Part 30

Mr. Geoffrion is the son of Felix Geoffrion. His mother was the late Catherine Brodeur. He was born at Varennes, Province of Quebec, on the 4th of October, 1832. From 1854 to 1863 he was Registrar for Verchères. In the latter year he was elected member of the House of Assembly for that county--a position which he continued to hold until the Confederation of the Provinces in 1867, from which date he has been returned to the House of Commons regularly at every general election. He has held the Presidency of the Montreal, Chambly and Sorel Railway, conducting the duties of his office with more than average executive ability. In 1874 he did signal service to the country by moving, from his place in Parliament, for a Select Committee to inquire into the causes of the difficulties existing in the North-West Territories in 1869-70. He became Chairman of this important Committee, and prepared the report which was afterwards submitted to Parliament--a report which was remarkable for the clear and concise character of its statements, and for its fulness of detail. In politics Mr. Geoffrion is a Liberal, and the warm and active support which he gave to the late Administration induced Mr. Mackenzie to offer him the portfolio of Minister of Inland Revenue, on the elevation of the Hon. Mr. Fournier to the Department of Justice. On the 8th of July, 1874, he was sworn of the Privy Council of Canada, and on returning to his constituents after accepting office he was reëlected by acclamation. Though by no means showy, his administration of affairs was characterized by executive ability of a high order, as well as by much tact and judgment. He brought to bear on the duties of his office well-trained business habits, a cautious reserve, and a talent which almost amounted to genius in departmental government. In 1876 he became seriously ill, and for a while his life was despaired of. He rallied, however, and was convalescing when his physicians advised rest and freedom from the cares and perplexities of office. He was compelled, therefore, to resign his seat in the Ministry, much to the regret of his colleagues, who were warmly attached to him. His resignation took place in December, 1876, and he was succeeded by Mr. Laflamme. He retained his place in Parliament, however, and at the general election in September, 1878, he was again returned for his old constituency, which he has continued to represent uninterruptedly for a period embracing more than seventeen years. Mr. Geoffrion has all the elements of the practical politician, and is by profession a Notary Public in large and lucrative practice.

In October, 1856, he married Miss Almaide Dansereau, of Verchères, the youngest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Dansereau.

THE HON. JOHN YOUNG.

The late Mr. Young was in every sense of the word a representative man. He was representative of the best and most solid side of the Scottish character, and furnished in his own person a standing answer to the question which has so often been asked--"Why do Scotchmen succeed so well in life?" He succeeded because he was steady, sober, of good abilities, hard-headed, patient, and persevering; and because he did not set up for himself an impossible ideal. Any man similarly equipped for the race of life will be tolerably certain to achieve success; and it is because these characteristics are more commonly found combined among Scotchmen than among the natives of other lands that Scotchmen are more generally successful. John Young began life at the foot of the ladder. He was content to advance step by step, and made no attempt to spring from the lowest to the topmost rung at a single bound. He was content to work for all he won, and his winnings were not greater than his deserts. He left a very decided impress upon the commercial life of his time in his adopted country, and will long be remembered as a useful and public-spirited man. In the industrial history of Montreal he played an important part for forty years, and to him more than to any one else she owes whatever of mercantile preëminence she possesses. His restless enterprise impelled him to conceive large schemes, to the carrying out of which he devoted the best years of his busy life. He would have been no true son of Scotland if he had been altogether unmindful of his own interests, but it may be truly said of him that his own aggrandizement was always subordinated to the public welfare. In the face of strong opposition, he advocated projects which were much better calculated to benefit the public than either to advance his own interests or to conduce to his personal popularity. He was no greedy self-seeker, and despised the avenues whereby many of his contemporaries advanced to wealth and position. There was a "dourness" about his character which would not permit him to bid for popularity. He was independent, self-reliant, and fond of having his own way, as men who have successfully carved their own path in life may be expected to be; but he was always ready to prove that his own way was the right one, and generally succeeded in doing so. He was a theorist, and some of his theories were the result of his own intuition, rather than of any mental training. They were held none the less firmly on that account. People may differ in opinion as to the soundness of some of his views on trade questions, but no one will dispute that his advocacy of them was sincere and disinterested, and that in economical matters he was in many respects in advance of his time. He has left behind him an honourable name, and monuments to his memory are to be found in some of the most stupendous of our public works.

