institutions. The result of the debate was a government majority of only five. The Upper Canada Opposition contributed to the victory so narrowly won. Ottawa, sorely pressed, snatched the capital from the other competitors. The session of 1859 was marked by another advantage secured by Mr. Cartier for his native province. This was an Act to amend the Seignorial Act of 1854. The object of his measure was the complete redemption of the Seignorial rights, with one exception. It was stated that the funds provided by the Seignorial Act of 1854 had proved insufficient for the redemption of certain feudal obligations still pressing upon the habitants. For this purpose a new appropriation of between $1,600,000 and $2,000,000 was demanded by Mr. Cartier. With the exception of one member, Mr. Somerville, all the Lower Canada representatives supported this measure. But the Upper Canada Liberals, led by the Hon. George Brown, assailed the proposal with the utmost vigor. They proclaimed that it was nothing more than an attempt to rob Upper Canada. They opposed it in the press, and combated it with unflinching courage on the floor of the house. But in vain: the Lower Canada phalanx voted down all attempts to amend the measure, and with them voted their Upper Canada allies. The end was, that the law was carried by 66 to 28. The session of 1861 was marked by a long and vehement debate on the question of Representation by Population. It was opened by Mr. Ferguson proposing an amendment to the Address. The amendment declared the regret of the house that the governor-general had not been advised to allude to the recent census of the people, which census the house could not but regard as preliminary to legislation upon the great question of Parliamentary Reform, based upon the numbers and wealth of the people, etc. The amendment was voted down by 72 to 38. The Lower Canada phalanx and its Upper Canada allies were again victorious. Mr. Ferguson then proposed a measure in modification of the existing system of representation. The new project was to give to a county of at least 15,000 inhabitants one representative; to a county of 20,000, two representatives. Mr. Cartier, in a strong and uncompromising speech, announced his unalterable opposition to what he styled the unjust pretensions of Upper Canada. He maintained that the upper province had no right under the Union Act, to claim a larger representation than Lower Canada. The union had been consummated with the understanding that the equality of the representation would be maintained. He concluded in protesting that he would never sacrifice the rights of Lower Canada. The government of which he was first minister would not yield Representation by Population, in spite of the efforts of the members from Upper Canada who advocated that measure. It must be admitted that, on this particular question, Mr. Cartier shows to great disadvantage. The lawyer and the sectionalist are seen everywhere: the statesman and the Canadian nowhere. Because the Union Act was silent on the subject of representation, the great upper province must chafe under a galling injustice. Containing 285,000 people more than Lower Canada, this vast number was to remain without a voice to make known their wishes in the councils of the country. In this instance, Mr. Cartier showed himself devoid of that rare element, political equity: the element that distinguishes the statesman from the politician. After a discussion prolonged through several days, the measure of Mr. Ferguson was defeated by a majority of 18. For the motion 49; against it, 67. Upper Canada had 49 representatives who voted for the motion, and a dozen who voted against it. If Mr. Cartier had been a man of ordinary political prescience on this question he would have foreseen, from this vote, that Upper Canada was determined to have her claims satisfied, and that it would not be possible much longer to refuse them. The parliament was prorogued on the 18th of May, 1861. On the 16th of June following, it was dissolved by proclamation. In the general election which followed, Mr. Cartier defeated Mr. Dorion in Montreal East. The seventh parliament of the province of Canada was opened on the 20th of March, 1862. In the debate on the Address, the burning question of Representation by Population again came up. The Hon. William Macdougall, one of its most able and ardent supporters, moved an amendment to the Address. It set forth that, by the recent census, the population of Upper Canada exceeded that of Lower Canada, in February, 1861, by no fewer than 285,427 souls. The amendment expressed the regret of the house that the governor-general had not been advised to recommend some measure for securing to this large population in Upper Canada their rightful share of the parliamentary representation, and their just influence in the government. The Hon. John Hillyard Cameron, though Conservative as he was, raised his eloquent voice in favor of the claims of Upper Canada. But facts, reasoning, justice, pleaded in vain. The Lower Canada majority, to a man, voted down Mr. Macdougall’s proposition; but he was supported by forty-two of the representatives of Upper Canada. Mr. Cartier, this session, failed again to see that the headlong voting of his followers was paralyzing the constitution which, in