Part 101

=Jetté, Hon. Louis A.=, LL.D., Montreal, Judge of the Superior Court, was born at L’Assomption, province of Quebec, on the 15th January, 1836. His father was Amable Jetté, merchant, whose ancestors came to Canada from near Tours, in France, in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. His mother, Caroline Gauffreau, was also of French descent. Her grandfather was a planter in St. Domingo when that island was under French rule, but left during some political troubles, and came to Canada. Judge Jetté, the subject of our sketch, received his literary education at L’Assomption College, and afterwards studied law (first) with Pelletier & Belanger, barristers, and afterwards with David & Ramsay, barristers. He was called to the bar in February, 1857. He practised his profession in Montreal from that date until he was appointed to the bench, on 2nd September, 1878. While at the bar Hon. Mr. Jetté greatly distinguished himself; and in the celebrated Guibord case he won an almost world-wide reputation for legal ability. In an extended review of the case, the _Belgique Judiciaire_, of Belgium, Europe, thus spoke of him, quoting largely from his pleading: “This speech, like all the pleadings of Mr. Jetté, has a tone remarkable for sincerity and loyalty. Mr. Jetté appears to us, moreover, to be an advocate of great merit, who must hold the front rank at every bar where he has a great cause to plead. * * * Voltaire, hearing the speech of Mr. Jetté, at Montreal, would find himself more comfortable than at the Court of Appeals at Paris, or in the Legislative Assembly at Versailles.” At one period of his life Judge Jetté was greatly interested in politics, and was a pronounced Liberal. At the general election in 1872 he contested Montreal East, and succeeded in beating the late Sir George E. Cartier, baronet, the then great statesman and leading Conservative in the province of Quebec, having polled the unprecedented majority of twelve hundred votes. This great triumph produced at the time great enthusiasm among the judge’s _confrères_. At the general election held in 1874, he was re-elected by acclamation; served through the session of the House of Commons at Ottawa in 1878, and in the spring of that year was offered a seat in the cabinet of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, who then held the reins of government. But he declined the proffered honor, having decided to retire from political life. In the summer of 1878 he visited Europe, and while in Paris he received, by telegram, the information that he had been appointed to a seat on the bench of the Superior Court of his native province, and requesting his immediate return. Since his elevation to the bench he has fully realized the most sanguine expectations of his friends, and no judge in the province is more respected than he. Amongst the important cases he has been called to decide, since his appointment to the bench, we may mention: 1st. the liberation from the lunatic asylum of Mrs. Lynam, a poor unfortunate woman who had been kept there for nearly two years, a case which, three or four years ago, attracted the attention of everyone in the Dominion, and led to an investigation by the provincial government in the management of those institutions; 2nd. the Laramée and Evans case, where he stated, in a most exhaustive judgment, the law of the province on the subject of marriage, a judgment which was deemed so important that, on motion of Hon. E. Blake, a copy of it was laid on the table of the House of Commons; 3rd. the case of Dobie and the Board of Temporalities of the Presbyterian church; 4th. the case of Lambe vs. the Insurance Companies, for the recovery of the tax imposed on those companies by the provincial government of Quebec, where he maintained the constitutionality of the provincial law, being confirmed in that view by her Majesty’s Privy Council. Judge Jetté is a corresponding member of _La Société de Legislation Comparée de Paris_; and is also a corresponding editor of the _Revue de Droit International_ of Ghent, Belgium. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Laval University, Quebec, in 1878, and is professor of law in the Montreal branch of the same celebrated institution of learning. In 1862 he married Berthe Laflamme, daughter of the late Toussaint Laflamme, merchant, Montreal, and sister of Hon. R. Laflamme, minister of justice in the Mackenzie government.