He was born at the seaport town of Ayr, in Scotland, on the 11th of March, 1811. Hugh Allan, who was also destined to be prominently identified with the commerce of Montreal, had been born about six months previously, at Saltcoats, a few miles to the northward, and in the same shire. The parents of John Young were in the humble walks of life, and he was early taught to recognize the fact that it would be necessary for him to make his own way in the world. He was educated at the public school of his native parish, which he attended until he had entered upon his fourteenth year. He was at this time much more mature, both physically and mentally, than most boys of his age, and succeeded, notwithstanding his youth, in obtaining a situation as teacher of the parish school at Coylton, a little village about four miles west of Ayr. Here, for a period of eighteen months, he instructed thirty-five pupils. It would have been safe to predict that a boy of fourteen who could preserve discipline over such a number of scholars, many of whom must have been nearly or quite as old as himself, might safely be trusted to make his way in life. He saved enough money to pay his passage across the Atlantic, and in 1826, soon after completing his fifteenth year, he bade adieu to the associations of his boyhood, and set sail for Canada. He had not been many days in the country ere he obtained a situation in a grocery store, kept by a Mr. Macleod, at Kingston, in the Upper Province. He served his apprenticeship to the grocery business, and then entered the employ of Messrs. John Torrance & Co., wholesale merchants, of Montreal. After remaining as a clerk in this establishment for several years, he, in 1835, formed a partnership with Mr. David Torrance, a son of the senior partner in the firm of John Torrance & Co., and took charge of the Quebec branch of the business, which was carried on under the style of Torrance & Young. He remained in business in Quebec about five years, during the last three of which he carried on business alone, the firm of Torrance & Young having been dissolved in 1837.

In the autumn of 1837, we find him tendering his services to the Government as a volunteer, to aid in the putting down of the rebellion. It appears that he had previously been one of the signatories to a memorial presented to the Earl of Gosford, the Governor-General, pointing out the advisability of adopting some efficient means of defence against the treasonable operations of Mr. Papineau and his adherents. He was enrolled as a Captain in the Quebec Light Infantry on the 27th of November, and did duty with his company during the ensuing winter in keeping night-guard on the citadel. This is the only noteworthy public incident connected with his residence in Quebec. In 1840 he returned to Montreal, and entered into partnership in a wholesale mercantile business with Mr. Harrison Stephens, under the style of Stephens, Young & Co. The business was largely devoted to the Western trade, and Mr. Young thus had his attention prominently directed to the subject of inland navigation. His observations on this and kindred subjects were destined, as will presently be seen, to have important results. His interest, however, was not confined to economic questions. He watched the progress of events with a keen eye, and soon began to be recognized by the citizens of Montreal as an enterprising and public-spirited man. He first came conspicuously before the public of Montreal towards the close of the year 1841. The birth of the Prince of Wales on the 9th of November had given rise to a gushing loyalty on the part of the inhabitants, and a large sum of money was raised to commemorate the event by a costly banquet. Mr. Young's loyalty was undoubted, but his patriotism took a practical and philanthropical shape. At a largely attended public meeting he opposed the expenditure of a large sum in providing a feast which would leave no beneficial traces behind it. He advocated the application of the fund to the purchase of a tract of three hundred acres of land in the neighbourhood of the city, and to the erection thereon of an asylum for the poor. His motion to this effect was carried by a considerable majority, but it was subsequently rescinded, and the money was spent as had first been proposed. It may be mentioned in this connection that when the Prince of Wales visited Montreal nearly nineteen years afterwards, Mr. Young was Chairman of the Reception Committee.

In politics, as well as in commercial matters, Mr. Young entertained liberal views. At the general election of 1844 he was appointed Returning Officer, a position which was far from being a sinecure. The memorable struggle between Sir Charles Metcalfe and his late ministers was then at its height, and was maintained with relentless bitterness on both sides. Party spirit all over the country was of the most pronounced character, and in Montreal it had reached a point bordering on ferocity. Upon Mr. Young devolved the task of preserving peace and order throughout the city, as well as the securing of a fair and free exercise of the franchise. To accomplish these results was a formidable task. It was known that secret and unscrupulous political organizations were at work, and it was not believed possible that the contest could be carried on without rioting and bloodshed. The city was invaded by large bodies of suspicious-looking persons from beyond its limits, some of whom were known to be armed. The aid of the troops was called in, and Mr. Young instituted a rigorous search for secreted weapons. Wherever he found any he took possession of them, without pausing to inquire whether he was

## acting within the strict letter of the law. His nerve, coolness and

resolution stood the city in good stead at that crisis. His arrangements were effective to a marvel. Peace was preserved, and not a single life was lost. His services on this occasion were specially acknowledged by Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, as well as by Sir Richard Jackson and Sir James Hope, the officers commanding the forces in Canada.

