Part 91
=Grant, Rev. George Monro=, D.D., Principal of Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.—In an age too prone to rank mere material good above the higher well-being of man, it is well for Canada that she can claim in Principal Grant a representative Canadian—representative at least of her higher, purer, and more generous life. The principal of Queen’s University is emphatically what the late editor of the “Century” magazine once styled him, “a strong man,” having that union of diverse qualities that constitutes strength. He comes of the fine old Celtic stock which, when its intensity and enthusiasm are blended with an infusion of Anglo-Saxon breadth, energy, and common sense, has produced not a few of the leaders of men. He is a native of the county of Pictou, Nova Scotia, somewhat remarkable for the number of eminent men it has already produced. His patriotic and passionate love for his country in all her magnificent proportions is one of his leading traits, and has much the same influence on his mind which the love of Scotland had on that of Burns, when, in his generous youth, he desired, for her dear sake, to “sing a sang at least,” if he could do no more. Principal Grant was born on the 22nd December, 1835, at Stellarton (Albion Mines), a village on the East River, Pictou county, and his early days were passed in a quiet country home, amid the influences of nature, to which he is strongly susceptible. His father, who was a Scotchman by birth, taught the village school. He was led by circumstances, and doubtless by that “divinity that shapes our ends,” to study for the ministry, and won honorable distinction in his preliminary course in the Academy at Pictou, where the family had removed. His studies were pursued chiefly at Glasgow University, where he came under the strong personal influence and inspiration of the high-souled and large-hearted Norman McLeod, whom in some of his characteristics he strongly resembles. While a student in Glasgow he became a laborer in the mission work carried on amid the degraded inhabitants of its closes and wynds, gaining there an insight into life and character which has been most valuable to him in fitting him for his later work among men. He did not remain long in Scotland, however, for though the beauty and culture of the land of his fathers had many attractions for him, he felt that to Canada his heart and his duty called him. He ministered for a time to the quiet country charge of Georgetown, in Prince Edward Island, from which he was soon called to the pastorate of St. Matthew’s Church, Halifax, one of the oldest congregations in the Dominion. His gifts as a pulpit orator were soon recognised. The force, directness, and reality of his preaching strongly attracted to him thoughtful young men, who found in him one who could understand their own difficulties, and who never gave them a “stone” for the “bread” they craved. His charge grew and prospered, and a new church was built during his pastorate. His ministerial relations were so happy that it was a real pain when a voice that he could not resist called him to another sphere. When his friend and parishioner, Sandford Fleming, civil engineer, was about to start on a surveying expedition for the proposed Canadian Pacific Railway, Dr. Grant accompanied the party for a much-needed holiday. The novel experiences of the long canoe journey, through what was then a “great lone land” with unknown capabilities, strongly impressed his own imagination, and were communicated to thousands of readers through the hastily-written but graphic pages of “From Ocean to Ocean.” This glimpse of the extent and grandeur of the national heritage of Canadians—the fit home of a great people—made him still more emphatically a Canadian, and gave him a still stronger impulse and more earnest aim to use all the powers he possessed to aid in moulding the still plastic life of a young nation born to such privileges and responsibilities. The popularity attained by the publication of this volume (published by Hunter, Rose & Co., Toronto) called attention to Principal Grant as a writer, and though his time and strength have been too much taxed in other fields to leave him leisure for much literary labor, his vivid and forceful style has made him a welcome contributor to Canadian and American periodical literature, as well as to “Good Words” and the “Contemporary Review.” Several articles of his in the “Century” magazine have given American readers some idea of the extent and grandeur of the Canadian Pacific. His happy associations with the inception of this enterprise, and repeated visits during its progress, have given him an almost romantic interest in an achievement worthy of the “brave days of old.” If in the judgment of some he seems to exaggerate its utility, and to lose sight of serious drawbacks and evils which have become connected with an enterprise too heavy for the present resources of the country, the explanation is to be found in the fascination which, to his patriotic heart, invests a work that connects the extremities of our vast Canadian territory, and helps to unite its far-scattered people. It need hardly be said that Principal Grant heartily rejoiced over the confederation of the Canadian provinces, or that he has always been a warm supporter of its integrity, and a staunch opponent of every suggestion of dismemberment. He thinks it not all a dream that this young sturdy “Canada of ours” should indeed become the youngest Anglo-Saxon nation, working out for herself an individual character and destiny of her own on the last of the continents where such an experiment is practicable. It is his hope that such a nation might grow up side by side with the neighboring Republic, and in the closest fraternal relations with it, free to mould its life into the form most useful and natural, and therefore most enduring, but yet remaining a member of the great British commonwealth, bound to it by firm though elastic bonds of political unity, as well as by unity of tradition, thought, and literature. This hope and belief makes him a warm supporter of Imperial federation—a scheme which he thinks full of promise, both for Great Britain herself and for her scattered