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=McLellan, Hon. David=, Lumber Merchant, Indiantown, M.P.P. for St. John city and county, New Brunswick, was born in Portland, N.B., on the 20th of January, 1839. His father, David McLellan, was by trade a shipbuilder, emigrated from Kelton, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and settled in the Maritime provinces many years ago. His mother, Mary Knight, was a descendant of a Quaker family in Pennsylvania, United States. Mr. McLellan received his education chiefly in a commercial and mathematical school in St. John, taught by William Mills, and acquired a good mental outfit with which to begin life. After leaving school he commenced business as a surveyor and dealer in lumber, and is now the senior member of the firm of McLellan & Holly, doing a large trade in lumber in the rough, handling over 60,000,000 superficial feet of logs annually. He entered political life in 1878, and at the general election of that year was elected to represent the city and county of St. John, in the New Brunswick legislature. He again, at the general election held in 1882, presented himself for re-election, and was returned by his old constituency. On the 28th July, 1883, he was sworn in a member of the Executive Council, and was appointed provincial secretary in the Blair administration, in place of the late Hon. Wm. Elder. His acceptance of office necessitated another appeal to the electors, and he was again elected. At the general election held in 1886 he was once more chosen by a large majority. Hon. Mr. McLellan is president of the Board of Agriculture for the province of New Brunswick. He is a Freemason, and also belongs to the fraternity of Oddfellows. In politics he is a pronounced Reformer; and in religion, an adherent of the Baptist church. In December, 1864, he was married to Fanny B. Richards, daughter of Henry Richards, of St. John, N.B., and has had a family of four children—two sons and two daughters, one of the boys died in infancy.

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=Taschereau, Hon. Henri Elzéar=, Judge of the Supreme Court, Ottawa, was born at the Seignorial Manor house, Ste. Marie de la Beauce, county of Beauce, province of Quebec, on the 7th of October, 1836. He is the eldest son of the late Pierre Elzéar Taschereau, and a near relative to Cardinal Taschereau. His father was, prior to the union of the provinces, for many years a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and after the union he was also a representative in the parliament of the united provinces. He had married Catherine Hénédine, a daughter of the late Hon. Amable Dionne, who was also at one time a member of the Legislative Council. The founder of the family, Thomas Jacques Taschereau, settled in the province of Quebec several years before the conquest. Many members of the Taschereau family have achieved high distinction in Canada, no less than seven of its members having occupied seats on the judicial bench. The subject of our sketch was sent to the Quebec Seminary, and after completing his classical studies, studied law in the office of his cousin, the Hon. Jean Thomas Taschereau, one of the most eminent lawyers of the province of Quebec, who was appointed a puisné judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion on its formation in 1875, and was superannuated some years ago. In October, 1857, Mr. Taschereau was called to the bar of Lower Canada, and formed a partnership with his cousin, the eminent jurist above mentioned, and they practised their profession at Quebec. He soon gained a high reputation as a lawyer, and subsequently entered into partnership with William Duval and Jean Blanchet, who afterwards became speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, and of the House of Commons at Ottawa. In 1861, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the county of Beauce, and continued to represent that constituency until confederation, when, at the general election of 1867, he was unsuccessful as a candidate for the House of Commons. During that year he was made a Queen’s counsel, and the following year he was appointed clerk of the peace for the district of Quebec, a position which he held only three days, resigning at the end of that time on account of a misunderstanding with the government. He then devoted himself to professional pursuits, and on the 12th of January, 1871, he was appointed a puisné judge of the Superior Court of the province of Quebec, and held that position until the 7th of October, 1878, when he was elevated to his present position of a judge of the Supreme Court of the Dominion. As a law writer, Judge Taschereau is an authority, he having written several important works, among which we may mention “The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts of 1869, 32-33 Vict., for the Dominion of Canada, as amended and in force on the 1st November, 1874, in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and on the 1st of June, 1875, in British Columbia, with Notes, Commentaries, Precedents of Indictments,” etc., etc., in two volumes, the first of which was published in Montreal in 1874, and contains 796 pages. The second volume, containing 556 pages, was published in Toronto in 1875. Both volumes display much erudition, and have been highly commended by competent legal authorities, among others by C. S. Greaves, an English Queen’s counsel, and one of the most eminent contemporary writers on English jurisprudence. “Le Code de Procédure Civile du Bas-Canada, avec annotations” was published in 1876, and also received high commendation from legal critics. The Hon. Judge Taschereau married, on the 27th of May, 1857, Marie Antoinette de Lotbinière Harwood, a daughter of the Hon. R. U. de Lotbinière Harwood, a member of the Legislative Council of Quebec, and seigneur of Vaudreuil, near Montreal. Mrs. Taschereau is a sister of Lieut.-Col. de Lotbinière Harwood. They have a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. Hon. Judge Taschereau has his residence in Ottawa, and is joint proprietor of the seigniory of Ste. Marie de la Beauce, conceded to his great-grandfather in the year 1726.

