Part 31

It has been seen that he was a Reformer in political and commercial matters. In theology his views were not less liberal. He was brought up a strict Presbyterian, but had scarcely reached manhood ere he discarded many of the tenets of that Body. He embraced Unitarianism, and was largely instrumental in spreading Unitarian doctrines in the city of his adoption. As a writer, his style was homely and unpolished, but terse and vigorous. His writings did much to form public opinion in Canada on matters connected with Free Trade, and on commercial matters generally. In addition to his frequent contributions to the newspaper press he published numerous pamphlets on trade and industrial topics, and contributed the article on Montreal to the eighth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.

THE RIGHT REV. HIBBERT BINNEY, D.D.,

_BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA._

Bishop Binney is a son of the late Rev. Dr. Binney, formerly Rector of Newbury, Berkshire, England. He was born in Nova Scotia in 1819, but was sent to England in his youth, for the purpose of receiving a thorough university education. He was placed at King's College, London, where he made great progress in his studies, and obtained high standing. After spending some time there, he entered Worcester College, Oxford, where he obtained a Fellowship. He graduated in 1842, taking first-class honours in mathematics and second-class in classics. During the same year he was ordained a Deacon, and in 1843 was ordained to the Priesthood. He obtained from his College the degree of M.A. in 1844.

In 1846 he was appointed Tutor of his College, and in 1848 was appointed Bursar. The See of Nova Scotia having become vacant in 1851, he was nominated Bishop of that Province, and on the 25th of March in that year he was consecrated at Lambeth by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of London, Oxford, and Chichester. He immediately afterwards proceeded to Halifax, where he has ever since resided. His first exercise of the Episcopal office was at an Ordination whereat six candidates were admitted to the Diaconate, and one to the Priesthood.

In 1855 Bishop Binney married Miss Mary Bliss, a daughter of the Hon. W. B. Bliss, a Puisné Judge of Nova Scotia. Independently of the high position which he occupies, he is regarded as one of the foremost men connected with the Church of England in this country. His classical, mathematical and theological erudition are of a very high order, and he is said to be intellectually the peer of any colonial Bishop now living. His Anglicanism is high, but his views on ecclesiastical matters generally are broad and statesmanlike, and he is regarded with great reverence by the clergy and professors of all creeds in his native Province. By his own clergy he is universally beloved, and a great part of his life since his elevation to the Episcopal Bench has been devoted to the promotion of their spiritual and temporal welfare. His name will be long held in remembrance for his successful exertions on behalf of the Church of England in Nova Scotia. Many of his sermons and charges to the Clergy display a high degree of eloquence, and several of them have been published. A Pastoral Letter, including important correspondence between himself and the Rev. George W. Hill, the present Chancellor of the University of Halifax, was published in that city in 1866.

[Illustration: HIBERT BINNEY, signed as H. NOVA SCOTIA]

The See of Nova Scotia, over which Bishop Binney's jurisdiction extends, formerly embraced a very wide area, including the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and the Island of Newfoundland. It is now confined to the Province of Nova Scotia and the Island of Prince Edward.

THE HON. CHRISTOPHER FINLAY FRASER.

Mr. Fraser is a Canadian by birth, but is of Celtic origin on both sides. His father, Mr. John S. Fraser, was a Scottish Highlander who emigrated to Canada a few years before the birth of the subject of this sketch, and settled in the Johnstown District. His mother, whose maiden name was Miss Sarah Burke, was of Irish birth and parentage.

He was born at Brockville, the chief town of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, in the month of October, 1839. His parents were in humble circumstances, and could do little to advance his prospects in life. He was a clever, brilliant boy, however, and from his earliest years was animated by an honourable ambition to rise. He struggled manfully to obtain an education, and did not hesitate to put his hand to whatever employment would further this end. When not much more than a child he was apprenticed to the printing business in the office of the Brockville _Recorder_. How long he remained there we have no means of ascertaining, but he succeeded, by dint of perseverance and good natural ability, in obtaining what he so much desired--an education. He determined to study law, and in or about the year 1859 he entered the office of the present Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, the Hon. Albert N. Richards, who then practised the legal profession at Brockville. Here he studied hard, and laid the foundation of his future success in life. Having completed his term of clerkship, he was admitted as an attorney and solicitor in Easter Term, 1864. He settled down to practice in Brockville, where he was well known, and where he soon succeeded in acquiring a good business connection. In Trinity Term, 1865, he was called to the Bar. Even during his student days he had taken a keen interest in the political questions of the times, and had worked hard at the local elections on the Liberal side. He had not been long at the Bar ere he began to be looked upon as an available candidate for Parliament. At the first general election under Confederation, held in 1867, he offered himself as a candidate for the Local House to the electors of his native town. He was defeated by a small majority, but made a good impression upon the electors during the canvass, and established his reputation as a ready speaker on the hustings. At the general election held four years later he offered himself to the electors of South Grenville, but was again unsuccessful, being defeated by the late Mr. Clark. Two years previous to this time he had, as an Irish Catholic, taken a conspicuous part with Mr. John O'Donohoe and Mr. Jeremiah Merrick, of Toronto, Mr. McKeown, of St. Catharines, and others, in forming what is known as the Ontario Catholic League. This League was formed under the impression that the co-religionists of its promoters in this Province were not receiving the amount of patronage to which they were entitled by reason of their numbers and influence.

