G SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CANADIANS, AND PERSONS CONNECTED WITH CANADA, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD IN THE HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE DOWN TO BY HENRY J. MORGAN, COMPILER OF "THE TOUR OF H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALES," 1860. QUEBEC: PRINTED 1 PUBLISHED BY HUNTER, ROSE & CO., LONDON: TRUBNER & COMPANY, AMERICAN AND CONTINENTAL LITERARY AGENCY, MDCCCLXII. Can 5610.5.3 HARVARD COLLEGE FEB 18 1919 LIBRARY ENTERED, according to the Act of the Provincial Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, by HENRY JAMES MORGAN, in the office of the Registrar of the Province of Canada. ΤΟ COLONEL THE HONORABLE Sir Allan Napier MacNab, Bart., A. D. C. TO HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, M.L.C., &C. SIR, I am induced by the consideration of my admiration of you, as a Native Canadian, in your several capacities as a soldier, a statesman and a citizen, to venture to dedicate to you these sketches of the lives and characters of your distinguished countrymen, and others connected with the history of Canada, in which you have played so highly important and creditable a part. Trusting that you will pardon me for the liberty I have taken, I beg to remain, Your obedient and humble servant, HENRY J. MORGAN. QUEBEC, January, 1862. "The worth of a state in the long run is the worth of the individuals composing it."-J. S. MILL. "Ir is very certain that no man is fit for everything; but it is almost as certain too, that there is scarcely any one man who is not fit for something, which something nature plainly points out to him by giving him a tendency and propensity to it. Every man finds in himself, either from nature or education (for they are hard to distinguish), a peculiar bent and disposition to some particular character; and his struggling against it is the fruitless and endless labor of Sisyphus. Let him follow and cultivate that vocation, he will succeed in it, and be considerable in one way at least."-LORD CHESTERFIELD'S Miscellaneous Works. "THE chief use of biography consists in the noble models of character in which it abounds. Our great forefathers still live among us in the records of their lives, as well as in the acts they have done and which live also; still sit by us at the table, and hold us by the hand; furnishing examples for our benefit, which we may still study, admire, and imitate. Indeed, whoever has left behind him the record of a noble life has bequeathed to posterity an enduring source of good, for it lives as a model for others to form themselves by in all time to come; still breathing fresh life into us, helping us to reproduce his life anew, and to illustrate his character in other forms. Hence a book containing the life of a true man is full of precious seed; to use Milton's words. It is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.' Such a book never cea es to exercise an elevating influence and a power for good. It may not have the power of the living life of a man ; but it is a record of greatness which we cannot help admiring, and unconsciously imitating while we admire. "The solid foundations of liberty must rest upon individual character, which is also the only sure guarantee for social security and national progress."-DR. SMILES. PREFACE. THE present work has been written during short intervals, which we have been enabled to snatch from office hours, and in the short space of a few months. We do not presume to advance any claims to originality with respect to a great portion of its contents, derived as they have necessarily been from various home and local publications, a list of which is subjoined; nor do we claim for it anything like perfection. We are sensible that it is imperfect, not only in its details, but in the exclusion from its pages of numerous names which ought to have figured in and graced the work; nor has justice, we fear, been done to many whose biographies do appear. These circumstances must not be ascribed to any intentional defect on our part; but we must plead in excuse the inexperience and incapacity of youth in matters with which we have, perhaps, prematurely grappled, the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, and the long period of time which the work covers. In a work of the kind where so much has to be inquired into, studied and examined, in a short space of time, we have laid ourselves under many and deep obligations to numerous persons-noblemen and gentlemen who have kindly responded to our enquiries, and occasionally come to our assistance, aiding us in our adventurous undertaking; and we cannot overlook the material assistance rendered to us by Professor Andrew, M.A., of Quebec. To these parties we return our most sincere and hearty thanks. It is our hope |