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=Williams, Right Rev. James W.=, D.D., Bishop of Quebec, was born in the town of Overton, Hampshire, England, on the 15th September, 1825, and was brought up in that neighbourhood. He is the son of the Rev. David Williams, for many years rector of Baughurst, Hampshire. He was educated by his father at home, at the Grammar School, Crewkerne, Somerset, and at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1851 he graduated as B.A., taking honours in classics, and in due course obtained his degree of M.A. and D.D. The Lord Bishop of Oxford admitted him to deacon’s orders, and in 1856 he was ordained priest by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. He held curacies for a short time in Buckinghamshire and Somersetshire. His classical attainments were of more than average excellence. For two years he was assistant master in Leamington College. In 1857, whilst curate of Huish-Champflower, he was chosen to organize a school in connection with Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec. He held the office of rector of the College Grammar School, together with that of professor of belles-lettres in the university, until his elevation to the episcopacy. Upon the death of the late Right Rev. George Jehosaphat Mountain, Bishop of Quebec, in 1863, Rev. Mr. Williams was chosen by the synod to succeed him, and on the 11th of June, of the same year, he was consecrated at Quebec by the Most Reverend the Metropolitan, assisted by the bishops of Toronto, Ontario, Huron and Vermont. His first episcopal act was to advance three deacons to the priesthood. The See of Quebec, over which the bishop’s jurisdiction extends, was constituted in 1863, and formerly comprised the whole of Upper and Lower Canada. Owing to various causes, and mainly to the increase in the population and growth of the Church of England its extent has been curtailed from time to time until it was confined to that part of the province of Quebec extending from Three Rivers to the Straits of Belle Isle and New Brunswick, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, and all east of a line drawn from Three Rivers to Lake Memphremagog. Bishop Williams is a plain preacher, and never exhibits any affectation; he is a man of scholarly tastes. He makes no pretence to showy or transcendent gifts of pulpit oratory, but is known as an energetic and industrious ecclesiastic, watching with zealous care over the spiritual welfare of his flock and clergy. Several of his lectures and sermons have been published and were highly commended by the Canadian and American religious newspapers. Among them may be more especially mentioned his charge delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Quebec at the visitation held in Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, in 1864; and a lecture on Self-Education, published at Quebec in 1865.

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=Moody, James Cochrane=, M.D., Windsor, Nova Scotia, was born at Liverpool, N.S., on the 1st of September, 1844. His father, the Rev. John T. T. Moody, D.D., was born at Halifax, on the 25th of March, 1804, and at the date of his son’s birth was rector of Liverpool, but subsequently removed with his family to Yarmouth, N.S., to which parish he was appointed rector in 1846. His mother was Sarah Bond, eldest daughter of the late Henry Greggs Farish, M.D., of Yarmouth, N.S., and was born on the 9th of July, 1807. They were married in 1830, and both lived to the advanced age of 80 years. Dr. Moody commenced the study of medicine under the preceptorship of his great uncle, the late Joseph B. Bond, M.D., of Yarmouth, in 1862. He is a graduate of the University of New York, having taken his degree of M.D. at that institution in the spring of 1866. On his return home during the Fenian alarm of the same year, he was appointed an assistant surgeon to the Yarmouth militia. Commencing the practice of his profession at Richibucto, Kent county, New Brunswick, in the autumn of 1866, he soon succeeded in building up a good practice. Was appointed a coroner for Kent county, November 1st, 1870. He took an active part in agitating for the construction of the Kent Northern Railway; takes a deep interest in Masonry, is a past master of St. Andrew’s Lodge, A. F. and A. M., Richibucto, New Brunswick, he is also a Royal Arch mason, and has been for a considerable time connected with the order of Oddfellows. On account of the hardships and exposure attending the practice of his profession in northern New Brunswick, he decided to remove to Windsor, Nova Scotia, which he did with his family in the autumn of 1882, where he at present resides in active practice. On the eve of departure to his new field of labour, he was presented with a very complimentary address, signed by the leading inhabitants of Richibucto and vicinity. The following are brief extracts:—“Your departure from Richibucto is deeply regretted by all classes in this community. The sixteen years spent in active work in our midst have made you personally acquainted with us all, and while your professional skill won our trust, and commanded our admiration, your sterling qualities, as a man, gained our enduring friendship. A broader field of labour may await you in your new home, and a more ample recompense favour your work, but you will search in vain for hearts more fervent in wishes for your welfare than those you leave behind in Richibucto.” Dr. Moody is a member of the Church of England, and has always taken an active part in church work, having held while in Richibucto the offices of church warden and delegate to the diocesan synod. He is at present a warden of Christ Church, and also a governor of the University of Kings College, Windsor, N.S. On the 9th of September, 1880, he was married to Augusta Whipple, second daughter of the late James H. Jones, of Digby, N.S. Their family consists of three children, one son and two daughters.

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=Griffin, Martin J.=, Ottawa, Librarian of Parliament, was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, August 7, 1847. He received his collegiate education in St. Mary’s College, Halifax, and studied for the Nova Scotia bar; first in the office of Hon. Wm. Miller, late speaker of the Senate; and later, in the office of Hon. James McDonald, now chief justice of Nova Scotia. He was most successful, being called, when only twenty-one, with a first-class certificate. From an early age he had shown decided talent for literature, and even before he became regularly connected with any public journal, he had contributed articles of various kinds to the press of Halifax, and had made some ambitious ventures in poetry and criticism for magazines in the United States. His ability secured for him a place on the staff of the Halifax _Chronicle_, for which he did good work while carrying on his studies. A year after his admission to the bar, that is to say in 1868, he became editor of the Halifax _Express_, which position he held until 1874. His writing during that period attracted wide attention, and marked him as the strongest journalistic champion of the Liberal-Conservative party in the province. His wide and accurate knowledge of public affairs caused him to be chosen as the assistant of the Hon. James McDonald, Q.C., the representative of Nova Scotia before the Fishery Commission, whose decision has since gone into history as the “Halifax Award.” His work in this direction was interrupted by an election contest, in 1874, in which he unsuccessfully sought election to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. When the Conservatives came into power in the Dominion, in 1878, and Hon. James McDonald was sworn in as minister of justice, Mr. Griffin was appointed the minister’s private secretary, but resigned in three months to accept the offer of a position on the editorial staff of the Toronto _Mail_. His letters and despatches to the _Mail_, as well as the editorial articles which he contributed, were marked by the same vigorous and scholarly style which had brought him to the front in the Maritime provinces. It was but natural, therefore, that when a vacancy occurred in the chief editorship of this paper, Mr. Griffin should be called to fill it. This was in 1881. He carried the _Mail_, editorially, through the great campaign attending the general election in 1882, and it is only just to say, that the brilliant victory achieved by the Conservative party then, was due, in considerable degree, to the vigor and skill with which the chief representative journal of the party was managed by Mr. Griffin. On the death of Mr. Todd, who had so long and so well managed the library of parliament, it was decided to have a dual headship of the library, in keeping with the system of having both English and French as authorized languages, and Mr. Griffin was chosen as the fittest man for the high and responsible position of joint librarian. He was appointed in August, 1885. No man could be more faithful to any trust than Mr. Griffin has been in the management of the library, and few in any country could have brought to the work an equally wide knowledge of books. Mr. Griffin is above all else a scholar; but his long editorial experience has given him also a quickness of comprehension, and a systematising ability which fit him to be the adviser of legislators and writers in mastering questions with which they have to deal. Mr. Griffin was married in 1872 to Harriet Starrat, daughter of the late William Starrat, of Liverpool, N.S.

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