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

the state. Hon. Mr. Johnston was one of the delegates selected to meet Lord Durham, the high commissioner for settling the difficulties in Canada, and to confer with him on the contemplated changes in colonial government. Hon. Mr. Johnston might justly have claimed the honour of being the first statesman who in the halls of legislature advocated the union or confederation of the North American colonies. In the year 1854, on the floor of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, in a speech which for breadth of conception, deep research, fervent patriotism, and glowing eloquence, has rarely been equalled, and which by many has been considered his greatest effort, Hon. Mr. Johnston moved:— That the union of the British North American provinces on just principles, while calculated to perpetuate their connection with the parent state, would promote their advancement and prosperity, increase their strength and influence, and elevate their position. And though before the union was consummated he had retired from public life, and was therefore in no way responsible for the details of the scheme, yet his advocacy of the measure on its broad basis tended in no slight degree to create and educate public opinion, and smoothed the way for those who eventually succeeded in effecting the important change in the constitution he was the first to advocate. In the year 1857 Hon. Mr. Johnston, then attorney-general and leader of the government, pursuant to a resolution passed in the House of Assembly, proceeded to England to adjust the differences that for years existed between the province and the General Mining Association, who, as assignees of the Duke of York, to whom they had been granted, claimed the exclusive right to the mines and minerals of Nova Scotia, and who, by virtue thereof, possessed a practical monopoly of the coal trade. After a protracted negotiation, a compromise was effected and an agreement entered into by which the General Mining Association ceded to the government all their right and title to, and over, all the unworked mines and minerals. Thus was a grievance of long standing amicably settled, and their right to the great wealth hidden in the bowels of the earth secured to the people of Nova Scotia. In the year 1863, after a labourious and active professional life, and a somewhat turbulent political career, Hon. Mr. Johnston accepted a seat on the bench as judge in Equity and judge of the Supreme Court. The duties of his office were discharged with assiduity and the strictest integrity, and his decisions were received by the bar as clear, logical, and exhaustive expositions of the law. In the summer of 1872, Hon. Mr. Johnston obtained leave of absence, and proceeded to the south of France in the hopes that a milder and more genial climate might remove a bronchial affection from which he was suffering, but the beneficial results anticipated did not follow. He was offered in the following year the lieutenant-governorship of his adopted country, vacant by the demise of the late Hon. Joseph Howe, but this position the state of his health compelled him to decline. Early in life Mr. Johnston connected himself with the Baptist Church, and to the end continued a member of that communion. For years he devoted his time, energies and talents to the advancement of that body, socially, politically and educationally. The Baptist Academy at Wolfville, as well as Acadia College, owe their existence in a large measure to his personal labours, influence, and untiring exertions both in parliament and out. Of the latter institution he was one of the first governors, and continued to hold the office uninterruptedly, by repeated re-elections, to the time of his death. He was several times elected president of the Baptist Convention of the Maritime provinces, who, on his leaving the country, marked their great appreciation of his character and their sense of their lasting obligations to him by the unanimous adoption of the following resolution:— This convention, having learnt that the health of our esteemed brother, Hon. Judge Johnston, a member of the Board of Governors of Acadia College, has induced him to seek a residence in Europe, _Therefore resolve_ that we take this opportunity to tender to him the tribute which his high character, and long continued and important services in the cause of education seem to demand, by thus recording the sense we entertain of the value of those services, his devoted and consecrated talents, and of his great worth as a man, as a Christian gentleman, and especially as a Christian legislator and judge, the influence and grateful memory of which we trust will not be effaced; and although at his advanced age it may almost seem to be hoping against hope, yet this convention would still trust that a perfect restoration to health and strength may yet, in the good providence of God, return our valued brother, as well as his excellent lady, to their former position and relations in this country. Hon. Mr. Johnston was twice married. His first wife was Amelia Elizabeth, daughter of the late William James Almon, surgeon, who was assistant surgeon to the Royal Artillery in New York, in June, 1776, and Rebecca Byles, granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Byles, of Boston, Massachusetts. By her he had three sons, the eldest of whom is now the judge of the County Court for the metropolitan city and county of Halifax, and three daughters. Of these, two sons and one daughter are alive. His second wife was Louise, widow of the late Captain Wentworth, of the Royal Artillery, by whom he had one daughter and three sons; the daughter and two sons are living. Mr. Johnston’s physicians advised that his state of health would not permit of his return to Nova Scotia, and he determined to pass the winter of 1873 at Cheltenham, England, where, on the 21st day of November, in that year, at the ripe age of eighty-one years, and in the full possession of his mental faculties, he died, full of honours, leaving behind him a name untarnished, a character above reproach, and a reputation as a statesman, jurist and judge worthy of emulation by those who shall hereafter fill the places vacated by him. * * * * * =Macdonald, Charles John=, Post Office Inspector for the Province of Nova Scotia, Halifax. Lieut.-Colonel Macdonald, the subject of this sketch, is of Scotch descent, his father, the late Robert Macdonald, having been a native of Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, and for many years a resident of Halifax. Charles was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 4th April, 1841, and received his education at Dalhousie College. He studied law in the office of the Hon. J. S. D. Thompson (now minister of justice at Ottawa), and was called to the bar in 1872. In 1878 he presented himself for parliamentary honours, and was returned a member of the Nova Scotia legislature as representative of the city and county of Halifax, and occupied the position of member of the Executive Council in 1878 and 1879 without portfolio. Lieut.-Colonel Macdonald, commander of the 66th battalion Princess Louise Fusiliers, served as major in the Halifax Provincial battalion during the North-West rebellion, having had under his command a detachment of one hundred and eighty men from the 63rd Rifles and Halifax Garrison Artillery. He occupied the position of paymaster for the volunteers from 1872 to 1878; and has been an alderman of the city of Halifax; president of the North British Society; deputy grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons; grand high priest of the Grand Chapter, and representative of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. In 1879 he was appointed to the office of inspector of post offices for the province of Nova Scotia, and this position he still occupies. In politics he leans towards Liberal-Conservatism, and in religion he is a Presbyterian. The colonel has been twice married—first to Mary Tamson, daughter of William Evans, and second to Annie, daughter of James McLearn. * * * * * =Berryman, Daniel Edgar=, M.D. C.M., and A.R.S. (Edin.), is a native of New Brunswick, having been born in the city of St. John, on the 16th of August, 1848. His father, John Berryman, sen., was born in 1798, in the parish of Castle Dowson, Antrim county, Ireland, where his ancestors, who came from Devonshire, England, with the army of Oliver Cromwell, settled in the seventeenth century. He emigrated to this country about the year 1816, and settled in St. John, and died on the 2nd January,