Laurier, Hon. Wilfrid, B.C.L., Q.C., Quebec, M.P. for Quebec East, leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons at Ottawa, was born at St. Lin, L’Assomption, Quebec province, on the 24th November, 1841. He is descended from a distinguished French family, who were among the first to settle in Canada. His father was the late Carolus Laurier, who in his lifetime was a provincial land surveyor. The future leader of the Liberal party was educated at the college of L’Assomption, and having finished his literary course there, he was entered for the study of the law in the office of the Hon. R. Laflamme, Q.C. Here he devoted himself diligently to the study of his chosen calling, and in due time was called to the bar of Lower Canada. This was in the year 1865; but the year previous he had taken, at McGill University, the degree of B.C.L. In October, 1880, he was appointed a Queen’s counsel. Hon. Mr. Laurier always from a very early age took a deep interest in public questions, and was resolved, when the first opportunity offered, to seek a position in the legislature. With this object in view, he gave his attention to literature and journalism, and for a period edited Le Defricheur newspaper. He was an earnest advocate of temperance, and was a delegate to the Dominion Prohibitory Convention, held in Montreal, in 1875. At the general election of 1871 his ambition to get into public life was realized, he being that year elected to the Legislative Assembly of the province of Quebec for Drummond and Arthabaska. He remained in the legislature till January, 1874, when he resigned in order to contest the same seat for the House of Commons. In the provincial parliament his record had been excellent. He was known to be a sincere, upright, able and well-informed public man, and had proven himself a genuine Liberal in the truest and best sense of the word; so when he came to ask his constituents to send him to the wider sphere of usefulness they did not refuse him. On taking his seat in the House of Commons, his brilliant abilities and his high character were at once acknowledged. Sir John A. Macdonald, through his Pacific Railway transaction, had been relegated to the opposition benches, and the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie had been called upon to form an administration. Mr. Laurier was invited by the new premier to enter his cabinet, and he was sworn in as member of the Privy Council, September, 1877, and given the portfolio of Inland Revenue. This office he held until the following year, when the Mackenzie government resigned. On seeking re-election in his old constituency, at the general election which followed, he was rejected; but the Hon. I. Thibaudeau having resigned his seat in Quebec East, Hon. Mr. Laurier was elected as his successor, and he has represented that constituency ever since. On the retirement of the Hon. Edward Blake in 1887, in consequence of ill health, from the leadership of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, Hon. Mr. Laurier was unanimously chosen as his successor, and his friends have great hopes that he will prove a leader worthy of the name. He is calm and reasonable, and always receives respect and attention when he rises, and has always, on such occasions, something to say. He speaks with a very pure French accent, and is a very effective speaker. Hon. Mr. Laurier is a director of the Royal Mutual Life Insurance Company. In religion he is a Roman Catholic. He was married on the 13th May, 1868, to Miss Lafontaine.
O’Sullivan, Dennis Ambrose, M.A., D.C.L., Barrister-at-Law, etc., Toronto, Ont., is the youngest son of the late Michael O’Sullivan, of Campbellford, farmer. His father came to this country from Cork, Ireland, in 1832, and was one of the most respected men in his county. His mother belongs to the family of Hennessys, well known to this day in the south of Ireland. In the early days of this province, farmers’ homes were frequently used for the purpose of having divine service therein, and for many years, in the parish of Seymour, mass was said every second Sunday in the house of Michael O’Sullivan, every year, in fact, up to the building of the present Roman Catholic Church at Campbellford. He brought up his children strictly within the church, and died in 1866, greatly regretted. One of his sons, the late Dr. J. O’Sullivan, was well known as a professional man; and in political life sat for eight years as Conservative member for East Peterboro’. Dr. D. A. O’Sullivan was born on the 21st February, 1848, in Seymour, Northumberland county, Ontario. He is a practising lawyer in Toronto, and was called to the bar in 1875. He was educated in a common school and in St. Michael’s College, 1866-72, and graduated in the latter year in the University of Toronto. He received the degree of M.A. in 