Within a short time after the elections of 1871, Mr. Clark, who had defeated Mr. Fraser in South Grenville, died, and the constituency was thus left without a representative in the Ontario Legislature. Mr. Fraser accordingly offered himself once more to the electors in the month of March, 1872, and was returned at the head of the poll. A petition was filed against his return, and he was unseated, but upon returning to his constituents for reëlection in the following October he was once more successful. A year later he was offered a seat in the Executive Council, as Provincial Secretary and Registrar, which he accepted. He returned for reëlection after accepting office, and was reëlected by acclamation. He retained this position until the 4th of April, 1874, when he became Commissioner of Public Works. The latter position he still retains. In the conduct of this important department Mr. Fraser has displayed administrative talents of a high order, and has proved himself a most capable public official. He originated, prepared, and successfully carried through the Act giving the right of suffrage to farmers' sons. He is a ready and fluent debater, and is always listened to with respect by the House, where he is regarded as one of the representative Roman Catholics of Ontario. His position, both in the House and out of it, has been honestly won, and his influence among his colleagues in the Government is fully commensurate with his abilities.

He was reëlected for South Grenville at the general election of 1875. At the general election held in June, 1879, he again contested the South Riding of Grenville against Mr. F. J. French, of Prescott, but was defeated by a majority of 137 votes. In his native town of Brockville he was more successful, 1,379 votes being recorded for him as against 1,266 for his opponent, Mr. D. Mansell. He now sits in the House as member for Brockville. He is President of the Roman Catholic Literary Association of Brockville, and takes a warm interest in municipal affairs.

In 1876 Mr. Fraser was created a Queen's Counsel. His wife was formerly Miss Lafayette, of Brockville.

SANDFORD FLEMING, C.E., C.M.G.

Mr. Fleming's connection with some of our most stupendous public works has been the means of making his name known in every corner of the Dominion. Though not a Canadian either by birth or education, he is permanently identified with Canadian enterprise, and his name is distinctly and permanently recorded in our country's annals. He was born at the seaport and market-town of Kirkcaldy, in Fifeshire, Scotland--a distinction which he shares in common with the illustrious author of "The Wealth of Nations." His father was an artisan named Andrew Greig Fleming. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Arnot. The families to which both parents belonged have been settled on the shores of Fife for more than a century, and the names of Fleming and Arnot are common there at the present day. The subject of this sketch was born on the 7th of January, 1827. In his childhood he attended a small private school in Kirkcaldy, and afterwards, when he was about ten years of age, passed to the local grammar-school. He displayed much aptitude for mathematics, and made great progress in that branch of study. When he was still a mere boy he was articled to the business of engineering and surveying, and after serving his time began to look about him for suitable employment. He was fond of his profession, and conscious of his ability. His prospects were not such as to satisfy his ambition, and in 1845 he emigrated to Canada, and took up his abode in the Upper Province. For some years after his arrival in this country his prospects did not seem much more alluring than before. There was comparatively little employment of an important character for a man of Mr. Fleming's attainments in those days, and he made but slow headway. He resided for some time in Toronto, and took an active part in the founding of the Canadian Institute, "for the purpose of promoting the physical sciences, for encouraging and advancing the industrial arts and manufactures, for effecting the formation of a Provincial museum, and for the purpose of facilitating the acquirement and the dissemination of knowledge connected with the surveying, engineering, and architectural professions." Soon afterwards--in 1852--he obtained employment on the engineering staff of the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway, the first section of which (from Toronto to Aurora) was opened to the public on the 16th of May, 1853. Mr. Fleming took a conspicuous part in the work of construction, and in process of time was promoted to the position of Engineer-in-Chief of the line. He remained in the employ of the company (the name of which was changed in 1858 to that which it has ever since borne--the Northern Railway Company) about eleven years. During much of this period he also did a good deal of professional work in connection with the Toronto Esplanade, and other important enterprises. In his professional capacity he visited the Red River country, to examine as to the feasibility of a railway connecting that region with Canada. At the request of the inhabitants there he proceeded to England on their behalf in 1863, as bearer of a memorial from them to the Imperial Government, praying that a line of railway might be constructed which would afford them direct access to Canada, without passing over United States territory. Upon Mr. Fleming's arrival in London he had repeated conferences on the subject with the late Duke of Newcastle, who was then Colonial Secretary. How this project was indefinitely postponed, and was subsequently merged in the greater scheme of a Trans-continental line of railway, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is well known to every reader of these pages. Immediately after Mr. Fleming's return to Canada in 1863 he was appointed by the Governments of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and subsequently by that of the mother country, to conduct the preliminary survey of a line of railway which should form a connecting link between the Maritime Provinces and the Canadas. The project of constructing such a road, though agitated at various times, did not take a practical shape until the accomplishment of Confederation, when the work of construction was made obligatory upon the Government and Parliament of Canada by the 145th clause of the Act of Union. The whole of this great undertaking was successfully carried out under Mr. Fleming's supervision as Chief Engineer, and the Intercolonial was opened throughout for public traffic on the 1st of July--the natal day of the Dominion--1876. A few weeks later Mr. Fleming published a history of the enterprise, under the title of "The Intercolonial: an Historical Sketch of the inception and construction of the line of railways uniting the inland and Atlantic Provinces of the Dominion."

