government aid towards this undertaking, to the amount of four thousand pounds sterling per mile, and this sum was in consequence of his opposition reduced to three thousands pounds per mile.

The government having determined on charging a higher rate on American vessels passing through the Welland canal than on Canadian vessels, Mr. Young resigned his office of commissioner of public works, and became instrumental in preventing these differential tolls against American shipping.

Mr. Young also originated the idea of having Canada represented in the Exhibition of All Nations, in London, in 1851, and organized the committees throughout the province, to carry it into effect. Again in Parliament, in 1855, he carried a motion to have Canada represenedt at the Industrial Exhibition in Paris. Those exhibitions, all will admit, did more to bring Canada creditably before the notice of the world than anything before or since.

In 1854, Mr. Young was again returned member for Montreal, having been mainly supported by the mercantile interest. He was an active member of the committee of public accounts, while W. L. McKenzie acted as chairman. In 1855, he again was on that committee, and acted as its chairman, and made numerous suggestions on the erroneous system of keeping the public accounts, most of which have been since adopted. Mr. Young declined to come forward again to represent Montreal at the election of 1857, in consequence of ill health; but he has not ceased take to an active part in every public measure affecting the public interests of the city, where he resides.

Mr. Young's advocacy of the proposition for docks at Montreal, and for making available the enormous water power of the river Saint Lawrence, by the fall of its water, from the Lachine canal, has been constant, and although very much opposed, yet there has been a great change in public feeling as to the importance of these works (vast as they appear) to the interest of the province, and especially of Montreal. It is evident, however, that the rapid extension of the interior trade will, sooner than is expected, fully justify Mr. Young in so strongly advocating improvements upon which the future trade of the St. Lawrence depends.

It was owing to Mr. Young's exertions, that the limits of the harbor of Montreal were extended; and he has been unremitting in aiding the extension of the river and harbor accommodations in all directions.

Mr. Young was chairman of the committee of citizens, who so successfully entertained the Prince of Wales, on his late visit to Canada.

He is a member of a Unitarian society, which he did much to establish, and is admitted to be a most liberal and public spirited

citizen. He has raised himself, by his own exertions; and has done as much for the benefit of the people of Montreal as any other man living. His conceptions are grand, and many of these have been realized; to them, and to his indefatigable energy, is the present high and distinguished position which our mercantile metropolis holds in the estimation of Europe and America, as well as much of the prosperity in store for it in the future, may be fairly attributed.

SIR WM. E. LOGAN, F.R.G.S., F.R.S.

SIR WILLIAM LOGAN, the eminent and distinguished geologist, and one of the most scientific men that Canada can boast of having produced, is a Canadian bred and born. He first saw the light in Montreal in 1798. He pursued his studies at the High School of Edinburgh, Scotland; and graduated at the university of that city. In 1818 he entered the mercantile office of his uncle, Mr. Hart Logan, of London, and after a time became a partner in the firm. After returning to Canada for a short time, where his attention was drawn to the geological characteristics of this country, he again crossed the Atlantic in 1829, and took up his residence in South Wales, Swansea, as manager of copper smelting and coal mining operations, in which his uncle was interested; but he left this situation soon after the death of the latter in 1838. During his seven years' residence in South Wales, Mr. Logan devoted himself to the study of the coal field of that region; and his minute and accurate maps and sections were adopted by the ordnance geological survey, and published by the government, under Sir Henry de la Bèche's superintendence. He was the first to demonstrate that the stratum of under clay, as it is called, which always underlies coal beds, was the soil in which the coal vegetation grew. In 1841 Sir William visited the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia; and communicated several valuable memoirs on the subject to the Geological Society of London. At this time he began an examination of the older paleozoic rocks of Canada; and the celebrated geological survey of Canada having been commenced, he was appointed and still continues at its head, a trust which sufficiently indicates the high opinion entertained of his great abilities and attainments by the government. This preference is, however, nothing more than he is entitled to, considering the immense sacrifice which he has made to remain in, and confine his

