A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time - Various страница 92
Cross, Hon. Alexander, Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench, Montreal, was born on a farm situated on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 22nd of March, 1821, and came to Montreal with his parents when only a boy of five years of age. His father, Robert Cross, was a gentleman farmer, and was a scion of the Cross family who for many generations lived in Old Monklands, and were among the well-to-do farmers in that part of Scotland. His mother, Janet Selkirk, was from an adjoining parish. Mr. Cross, sr., died about a year after his arrival in Canada, and this sad event rendered it necessary for the family to remove to a farm on the Chateauguay river, the land on which the celebrated battle of that name was fought between a handful of Canadian militia and a strong force of United States troops—the Canadians coming off victorious—during the war of 1812–14. Alexander, who was the youngest son of the family, as he grew up to manhood, showed a strong leaning towards literary pursuits instead of towards agriculture; and in his laudable desire for knowledge he was encouraged by his elder brother, who had been educated for the Scottish bar, and who, while he lived, helped him in every way possible to gratify his literary aspirations. In 1837, at the age of sixteen, he left the farm and went to Montreal to study. Here he entered the Montreal College as a pupil, but after being a short time in this institution he found the classes did not progress fast enough to suit his restless craving for knowledge, when he left and put himself under private tutors. He also entered the office of John J. Day, of Montreal, to study law; and the rebellion at this time breaking out, he enlisted as a volunteer in Colonel Maitland’s battalion, and served in this corps until the close of the rebellion in 1838, retiring with the rank of sergeant. When the rebels were defeated at Beauharnois, Sergeant Cross was among the first to enter the village. And in this connection we may say that while a law student he was chosen clerk of the first municipal council of the county of Beauharnois, then embracing three or four times its present area, and so well did he perform his duties at the first meeting of the council that he was highly complimented for the ability he displayed, by such gentlemen as Lord Selkirk and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who were guests at the Seigniory house, staying there to observe the working of the new institution. Mr. Cross was called to the bar in 1844, and practised his profession in Montreal more than thirty years, at first with the late Duncan Fisher, Q.C., and subsequently with Attorney-General Smith (who afterwards became the Hon. Judge Smith). During this long period Mr. Cross had an extensive and remunerative practice, and on several occasions he represented the Crown while connected with the distinguished gentlemen mentioned above. During the administration of Viscount Monck, in 1864, he was created a Queen’s counsel. On the 30th of August, 1877, he was appointed one of the judges of the Queen’s Bench for the province of Quebec, and took his seat the first of the following month, at a session of the court held in the city of Quebec. Judge Cross, while in practice at the bar, held a foremost position among the legal fraternity. On the bench he has met the expectations of his many admirers, and his judicial opinions have been received by the Supreme Court and the Privy Council with marked consideration. He has been identified with Montreal since his boyhood days, and has seen the great progress that city has made since he first entered it at his mother’s side. In 1837–8, as we have seen, he helped to quell the rebellion, and in 1849 he was present at the burning of the parliament houses incident on the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, and assisted the late Sir Louis H. Lafontaine and some others of the notable politicians of that day in making their escape from the burning building, escorting them unmolested through the turbulent crowd of rioters, among whom he exercised a certain amount of influence. Judge Cross seems always to have had an aversion to public life, and even in his younger days when he was offered political positions of honour, he always declined them. In 1863 he was offered by the Liberal government then in power the position of secretary to the commission for the codification of the laws of Canada, and at a later date the office of attorney-general in the de Boucherville administration, but he refused to accept either of these important offices. He has, nevertheless, suggested and assisted in framing legislative measures of general utility, among which may be mentioned the first statute passed in Canada for the abolition of the Usury laws. He is also the inventor of a new and ingenious method of rotation of numbers. In politics the judge leans to the Liberal side, and his ideas, as well on the subject of finance as on the theory of the popular principle in the election of representatives, are noted for their originality and depth of thought. In religion he is a member of St. Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church, and has been an office bearer in that church. He is a man of good impulses, and is very generous to the poor. In 1848 he married Julia, daughter of the late William Lunn, in his day a prominent citizen of Montreal, and they have five sons and one daughter living, and have buried three children, the last, an exceedingly promising youth, in his sixteenth year.
Baillairgé, Chevalier Chas. P. F., M.S., Quebec. The subject of this who is a Chevalier of the Order of St. Sauveur de Monte Reale, Italy, was born in September, 1827, and for the past forty years has been practising his profession as an engineer, architect and surveyor, in the city of Quebec. Since 1856 he has been a member of the Board of Examiners of Land Surveyors for the province, and since 1875 its chairman; he is an honorary member of the Society for the Generalization of Education in France; and has been the recipient of thirteen medals of honour and of seventeen diplomas, etc., from learned societies and public bodies in France, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Japan, etc. Mr. Baillairgé’s father, who died in 1865, at the age of sixty-eight, was born in Quebec, and for over thirty years was road surveyor of that city. His mother, Charlotte Janverin Horsley, who is still living, was born in the Isle of Wight, England, and was a daughter of Lieutenant Horsley, R.N. His grandfather on the paternal side, P. Florent Baillairgé, is of French descent, and was connected, now nearly a century ago, with the restoration of the Basilica, Quebec. The wife of the latter was Cureux de St. Germain, also of French descent. Our subject married, in 1845, Euphémie, daughter of Mr. Jean Duval, and step-daughter of the Hon. John Duval, for many years chief justice of Lower Canada, by whom he had eleven children, four of whom only survive. His wife dying in February, 1878, he, in April of the following year, married Anne, eldest daughter of Captain Benjamin Wilson, of the British navy, by whom he has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Baillairgé was educated at the Seminary of Quebec, but, finding the curriculum of studies too lengthy, he left that institution some time before the termination of the full course of ten years, and entered into a joint apprenticeship as architect, engineer and surveyor. During this apprenticeship he devoted himself to mathematical and natural science studies, and received diplomas for his proficiency in 1848, when only twenty-one years of age. At that period he entered upon his profession, and for the last twenty years has filled the post of city engineer of Quebec, manager of its water works, engineer of its new water works under the Beemer contract of 1883; engineer, on the part of the city, in and over the North Shore, Piles and Lake St. John railways during their construction. Mr. Baillairgé has held successive commissions in the militia, as ensign, lieutenant, and captain; and in 1860, and for several years thereafter, was hydrographic surveyor to the Quebec Board of Harbour Commissioners. In 1861 he was elected vice-president of the Association of Architects and Civil Engineers of Canada. In 1858 he was elected, and again in 1861 unanimously re-elected, to represent the St. Louis ward in the City Council, Quebec. In 1863 he was called for two years to Ottawa, to act as joint architect of the Parliament and Departmental buildings then in course of erection. Interests of considerable magnitude were then at stake between the government and the contractors, claims amounting to nearly half a million of money having to be adjusted. In connection with his employment by the government, Mr. Baillairgé found that to continue his services he must be a party to some sacrifice of principle, which, rather than consent to, he was indiscreet enough to tell the authorities of the time. This excess of virtue was too moral for the appointing power and more than it was disposed to brook in an employé of the government. The difficulty was, therefore, got over by giving Mr. Baillairgé his feuille de route, a compliment to his integrity of which he has ever since been justly proud. He shortly afterwards returned to Quebec. During