When British Columbia entered the Dominion, on the 20th of July, 1871, it was agreed that within ten years from that date a line of railway should be constructed from the Pacific Ocean to a point of junction with the existing railway systems in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Mr. Fleming's services in connection with the Intercolonial Railway marked him out as the most suitable man in the Dominion to prosecute the preliminary surveys of the Canadian Pacific. Accordingly his services were secured by the Government for that purpose, and he was appointed Chief Engineer. In the summer of 1872 he started across the continent on a tour of inspection. He was attended by a capable staff of assistants. Among the latter was the Rev. George M. Grant, the present Principal of Queen's College, Kingston, who accompanied the expedition in the capacity of Secretary. The party left Toronto on the 16th of July, 1872, and travelling by way of Sault Ste. Marie, Nepigon, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Forts Carlton and Edmonton, the Rocky Mountains, Kamloops and Bute Inlet, reached Victoria, B.C., on the 9th of October following. Those who wish to inform themselves as to the literary and social aspects of that momentous journey may consult Mr. Grant's journal, as it appears in the pages of "Ocean to Ocean." Those who wish to know the scientific and more practical results of the expedition can only become acquainted with them through Mr. Fleming's elaborate report.

Mr. Fleming continued to be the Government Engineer until about a year ago, when he resigned his position, owing as it is understood, to some difference of opinion with the Government as to the location of the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. His topographical knowledge of the country is unrivalled, and his professional standing is such as might be expected from the importance of the great public works which he has superintended. In recognition of his talents, and of his services to Canada and the Empire, Her Majesty some time ago conferred upon him the dignity of a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

In addition to the work on the Intercolonial already mentioned, and to many elaborate and voluminous reports upon the various enterprises wherewith he has been connected, Mr. Fleming has contributed numerous interesting and instructive papers to the _Canadian Journal_ and other scientific periodicals. He has also written many articles on subjects connected with his profession for the daily press. Within the last few months a proposition of his with respect to the establishment of a new prime meridian for the world, 180° from Greenwich, has been approved of by the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, Russia, the secretary whereof recently conveyed information of the fact in a letter addressed to the Governor-General of Canada.

In the autumn of last Year (1880) Mr. Fleming was elected Chancellor of Queen's University, Kingston, and upon his installation delivered a very eloquent inaugural address.

On the 3rd of January, 1855, he married Miss Ann Jean Hall, daughter of the Sheriff of the county of Peterboro'.

