A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time by Rose

of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, as to whether the local legislature could interfere with the precedence which his letters patent as Queen counsel appointed by the Canadian Government. This question was decided, after being argued with great ability by the full benches of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and of Canada, in favor of Mr. Ritchie’s precedence. * * * * * =Purcell, Patrick=, M.P. for Glengarry, was born in Glengarry, Ont., May 1st, 1833. He unites in himself the best qualities of the two great branches of the Celtic race, his father having been a native of Kilkenny, Ireland, while his mother was from the Western Highlands of Scotland, a native of Argyleshire. He had but slight educational advantages in his youth, and, though quick of perception and remarkable from an early age for great shrewdness, was not of a temperament to be much improved by the merely literary methods of the schools. Had he been privileged in his younger days to attend some institutions such as the great technical colleges of today, in which not the memory only but the perceptive faculties and manual abilities are trained and developed, he would undoubtedly have made even a greater mark in life than he has done. But in the great technical school of life in which he had to make his own way from an early age, Mr. Purcell secured a training which has brought him out as one of Canada’s most remarkable citizens. When but 19 years of age Mr. Purcell married Isabella McDonald, daughter of Angus McDonald, a Glengarry farmer. Beginning life as a laborer, he worked his way rapidly forward until he began to take small contracts on his own account on some of the works on which he was employed. While still a young man he was the sole contractor on some important government works such as great capitalists band together to undertake. In this respect he is a worthy son of Glengarry. It is hard to say what America, and especially Canada, would have done to carry on its remarkable industrial development had they not had such shrewd, hard-working, responsible men as the great contractors who have come out of Glengarry. Dozens of names could be mentioned, and many will suggest themselves to the mind of the reader who is at all acquainted with the history of great public works in America. But among them all, none has shown more remarkable qualities as a business man or earned more signal success than Patrick Purcell. Among the great works which he has constructed are St. Peter’s Canal, Nova Scotia; section 21 of the Intercolonial Railway; 250 miles of the Canadian Pacific Railway west of Port Arthur (this last a work of greater difficulty under the circumstances probably than any section of railway of equal length in the world), and many others both in Canada and the United States. In the last general election he was elected to the Commons in the Liberal interest for his native county of Glengarry after a hard contest, his opponent being the sitting member, Mr. Donald McMaster, also a native of the county. The seat has been contested, and at this writing the case is still pending before the Supreme Court. Mr. Purcell is not only a shrewd business man, but a man of broad and generous sympathies. He uses his great wealth to help his friends, loaning money at nominal interest in a way to win the gratitude of many men who but for him would find it impossible to get a good start in life. He also gives large sums for charitable and benevolent purposes. In religion Mr. Purcell is a Roman Catholic. * * * * * =Nantel, Guillaume Alphonse=, St. Jerome, Quebec, M.P.P. for Terrebonne, Editor of _La Press_ and _Le Nord_ newspapers, was born in November, 1852, at St. Jerome, in the county of Terrebonne, Quebec province. His father, Guillaume Nantel, was in his lifetime a lieutenant in the militia, and although he came from St. Eustache, was a thorough loyalist. He died in February, 1857, leaving a family of nine children. His mother, Adelaide Desjardiner, was born in Ste. Therese, Terrebonne county. One of his brothers, the Rev. A. Nantel, has been superior of the Ste. Therese Seminary for about fifteen years, and in 1883 established a fine college in that place. Another brother, P. Nantel, is a school inspector, and his youngest brother, Bruno Nantel, has been for a long time a law partner of the Hon. M. Taillon, and is now practising at St. Jerome. He is the rising barrister for the county of Terrebonne. Young Nantel, the subject of our sketch, received his education at the college of Ste. Therese, and was a very successful student, having carried off several first-class prizes. In 1873 he obtained a second class certificate at the Montreal military school, and in 1881 he was made first lieutenant in the eighth company of the 65th battalion. He takes a deep interest, with Father Labelle, in colonization, and is greatly interested in the settlement of the northern townships of the Ottawa valley. He is a director of the Montreal and Western Railway Company, which proposes to build a railroad—already largely subsidized by the government—from St. Jerome to Nominingue Lake, in the county of Ottawa, and from Nominingue Lake up to Torrierdeninque Lake, which line when built will cross the most