A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
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a prominent part in inaugurating the railway fever of that time and the government policy of subsidizing the railways consequent thereon. He obtained a charter for what is now the northern branch of the South Eastern Railway, under the then name of the Richelieu, Drummond and Arthabaska River Railway, one hundred miles in length; successfully (for every one but himself) promoted the scheme and constructed the road, was elected president of the company and gave to L. A. Sénécal the first railway contract he ever had, and finally transferred the road to the South Eastern Company on certain conditions which, we regret to say, were never fully carried out. He also greatly developed the two counties by opening up colonization roads; and took an active part in revising the municipal code. During this time he was elected president of the Agricultural Society of the county of Drummond, No. 1, and held the office until the society was constituted for the whole county. In 1870, a vacancy occuring in the lucrative office of prothonotary for the district of Arthabaska, the Hon. M. Chauveau, the then premier, nominated him to the same, but a difficulty arising in connection with the Hon. G. Irvine, who was then solicitor-general in the Chauveau administration, and who represented a portion of the district, in order to oblige Hon. M. Chauveau, he finally consented to decline the nomination, and to present himself once more in 1871 for re-election against the Hon. W. Laurier, the Liberal candidate, but was defeated by a large majority, principally on the ground of nationality and railway difficulties. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Hemming was elected warden of the county of Drummond, which office he resigned, when two years afterwards, he was appointed district magistrate (the equivalent of county judge in the other provinces) for the districts of Arthabaska and St. Francis, in conjunction with G. E. Rioux, but practically the two districts were divided, Mr. Hemming taking the former, and Mr. Rioux the latter. About the same time it was commonly reported in the press and elsewhere, that he was to be the new Superior Court judge, for the district, as the representative of the Protestant element among the six new judges, but at the end the Protestant element was eliminated altogether. While holding the office of district magistrate he was named sole commissioner by the Quebec government to investigate and report on the management and working of the prothonotary’s and other offices in the Montreal court-house, including the police office. Mr. Bréhaut (a Protestant) having resigned his office of police magistrate, and received another appointment in consequence of this report, it was again positively reported that Mr. Hemming was to be appointed police magistrate in his stead, but at the very last moment Judge Desnoyers was substituted. In 1878, during Mr. Joly’s short régime, when great efforts were made to introduce the American system, “to the victors belong the spoils,” Mr. Hemming and thirteen other district magistrates had their commissions revoked, on the ground of economy, without receiving any indemnity whatever for the loss of their office, and Mr. Rioux, being a Liberal, was awarded Mr. Hemming’s district in addition to his own, thus eliminating the only Protestant on the police bench in the whole province of Quebec. Strange to say, the succeeding Conservative administration in Quebec never took any steps either to reinstate or indemnify Mr. Hemming for the loss of his office, although nearly all his French colleagues were provided for one way or the other. As he had to commence his practice anew he retired from public life for some years; but in 1881, at the urgent request of the local government, consented to run against the Hon. George Irvine in the Conservative interest in Megantic, but was again defeated, not having received the support promised him, and having entered into the contest only a week before the polling. In this year he was named census commissioner for the county of Drummond by the Dominion government; and in 1885 revising officer for the same county under the Franchise Act. Having a short time previously consented to take a part in municipal matters again, he was elected mayor of Drummondville and warden of the county for the second time. He was also elected syndic of the Bar of Arthabaska, which office he held until his recent appointment as joint prothonotary and Clerk of the Crown for that district. Mr. Hemming has for some years past been an associate member of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction for the province of Quebec, where he has been working for some time past to procure the introduction of religious teaching in the Protestant public schools, and has so far succeeded as to have the Bible placed upon the list of authorized text books. In religious matters Mr. Hemming is a member of the Church of England, and has acted for many years past as lay reader whenever his services have been required. And on one occasion in the absence of a clergyman after the church at Drummondville was destroyed by fire, conducted the services for nearly a year, and thereby kept the congregation together. He was churchwarden of St. George’s Church, Drummondville, for eighteen years, and has been elected a delegate to the Diocesan Synod of Quebec and to the Provincial Synod since 1862 without any intermission, and during these 25 years has never failed attending a single session of either of these synods. Mr. Hemming is old-fashioned enough to believe in the Bible, and consequently has no faith in Darwinism, secular education or prohibition. With regard to the latter, he says he cannot bring himself to believe that the Saviour was a criminal when he made and drank wine at the marriage feast, nor when he commanded his disciples to drink wine in his memory at the Lord’s Supper. In politics, he is and has always been a Conservative, and does not believe in the principles of the French or American revolutions, nor in the divine right of the people, and he believes that authority ought to come from above and not from below. Mr. Hemming cannot understand the theory of allowing the fools to elect the wise men, nor why a majority should have the right to utterly crush out the minority, and still less why a small minority that happens to hold the balance of power under our constitution, should have the power of controlling the overwhelming majority of the nation. Neither does he believe in Adam Smith. He has been a protectionist ever since the times of Sir Robert Peel, D’Israeli and Lord George Bentinck, and has never seen any occasion to change his opinion, notwithstanding it was considered rank heresy to say so. After a lifetime he begins to see signs that the British are beginning to discover that our social system is founded on the family, each with its own interest (the nation being merely an extension of that idea), and that until the whole world becomes one family, the theory of free trade which is based on that idea must be inapplicable. It will be seen by the foregoing that Mr. Hemming has led a pretty active life, which may be considered as decidedly professional, having been a sailor, soldier, farmer, lawyer, legislator, judge, doctor (in law) and (lay) parson. His sons are taking different branches of the professions. His eldest son being a law student, another is in the Canadian army, being a lieutenant in the Infantry School corps, and a third in the Canadian marine, being second officer on board of one of the government cruisers for the protection of the fisheries.
McCosh, John, Barrister, Orillia, Ontario, was born in Paris, Brant county, Ontario, on the 6th September, 1844. His father, Robert McCosh, M.D., was a native of Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, who graduated at the University of Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1834. Shortly after his arrival he located in Paris, and in a very few years gained a large medical practice in the county of Brant. He died in 1862. His mother was a Miss Irwin, of Welland. She was from the north of Ireland, and emigrated with her mother and brothers about the year 1836. Her brothers became merchants, and carried on a large business, one in Paris, and the other in Galt. John McCosh received his education in the Paris High School, and subsequently studied law in the office of Clark Gamble, Q.C., Toronto, and afterwards in the office of the present Chief Justice Cameron. He was enrolled as a solicitor in 1868, and called to the bar in 1874. Mr. McCosh then opened a law office in Paris, where he continued to practise his profession for about two years, and in 1871 removed to Orillia, where he has since resided, and has succeeded in building up a lucrative business. Apart from his professional duties, Mr. McCosh has found time to devote a good deal of his time to the public good, and in appreciation of his disinterested services, his fellow-townsmen elected him, on different occasions, to the highest office in their gift, and he accordingly filled the office of mayor in the years 1881, 1882, and in 1886. He was also, in 1886, nominated for the Ontario legislature by the Liberal-Conservatives of East Simcoe, but afterwards withdrew from the canvass, he having failed to agree with the party on the “Protestant” and “Prohibition” cries. Mr. McCosh is a rising man, and we hope to see him some day in the legislature of his country. He is married to Mary Stanton, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Stanton, postmaster of Paris.
Norman, Rev. Richard Whitmore, M.A., D.C.L., Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, was born at Southborough, Kent, England, on 24th April, 1829. His father was Richard Norman, merchant, of London, son of George Norman, a large landed proprietor of Bromley, Kent, England; and his