Girouard, Désiré, Q.C., D.C.L., M.P. for Jacques Cartier, residence Quatre Vents, Dorval, Quebec province, was born at St. Timothy, county of Beauharnois, on the 7th July, 1836. From l’Abbé Tanguay’s “Dictionnaire Généalogique,” it is learned that he is a descendant of Antoine Girouard, a native of Riom, Auvergne, France, who emigrated to Canada about 1720, and was private secretary to Chevalier de Ramezay, the then governor of Montreal. Mr. Girouard received his education at the Montreal College, and graduated in law at McGill University, where he obtained the degrees of B.C.L. and D.C.L. On the 1st of October, 1860, he was called to the bar, and in 1876 was made a Q.C. As a law writer, Mr. Girouard enjoys a well-earned reputation, his first work being an “Essai sur les Lettres de Change et Billets Promissoires,” which appeared in 1860, before he was admitted to the practice of his profession. Of this production Chief Justice La Fontaine said: “I have read attentively your Essay on Bills of Exchange, etc., and I take pleasure in acknowledging that you have, with very rare talent, collected all that could possibly be written on this subject which could interest Lower Canada. The opinions you express on the laws relating to the subject and on the decisions of the tribunals, show that your essay is the result of profound study on your part. Your book should be in the hands of every trade and business man. It would certainly be of great benefit to them. It will also be very useful to lawyers and judges. Permit me to hope that your book may prove to you a sure and certain guarantee of an honourable and brilliant career at the bar.” In 1865, Mr. Girouard published an “Etude sur l’Acte concernant la Faillite,” which he afterwards translated into English with many additions; and in 1868 he published another work entitled “Considérations sur les lois civiles du Mariage.” He was also a contributor to many publications; and in conjunction with W. H. Kerr, another leading barrister, founded La Revue Critique. La Revue Critique was founded at the time of the great judicial crisis of 1873-4, the members of the Montreal bar having refused to appear any longer before the Court of Appeal, so great was the dissatisfaction against that bench, when it was reconstituted in 1874 by Justices Cross, Tessier, and Ramsay, under the presidency of Chief Justice Dorion; and La Revue Critique was then allowed to drop out of existence. Mr. Girouard’s articles on the “Treaty of Washington,” “The Indirect Alabama Claims,” “Conflict of Commercial Prescriptions,” etc., all written in English, attracted the attention of the press both on this continent and in Europe. From 1858 to 1860, while a law student, Mr. Girouard was actively connected with L’Institut Canadien-Français, and delivered many lectures at the hall of the institute, and also at the Cabinet de Lecture Paroissial. These lectures were published in the French daily press of Montreal at the time, and highly praised. Among these may be particularly mentioned two papers—“La Philosophie du Droit,” and “L’Excellence des Mathématiques.” While spending the winter in the south, in 1870, he contributed many letters on Louisiana and New Orleans to La Minerve. In 1882 the same paper also published several letters of Mr. Girouard on the North-West, and very recently, 9th July, 1887, an extensive study of the Fishery question. Mr. Girouard has always maintained a high position as an intelligent and learned advocate; hence he has often been retained in some of the most important suits which have been brought before the courts of the country during the past few years. Among politicians, Mr. Girouard is known as an able debater. He first entered the political arena in 1872, when, at the solicitation of the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, he presented himself in the Conservative interest in the county of Jacques Cartier against no less an adversary than Rodolphe Laflamme, Q.C., who enjoyed consideration, prestige, and influence, and was defeated by forty-eight votes. In 1874 the latter was returned by acclamation, Mr. Girouard having been nominated for Beauharnois, in which county he was defeated through the nomination of a third candidate. In 1876, he was requested to oppose the Hon. Mr. Laflamme, minister of Inland Revenue, in Jacques Cartier, and was defeated by twenty-eight votes. In 1878 he was again solicited to present himself against his old opponent; and it was at first reported that he had been defeated by fourteen votes, but on a recount by Justice Mackay, he was declared elected by two votes, although his majority was really over one hundred, as it was afterwards shown in the celebrated St. Anne’s ballot-box case. He was again returned for Jacques Cartier in 1882, and at the last general election, 22nd February, 1887. Mr. Girouard introduced in the House of Commons the Deceased Wife’s Sister bill, which was carried in 1882 after a prolonged debate and a strenuous opposition, especially from certain adherents to the Church of England. He has been chairman of the Committee on Privileges and Elections during the last and present parliaments. Although one of the staunchest supporters of Sir John A. Macdonald, he took a leading part in the movement against the execution of Riel, on the ground of insanity, and with ten or twelve other French Conservative members constituted for a time a separate group of the Conservative party, known as the “Bolters.” His letter published November, 1885, in answer to the defence of the government by Sir Alexander Campbell, was published by all the newspapers in Canada. Mr. Girouard was married for the first time to Mathilde, a daughter of the well-known and much respected merchant, John Pratt. This lady having died, he again married, in 1865, this time an American lady, Essie Cranwill, sister of Samuel Cranwill, cotton merchant, New Orleans and St. Louis. She died in Montreal, on the 30th June, 1879, leaving five children. Mr. Cranwill was the agent in Montreal for the Confederate states during the civil war. The eldest of Mr. Girouard’s sons, Emile, resides in Paris, France, where he is the administrator of the newspaper, Paris-Canada; the second, Percy, a graduate of the Royal Military College, Kingston, is an engineer; another, Désiré, B.A. of Laval University, has just been admitted to the study of law in Montreal. Mr. Girouard married a third time, on the 6th October, 1881, Edith Bertha Beatty, youngest daughter of Dr. Beatty, of Cobourg, Ont., and has two sons of this marriage.
Stewart, Geo., jr., D.C.L., F.R.G.S., F.R.S.C., Editor Morning Chronicle, Quebec. Among Canadian litterateurs, Geo. Stewart, jr., has fairly won for himself the distinguished position and reputation he enjoys, both in England and Canada, as a man of letters, and one of the brilliant literary lights of which our dominion is so justly proud. Dr. Stewart was born November 26th, 1848, in New York city, and at an early age removed, with his parents, to St. John, New Brunswick, where he was educated. He is, comparatively speaking, a young man, to be the recipient of so many favoured marks of recognition by societies of learning for his valuable contributions. At the early age of sixteen years he edited a little journal, The Stamp Collector’s Gazette, and two years later published Stewart’s Quarterly Magazine, to whose support he brought the pens of all the leading writers in Canada. In 1878 Dr. Stewart accepted the editorship of the Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly, and a year later that of the Quebec Morning Chronicle, which latter position he still holds. It is owing to his ability and talents that this paper has become an authority on all leading Canadian questions of the day. He was elected, in 1879, a member of the International Literary Congress of Europe—an honour conferred on no other Canadian,—and having the celebrated French veteran writer, Victor Hugo, for president. The few Americans similarly distinguished were Longfellow, Bancroft, Holmes, Emerson and Whittier. The Royal Geographical Society has bestowed its degree of Fellow upon Dr. Stewart, and King’s University of Nova Scotia was proud to grant him a D.C.L. The Royal Society of Canada elected him, at its inauguration, secretary for the English section, which important trust he still retains; while the time-honoured Literary and Historical Society of Quebec has three times called him to the presidency. He has been a member also of the Council of the Royal Society since its second year. The exclusive literary club of London, the Athæneum, admitted him an honorary member, his sponsors being Matthew Arnold and Lord Tennyson. His principal works are “Evenings in the Library,” “Canada under the Administration of the Earl of Dufferin,” nine leading papers in the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and this high authority names Dr. Stewart among its strongest and most brilliant contributors amid a galaxy of learned and world-renowned names; “Frontenac and his times,” in Justin Winsor’s “Analytical and Critical History of America,” and “The Story of the Great Fire in St. John, N.B.” He is also the author of several articles in “Appleton’s Cyclopædia of American Biography,” and a contributor to the Scottish Review, London; Toronto Week, etc., etc. In May of 1878 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of St. John, N.B., presented him with a handsome and very valuable gold watch and illuminated address, and a public dinner was given him by the citizens in 1872, upon his retirement from the editorship of Stewart’s Quarterly. In style of composition Dr. Stewart is graceful and dignified. His historical works bear the imprint of deep research and careful summarizing. Leading English and American magazines are frequently enriched by his articles, which are eagerly perused by the reading and deep-thinking savants of our day. Canada is proud of such a worthy literary representative, whose genius and versatile abilities make him the rival and equal of the best writers the old world can produce. He was married on the 28th of April, 1875, to Maggie M., niece of the late E. D. Jewett, of Lancaster Heights, St. John, N.B.
Ruel, James Rhodes, Collector of Customs and Registrar of Shipping at the Port of St. John, New Brunswick, was born at Pembridge House, Welsh Newton, Herefordshire, England, on the 22nd of October, 1820. His father was John Godfrey Ruel, a lineal descendant of the famous Dr. Johann Rühl, chancellor of the Cardinal Archbishop of Mayntz, the Elector Albert of Brandenberg, and also the favoured councillor and representative of Count Mannsfield in 1540 at the Diet of Nuremberg, and at other similar assemblies. Dr. Rühl was the brother-in-law of Luther, and stood boldly at his side in the great historic interview with Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg. His devotion on this occasion drew from Luther the promise that he would never fail to reciprocate it to himself and to his children. He was one of the chief and most honoured guests at the great Reformer’s wedding, and was never addressed by him but with the profoundest expressions of official respect and brotherly affection. They appear to have lived together in the closest friendship. The family was of senatorial rank in the city of Heilbronn, and was related to the Counts Fugger of Kirchberg and Weissonhorn, the head of which at the present time is the Prince of Babenhausen, who is related to Queen Victoria through the house of Hohenlohe Langenburg. By a curious coincidence the Counts Fugger acted as the bankers of the Pope for the sale of those very indulgences against which Luther had opened the greatest crusade which was ever fought in Christendom. Gottfried Rüehl, a rich and distinguished member of the family, settled in London about one hundred and seventy years ago, and his grandson, John Godfrey Ruel, was born there; educated at Harrow, and served as an officer in the Royal marines in H.M.S. Thetis and other ships with considerable distinction until the peace in 1815. He married, in 1817, Catherine B. Cléry, a daughter of a descendant of a French count of that name, and came to New Brunswick in 1833 with his family of six sons and three daughters. He returned to England in 1849, and died there in 1852, and his wife in April, 1887, aged 98 years. James R. Ruel, his second son, was educated at the High School in Monmouth, England, and at the Grammar School in St. John, N.B. He entered the service of the city corporation in the common clerk’s office in July, 1839, and became successively deputy common clerk and clerk of the peace, auditor of county and city accounts, chamberlain of the city, and on 1st November, 1870, was appointed by the Canadian government to the offices he now holds. In September, 1850, he was associated with the Rev. Dr. I. W. D. Gray in the editorial management of the Church Witness, a newspaper established to counteract the teaching of the High Church party, and in 1855 took the sole management of the paper until its publication was closed in 1864. Previous to 1845 he had espoused the views of the Tractarian school, and was an ardent supporter of them, but finding about that time that they were not in accord either with the scriptures, or the doctrines of the great teachers in the Church of England of the Reformation era, he abandoned them, and has held ever since with a firm grasp the doctrines of grace as taught in the Evangelical school. He has been connected with St. John’s Church since October, 1833, and on its erection into a separate parish in 1853, he was elected a vestryman and vestry clerk, and has been one of the wardens of it for the last twenty years. On the occasion of the movement for the confederation of the provinces, he was chairman of the British American Association, which was formed at that time to promote it. And in all questions or projects to advance the welfare of the city of St. John he ever took a deep interest. He married in 1854 Harriet, a daughter of John Kinnear, who died in 1859, leaving no issue; and in 1861, Sophia M., daughter of the Hon. Hugh Johnston, by whom he has three sons and one daughter now living.
Earle, Sylvester Zobieski, M.D., St. John, New Brunswick, was born at Kingston, Kings county, New Brunswick, on the 7th August, 1822. His parents were Sylvester and Maria Earle. His paternal grandfather served as a captain in the royal army, during the American revolution, and on the proclamation of peace his company being disbanded, he came to New Brunswick where he settled. On the paternal side Dr. Earle is descended from John Zobieski, King of Poland. He received his education at the Kingston Grammar School, and then studied medicine under the celebrated Doctors Valentine Mott and Gunnay L. Bedford. He graduated from the University of New York, in 1844, and afterwards visited the several medical schools of Great Britain and the continent of Europe. He removed to St. John, in 1864, and began practice, and shortly afterwards was appointed surgeon to the 62nd St. John volunteer battalion, now the 62nd Royal Fusiliers. In 1845 he was made surgeon to the Kings county militia; and in 1846, in company with the late Colonel Saunders, raised the A troop of cavalry, which formed the nucleus of the present 8th cavalry, “Princess Louise Hussars.” During the Fenian raid in 1866, he was on active service with his regiment, the Fusiliers, at St. Andrews and at Campo Bello, and retired from the service in 1875, holding the rank of major. In 1867 he was appointed coroner for the city and county of St. John, and this office he still holds. In 1877 Dr. Earle was elected mayor of the city of St. John, the year of the great fire, and as a reward for the services he rendered on that trying occasion, was re-elected for another term by acclamation. He occupied the position of warden of the city and county during the same period; and in 1878 he was made a justice of the peace. He is a commissioner of the General Public Hospital, and a member of the St. John Board of Health. He has been a member of the Canada Medical Association since its formation, and is now its vice-president; is a past president of the New Brunswick Medical Association; is president of the New Brunswick Medical Council, and consulting physician to the General Public Hospital. He belongs to both the Masonic and Oddfellows’ orders, and occupies high positions in both organizations. The doctor has travelled a good deal, and is familiar with the leading cities in Europe and America. In politics he is Liberal-Conservative; and in religion is an adherent of the Episcopal form of worship. In 1847 he was married to Catherine McGill, daughter of Captain Allen Otty, R.N., and has issue four sons and two daughters. Thomas J. O. Earle, M.D., is practising medicine at Young’s Cove, Queens county; Allan O. A., barrister, practising in St. John; William Z., divisional engineer, Canadian Pacific Railroad; S. Z. Earle, also an engineer, Canadian Pacific Railway; two daughters, Eliza Crookshank and Marie.
Kennedy, George Thomas, M.A., B.A.Sc., F.G.S., Professor of Chemistry, Geology and Mining, in King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, was born on the 4th January, 1845, in the city of Montreal, Quebec province. His father was the late William Kennedy, builder, who was born in York, Yorkshire, England, on May 21, 1790, and died in Montreal, October 22, 1855. His mother, Ann Evans, was a native of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, born 3rd April, 1800, and died in Montreal, 13th August, 1870. This couple were brought up as members of the Church of England, and were married by the late Dean Bethune, of Montreal, and their children christened by the same clergyman; but they afterwards joined the Congregational body, and the family were brought up in that church. This worthy couple had a large family, five of whom still survive, two sisters and three brothers. The sons are, George Thomas, the subject of our sketch; William, a retired builder, who from 1873 to 1876 sat as alderman in the city council of Montreal, and is at present (1887) a member of the same body, and also holds a commission as lieutenant-colonel of the Montreal Engineers; and Richard A., M.A., M.D.C.M., who is a practising physician in Montreal. He is also emeritus professor of obstetrics and diseases of children in Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, and consulting physician to the Montreal Dispensary, physician to the Western Hospital, etc., Montreal. Professor Kennedy was educated in Montreal, first at a private school, then at the Church Colonial School, and at the McGill Model and High schools. He then entered the arts department of McGill University, in September, 1864, and graduated B.A., with first rank honours in geology and natural science, in May, 1868. During the winter of 1869-70 he attended the Sheffield Scientific School, in connection with Yale College, New Haven, U.S., and whilst in New Haven he took a select course of post graduate studies, including practical chemistry, mineralogy, mining, assaying, German, etc. After his return home in the winter of 1870-71 he became assistant to Sir J. William Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., in the chemical laboratory and museum of McGill College. In the fall of 1871, Mr. Kennedy entered as a graduate student in the applied science department of McGill, and in May following received the degree of M.A. (in course). In May, 1873, he graduated B.A.Sc. in civil and mechanical engineering in the same college. In the summer of 1873 he was elected professor of chemistry and natural science by the governors of Acadia College, Wolfville, N.S., and in October of the following year entered upon these duties. In 1881 he resigned the chair of chemistry in Acadia College; and in the fall of 1882, the chair of chemistry and geology in King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, becoming vacant, he was offered the position by the late Dr. Binney, bishop of Nova Scotia, president of the Board of Governors, which he accepted, and entered upon his duties in January, 1883. In the spring of 1885, when the teaching staff of the college was re-organized, Mr. Kennedy was re-appointed to the same professorship. On the 29th June, 1887, the governors of the college elected him vice-president of the institution. In 1883 he was appointed librarian and scientific curator of the college museum, both of which positions he still holds. In November, 1876, Professor Kennedy was elected an associate member of the Nova Scotia Institute of Natural Science; in August, 1880, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; in December, 1883, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, Britain; in August, 1884, a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and before leaving Montreal he was a member of both the Natural History and the Microscopical Societies of that city. In the summer of 1869, Dr. G. M. Dawson, F.G.S., of the Canadian Geological Survey, and Professor Kennedy assisted Sir J. W. Dawson in the geological examination of the Devonian rocks of Gaspé Bay. And during a portion of the summer of 1871, in company with J. F. Whiteaves, F.R.S., palæontologist of the Canadian Government Survey, the professor also assisted in dredging, in the Canadian government schooner, for marine life in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. During the summer of 1832, Professor Kennedy commenced dredging the Basin of Minas, Nova Scotia, with the view of studying the marine life in that basin; and the work he is still carrying on. For several years past, as time permits, he has been examining the geology of Nova Scotia, and has also found time to contribute a series of articles to our scientific papers and magazines. He is an adherent of the Episcopal church. On the 17th July, 1878, he was married to Emma, daughter of John D. Longard, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.