colonies, as well as for the world at large, in which such a federation might be a potent influence, leading possibly to a still greater Anglo-Saxon federation. To such a consummation his wide and catholic sympathies would give a hearty God-speed. But he believes intensely that, in order to secure a noble destiny, there must be a noble and healthy political life, and that for this there must be a high and healthy tone of public opinion, a pure and lofty patriotism. And this he earnestly seeks to promote so far as in him lies. The following stirring words recently published in the _Mail_ are a good illustration of the spirit in which he seeks to arouse Canadians to their responsibilities: “Duty demands that we shall be true to our history. Duty also demands that we shall be true to our home. All of us must be Canada-first men. O, for something of the spirit that has animated the sons of Scotland for centuries, and that breathes in the fervent prayer ‘God save Ireland,’ uttered by the poorest peasant and the servant girl far away from green Erin! Think what a home we have. Every province is fair to see. Its sons and daughters are proud of the dear natal soil. Why, then, should not all taken together inspire loyalty in souls least capable of patriotic emotion? I have sat on blocks of coal in the Pictou mines, wandered through glens of Cape Breton and around Cape North, and driven for a hundred miles under apple blossoms in the Cornwallis and Annapolis valleys. I have seen the glory of our Western mountains, and toiled through passes where the great cedars and Douglas pines of the Pacific slope hid sun and sky at noonday, and I say that, in the four thousand miles that extend between, there is everything that man can desire, and the promise of a mighty future. If we cannot make a country out of such materials it is because we are not true to ourselves; and if we are not, be sure our sins will find us out.” All narrow partisanship he hates, and every kind of wire-pulling and corruption he most emphatically denounces, whether the purchase be that of a vote, a constituency, or a province. The evils inflicted on the country by the virulence of blind party spirit he has again and again exposed, with a frankness that finds no favor from the thorough-going partisans of either side. During the elections of 1886-7 his voice and pen urged on all whom he could reach the honest discharge of the most sacred trust of citizenship, the paramount duty of maintaining political purity—of opposing, as an insult to manhood itself, every approach to bribery, direct or indirect. Nor were his eloquent appeals to conscience quite in vain. Some elections at least were in some degree the purer because, leaving the beaten track to which some preachers too often confine themselves, he followed the example of the old Hebrew prophets in denouncing the moral evils that threaten to sap the public conscience, and seeking at a public crisis to uphold the “righteousness that exalteth a nation.” In 1877 Principal Grant was called from his pastorate at Halifax, to take the responsible office of principal of Queen’s University, Kingston. It was no sinecure that was offered him, and considerations of personal happiness and comfort would have led him to decline the call. But the university had urgent need of just such a man to preside over its interests, and he could not refuse what he felt a call of duty. The institution was passing through a financial crisis, and it was imperatively necessary that it should be at once placed on a secure basis, with a more satisfactory equipment. He threw himself into his new work with characteristic energy, and his great talent for organization and comprehensive plans soon made itself felt. It is mainly due to his counsels and efforts that the university has been able to lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes, as in the last ten years she has done. His eloquence stirred up the city of Kingston to provide a beautiful and commodious building to replace her former cramped and inconvenient habitation. But the gifts that he secured for her treasury were of less account than the stimulus imparted to the college life by his overflowing vitality and enthusiasm—a stimulus felt alike by professors and students. The attendance of the latter largely increased, and the high aims and ideals of the principal could not fail to have their influence on all its grades, down to the youngest freshman. He has always treated the students not as boys, but as gentlemen, seeking to lead rather than to coerce, and under his sway there has been no need of formal discipline. The application of female students for admission to the university led him to grant their request without reluctance or hesitation, from a conviction that public educational institutions should be open to the needs of the community as a whole, and, in supplying these, know no demarcations of sex. Without taking any special part in the movement for the “Higher Education of Women,” he believes that every individual who desires a thorough mental training should have the opportunity of procuring it. He has a firm faith in the power of the ineradicable laws of human nature to prevent any real confusion of “spheres,” and believes that it is as beneficial to the race as to the individual, that each should receive the fullest training and development of which he or she is susceptible. On the subject of University federation, Principal Grant has maintained a strongly conservative attitude. He believes firmly in the wisdom of respecting historic growth and continuity of organisation, and in the salutary influence of honorable traditions on institutions as well as countries. He deprecates extreme centralisation, as narrowing the scope of education for the many, even though raising its standard for the few. He thinks that for Canada, as for Scotland and the United States, several distinct universities, each with its own individuality and _esprit de corps_, will prove most useful in the end; and that the Queen’s University, for the good work she has done and the high position she has maintained, deserves to preserve her continuous historic life. Heartily endorsed in this position by the trustees and graduates