THE HON. DAVID LEWIS MACPHERSON,

_SPEAKER OF THE SENATE._

Senator Macpherson is a member of the famous sept whose hereditary feud with the McTavishes forms an episode in the history of the Highland clans, and likewise forms the groundwork of one of the most characteristic of Professor Aytoun's ballads. He is the youngest son of the late David Macpherson, of Castle Leathers, near Inverness, Scotland, where he was born on the 12th of September, 1818. He received his education at the Royal Academy of Inverness. He was enterprising and ambitious, and upon leaving school, in his seventeenth year, he emigrated to Canada, where one of his elder brothers had long been established in a very lucrative business as the senior partner in the firm of Macpherson, Crane & Co., of Montreal. The business carried on by this firm was known in those days as "forwarding," and consisted of conveying merchandise from one part of the country to another. They performed the greater part of the carrying business which is now conducted by the various railway companies, and their operations were on a very extensive scale. Their wagons were to be found on all the principal highways, and their vessels were seen in every lake, harbour, and important river from Montreal to the mouth of the Niagara, and up the Ottawa as far as Bytown. The future senator entered the service of this firm immediately after his arrival in the country, and remained in it as a clerk for seven years, when (in 1842) he was admitted as a partner. He directed such of the operations of the firm as came under his supervision with great energy and judgment, and achieved a decided pecuniary success. When the railway era set in, and threatened to divert the course of trade from its old channels, he seized the salient points of the situation, and began to interest himself in the various railway projects of the times. In conjunction with the late Mr. Holton and the present Sir Alexander Galt, he in 1851 obtained a charter for constructing a line of railway from Montreal to Kingston. This scheme was subsequently merged in the larger one of the Grand Trunk, and the charter which had been granted to the Montreal and Kingston Company was repealed. The principal members of that Company, including the subject of this sketch, then allied themselves with Mr. Gzowski, under the style of Gzowski & Co., and on the 24th of March, 1853, obtained a contract for constructing a line of railway westward from Toronto to Sarnia. Mr. Macpherson then removed to Toronto, where he has ever since resided. The result of the railway contract was to make him thoroughly independent of the world, and it is only justice to himself and his partners to say that the contract was faithfully carried out.

In conjunction with Mr. Gzowski, Mr. Macpherson has since engaged in the construction of several important undertakings, among which may be mentioned the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, the London and St. Mary's Railway, and the International Bridge across the Niagara River at Buffalo. Mr. Macpherson was also a partner in the Toronto Rolling Mills Company which was conducted with great success until the introduction of steel rails caused its products to be no longer in great demand.

[Illustration: DAVID LEWIS MACPHERSON, signed as D. L. MACPHERSON]

Mr. Macpherson has never been known as a very pronounced partisan in political matters, though his leanings have always been towards Conservatism, and on purely political questions he has been a supporter of that side. The structure of his mind, however, unfits him for dealing effectively with party politics, and he never appears to less advantage than when he ascends the party platform. His natural bent is the practical. He believes in building up the country by means of great public works, and in making it a desirable place of residence. His entry into public life dates from October, 1864, when he successfully contested the Saugeen Division for the Legislative Council. He was at first opposed by the Hon. John McMurrich, who had represented the Division for eight years previously. That gentleman, however, retired from the contest, and another Reform candidate took the field, in the person of Mr. George Snider, of Owen Sound. His opposition was not serious, and Mr. Macpherson was returned by a majority of more than 1,200 votes. He sat in the Council for the Saugeen Division until Confederation, when, in May, 1867, he was called to the Senate by Royal Proclamation. He has ever since been a prominent member of that Body, and has taken an intelligent part in its discussions. His speeches on Confederation, and on the settlement of the waste lands of the Crown, were broad and liberal in tone, and won for him the respect of many persons who had previously known nothing of him beyond the fact of his being a remarkably successful railway contractor. In 1868, at the instance of the Ontario Government, he was appointed one of the arbitrators to whom, in the terms of the British North America Act, was to be referred the adjustment of the public debt and assets between the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. With him were associated the Hon. Charles Dewey Day, on behalf of the Province of Quebec, and the Hon. John Hamilton Gray--now one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of British Columbia--on behalf of the Dominion. The case on the part of Ontario was elaborately prepared by the Hon. E. B. Wood. Senator Macpherson discharged his duties as an arbitrator with perfect fairness and impartiality, alike to the Dominion and to the Province which he represented. The conclusion arrived at by him and the arbitrator on behalf of the Dominion, however, was not accepted by Mr. Day on behalf of the Province of Quebec. It was accordingly contended by that Province that the award was nugatory for want of unanimity. The matter was appealed to the Privy Council in England, and the decision of that body was confirmatory of the award. In 1869 he published a pamphlet on Banking and Currency, which was widely read and commented upon.