Part 27

Like his elder brother he had been destined for the legal profession, but his own tastes, combined with the fact that his health was not very robust, induced him to turn his thoughts to commercial life. The firm of Ross, Mitchell & Co., was then at the height of its prosperity, and the establishment formed an excellent field for the acquisition of a thorough mercantile training. When just emerging from boyhood, Samuel Blake bade adieu to Upper Canada College, and entered the establishment as a clerk. There he remained four years, taking his full share of such work as came to his hand. He thereby not only obtained an insight into the doings of the commercial world which has stood him in good stead in the different sphere to which the subsequent years of his life have been devoted, but, more important still, the actual physical labours which he was compelled to perform were the means of building up his constitution and endowing him with much bodily vigour. His tastes, however, had meanwhile undergone a change, and he had resolved to follow in his brother's footsteps. His term of apprenticeship having expired, he passed his preliminary examination before the Law Society, and entered the office of his uncle, the late Dr. Skeffington Connor, as a student at law. He at the same time began to read for a University degree, and with unflagging industry contrived to carry on both his professional and scholastic studies contemporaneously. In the year 1858 he graduated as B.A., and in Michaelmas Term of the same year he was admitted as an attorney and solicitor. He at once entered into partnership with his brother Edward, the style of the firm being "E. & S. H. Blake." On the 2nd of February, 1859, he married Miss Rebecca Cronyn, third daughter of the late Right Rev. John Cronyn, Bishop of the Diocese of Huron. In Hilary Term, 1860, he was called to the Bar. Like his brother, he devoted himself almost exclusively to the Equity branch of the profession, in which he soon attained to an eminent position.

The splendid professional and financial successes achieved by the legal firm of which he was a member have been sufficiently indicated in the sketch of the life of Edward Blake. Of that firm, under its various phases, Mr. S. H. Blake continued a member until Mr. Mowat's resignation of the Vice-Chancellorship of Ontario, towards the close of 1872. The position thus rendered vacant was promptly offered by the Premier, Sir John A. Macdonald, to the subject of this memoir, who, after careful deliberation, resolved to accept it. Only a few months before he had been invested with the silk gown of a Queen's Counsel. During the progress of the year he had also for the first time taken part in political life. Frequent overtures had at various times been made to him to emulate his brother's example by accepting a seat in Parliament. These overtures he had persistently declined, but during the long and heated contest preceding the general election of 1872 he consented to supply the place of his brother--who was then absent in Europe for the benefit of his health--by going down to the country and addressing his constituents on the hustings and elsewhere. His political speeches afforded unmistakable evidence of his ability to adapt himself to novel circumstances. They showed an accurate knowledge of the country's past political history, and of the nature of the various issues then before the public. His views on all the questions of the day were of course fully in accord with those of his brother, and in expatiating upon them he displayed the same grasp and breadth which have always marked the public utterances of the present member for West Durham.

Sir John Macdonald's political opponents have alleged that his offer of so exalted a position as a Superior Court Judgeship to so young a man was prompted by political expediency, and a desire to mollify the powerful opposition of Edward Blake in the House of Commons. The allegation, unless supported by stronger evidence than has yet been produced, is not creditable to those who make it. Even Sir John's bitterest foes will not deny that he has on more than one occasion proved himself above party considerations, and in the matter of public appointments has set an example of disinterestedness which other Canadian statesmen would do well to emulate. Sir John, moreover, was shrewd enough to know that Edward Blake was much too high-principled a man to allow personal or family considerations to interfere with his honest discharge of his public duties. In the instance under consideration there is no need to search for any ulterior motive. The appointment of Samuel Hume Blake to the Vice-Chancellorship was one which commended itself to those who were most competent to pronounce upon it--the legal profession of Ontario. In certain branches of his profession he has had no superior in this country. In the early years of his practice he devoted himself specially to chamber matters; but later on, and more particularly after his brother had embarked in political life, he was called upon to conduct, in the capacity of first counsel, many of the heaviest cases before the court. As a counsel, his rapid perception, and his faculty of reviewing evidence, were perhaps his most noticeable characteristics. He was also, notwithstanding his youth, a well-read lawyer, of excellent judgment and discrimination, and his opinions were always regarded with the greatest respect, alike by Bench and Bar. His appointment was a just and proper tribute to his fine abilities, his unflagging industry, his great capacity for work, and his high personal character. When he first took his seat on the Bench he was the youngest judge who ever sat in any of the Superior Courts of his native Province, and his elevation was due to a Prime Minister with whose political views he has never been in accord. Instead of trying to find sinister motives in such an appointment it is surely more reasonable, as well as more becoming, to say that the appointment was creditable alike to the Premier and to Mr. Blake.