their common political blindness, they fancied they were perpetuating. But the day of his supremacy was drawing to a close. His colleague, the Hon. John A. Macdonald, brought forward a measure intended to increase the efficiency of the militia. It was based on the suggestions of a special commission, amongst whose members were Mr. Cartier and Mr. Macdonald. The commissioners recommended that an active force of 50,000 men should submit to a drill extending over twenty-eight days in each year; and that a reserve of an equal number should be embodied. The opposition at once began to question the ministry. The Hon. Mr. Galt, the minister of finance, informed them that he would ask for $850,000 to set the new scheme in operation. After this outlay, the annual expenditure would be about $500,000. The French Canadian constituencies took the alarm. They dreaded a conscription which would every year take away so many thousands of needed workers from their homes and farms. They raised their voices against the enormous increase of the provincial liabilities which this new scheme would necessitate. Some of the friends of the government sought in vain to induce them to modify the measure. They defied a vote. On the second reading the vote was taken. The government was beaten by 61 to 54. Mr. Macdonald was supported by a majority of seven votes from Upper Canada; but Mr. Cartier was left in a minority of thirteen. His political power was shattered. On the 21st of May, 1862, he tendered his resignation. The Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald, at the invitation of Lord Monck, succeeded in forming a cabinet. How it was compelled to resign, and how successive cabinets were subjected to a similar ordeal; how the scheme of Confederation was matured, as the only way out of the dead-lock, it will be the province of other sketches to detail. At present, our concern is with Mr. Cartier alone. To those who can remember the political events of 1863 and 1865, it is needless to say that Mr. Cartier succeeded in forcing the scheme of Confederation on Lower Canada. He had managed to array on his side, amongst other influences, those of the Roman Catholic church. Against a scheme thus supported the efforts of the Liberals were directed in vain. The cry of Confederation swept Lower Canada like a hurricane. Under the new system of Confederation, Mr. Cartier was, on the 18th of July, 1867, appointed minister of defence for the Dominion. In August, 1868, he was created a baronet of the United Kingdom. He represented Montreal East in the Quebec Legislature from the union until the general election of 1871, when he was chosen as member for Beauharnois. He remained in the local parliament until the abolition of dual representation. To his credit be it said that the majority of the British population of Lower Canada looked up to him, when he was a member of the Quebec Assembly, as their special champion. This they did, to the setting aside of the timid and trimming representatives of their own nationality. It must be admitted that, from the era of Confederation, the political stature of Sir George Cartier began to grow less. Larger interests than those of Lower Canada usurped the public attention. His province had no grievances to bring into the Confederation. He was still her foremost man, but she needed him no longer as her champion. In the general election of 1872 he suffered the mortification of defeat in Montreal East. He sought political shelter in the distant Manitoba county of Provencher, a region wherein he had never set foot. He was in England when, in 1873, the Pacific Scandal burst, like a thunderclap, upon the people of Canada. That Sir George was deeply implicated in the degrading bargain was only too clear. He died in England, on the 20th of May, 1873. On the 13th of June following, his remains were accorded, in Montreal, the honor of a public funeral. Men of all ranks and nationalities made up the multitudes who escorted his remains to their last resting-place, in the cemetery on the Montreal mountain.
| [4] | It is but justice, however, to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada to say that, on more than one occasion, in those times of political tumult, the refusal of that body to yield to the Legislative Assembly was the means of preserving the interests of the British minority from being sacrificed. |
| [5] | The italics and small capitals are in the original. |
| [6] | The tuque bleu is the blue woollen night-cap, the distinctive national head-dress of the habitants. |
Brown, William.—This gentleman, in conjunction with Thomas Gilmore, started the first printing press in Canada. Nothing is known of them beyond that they came from Philadelphia to Quebec, in 1763, having formed the idea of starting newspapers in Canada; that immeasurable difficulties beset them in their arduous undertaking, not the least of which was that Mr. Brown had to proceed to England to procure the proper materials, such as press, ink and paper, before he could issue his first broadsheet. On his return he opened his printing office, and on the 21st of June, 1764, brought out the first number of the Quebec Gazette. He had only one hundred and fifty subscribers, but, nevertheless, he succeeded in introducing “a new and potent element of civilization.”