In 1846, Sir Robert Peel, roused by the addresses of Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and other leaders of the Anti-Corn-Law League, became a convert to the doctrines of Free Trade, and carried the famous measure whereby those doctrines were imported into the law of Great Britain. The tidings of the passing of this measure were received by the bulk of the Canadian population with dissatisfaction. Trade questions were but little understood in Canada by the general public in those times, and a protective policy was commonly regarded as an absolute necessity. On the other hand Mr. Young, the late Luther H. Holton, and others conspicuous in the mercantile world of Montreal, were out-and-out Free Traders, and received the intelligence with much satisfaction. A club known as the Free Trade Association was organized by them in Montreal for the purpose of making Free Trade principles popular. Mr. Young became President of this Association, which included many of the leading thinkers of Montreal. A weekly newspaper, called _The Canadian Economist_, was started under its auspices, for the purpose of disseminating Free Trade views, and educating the people in the doctrines of political economy. To this paper, which was published for about sixteen months, and which exerted a great influence upon public opinion, Mr. Young was a frequent contributor. During the same period he devoted himself vigorously to advocating the deepening of the natural channel of the St. Lawrence, where the river widens itself into Lake St. Peter. By his personal observations and representations he succeeded in inducing the Government to abandon the attempt to construct a new channel, and to deepen and widen the natural one, whereby the largest ocean steamers were enabled to reach the wharfs of Montreal. The accomplishment of all this was a work of some years, but Mr. Young, as Chairman of the Montreal Harbour Commission, never ceased to urge upon the Government the necessity of its completion. He also devoted himself to the carrying out of other public works of importance, some of which were accomplished at the expense of the Government, and others out of his own resources and those of his friends. The public benefits conferred by him upon the city of Montreal, and in a less degree upon the Province at large, were far-reaching and incalculable. When the St. Lawrence Canals were opened for traffic, in 1849, he despatched the propeller _Ireland_ with the first cargo of merchandise over the new route direct to Chicago; and on her return trip she brought the first cargo of grain direct from Chicago to Montreal. His commercial ventures were by this time conducted on a very large scale, and the first American schooner which found its way eastward by means of the new canals was freighted with his merchandise. There was a sudden and tremendous increase in the shipping-trade between the West and Montreal, and there were frequent attempts to prevent the unloading of cargo by artificial means. Mr. Young applied to the Government to interpose, and the result was an organized Water Police which soon put a stop to the ruffianism of the obstructionists.

Mr. Young was also one of the original projectors of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railway, connecting Montreal and Portland; and was a zealous promoter of the line westward from Montreal to Kingston. When these two schemes became merged in the Grand Trunk Line, he suggested a bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal. He even went so far as to suggest the precise place where it was most advisable that the bridge should be constructed, and at his own expense employed Mr. Thomas C. Keefer to make a plan and survey. The prejudice against the scheme, however, was very great, and Mr. Young was compelled to uphold it by means of numerous pamphlets, newspaper articles, and public speeches, as well as by private influence, with extraordinary zeal and pertinacity. The physical difficulties to be encountered, the financial considerations, and the political complications arising out of the relations between the Grand Trunk and the Government, were all serious obstacles to success, while professional controversies raged hotly over the various points connected with the engineering operations for the completion of such an undertaking. After encountering an amount of opposition which would have discouraged a less persistent man, he succeeded in obtaining favour for his project, and the final result was the construction of the Victoria Bridge, which spans the river at the exact spot which he had first suggested.

Another of his schemes was the construction of a canal connecting Caughnawaga, on the St. Lawrence, with Lake Champlain. This was for a time taken up by the Government with much favour, and several surveys were made by different engineers at great cost to the public. After proceeding thus far, the project was permitted to lapse, though a kindred scheme has since been carried to a successful completion. Several other important schemes of his for developing the resources of the country were characterized by the Government of the day as plausible in theory, but really impracticable.