Honourable as is the position of a Vice-Chancellor, there were, notwithstanding, good reasons why Mr. Blake should hesitate before accepting it. Ever since Edward Blake's entrance into political life the large and steadily-increasing business of the firm had imposed additional duties upon the younger brother. The additional duties were of course accompanied by additional emoluments, and for several years prior to 1872 his professional income had ranged from $12,000 to $15,000 per annum. As Vice-Chancellor his income would be only $5,000. This, to a young man with an increasing family, who had largely fought his own way in the battle of life, was in itself a serious consideration. On the other hand there was the fact that his labours would be materially lightened, and that he would have more time to bestow upon religious and philanthropical objects in which he has always taken a deep interest. His health, too, had begun to feel the effects of the ceaseless toil to which he had for years subjected himself, and rest would be equally grateful and beneficial. He finally concluded to accept the appointment, and on the 2nd of December, 1872, became junior Vice-Chancellor. On the elevation of his senior, Mr. S. H. Strong, to a seat on the Bench of the newly-constituted Supreme Court of the Dominion, in 1875, Mr. Blake succeeded to the position of senior Vice-Chancellor.

As an Equity Judge Mr. Blake has fully sustained the high reputation which previous to his elevation he had acquired at the Bar. His tenure of office has been marked by unwearied diligence, careful and patient investigation of authorities, rigid conscientiousness, and that high sense of the dignity of the judicial position for which the Ontario Bench has long been distinguished. His judgments display all the qualities of a profound and painstaking jurist. They are couched in a phraseology which is always clear, and which not unfrequently rises to eloquence. Some of them are regarded by persons who are entitled to speak on such matters with authority as models of forensic reasoning. A mere enumeration of the important cases which he has been called on to decide in the few years which have elapsed since his elevation to the Bench would alone occupy much space. The case of _Campbell_ vs. _Campbell_, owing to its peculiar character, is perhaps the one best known to the general public. There have been many others, however, involving much more abstruse points, on which his great learning and industry have been exercised, and which are regarded as conclusive in logic as well as in law.

At the urgent solicitation of the Local Government of Ontario, Mr. Blake consented, early in 1876, to act as one of the Commissioners for carrying out the Tavern License Law in Toronto. The position was one calling for the exercise of great judgment and discrimination, but it was also one very distasteful to him. It was urged upon him as a matter of duty, however, and as such he regarded it. To say that he discharged the duties incidental to this position with efficiency, uprightness, and satisfaction to the authorities is merely to assert what every one in Toronto knows to be true. He brought to his task the same high qualities which have always distinguished him both in professional and private life, and the people of Toronto had abundant reason to feel thankful that he consented to act.

Mr. Blake is a prominent member of the Church of England, and has ever since his youth given much time and attention to ecclesiastical affairs. Anything connected with the Church possesses for him a living interest. His predilections in this way are so well known that he was long ago christened by one of his friends "the Archbishop," and by the members of his own family he is still sometimes jocularly so called. During the existence of the Church Association he was one of its most energetic officials. At the time of its dissolution, and for some years previously, he occupied the position of its Vice-President. He has been a Sunday-school teacher for nearly a quarter of a century, and is much esteemed and beloved by the members of his classes. Though not given to doing his alms before men, it is well known that his works of kindness and philanthropy are abundant, and that he has been the means of rescuing many of his fellow-creatures from a life of sin and degradation. He is, and has long been, President of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, and is connected with various other Christian and charitable enterprises. He takes a conspicuous part in the proceedings of the Young Men's Christian Association of Toronto, and frequently presides at public meetings held for social and philanthropical objects.

THE MOST REV. ALEXANDRE ANTONIN TACHÉ,

_R. C. ARCHBISHOP OF ST. BONIFACE._

Archbishop Taché belongs to one of the oldest and most remarkable families of Canada; one that can refer with just pride to its ancestry, among whom are ranked Louis Joliette, the celebrated discoverer of the Mississippi, and Sieur Varennes de la Verandrye, the hardy explorer of the Red River, the Upper Missouri, and the Saskatchewan country; while several others are conspicuous in Canadian annals for eminent services rendered in their respective spheres. Jean Taché, the first of the name in Canada, arrived at Quebec in 1739, married Demoiselle Marguerite Joliette de Mingan, and occupied several influential positions under the French _regime_. He was the possessor of a large fortune, but was ruined by the Conquest which substituted English for French rule. His son Charles settled in Montmagny, and had three sons, Charles, Jean Baptiste, and Etienne Pascal. The last-mentioned became Sir Etienne Pascal Taché, and died Premier of Canada in 1865. Charles, the eldest of the three, after having served as Captain in the regiment of Voltigeurs during the war with the United States, took up his residence in Kamouraska. He married Demoiselle Henriette Boucher de la Broquerie, great grand-daughter of the founder of Boucherville, and grand-niece of Madame d'Youville, the foundress of the Grey Nunnery of Montreal. Three sons were born of this marriage: Dr. Joseph Charles Taché, a well-known Canadian writer, Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, and Deputy of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics; Louis Taché, Sheriff of St. Hyacinthe; and Alexandre Antonin Taché, Archbishop of St. Boniface, the subject of the present sketch.

