Archibald, Hon. Sir Adams Geo., K.C.M.G., D.C.L., P.C., Q.C., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. This illustrious statesman was born at Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 18th May, 1814. His father was Samuel Archibald, grandson of one of two brothers who came from the North of Ireland, though of Scottish descent, settled at Truro, Colchester county, N.S., in 1761, and both of whom married and had families, and from these brothers sprung most of the families of that name now scattered over the Maritime and other provinces of the Dominion, some of whom honoured the liberal professions, and filled nearly every position of responsibility and trust in the legislature and government of Nova Scotia. His grandfather, James Archibald, was, on the 23rd June, 1796, appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Colchester, Nova Scotia, and held this position till his death. The mother of Sir Adams Archibald was Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Archibald, who was appointed coroner of Colchester in 1776, and represented Truro in the local parliament for many years. Adams George Archibald was educated at Pictou College under the late Dr. McCulloch, who had at that time the training of many young men who now fill various high positions in public life. He studied law in Halifax in the office of the late William Sutherland, afterwards recorder of the city; was admitted in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as an attorney in 1838, and as barrister to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1839; and for many years practised his profession successfully both at Truro and Halifax, during which time he filled some very important positions. In 1851 he entered public life, and was elected to represent the county of Colchester in the Nova Scotia assembly, and sat as such until 1859, when the county was divided, and he was returned for South Colchester, which constituency he continued to represent until Confederation in 1867. During three years he occupied prominent positions in the government of Nova Scotia. In 1856 he was appointed solicitor-general of his native province, and in 1857 was sent as a delegate, in company with the late Hon. J. W. Johnstone, to England to arrange the terms of settlement with the British government and the General Mining Association, in regard to the mines of the province, and to ascertain the views of that government on the question of the union of the provinces. And one of the happy results of their labours was to effect a settlement of a long standing dispute between the province and the company, whereby certain collieries were allotted to the company on their surrendering all other collieries and all mines and minerals to the province, except the coal in the areas so allotted. In 1860 he was made attorney-general, and the following year (1861), he was a delegate to the Quebec Conference to discuss the question of an Intercolonial Railway. In 1862 he was appointed advocate-general of the Vice-Admiralty Court. Mr. Archibald being one of the foremost among the advocates of Confederation, he attended as a delegate the Charlottetown Union Conference in June, 1864; the Quebec Conference, held a few months later in the same year, and the final conference held in London (England), during the winter of 1866-7 to complete the terms of confederation. In 1867 he was made secretary of state for the provinces in the Dominion government. In 1869 he was elected to a seat in the Dominion parliament at Ottawa, by the county of Colchester, but resigned the next year (1870), on his being appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. In 1872 he was created a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by her Majesty the Queen for his services in Manitoba, and in 1886 was advanced a step in the order, being created K.C.M.G. On his return from the North-West he was appointed, on the 24th June, 1873, judge in equity for Nova Scotia; but only held the office until the 4th of the next month, when, on the death of the late lieutenant-governor, Joseph Howe, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, and this high office he filled with great dignity and satisfaction to all concerned from the 4th July, 1873, to 4th July, 1883, when he was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Henry Richey. Governor Archibald was one of the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1873; and in 1884 he was chosen chairman of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie College; and in 1885 he was elected president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, of which he has been an active member from the time of its formation in 1878 to the present. In conclusion, we may add that the Hon. Mr. Archibald is a man of broad views and generous impulses, and a statesman whom the country is pleased to honour. In religious matters he has followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, and is a staunch Presbyterian. He was married on the 1st June, 1840, to Elizabeth Archibald, daughter of the Rev. John Burnyeat, an able and accomplished Anglican divine, the first clergyman of the Church of England, in the parish of St. John, Colchester, whose wife was Livinia, daughter of Charles Dickson, and sister of Elizabeth, wife of the late Hon. S. G. W. Archibald, and mother of the late Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Archibald.
McCaul, Rev. John, D.D., late President of University College, Toronto, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and died at Toronto, on the 16th of April, 1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was educated at Trinity College in his native city, and after a very successful university career, graduated with the highest honours in classics. At the request of the authorities of Trinity College, he for some time filled the post of classical tutor and examiner in that institution. While occupying this position, he devoted himself passionately to the pursuit of classical literature, and edited several editions of recognized value of various Greek and Latin texts. In 1838, Dr. Harley, then archbishop of Canterbury, hearing of his repute as a scholar, offered him the principalship of Upper Canada College, in Toronto, and Mr. McCaul having accepted the office, entered upon its duties the following year. In 1843, he became the president and professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres in King’s College, which by the Act of 1849, became the University of Toronto, and was freed forever from sectarian control. From that time up to the date of his retirement, some years ago, from all literary work, Dr. McCaul uninterruptedly filled the chair of classics in the university, of which for some years he was also the president. While zealously maintaining the pre-eminence of his own department, he actively assisted in introducing into the university curriculum the subjects of modern languages and natural sciences. His individual work is seen on every hand in the distinguished men who are to be found in every part of the province, and who cheerfully acknowledge their indebtedness to the late lamented president of University College, for the accuracy and thoroughness of their academic training. Among the works which have been issued from Dr. McCaul’s pen are exhaustive treatises on the Greek Tragic Metres and the Horatian Metres; on the Scansion of the Hecuba and Medea of Euripides; lectures on Homer and Virgil; an edition of Longinus, of selections from Lucian and Thucydides. His edition of the Satires and Epistles of Horace has long been looked upon as a standard one of this favourite author. His researches in Greek and Roman Epigraphy, and his work on “Britanno-Roman Inscriptions,” and “The Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries,” entitle him to take high rank among the greatest classical scholars which the century has produced. Dr. McCaul married in 1840, Emily, the second daughter of the late Hon. Justice Jones. His wife, three sons and three daughters survive him.