His entry into political life interfered, for a time, with the realization of some of his favourite projects. He first came conspicuously before the public as a politician at the general election of 1847, when he proposed Mr. Lafontaine as member for Monteal. During the ensuing campaign he threw the whole weight of his influence into the scale on Mr. Lafontaine's behalf, and the latter was returned by a considerable majority. When Mr. Lafontaine and his colleague, Mr. Baldwin, retired from public life in 1851, Mr. Young was invited by Mr. Hincks to enter Parliament and accept a seat in the Cabinet. He accordingly offered himself to the electors of Montreal as Mr. Lafontaine's successor. His candidature was warmly opposed. His Free Trade opinions were objectionable to certain classes in the constituency, and his advocacy of the Caughnawaga Canal scheme, which some held to be inimical to Montreal interests, was another ground of opposition. His well known desire to promote what is now called the Intercolonial Railway also awakened hostility. The contest was close, but he was returned at the head of the poll. In the month of October following he was sworn in as Commissioner of Public Works in the Hincks-Morin Administration, and at the same time became a member of the Board of Railway Commissioners. He soon afterwards proceeded with Mr. Hincks and Mr. Taché to the Maritime Provinces, to promote the construction of the Intercolonial, although he differed with some of his colleagues as to the route to be adopted. He favoured the route over the St. John River to St. John, and thence to Halifax. About the same time, or very shortly afterwards, he recommended the establishment of a line of Atlantic steamers, subsidized by the Government. The construction of lighthouses, the shortening of the passage to and from Europe by the adoption of the route _viâ_ the Straits of Belleisle, and the development of the magnificent water powers of the Ottawa, were all matters that received his attention during his tenure of office. He differed from Mr. Hincks as to the plan on which the Grand Trunk Railway should be constructed, and opposed its construction by a private corporation. Mr. Hincks, however, had his own way about the matter, although, in deference to Mr. Young's views, the subsidy to the Company was reduced £1,000 per mile. After remaining in the Cabinet about eleven months Mr. Young withdrew, owing to a difference of opinion with his colleagues with respect to placing differential tolls on American vessels passing through the Welland Canal. He opposed the imposition of increased duties on foreign shipping as being in his opinion vicious in principle. The question of Free Trade was involved in the dispute, and Mr. Young was not disposed to give way an inch. The single report presented by him to the House during his Commissionership is full of valuable matter, and plainly shows the bias and texture of his mind.

He continued to sit in the House as a private member throughout the then-existing Parliament. At the general election of 1854 he was again returned for the city of Montreal. During the ensuing sessions, though he did not accept office, he was a very serviceable member of committees. In 1856 he was Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, and introduced some important improvements in the method of tabulating items. At the general election of 1858 he declined re-nomination, as his health was far from good, and he was desirous of repose from public life. In 1863 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Montreal West, his successful opponent being the late Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Nine years elapsed before he again offered himself as a candidate for Parliamentary honours. In 1872 he once more came out for Montreal West, when he was returned by a majority of more than 800. Two years later he bade a final adieu to political life, in order to give his undivided attention to various commercial and industrial enterprises with which he was connected. He continued, however, to take a keen interest in public affairs, and to do his utmost to promote the interior trade of Canada and the carrying trade of the lakes and St. Lawrence. He never ceased to advocate the establishment of reciprocity between Canada and the United States. In 1875 he was Chairman of a commission appointed to consider the bearing a Baie Verte canal would have on the interests of Canadian commerce; and after a very exhaustive inquiry he prepared a report unfavourable to the project.

In addition to the projects already mentioned in the course of this sketch as having been actively promoted by Mr. Young, he did much to enhance the due representation of Canada at the various International Exhibitions, and the last public appointment filled by him was that of Canadian Commissioner to the International Exhibition at Sydney, Australia, in 1877. He also took an active interest in ocean telegraphy, and in the improvement of the harbours of Canada. After his retirement from Parliament he filled the office of Flour Inspector of the Port of Montreal on behalf of the Government. He continued to identify himself with every local measure of public importance down to the time of his death, which took place at his home in Montreal, on Friday, the 12th of April, 1878. The funeral, which was attended by a great concourse of influential citizens, was on the 15th. The local press did due honour to his memory, and bore unanimous testimony to the fact that Canada, and more especially the city of Montreal, had sustained a grievous loss by his death.

A few additional incidents in Mr. Young's career may as well be added in this place. He was twice sent to Washington as Canada's representative to bring about satisfactory trade relations between this country and the United States. The first of these missions was undertaken in 1849, during the existence of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Administration. The second was fourteen years afterwards, during the tenure of office of the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Government, in 1863. He also made frequent trips to Great Britain, generally on private business of his own, but sometimes on quasi-diplomatic missions connected with industrial matters. He was twice shipwrecked; once during a passage in the _Anglo Saxon_, of the Allan Line, on her passage from Liverpool to Quebec; and once during a passage on the Inman steamer _City of New York_, bound for Liverpool.