Cook, Rev. John, D.D., LL.D., Quebec, for many years minister of St. Andrew’s Church, of that city, but now retired, was born in Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, on the 13th April, 1805, and educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where he studied under Dr. Chalmers. Dr. Cook was ordained a clergyman of the Church of Scotland in 1835, and came to Canada in 1836. He has ever since taken a prominent part, first in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland, and since the general union of Presbyterians, in 1875, in those of the United Church. In 1844, when those who sympathised with the secession from the church in Scotland withdrew from the Canadian church in connection with the Scottish establishment, Dr. Cook was, for the second time, after the departure of the Free Church party, elected moderator of the Synod. He opposed the division of the Canadian church, maintaining that, without regard to the divisions in Scotland, it was the duty of Canadian Presbyterians to remain united in upholding the general interests of Presbyterians in Canada. While steadily laboring to promote the extension of the old branch of the Presbyterian church, Dr. Cook remained consistent to his opinions of 1844, and at the Synod of 1861 proposed a resolution, the effect of which was to promote the union of all the Presbyterians of the province. At the time this failed, but in 1875 the union so manifestly desirable, though long retarded by mutual prejudices, was brought about, and by the general sense of the united church, and in recognition of his exertions to restore union, Dr. Cook was chosen first moderator of the Presbyterian Church of the Dominion. In connection with the church, Dr. Cook was one of the delegates sent home to obtain a Royal charter for the University of Queen’s College, Kingston, of which he was long a trustee, and over which he presided as principal in 1857 and 1858. In 1855, when the clergy of the Church of Scotland in the province, sacrificing their own interests for the benefit of the church, created with the proceeds of their allowances a general endowment fund, Dr. Cook acted for his brethren, and it was through him that the commutation with the government was effected. Both before and since the union, Dr. Cook’s great ability and energy have enabled him to render the greatest services to the church. He has had a large share in all branches of church work, and no clergyman is better known or more respected throughout the dominion. In 1875, Dr. Cook was the spokesman of a delegation from Canada to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which sought and obtained the approval of the mother church to the then contemplated union. While zealously laboring in ecclesiastical matters, Dr. Cook has been a useful and public-spirited citizen of Quebec, taking part, not only in purely religious affairs, but in many others of a public nature. In 1845, memorable in the history of Quebec for the two great fires by which the suburb of St. Roch and the suburb of St. John were consumed, Dr. Cook, as a member of the relief committee, took an active part in the aid of the sufferers, and the masterly defence of the committee at the close of its labors, in answer to the charges of the London committee, was from his pen. In 1866, when St. Roch and St. Sauveur suburbs were again swept by another disastrous fire, his experience was found very valuable, and he gave it freely, together with active assistance in promoting relief measures. At many public meetings he has eloquently advocated what he deemed to be for the public good. But it is perhaps in the matter of education that Dr. Cook has been most useful in Quebec. The High School, justly regarded as one of the best schools in the country, was established mainly through his exertions in 1843, and for many years, as chairman of the board of directors, he took a warm interest in its struggles and its success. Dr. Cook was named by the late Dr. Morin as principal of the college then about to be established in Quebec with the funds given by him for that purpose, and since 1861 Dr. Cook has filled, as he still does, the office of principal. In 1880, the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Queen’s University, Kingston; that of D.D. he holds from the University of Glasgow. In 1883, Dr. Cook retired from the active duties of the ministry, amid the hearty regrets of his beloved congregation. Dr. Cook’s preaching accords with the straightforward energy of his character. His sermons are distinguished by close adherence to the special point under consideration, by logical precision and practical earnestness. They contain many passages marked by beauty as well as power. A volume of them has been lately published, which has been reviewed in a very favorable light by both the secular and religious press. We extract the following from a review in the Halifax Presbyterian Witness: —
These doctrinal treatises give us a glimpse of the teaching which has ministered to the people of St. Andrew’s Church, Quebec, for a long period. They bring up before our minds many a quiet Sabbath, and many a solemn and impressive service in that old historic town. These addresses, replete with true and unpretending eloquence, must have been listened to with the breathless attention and stillness of beating hearts. These are evangelical inasmuch as they give prominence to the great facts and dogmas of Christianity. Not to present these in their proper place, connexion and views, is not to present the divine remedy for man’s spiritual disorders, but something else. They do not present the gospel as if it were a system of ethics merely, or even a scheme of moral duties. They do not ignore the fact of sin or the need of regeneration in order to holy obedience. But they are also evangelical in this higher sense, that, while they build upon evangelical fact and evangelical dogma, and assume that the teachings of Christ and the Apostles are divine, they do not merely reiterate, but explain, defend, illustrate and enforce these evangelical elements. There is throughout an endeavor to show the reasonableness of gospel truth—its internal harmony—its conformableness to the fitness of things, and its agreement with the natural impressions of the human mind and the demands of the moral sense. In this respect these sermons are like those of Vinet, F. W. Robertson, and the great preachers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and they are as able and eloquent. Dr. Cook’s discourses are especially adapted for cultivated readers. By such a class they cannot fail to be greatly appreciated. They are calm and elevating treatises upon great gospel themes. The preacher has utterly discarded the traditional sermon mould. Unshackled by pulpit traditions, he handles each subject with the skill of a great orator and teacher. The language is impressive, and the metaphors and illustrations are appropriate. His starting-points are skilfully chosen, and from these he advances, gradually opening up his subject, so that it becomes more and more luminous to the close. Whatever the subject be, it is made to appear reasonable and accordant with those principles upon which men reason and act in common life. Sometimes he states and accentuates an apparent incongruity in morals or religion, and the discourse is then devoted to its solution. It is to be hoped that many persons, and especially many ministers, may be induced to read discourses so full of instruction, so admirable as models of pulpit teaching, and so interesting as a memorial of the pulpit of St. Andrew’s Church, Quebec, and its noble and venerable occupant for so many long and eventful years.