Cross, Hon. Alexander, Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench, Montreal, was born on a farm situated on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 22nd of March, 1821, and came to Montreal with his parents when only a boy of five years of age. His father, Robert Cross, was a gentleman farmer, and was a scion of the Cross family who for many generations lived in Old Monklands, and were among the well-to-do farmers in that part of Scotland. His mother, Janet Selkirk, was from an adjoining parish. Mr. Cross, sr., died about a year after his arrival in Canada, and this sad event rendered it necessary for the family to remove to a farm on the Chateauguay river, the land on which the celebrated battle of that name was fought between a handful of Canadian militia and a strong force of United States troops—the Canadians coming off victorious—during the war of 1812-14. Alexander, who was the youngest son of the family, as he grew up to manhood, showed a strong leaning towards literary pursuits instead of towards agriculture; and in his laudable desire for knowledge he was encouraged by his elder brother, who had been educated for the Scottish bar, and who, while he lived, helped him in every way possible to gratify his literary aspirations. In 1837, at the age of sixteen, he left the farm and went to Montreal to study. Here he entered the Montreal College as a pupil, but after being a short time in this institution he found the classes did not progress fast enough to suit his restless craving for knowledge, when he left and put himself under private tutors. He also entered the office of John J. Day, of Montreal, to study law; and the rebellion at this time breaking out, he enlisted as a volunteer in Colonel Maitland’s battalion, and served in this corps until the close of the rebellion in 1838, retiring with the rank of sergeant. When the rebels were defeated at Beauharnois, Sergeant Cross was among the first to enter the village. And in this connection we may say that while a law student he was chosen clerk of the first municipal council of the county of Beauharnois, then embracing three or four times its present area, and so well did he perform his duties at the first meeting of the council that he was highly complimented for the ability he displayed, by such gentlemen as Lord Selkirk and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who were guests at the Seigniory house, staying there to observe the working of the new institution. Mr. Cross was called to the bar in 1844, and practised his profession in Montreal more than thirty years, at first with the late Duncan Fisher, Q.C., and subsequently with Attorney-General Smith (who afterwards became the Hon. Judge Smith). During this long period Mr. Cross had an extensive and remunerative practice, and on several occasions he represented the Crown while connected with the distinguished gentlemen mentioned above. During the administration of Viscount Monck, in 1864, he was created a Queen’s counsel. On the 30th of August, 1877, he was appointed one of the judges of the Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and took his seat the first of the following month, at a session of the court held in the city of Quebec. Judge Cross, while in practice at the bar, held a foremost position among the legal fraternity. On the bench he has met the expectations of his many admirers, and his judicial opinions have been received by the Supreme Court and the Privy Council with marked consideration. He has been identified with Montreal since his boyhood days, and has seen the great progress that city has made since he first entered it at his mother’s side. In 1837-8, as we have seen, he helped to quell the rebellion, and in 1849 he was present at the burning of the parliament houses incident on the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and assisted the late Sir Louis H. Lafontaine and some others of the notable politicians of that day in making their escape from the burning building, escorting them unmolested through the turbulent crowd of rioters, among whom he exercised a certain amount of influence. Judge Cross seems always to have had an aversion to public life, and even in his younger days when he was offered political positions of honour, he always declined them. In 1863 he was offered by the Liberal government then in power the position of secretary to the commission for the codification of the laws of Canada, and at a later date the office of attorney-general in the de Boucherville administration, but he refused to accept either of these important offices. He has, nevertheless, suggested and assisted in framing legislative measures of general utility, among which may be mentioned the first statute passed in Canada for the abolition of the Usury laws. He is also the inventor of a new and ingenious method of rotation of numbers. In politics the judge leans to the Liberal side, and his ideas, as well on the subject of finance as on the theory of the popular principle in the election of representatives, are noted for their originality and depth of thought. In religion he is a member of St. Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church, and has been an office bearer in that church. He is a man of good impulses, and is very generous to the poor. In 1848 he married Julia, daughter of the late William Lunn, in his day a prominent citizen of Montreal, and they have five sons and one daughter living, and have buried three children, the last, an exceedingly promising youth, in his sixteenth year.