1876, and the degree of LL.B. in the following year, having been scholar and prizeman in the Toronto University during each year of the course. Since that time he has applied himself to the study of the law, and devoted his leisure hours to legal and historical literature. In 1879 he published the first edition of his “Government in Canada,” and a second edition of the same work in 1887. This book is the text book on the Canadian constitution in the Law Society of Ontario, and is extensively used in colleges throughout Canada. In 1881 he published a volume on “Practical Conveyancing,” and another on “How to Draw a Simple Will,” a little volume intended for clergymen and doctors of medicine, and containing a good deal of instructive and curious matter. In the following year he was named a member of the senate of the University of Toronto by the lieutenant-governor, and subsequently appointed one of the commissioners of the Ontario government to inquire into the workings of the Central Prison, and to report on prisons generally. He has lately devoted himself to historical studies regarding the church in Canada, and the origin of the Canadian laws. For essays and other productions in this direction, published in American magazines, and by the Canadian Institute annals, and for some light literature, the University of Laval conferred on him, in June, 1887, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He is a regular contributor to several magazines and reviews, and is a member of a number of historical societies in Canada and the United States. He does not belong to any national, political or other societies, except charitable societies; is secretary and one of the managers of the House of Industry; a director of the Toronto Conservatory of Music, etc. He is solicitor for all the Roman Catholic charities in Toronto, for the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation, and the colleges in the city. He was married, in 1881, to Emma Mary, the eldest daughter of W. H. Higgins, editor of the Whitby Chronicle.
Tartre, Joseph Raphael, Notary Public, Waterloo, province of Quebec, was born at St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, on the 3rd October, 1843. His father, Charles Tartre, was a farmer and bailiff, of Roxton Falls, Quebec, and a son of Charles Tartre and Marie Legros dit St. Pierre, who settled on the south side of the Yamaska river during the first years of the present century. His mother, Marie Adelaide Beaudry, is a descendant of the Beaudry family which settled in St. Jean Bte. de Rouville, Quebec, early in the present century. His father was settled first in St. Pie, county of Bagot, and moved thence to Roxton Falls, in September, 1851. The subject of this sketch is the second of eleven children, the oldest being a grey nun (called in religion Sister Ste. Elizabeth), since 1858. He was educated at St. Hyacinthe College, from 1856 to 1861. When twenty-one years of age, on account of ill-health, he was admitted, on the 13th May, 1864, a bailiff of the Superior Court, and settled at Waterloo on the 24th May, 1864. While practising as a bailiff, he began the study of the notarial profession on the 15th June, 1866, and was admitted to practise on the 3rd May, 1871. He was acting deputy registrar of the county of Shefford, from May, 1874, to August, 1876; and was secretary of schools for the township of Shefford, Waterloo included, for 1872 and 1873. He has been secretary-treasurer of the municipality of the county of Shefford since the 11th June, 1879; and a member of the Roman Catholic school board of examiners of the district of Bedford since 1875; also secretary-treasurer of the Roman Catholic schools of Waterloo since April, 1883, the date of their organization; and a commissioner of the Superior Court since 1872. He has also been secretary-treasurer of the Waterloo Imperial Building Society since the 1st May, 1877. He has always taken a moderate part in politics, and in municipal matters, and was mainly instrumental in having the parish of St. Joachim de Shefford erected into a municipality, and was one of the many who helped in starting the newspaper in Waterloo, called The Independent. He is a staunch Roman Catholic in religion. He was married, on the 29th January, 1866, to Malvina, second daughter of Gabriel Hubert and Justine Marchessault, of Contrecœur, Quebec, and has had issue ten children, eight of whom are still living. The eldest, C. U. R. Tartre, twenty-one years of age, has just completed his classical course at the St. Hyacinthe College, and is now studying the notarial profession with his father. Mrs. J. R. Tartre is now (March, 1888,) a candidate in the election of popularity, the object and proceeds whereof are to erect, if possible, a commercial college in Waterloo. This election closes on the 2nd July, 1888.