The Archbishop was born at Rivière du Loup (en bas), Quebec, on the 23rd of July, 1823. At the tender age of two years and a half he lost his father. Madame Taché, after the death of her husband, repaired with her young family to Boucherville, to dwell with her father, M. de la Broquerie. Madame Taché was endowed with many of the qualities that constitute the model wife and mother, and made it the sole aim of her life to have her sons follow in the path of duty and honour trodden by their forefathers. From his infancy young Alexandre displayed fine natural qualities, crowned by a passionate love for his mother. This affection has lost nothing of its intensity, and to the present day the mere mention of his mother strikes the tenderest chord of his feelings. At school and at college he was noted for his genial character, amiable gaiety and bright intellect. He received his higher education at the College of St. Hyacinthe. Having completed his course of classical studies, he donned the ecclesiastical habit, went as a student to the Theological Seminary of Montreal, and subsequently returned to the College of St. Hyacinthe as Professor of Mathematics.

Meanwhile the arrival of the disciples of De Mazenod, founder of the Order of the Oblates, threw a new light on the vocation of Alexandre Taché. Being the great-great-grandson of Joliette, and having been brought up in Boucherville, in the very house whence the celebrated Jacques Marquette had started for his western missions--having moreover been sheltered by the same roof under which Marquette had registered the first baptism administered in the locality[13]--it is no wonder that the spirit of those renowned personages still hovered around the young ecclesiastic, indicating a life of self-denial, to be endured in the far North-West. He entered the novitiate at Longueil, in October, 1844. The mission of the Oblate Fathers, which now extends from the coast of Labrador to the shores of British Columbia, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea, was then in its infancy in Canada. In 1844 the Hudson's Bay and North-West Territories were detached from the diocese of Quebec, and the Right Reverend Joseph Norbert Provencher, who had been exercising his zeal throughout those vast regions, was appointed Apostolic Vicar. The venerable prelate had toiled, with a very small number of co-labourers, during the twenty-six previous years, in evangelizing the scattered tribes. Bishop Provencher was convinced that to give more extension to his work it was necessary to secure the services of a religious order, and fixed his choice on the Oblates. His proposal was so much the more readily accepted that it was suited to carry into practical effect, to a more than ordinary degree, the motto of the Order--_Pauperes evangelizantur_. This decision awakened a flame in the heart of the novice Taché. His first impulse was to offer his services in the generous undertaking. It was not without dread and apprehension that he harboured the idea, for he was but twenty-one years of age. So far, he had known in life naught but what was congenial to his affectionate nature: the pure joys of home, the tenderness and solicitude of an almost idolized mother. He had grown up in the sunshine of universal affection, and his feelings had never been chilled or nipped by deception or unkindness. The struggle was a difficult one; but, in the designs of Providence, his love for his mother was made the means of determining his resolution. The act of his life which has enlisted the most tender sympathies is certainly that which found him at the shrine of filial piety, offering to the Almighty the sacrifice of home and country, and of all that he held dearest on earth; begging, in return, the recovery of his mother from a dangerous illness under which she was then labouring. Madame Taché was restored to health, and was spared for twenty-six years to witness the elevation and popularity to which her beloved son was destined.

On the 24th of June, 1845, the national feast of French Canadians, while all around was exultant with joy and festivity, the young missionary, accompanied by the Rev. P. Aubert, took his place in a birch bark canoe for a foreign shore. A page from the pen of the Bishop of St. Boniface in his work "_Vingt Années de Missions_," published some years ago, vividly describes his feelings on the occasion:--"You will allow me to tell you what I felt as I receded from the sources of the St. Lawrence, on whose banks Providence had fixed my birthplace, and by whose waters I first conceived the thought of becoming a missionary of the Red River. I drank of those waters for the last time, and mingled with them some parting tears, and confided to them some of the secret thoughts and affectionate sentiments of my inmost heart. I could imagine how some of the bright waves of this river, rolling down from lake to lake, would at last strike on the beach nigh to which a beloved mother was praying for her son that he might become a perfect Oblate and a holy missionary. I knew that, being intensely pre-occupied with that son's happiness, she would listen to the faintest murmuring sound, to the very beatings of the waves coming from the North-West, as if to discover in them the echoes of her son's voice asking a prayer or promising a remembrance. I give expression to what I felt on that occasion, for the recollection now, after the lapse of twenty years, of the emotions I experienced in quitting home and friends, enables me more fully to appreciate the generous devotedness of those who give up all they hold most dear in human affection for the salvation of souls. The height of land was as it were the threshold of the entrance to our new home, and the barrier about to close behind us. When the heart is a prey to deep emotion it needs to be strengthened. To sooth mine, I brought it to consider the uncultured and savage nature of the soil we were treading. . . . I calculated, or at least accepted, all the consequences thereof. I bade to my native land an adieu which I then believed to be everlasting, and I vowed to my adopted land a love and attachment which I then, as now, wished to be as lasting as my life."