Baillairgé, Chevalier Chas. P. F., M.S., Quebec. The subject of this who is a Chevalier of the Order of St. Sauveur de Monte Reale, Italy, was born in September, 1827, and for the past forty years has been practising his profession as an engineer, architect and surveyor, in the city of Quebec. Since 1856 he has been a member of the Board of Examiners of Land Surveyors for the province, and since 1875 its chairman; he is an honorary member of the Society for the Generalization of Education in France; and has been the recipient of thirteen medals of honour and of seventeen diplomas, etc., from learned societies and public bodies in France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Mr. Baillairgé’s father, who died in 1865, at the age of sixty-eight, was born in Quebec, and for over thirty years was road surveyor of that city. His mother, Charlotte Janverin Horsley, who is still living, was born in the Isle of Wight, England, and was a daughter of Lieutenant Horsley, R.N. His grandfather on the paternal side, P. Florent Baillairgé, is of French descent, and was connected, now nearly a century ago, with the restoration of the Basilica, Quebec. The wife of the latter was Cureux de St. Germain, also of French descent. Our subject married, in 1845, Euphémie, daughter of Mr. Jean Duval, and step-daughter of the Hon. John Duval, for many years chief justice of Lower Canada, by whom he had eleven children, four of whom only survive. His wife dying in February, 1878, he, in April of the following year, married Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Benjamin Wilson, of the British navy, by whom he has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Baillairgé was educated at the Seminary of Quebec, but, finding the curriculum of studies too lengthy, he left that institution some time before the termination of the full course of ten years, and entered into a joint apprenticeship as architect, engineer and surveyor. During this apprenticeship he devoted himself to mathematical and natural science studies, and received diplomas for his proficiency in 1848, when only twenty-one years of age. At that period he entered upon his profession, and for the last twenty years has filled the post of city engineer of Quebec, manager of its water works, engineer of its new water works under the Beemer contract of 1883; engineer, on the part of the city, in and over the North Shore, Piles and Lake St. John railways during their construction. Mr. Baillairgé has held successive commissions in the militia, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain; and in 1860, and for several years thereafter, was hydrographic surveyor to the Quebec Board of Harbour Commissioners. In 1861 he was elected vice-president of the Association of Architects and Civil Engineers of Canada. In 1858 he was elected, and again in 1861 unanimously re-elected, to represent the St. Louis ward in the City Council, Quebec. In 1863 he was called for two years to Ottawa, to act as joint architect of the Parliament and Departmental buildings then in course of erection. Interests of considerable magnitude were then at stake between the government and the contractors, claims amounting to nearly half a million of money having to be adjusted. In connection with his employment by the government, Mr. Baillairgé found that to continue his services he must be a party to some sacrifice of principle, which, rather than consent to, he was indiscreet enough to tell the authorities of the time. This excess of virtue was too moral for the appointing power and more than it was disposed to brook in an employé of the government. The difficulty was, therefore, got over by giving Mr. Baillairgé his feuille de route, a compliment to his integrity of which he has ever since been justly proud. He shortly afterwards returned to Quebec. During his professional career, Mr. Baillairgé designed and erected numerous private residences in and around Quebec, as well as many public buildings, including the Asylum and the Church of the Sisters of Charity, the Laval University building, the new Gaol, Music Hall, several churches, both in the city and in the adjoining parishes—that of Ste. Marie, Beauce, being much admired on account of the beauty and regularity of its interior. The “Monument des Braves de 1760” was erected in 1860, on the Ste. Foye road, after a design by him and under his superintendence. The government, the clergy and others have often availed themselves of his services in arbitration on knotty questions of technology, disputed boundaries, builders’ claims, surveys and reports on various subjects. In 1872, Mr. Baillairgé suggested, and in 1878 designed and carried out what is now known as the Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, a structure some 1,500 feet in length, overlooking the St. Lawrence from a height of 182 feet, and built along the face of the cliff under the Citadel. This terrace was inaugurated in 1878 by their Excellencies the Marquis of Lorne and H.R.H. the Princess Louise, who pronounced it a splendid achievement. In 1873 Mr. Baillairgé designed and built the aqueduct bridge over the St. Charles river, the peculiarity about which is that the structure forms an arch as does the aqueduct pipe it encloses, whereby, in case of the destruction of the surrounding wood-work by fire, the pipe being self-supporting, the city may not be deprived of water while re-constructing the frost-protecting tunnel enclosure. At the age of seventeen the subject of our sketch built a double cylindered steam carriage for traffic on ordinary roads. From 1848 to 1865 he delivered a series of lectures, in the old Parliament buildings and elsewhere, on astronomy, light, steam and the steam engine, pneumatics, acoustics, geometry, the atmosphere, and other kindred subjects, under the patronage of the Canadian and other institutes; and in 1872, in the rooms of the Literary and Historical Society, Quebec, under the auspices of that institution, he delivered an exhaustive lecture on geometry, mensuration, and the stereometricon (a mode of cubing all solids by one and the same rule, thus reducing the study and labour of a year to that of a day or an hour), which he had then but recently invented, and for which he was made honorary member of several learned societies, and received the numerous medals and diplomas already alluded to. The following letter from the Ministry of Public Instruction, Russia, is worthy of insertion as explanatory of the advantages of the stereometricon:
Department of Public Instruction,
St. Petersburg, Feb. 14th, 1877.
To M. Baillairgé, architect, Quebec,