Edgar, James David, Barrister, Toronto, M.P. for West Ontario, was born in the Eastern Townships, Quebec province, on the 10th August, 1841, where he received his early educational training. He is descended from the elder branch of the Edgars of Keithock, Forfarshire, Scotland, a family which has impressed its name on the annals of that country. Mr. Edgar adopted law as a profession, and having gone through the usual course of study, was called to the bar of Upper Canada, in Michaelmas term, 1864. Since then he has successfully practised his profession in Toronto, and is at present the head of the firm of Edgar, Malone & Garvin, barristers, solicitors, notaries, etc. He first presented himself for parliamentary honors at the general election of 1872, when he was elected, and sat in the House of Commons at Ottawa until the general election in 1874, when he was defeated. In 1872 he unsuccessfully contested Centre Toronto, but on the 22nd August, 1884, upon the resignation of the sitting member, he was elected by the Reformers of West Ontario to represent them in parliament. At the last general election he was again chosen by the same constituency, and continues to sit in the House of Commons as their representative. In 1874, Mr. Edgar was sent by the Dominion government to British Columbia to arrange terms for the postponement of the construction of the Canada Pacific railway. He is of a literary turn of mind, and, apart from his books on law, such as “Insolvent Act of 1864, with Notes, Forms,” etc., published in 1864; “An Act to Amend the Insolvent Act of 1864, with Annotations, Notes of Decisions,” etc., published in 1865, he frequently contributes to the columns of our daily press and periodicals. Indeed, he has entered the realm of poetry, and a couple of years ago published a no mean volume on a Canadian subject. He is a director of the Confederation Life Association, of the Globe Printing Company, and of the Midland Railway Company. In politics he is a staunch Liberal, and in religion belongs to the Episcopal church. In September, 1865, he was married to Matilda, second daughter of the late T. G. Ridout, of Toronto.
Price, Herbert Molesworth, Timber Merchant, Quebec, was born on the 31st of August, 1847, at Benhall, Ross, Herefordshire, England. His father was William Price, gentleman. He was educated at private schools at Hereford, and Norwood, near London, where he made rapid progress, English and mathematics being his principal studies. Having at an early age evinced a predilection for banking, a position was secured for him in the West of England and South Wales District Bank, at Ross. He entered on his duties in 1864, and remained in the service of that institution until January, 1869, when he relinquished his situation for a higher post in the Bank of British North America, London. He was soon after transferred to the Montreal branch of that bank, and successively filled positions at the following branches, viz., St. John, N.B., Halifax, N.S., New York and Hamilton, Kingston, Brantford, and Dunnville, Ont., and Quebec. After serving at the latter branch as accountant for four years, with great acceptance to the board, he resigned his office and entered the Merchants Bank of Canada, Quebec, as manager. This responsible position he held from 1879 until March, 1884, when he retired from banking, after a continuous service of twenty years, and joining the important firm of Hall Brothers & Co., in connection with the Montmorency mills, embarked into business. His firm is now composed of Peter Patterson Hall, and H. M. Price. Their operations are confined to two mills besides those of Montmorency. The firm makes 300,000 logs per annum on the rivers Chaudière, Gentilly, Nicolet, Bécancour, Duchene, and Montmorency, employing in the work a large number of men. In politics, Mr. Price is a Conservative of independent and broad views. A member of the Church of England, he has always taken a deep interest in religious thought and movement, and his active mind has found expression in the conduct of the temporal affairs of his church, where for some years he has been a member of the select vestry of the English cathedral. He has held several prominent offices, among which may be named those of the first vice-president of St. George’s Society; provisional director of the Quebec Railway Bridge Company; member of the council of the Quebec Board of Trade; member of the Central Board Church Society, and member of the council of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. In this latter position his literary, historical, and antiquarian tastes find ample development. He is a qualified justice of the peace. Mr. Price has always taken considerable interest in athletic sports and pastimes. He has been captain of the Quebec Cricket and Football clubs, and was a member of a Football team for Canada which played against the Harvard University Club of Cambridge, Mass., in Montreal, in 1875. J. M. LeMoine has given an interesting sketch of Mr. Price, and of his summer residence, Montmorency cottage, in his late book, “Monographies et Esquisses.” In March, 1877, Mr. Price was married to S. A. Martha Hall, daughter of the late George Benson Hall, of Montmorency Falls, P.Q., a lady of fine social qualities and culture.