of the university, he has set himself vigorously to the task of raising by voluntary subscription such an endowment as shall give it an assured position for the future, in the face of the growing needs of higher education in Canada. Probably no other man would have dared such a task, but that he will carry it to a successful completion few can doubt who know the man and the magnetic power over men of his cheery and resolute spirit. Principal Grant has since his appointment acted as professor of divinity also. His prelections in the class-room, like his preaching, are characterised by breadth of thought, catholicity of sympathy and vividness of presentation. He has instituted a series of Sunday afternoon services for the university, conducted sometimes by himself or other professors, sometimes by eminent preachers from other places and of different denominations. These are much appreciated, not only by the professors and students, but also by a large class of the thoughtful citizens of Kingston, to whom—though many admirable sermons are preached there—none are more welcome than those of the principal himself. As a preacher he is marked by simplicity, directness, earnestness and force. For “fine writing” and rhetorical and finished periods he has no admiration, and aims instead at the direct conversational style for which he has the highest of all examples. He is not afraid of plain speaking, and prefers direct appeals to heart and conscience to theological disquisitions. Valuing only that vital religion which is the root of right feeling and right action in daily life, he has no respect for a “profession” of faith without its fruits. As in the case of political sins, so he denounces social and individual sins with the same fearless freedom, believing that this is one of the preacher’s most solemn duties. He strives not for _effect_ but for _effects_, and though he not infrequently rises to impassioned appeals, he aims rather at producing permanent conviction than temporary excitement. His moral influence on the community is somewhat analogous to that of the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in the neighboring republic. He is always on the side of the generous and unselfish policy as against that of mere expediency, and he seeks to uphold the pursuit of a noble idea as infinitely better than that of mere material success. Many, especially of young Canadians, owe to him their perception of this truth, and some measure of inspiration for his enforcement of it, and from the example of a noble and unselfish life. But while ever ready to promote with heart and hand any movement for the real good of humanity, he believes in no artificial panacea for evil. He holds that as this is radical, having its root in human selfishness, that power alone, which can change the natures of individuals, can in the long run change the condition of masses, and he believes that the only true light of a darkened World streams from the Cross. “In this sign” all his efforts, all his teachings find their inspiration. To him it is the most real of all realities; and to make it such to others is the central aim and impulse of his life. His faith in this, and in the duty of the Christian church to fulfil her “marching orders,” have made him a warm advocate for Christian missions, giving a catholic sympathy to all, of whatever name, who are seeking to plant among the heathen abroad what he holds to be the root of a true Christian civilization, or who are laboring by any method to humanise and christianise the heathen at home. The narrowness of conventionality in religion is as repulsive to him as that of creed or ritual. He delights to own true brotherhood with all who “profess and call themselves Christians,” and he looks and labors for the true spirit of unity in the Christian church, which shall give it its true power in the world. It is the inspiration of this faith and hope which has made his life so fruitful in power and inspiration, and will make him live in many hearts and lives when other men, as prominent now, shall be forgotten.
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=Gendreau, Jean Baptiste=, Notary Public, Coaticook, county of Stanstead, province of Quebec, was born on 25th February, 1850, in that part of the old parish of St. Hyacinthe now called Ste. Madeleine, in the province of Quebec. His father, Jean Baptiste Gendreau, was first a farmer and afterwards an hotel keeper in the parish of St. Pie, in Bagot county. Jean Baptiste Gendreau, the subject of our sketch, first studied at the College of St. Hyacinthe, and after completing his college course, passed a few months in the Jesuits’ Novitiate, at Sault-au-Récollet, near Montreal. He left the latter place for Coaticook in the fall of 1873, where he served for a few months as a clerk in a store, and then, in May, 1874, he decided to study the notarial profession. This he did for four years, and was then admitted to the profession of notary in May, 1878. He then settled in Coaticook, where he still resides and does a good business. Though comparatively a young man, he has taken a prominent part in all the public questions, and is now one of the leading citizens of his district, especially amongst the people of his own nationality. When Mr. Gendreau first settled in Coaticook it was a village municipality, erected in January, 1864; now it has grown to be an enterprising place, and there are several manufactories and industries established in it. Mr. Gendreau has successfully filled the following offices, namely: secretary-treasurer of the Catholic School Board since 1875; municipal councillor since 1881; president of the old Coaticook Building Society at the time of its liquidation in 1882; director of the Eastern Townships Colonization and Credit Company of Lake Megantic since 1882; mayor of Coaticook, after its erection into a town, in 1884 and 1885, and warden of the county of Stanstead during the same years; and is now the revising officer of the same county under the new Dominion Franchise Act. He was married to Marie Rose Durocher, daughter of Gédéon Durocher, a notary public of the parish of St. Aimé, in Richelieu county.
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