of his devotion to professional work he has never taken a very active part in politics. He served in the militia force for ten years as Veterinary Surgeon to the Montreal Field Battery of Artillery. He became a justice of the peace in 1886, with jurisdiction over the entire Province of Quebec.
Holmes, Hon. Simon H., Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was born near Springville, East River township, Pictou county, N.S., on the 30th July, 1831. His father, Hon. John Holmes, came from Ross-shire, Scotland, where he was born in 1783, to Nova Scotia, and settled in the province in 1803, and represented Pictou county in the Nova Scotia legislature, from 1839 to 1847, and from 1851 to 1855, and was called to the Legislative Council in 1858. At the time of Confederation in 1867 he was made a member of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada. His mother, Catherine Fraser, was a native of Nova Scotia. Simon H. Holmes received his educational training at the New Glasgow Grammar School and at the Pictou Academy. He adopted law as a profession, and studied in the office of the Hon. James McDonald, now chief justice of Nova Scotia, and was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in August, 1864. He practised for a number of years as a barrister in Pictou, and during that time acquired the honourable distinction of being a logical and able speaker, and one who always made a favourable impression on a jury. Mr. Holmes entered political life in 1867, and yet though he failed to carry Pictou county at the general election of that year, he was successful in 1871; and in 1874 he was re-elected by acclamation, and chosen leader of the opposition. After the contest in 1878, he was called upon to form an administration, of which he became premier and provincial secretary, which position he occupied during the four years following, when he accepted the office of prothonotary of the Supreme Court for Halifax, which office he now holds. Hon. Mr. Holmes was for twenty-four years editor and proprietor of the Colonial Standard, Pictou, an outspoken Liberal-Conservative paper, which he conducted with marked ability, and which exercised a great influence in shaping the politics of the province. When quite a young man he took an active interest in the volunteer movement, and rose to the rank of captain; subsequently he held the same rank in the militia, and was, before severing his connection with the corps on entering public life, promoted to the rank of major.
Archibald, Hon. Sir Adams Geo., K.C.M.G., D.C.L., P.C., Q.C., ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. This illustrious statesman was born at Truro, Nova Scotia, on the 18th May, 1814. His father was Samuel Archibald, grandson of one of two brothers who came from the North of Ireland, though of Scottish descent, settled at Truro, Colchester county, N.S., in 1761, and both of whom married and had families, and from these brothers sprung most of the families of that name now scattered over the Maritime and other provinces of the Dominion, some of whom honoured the liberal professions, and filled nearly every position of responsibility and trust in the legislature and government of Nova Scotia. His grandfather, James Archibald, was, on the 23rd June, 1796, appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Colchester, Nova Scotia, and held this position till his death. The mother of Sir Adams Archibald was Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Archibald, who was appointed coroner of Colchester in 1776, and represented Truro in the local parliament for many years. Adams George Archibald was educated at Pictou College under the late Dr. McCulloch, who had at that time the training of many young men who now fill various high positions in public life. He studied law in Halifax in the office of the late William Sutherland, afterwards recorder of the city; was admitted in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as an attorney in 1838, and as barrister to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1839; and for many years practised his profession successfully both at Truro and Halifax, during which time he filled some very important positions. In 1851 he entered public life, and was elected to represent the county of Colchester in the Nova Scotia assembly, and sat as such until 1859, when the county was divided, and he was returned for South Colchester, which constituency he continued to represent until Confederation in 1867. During three years he occupied prominent positions in the government of Nova Scotia. In 1856 he was appointed solicitor-general of his native province, and in 1857 was sent as a delegate, in company with the late Hon. J. W. Johnstone, to England to arrange the terms of settlement with the British government and the General Mining Association, in regard to the mines of the province, and to ascertain the views of that government on the question of the union of the provinces. And one of the happy results of their labours was to effect a settlement of a long standing dispute between the province and the company, whereby certain collieries were allotted to the company on their surrendering all other collieries and all mines and minerals to the province, except the coal in the areas so allotted. In 1860 he was made attorney-general, and the following year (1861), he was a delegate to the Quebec Conference to discuss the question of an Intercolonial Railway. In 1862 he was appointed advocate-general of the Vice-Admiralty Court. Mr. Archibald being one of the foremost among the advocates of Confederation, he attended as a delegate the Charlottetown Union Conference in June, 1864; the Quebec Conference, held a few months later in the same year, and the final conference held in London (England), during the winter of 1866–7 to complete the terms of confederation. In 1867 he was made secretary of state for the provinces in the Dominion government. In 1869 he was elected to a seat in the Dominion parliament at Ottawa, by the county of Colchester, but resigned the next year (1870), on his being appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. In 1872 he was created a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by her Majesty the Queen for his services in Manitoba, and in 1886 was advanced a step in the order, being created K.C.M.G. On his return from the North-West he was appointed, on the 24th June, 1873, judge in equity for Nova Scotia; but only held the office until the 4th of the next month, when, on the death of the late lieutenant-governor, Joseph Howe, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, and this high office he filled with great dignity and satisfaction to all concerned from the 4th July, 1873, to 4th July, 1883, when he was succeeded by Mr. Matthew Henry Richey. Governor Archibald was one of the directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1873; and in 1884 he was chosen chairman of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie College; and in 1885 he was elected president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, of which he has been an active member from the time of its formation in 1878 to the present. In conclusion, we may add that the Hon. Mr. Archibald is a man of broad views and generous impulses, and a statesman whom the country is pleased to honour. In religious matters he has followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, and is a staunch Presbyterian. He was married on the 1st June, 1840, to Elizabeth Archibald, daughter of the Rev. John Burnyeat, an able and accomplished Anglican divine, the first clergyman of the Church of England, in the parish of St. John, Colchester, whose wife was Livinia, daughter of Charles Dickson, and sister of Elizabeth, wife of the late Hon. S. G. W. Archibald, and mother of the late Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Archibald.
McCaul, Rev. John, D.D., late President of University College, Toronto, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1807, and died at Toronto, on the 16th of April, 1887, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was educated at Trinity College in his native city, and after a very successful university career, graduated with the highest honours in classics. At the request of the authorities of Trinity College, he for some time filled the post of classical tutor and examiner in that institution. While occupying this position, he devoted himself passionately to the pursuit of classical literature, and edited several editions of recognized value of various Greek and Latin texts. In 1838, Dr. Harley, then archbishop of Canterbury, hearing of his repute as a scholar, offered him the principalship of Upper Canada College, in Toronto, and Mr. McCaul having accepted the office, entered upon its duties the following year. In 1843, he became the president and professor of classics, logic, rhetoric and belles-lettres in King’s College, which by the Act of 1849, became the University of Toronto, and was freed forever from sectarian control. From that time up to the date of his retirement, some years ago, from all literary work, Dr. McCaul uninterruptedly filled the chair of classics in the university, of which for some years he was also the president. While zealously maintaining the pre-eminence of his own department, he actively assisted in introducing into the university curriculum the subjects of modern languages and natural sciences. His individual work is seen on every hand in the distinguished men who are to be found in every part of the province, and who cheerfully acknowledge their indebtedness to the late lamented president of University College, for the accuracy and thoroughness of their academic training. Among the works which have been issued from Dr. McCaul’s pen are exhaustive treatises on the Greek Tragic Metres and the Horatian Metres; on the Scansion of the Hecuba and Medea of Euripides; lectures on Homer and Virgil; an edition