The missionaries reached St. Boniface on the 25th of August, after a long and tiresome journey of sixty-two days. On the first Sunday after his arrival the young ecclesiastic, who had during the voyage reached the required age of twenty-two years, was ordained Deacon, and on the 12th of October following he was raised to the Priesthood. The next day Father Taché pronounced his religious vows. This was the first time that the vows of religion were pronounced in the far North-West, and it is worth noting, once more, that the young Oblate then performing the solemn act was related to the discoverer who first hoisted the banner of the cross in those remote regions--the illustrious Varennes de la Verandrye. Shortly after his ordination Father Taché was appointed to accompany the Rev. L. Lafleche, now Bishop of Three Rivers, to Isle à la Crosse, a thousand miles distant from St. Boniface. They started on the 8th of July, 1846, and after a harassing journey that lasted two months they arrived at their destination. The young missionary went heart and soul into his work. Having heard of an Indian Chief who lay dangerously ill at Lac Vert, a place ninety miles distant, and who desired to be baptized, he hastened through dismal swamps and pine forests to perform that sacred office. On his return, after four days' rest, he undertook the voyage to Lac Caribou, 350 miles north-east of Isle à la Crosse, and was the first who ever reached that desolate spot to announce the Gospel of Peace. There he had the happiness of instructing and baptizing several poor Indians. His next missionary expedition was to Athabasca. On his way thither he was warned of the fierce and savage character of the Indian tribes who frequented that region, but, nevertheless, he courageously pursued his weary journey of 400 miles to the end. A great missionary triumph awaited him. In the course of three weeks he baptized 194 Indian children of the Cree and Chippeweyan tribes. These happy beginnings inspired Father Taché's zeal to pursue with continued ardour his apostolic career. The annals of the "Propagation of the Faith" contain soul-stirring accounts of the labours accomplished by the young missionary. His travels were through the wilderness, where no hospitable roof offered a shelter. After a long day's walking through deep snow, or running behind a dog sled, with nothing to appease his hunger but the unpalatable pemmican, he had to seek repose on the cold ground, with the canopy of heaven overhead. Still, he affirms that he counts among the happiest days of his life those passed in his first Indian missions in the North-West, and relates how his heart beat with joy when, at a journey's end, he was welcomed by the untutored savages whom he desired to win to Christ.

While Father Taché was thus giving proofs of his zeal and ability, and seeking to extend the reign of the Master who had chosen him, his superiors were admiring his remarkable endowments. The young clergyman who sought oblivion was being marked out for an exalted dignity. The keen eye of the venerable bishop of the North-West had remarked the brilliant talents of his young missionary, and experience has shown how judicious was his choice in selecting Father Taché, then only twenty-six years of age, as his coadjutor and future successor. It is easy to imagine the latter's surprise on receiving the news of his promotion to the episcopate. At the call of his bishop he repaired to St. Boniface. A letter from his Religious Superior awaited him there, instructing him to sail immediately for France for his consecration. His first meeting with the founder of the Oblates was marked by signs of mutual appreciation. Bishop Taché received the episcopal consecration on the 23rd of November, 1851, in the Cathedral of Viviers, in Southern France, at the hands of the Bishop of Marseilles, Monseigneur De Mazenod, assisted by Monseigneur Guibert, now Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, and Monseigneur Prince, Bishop of St. Hyacinthe. Bishop Taché left immediately for Rome. The paternal encouragements of His Holiness Pope Pius IX., and repeated visits to the tombs of the Apostles and Martyrs, imparted renewed strength to the energy of the young prelate. He started in February for the remote scene of his labours. He spent a few weeks in Lower Canada, where the liveliest sympathies were lavished upon him. Every one was impatient to see and to hear the young bishop of the Indians of the North-West. In the month of June he reached St. Boniface. Bishop Provencher, feeling that his end was near, had thought of retaining his coadjutor near him, but the strong reasons adduced by the missionary bishop prevailed. Monseigneur Taché, on taking his departure for Isle à la Crosse, knelt to ask the blessing of Monseigneur Provencher. The venerable prelate gave expression on that occasion to the following prophetic words:--"It is not customary for a bishop to ask for another bishop's blessing, but as I am soon to die, and as we shall never again meet in this world, I will bless you once more on this earth, while awaiting the happiness of embracing you in heaven."