studies to, a country endeared to him by all the ties of birth and station. It is a well known fact that he has refused several offers from other governments for his services, including India, where a princely fortune is to be made by the geologist. In the course of his investigations upon the rocks of the Eastern Townships, which are the continuation of those of New England, Sir William has shown that, so far from being, as had been supposed, primitive azoic rocks, they are altered and chrystallized paleozoic strata; a fact, which, although suspected, had not hitherto been demonstrated, and which is the key to the geology of North-Eastern America. He found the rocks, which form the Laurentide and Adirondac mountains, previously regarded as unstratified, to be disturbed and altered sedimentary deposits of vast thickness, equal perhaps to all the hitherto known stratified rocks of the earth's crust. In 1851 Sir William represented Canada at the Great Exhibition in London; and had charge of the Canadian geological collection which had been made by himself or under his immediate direction. It was exhibited with great skill and judgment, displaying to the best advantages the mineral resources of Canada. The labor of arranging the specimens was very great, and so enthusiastic was he that frequently he sallied out at eight or ten in the morning, and would work for twelve hours without waiting to take refreshment. He had the satisfaction of knowing that his countrymen appreciated his services. Medals in profusion were allotted to Canada, and the Royal Society of London elected Mr. Logan a fellow, the highest attainable British scientific distinction; he was also a commissioner from Canada at the Industrial Exhibition at Paris in 1855, when he received from the imperial commission the grand gold medal of honor, and was created a knight of the Legion of Honor. He received the honor of knighthood from the Queen's hands, in 1856; and in the same year was awarded by the Geological Society, of which he has long been a member, the Wollaston Palladium medal, for his pre-eminent services in geology.

REV. EGERTON RYERSON, D.D.,

CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION, CANADA WEST.

THIS celebrated divine and public servant whose name has been mixed up in various ways with the history of the country, but principally in developing the admirable educational system of

Upper Canada, is the son of the late Colonel Joseph Ryerson, a United Empire Loyalist of New Jersey, who came from New Brunswick in 1793. He was born in Charlotteville, county of Norfolk, Upper Canada, in 1803; entered the Wesleyan ministry in 1825; was editor of the Christian Guardian (which he established) in 1829; principal of Victoria college, Cobourg, C.W., in 1841; appointed chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada in 1844; made a tour of enquiry in Europe in 1844-5; and founded the present perfect and excellent system of public instruction in Upper Canada in 1846-50, which he has ever since maintained.

He received his degree of doctor of divinity we believe from an American university. He is the author of many Canadian works and pamphlets, principally relating to matters of church and state

THE MOST REV. DR. PIERRE F. TURGEON,

ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF QUEBEC.

THIS distinguished prelate was born at Quebec on the 12th November, 1787; was ordained priest on the 29th April 1810; appointed secretary to Bishop Plessis in December 1808; and continued in that office until October, 1820; was for many years a member of the seminary of Quebec, until he became bishop and coadjutor cum futura successione of the then archbishop of Quebec, by appointment and bulls of the late Pope Gregory XVI, bearing date the 28th February, 1834. He was consecrated under the title of Sidyme, in the Quebec cathedral on the 11th May, 1834, an appointment he mainly owed to his bright abilities and efficiency in the service of his church. M. Turgeon was administrator of the diocese from November, 1849, to October, 1850, when by the death of Dr. Signay, he became archbishop, and was vested with the sacred pallium on the 11th June, 1851. He resigned his office of administrator of the diocese in 1855, in consequence of ill-health, when Dr. C. F. Baillargeon was appointed to the latter office.

HON. MR. JUSTICE C. MONDELET.

CHARLES JOSEPH ELZÉAR MONDELET, assistant-judge of the Court of Queen's Bench, was born at St. Charles, river Chambly, on the 27th December 1801; he was the son of Jean Marie Mondelet, notary, and grandson of Dominique Mondelet, who was born in France and came to Canada under the French government, as assistant army surgeon.

Judge Mondelet was educated partly at the college of Nicolet and partly at the college of Montreal, where he finished his education in 1819; he was then employed, as an assistant, by the astronomical commission appointed to ascertain the position of the boundary line between the United States and Canada under the treaty of Ghent. He studied the law, first with Mr. O'Sullivan, who afterwards became chief-justice of the then Court of King's Bench at Montreal, and completed the period of study with his brother, Dominique Mondelet, Esq., now judge of the Superior Court. was admitted to the bar in 1822, and followed his profession, first at Three Rivers, and next, from 1830, in Montreal, in partnership with his brother, Dominique, and subsequently with Mr. Cherrier, till his (Mr. Mondelet's) appointment in 1842 as district judge for Terrebonne, L'Assomption and Berthier. He was appointed circuit judge at Montreal in 1844; judge of the Superior Court in 1849; judge of the Seigniorial Court in 1855; and assistant-judge in appeals (Court of Queen's Bench) in 1858, in the room of Judge Caron, who was appointed one of the commissioners for codifying the laws of Lower Canada.

From 1822 to 1842 Mr. Mondelet took an active part in the politics of the country, and was twice arrested for political offences, first in 1828, and afterwards in 1838, but was never put on his trial. He and William Walker, Esq., barrister, defended Nicholas and three other individuals, charged with the murder of Chartrand, during the political troubles in 1837; he also, along with Mr. Walker, defended Captain Jalbert, who was charged with the murder of Lieutenant Weir during the troubles.

Mr. Mondelet published in 1840 his Lettres sur l'Education, the suggestions contained in which are said to have been embodied in the school law passed in the first session after the union in 1841.