Oldal 255 [255]
I50
in Scotland, and the political persecutions of 1820.
The spy system introduced by the tyrannical govern¬
ment sent many innocent parties to prison. Rich¬
mond, the principal of the spy department, had his
emissaries among the people. These wretches deceit¬
fully led men to give expression to their feelings
against the government; the names were then for¬
warded to the officials, and imprisonment or trans¬
portation followed. Soldiers marched through the
streets, while house to house examinations were made
whose house an old rusty sword or bayonet was
found. No one dared express an opinion in opposi¬
tion to the Government, and all known to do
so were imprisoned or hunted out of the country.
Freedom of speech there was none. Amid such
scenes Mr. Wylie’s early political principles were
laid. He ran in opposition to Dr. Church for North
Grenville, but was defeated, the constituency being
thoroughly Conservative.
Just after the Confederation of the Provinces was
completed, Mr. Wylie published a small volume of
poems under the title of " Waifs from the Thousand
Islands." These were well received by the press.
In 1870, he visited his native country and was en¬
gaged by the Provincial Government to bring the
subject " Canada as a Field of Immigration” before
the people of Scotland. In this he was very success¬
ful. He wrote a series of twelve letters, besides
other special correspondence, on the subject in the
Glasgow Herald, a paper enjoying at that time a
circulation of 36,000 daily. Mr. Wylie gave four
months of his time gratuitously, as he was only re¬
munerated for his actual outlay—his labor being
given gratis. In 1875, he desired to withdraw from
the responsibility and care attendant on editing and
publishing a paper. He, however, had started the
EVENING RECORDER, and sunk some money in the un¬
dertaking. In September of 1875, however, he sold
out to Leavitt & Southworth, Mr. Leavitt having
taken. charge of the editorial department in the
month of April preceding, when Mr. Wylie was ap¬
pointed Paymaster of Militia, District No. 4, having
the rank of Major, but was a short time afterward
made honorary Lieutenant-Colonel. He has always,
since being a member of Captain Lyman’s Com¬
pany of Rifles in Montreal, taken a warm interest in
the volunteer movement. He passed through the
grades of Private, Corporal, Lieutenant, Captain and
Major, and nowrests as Lieutenant-Colonol and Pay¬
master. He has been thirty years a School Trustee,
being many years Chairman of the Board. He has
also served several years as a member of the Town
Council. His whole life has been one of activity and
usefulness. Hedeserved far more acknowledgment
than he has received from the Government,
SENATOR BROUSE.
William Henry Brouse, M. A., M. D., was born at
Matilda, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the
year 1824. He is the second son of the late Lieut¬
enant-Colonel Jacob Brouse, a descendant of one of
the U. E. Loyalist families who first settled in the
County of Dundas. Reared upon a farm, when
young, he attended the common schools in winter
and worked in the fields during seed time and the
harvest. His father, realizing the want of a good
education himself, determined to give his children
the best literary advantages his means would afford,
accordingly gave them the privilege of an education
at our Canadian Universities. Dr. Brouse was sent
to Cobourg, a student at Victoria College. He was
very successful and left with the highest honors.
His class-mates were the Rev. S. S. Nellis, D. D., now
President of the same University, the Rev. William
Ormiston, D. D., the celebrated Divine of New York,
John George Hodgins, L. L. D., Assistant Superin¬
tendent of Education for Ontario, the late Judge
Springer, of Hamilton, James L. Biggar, Esq., M. P.,
East Northumberland, and Hon. William McDougall,
M. P. The Degree of M. A. was obtained at
Victoria College. His medical studies were pursued
in Toronto, under the immediate instruction of the
late Hon. Dr. Rolph, after which he proceeded to
Montreal and obtained the Degree of M. D. from
McGill College, in the spring of 1847. In the same
year, he was appointed by the government to take
charge of an hospital of emigrants on Point Iroquois,
where he attended three hundred sick with typhoid
fever, known as the emigrant fever. His former
tutor, