Thomas Blair Browning

“ VIGER, JACQUES (1787–1858) , Canadian antiquary, only surviving child of Jacques Viger by his wife, Amaranthe Prevost, was born in Montreal on 7 May 1787, and educated at the college of St. Raphael. Denis Benjamin Viger [q. v.] was his cousin. Throughout the war (1812–15) he served as captain under Charles Michel de Salaberry [q. v.] , and afterwards became lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian militia. For some time he was inspector of roads and bridges in Montreal, and did much to improve the sanitary condition of the city. He was chosen first mayor in 1833. ”

“ In 1867, at the instance of English capitalists who looked forward to the building of the Canadian intercolonial railway—one of the conditions of the new federation—Kingsford went once more to Canada, where he remained during the rest of his life. ”

“ The Melbourne cabinet consequently instructed Gosford to adopt as matter of principle the three chief demands of Louis Joseph Papineau [q. v.] and the political agitators in Lower Canada. The first demand that the assembly should have sole control of the waste or crown lands, and the third demand that the legislative council should be elective, were to be accepted absolutely; the second demand, that the assembly should dispose of all revenues independently of the executive, was to be accepted with a proviso which had reference to the civil list. ”

“ Within a week of the opening of the house the complete reorganisation of the ministry which Bagot deemed needful came, and with it opened the real era of responsible government. The more conservative members (Draper, Ogden, Davidson, Sherwood) quickly retired from the executive, and the reform leaders (Baldwin, Lafontaine, Morin, Aylwin) took office. Thus was formed the first colonial cabinet that was really representative of parliament, and responsible to it. ”

“ The acceptance of a purely parliamentary form of colonial government was deemed a hazardous experiment among the extreme tories alike of Canada and of England. Bagot incurred the severe rebuke of Lord Stanley, the colonial minister, who deemed that Bagot had gone too far in his recognition of ministerial responsibility to parliament. ”

“ Despite this warning Gosford set himself, on arriving in Quebec, the hopeless task of conciliating those whom he deemed the Canadian people. They suspected and declined his overtures. His attentions to Papineau and his friends excited much comment and not a little ridicule among the French Canadians. From the English community he held aloof, identifying them, in pursuance of the Irish analogy, with a small office-holding clique whose headquarters were at Quebec. ”

“ The strength of the new ministry was thoroughly tested, but in a house of eighty-eight members its opponents of all shades could not muster more than twenty-eight votes. From this time the terms appropriate to parliamentary rule, as ministry, cabinet, first minister, premier, opposition, leader of opposition, were in current use in Canada. The new ministers did not return to their constituents for re-election till 12 Oct., when the house was prorogued to 18 Nov. It did not meet again during Bagot's tenure of office. ”

“ The firstfruits of his labour, 'Canadian Archæology,' appeared in 1886, and was soon followed by the 'Early Bibliography of Ontario.' He published the first volume of the 'History of Canada' in 1887. The tenth volume, which concludes his task and brings the narrative of events to the union of Upper and Lower Canada (1841) , was printed in 1898, the preface being dated 24 May. Taken as a whole, the work justifies Kingsford's anticipations and the warm reception it received in England and Canada. It is the fullest and fairest presentation of Canadian experience that has been given to the world. ”

“ Sulte's Histoire des Canadiens Français, viii. 101–3; Bibaud's Panthéon Canadien, p. 308; Lareau's Littérature Canadienne, pp. 150, 240; Morgan's Bibliotheca Canadensis, p. 383; Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, ii. ”

“ The English government, however, did not acquiesce except under conditions which Mitchell declined to accept. When in 1871 the Washington treaty was under discussion between the United States and Great Britain, Mitchell's influence led to the insertion of articles whereby the Canadian fisheries were thrown open to the United States for twelve years in consideration of a sum to be ascertained by an arbitration board (arts. xviii–xxv.) . In 1876 Canada was awarded $4,500,000. The Canadian right was thereby clearly established, and its value placed beyond question. ”

“ CAMPBELL, Sir ALEXANDER (1822–1892) , Canadian politician, born at the village of Heydon, near Kingston-upon-Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, on 9 March 1822, was the son of James Campbell, a physician of Scottish parentage, who, after residing for some time in Yorkshire, emigrated to Lachine, Lower Canada, in 1824. Alexander was educated first by the presbyterian minister at Lachine, then in the Roman catholic seminary of St.-Hyacinthe, and, on the removal of the family to Upper Canada, at the Kingston grammar school. He began the study of the law in 1836. ”

“ Arriving in Quebec on 23 Aug. 1835, Gosford assumed the reins of government on 17 Sept., immediately after the departure of Lord Aylmer. He left the colony on 26 Feb. 1838. His term of office, lasting two and a half years and covering the period of the Canadian rebellion, is a dark passage in Canadian history, and still occasions much debate.
His appointment was not received with general favour. As constitutional questions of deep moment were being mooted, the nomination of an unknown and untried man seemed to many hazardous in the extreme. ”

“ The annual yield of the Atlantic fisheries alone rose from $4,186,000 in 1849 to $10,250,000 in 1873.
Mitchell's reputation rests mainly on his conduct of the fisheries negotiations with the United States. The presence of American fishermen on the British North American coasts and bays caused international complications in his department. ‘The shortest way,’ he says, ‘to avoid fishery troubles is for the United States to cease trespassing ... or make a fair bargain.’ Otherwise, he recommended the strict enforcement of the Canadian rights. ”

“ The legislature was content to vote confidence in the ministry and leave their course of action 'unfettered by any expression of opinion other than what had been given by the people and their representatives.' In the final confederation conference which took place at Westminster on 4 Dec. 1866, the New Brunswick delegates had, therefore, a free hand. They made use of it to obtain concessions that gratified the province: a representation of twelve members in the dominion senate and fifteen in the dominion House of Commons ”

“ The Duke of Newcastle, the colonial minister in England, made official objection to Galt's tariff, but he finally accepted Galt's claim to tariff autonomy as the right of a self-governing community. Thenceforth that right has been deemed constitutional under the British system (Can. Sess. Papers, 1860, No. 38) .
In 1862 the government fell in an attempt to carry a militia bill. Two years later Galt was finance minister in the Taché-Macdonald administration. ”

“ Mercier was elected to the House of Commons in 1872 as opposition member for Rouville in the province of Quebec. He was not a candidate at the following elections, and, being unsuccessful in the campaign of 1878, retired from dominion politics. Thereupon (Sir) Henry Gustave Joly, premier of Quebec, offered the post of solicitor-general to Mercier, who accepted the office and held it till the cabinet resigned in October 1879. Mr. Joly retired from the leadership in 1883, whereupon Mercier became liberal leader in the local house, his constituency being Ste.-Hyacinthe. ”

“ Hale's writings which deal with the more general questions of anthropology are scattered through the 'Proceedings' of the British and American Associations for the Advancement of Science, the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Institute, Toronto ”

“ MONCK, Sir CHARLES STANLEY, fourth Viscount Monck in the Irish peerage, and first Baron Monck in the peerage of the United Kingdom (1819–1894) , first governor-general of the dominion of Canada, was born at Templemore, in the county of Tipperary, on 10 Oct. 1819, being the eldest son of Charles Joseph Kelly Monck, third Viscount Monck of Ballytrammon, by Bridget, youngest daughter of John Willington of Killoskehane in the county of Tipperary. ”

“ A coalition cabinet resulted, and in that cabinet Galt was once more finance minister.
Galt was a delegate to the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, 1864. The financial arrangements for the new dominion were his work. In 1865 he came to England to secure their acceptance by the imperial government. While thus engaged in promoting the union, he suddenly resigned on the ground that certain educational provisions contemplated for Lower Canada were unfair to his co-religionists. Steps were taken to reassure him, and he acted as a delegate to the Westminster conference. ”

“ At the request of the governor-general, Charles Poulett Thompson, Lord Sydenham [q. v.] , Baldwin became solicitor-general for Upper Canada in 1840, and next year (2 Feb. 1841) , when the union with Lower Canada came into force. Lord Sydenham invited him to join his executive council. The elections to the united legislative assembly soon followed, and Baldwin was returned for two constituencies. The legislature was summoned to meet in June, but, before that took place, Baldwin's own suspicions of the governor-general's conception of responsible or parliamentary government were aroused. ”

“ His tariff, which was termed protective, aroused keen opposition in England, where it was complained that the increased duties fell mainly on British goods such as cottons, irons, silks, and woollens. Galt made answer in a pamphlet published in London in 1860—‘Canada from 1849 to 1859’—in which he proved the need of increased revenue to meet obligations already incurred. ”

“ GALT, Sir ALEXANDER TILLOCH (1817–1893) , finance minister of Canada, was born at Chelsea, London, on 6 Sept. 1817, the youngest son of John Gait [q. v.] by his wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Alexander Tilloch [q. v.] His elder brother, Sir Thomas Gait (1815–1901) , settled, like himself, in Canada in early life, practised successfully at the Toronto bar, and became in 1869 judge of the court of common pleas in Ontario, and in 1887 chief justice of the court, being knighted in 1888, and retiring in 1894 (Times, 1 July 1901) . ”

“ His cheerful disposition, his readiness to meet all classes of her majesty's subjects, his generous hospitality, coupled with the winning kindness of his wife, captivated the personal regard of a population who were already prepossessed in his favour by reason of their sympathy with the Belgians. ”

“ But, overbearing all opposition in the provincial contest, he resolved to attack the conservative party of the dominion, and, entering warmly into the election to the dominion parliament of 1891, made a serious change in the Quebec delegation to Ottawa. In this he necessarily alienated many of his conservative allies. Further, investigations begun in the senate resulted in tracing to Mercier or his agents the sum of $100,000, part of $260,000 which the local house had voted to the Baie des Chaleurs railway. The money, it was alleged, was spent in the late elections. ”

“ HALE, HORATIO (1817–1896) , anthropologist, born on 3 May 1817, at Newport, New Hampshire, in the United States, was the son of David Hale, a prominent lawyer of Newport, and of Sarah Josepha, his wife. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Hale turned her attention to literature. Entering Harvard College in 1833, Hale showed a marked faculty for languages. ”

“ He accepted office on condition that the ministry should pledge itself publicly to bring about the federation of British North America. The finances of Canada were at the moment in a bad condition, and he had to face a deficit of 600,000l. He reorganised his office, renaming it the department of finance, consolidated the debt then amounting to 11,661,000l., framed a new tariff, and made preparations to lower the rate of interest and obtain a new loan. ”

“ He had no confidence in the majority of his ministerial colleagues, and he approached the governor-general for the purpose of having the council reconstructed on a homogeneous basis. Sydenham declined the proposition, and Baldwin at once retired from office. Lord Sydenham meant by responsible government that his executive should consist of heads of departments who should be solely responsible to him, and that he should in turn be responsible to the imperial parliament. ”

“ In 1856, in answer to a keen popular demand, Canada began the experiment of electing her legislative councillors, and Campbell, standing for the district of Cataraqui, which included Kingston and the county of Frontenac, was returned by a large majority in 1858. ”

“ Other disclosures brought about the resignation of the ministry, and, on the accession of the liberals, Dorion became minister of justice and member of the privy council (7 Nov. 1873) . The laws of the dominion which pertain to elections and election trials are his work. On 1 June 1874 he was appointed chief-justice of the court of queen's bench in Quebec. ”