fertile belt, in which is found the finest timber and minerals in Ottawa and Pontiac counties. Is also interested in the “Le Grande Nord” railway from St. Jerome to St. Julienne, in Montcalm county. Mr. Nantel was called to the bar of Quebec province on the 10th July, 1875, and practised his profession alone in Montreal, up to January, 1877, when he joined in partnership the Hon. M. J. A. Ouimet, M.P., and now Speaker of the House of Commons. This partnership having been dissolved, he again practised alone for a year, when, in 1881 he left Montreal, and joining his brother, B. Nantel, in St. Jerome, successfully carried on business in that place till the 1st of May, 1886. In April of that year, Mr. Nantel, along with C. Marchand, purchased _Le Nord_, a local and colonization newspaper, but his partner having given up his connection with the paper the following December, he has himself since then conducted it. In November, he and Mr. Wintele bought out _La Press_, one of the leading French papers. In 1882, at the general election of that year, he was elected a member of the Quebec legislature for the county of Terrebonne, beating his opponent, E. A. Poivier, by a majority of seven hundred and fifty-three votes. Mr. Nantel is a strong Conservative in politics, and contends that Canadians should govern Canada, and each province be permitted to stand by itself, that we must have a national policy, such as shall foster our own trade and commerce, agriculture, etc., so as to make our country independent of all outsiders. He strongly advocates in his papers the building of railways, the opening up of mines, the advancement of agriculture, the creation of factories, industrial learning, manual training in our seminaries of learning, and everything else possible that can make the people more learned and prosperous. In 1884, while a member of the Quebec legislature, Mr. Nantel was one of the commissioners appointed to investigate the charges preferred against Hon. Mr. Mercier and the late Judge Mousseau. In religion he is a Roman Catholic, but favors the most liberal tolerance to all other sects. He thinks there is room enough in Canada for people professing all the different creeds of Christendom, and also for men of all nationalities, and would be only too happy to see the indigent and down-trodden people of Europe make their home with us, and become partakers with us in all the liberty and independence we possess. He was opposed to the execution of Riel. * * * * * =Macdonald, Right Hon. Sir John Alexander=, K.C.M.G., D.C.L., LL.D., Premier of Canada, was born in Glasgow, on the 11th January, 1815. He came to Canada in 1820 with his parents, who first settled near Kingston, but after a few years removed to a farm on the Bay of Quinté. Meanwhile the future premier of Canada was left at Kingston, the grammar school of which he attended until he was about fifteen years of age, when he began the study of law. When he had reached his twenty-first year he was called to the bar. He has been described by a writer in _The Week_ as a lively youth, a good scholar, and a voluminous reader; but his talents were not considered extraordinary and he owed his election as member for Kingston, thirteen years after his call to the bar, more to his personal popularity than to his abilities. In a democratic country a good memory for faces and names, a frank and cordial manner of speech, a willingness to say yes rather than no, are wonderful aids to an aspirant in public life. Add readiness of speech in public, and self-confidence, and they will outweigh, for a time at least, the soundest judgment, the most extensive knowledge, and the warmest patriotism. It is not wonderful, therefore, that Mr. Macdonald’s popular address should have brought him early into the political field. In 1841 (says the writer from whom we have already quoted), Canada was granted a constitution, as the Liberals understood it, a transcript of that of Britain—the Governor in place of the Queen, bound to accept the legislation voted by the people’s representatives, and to receive advisers of whom they approved. Sir Charles Bagot accepted this view of the constitution, but when Sir Charles Metcalfe became governor there came a change of tactics. Responsible government was a new idea in colonial politics, and to very many unwelcome. Metcalfe was an honest, and in some ways, an able man; but he had served in India, and could not accept readily the notion that a dependency of the empire could be at once free and loyal. He refused to make an appointment asked by his ministers; they resigned; he called in others and appealed to the people. In Upper Canada he was sustained by an enormous majority; in Lower Canada he was defeated as decisively; his ministers had only a small majority, varying from two to eight. Lord Metcalfe, who was in ill health gave up the contest and his office. Lord Elgin succeeded him; another election was held, and the friends of responsible government returned to power, supported by a large majority in the House of Assembly. In this contest Mr. Macdonald was a loyal supporter of Lord Metcalfe, and took office in his government first as receiver-general and afterwards as commissioner of crown lands. It is improbable that a politician so shrewd as he could have been sanguine of preventing the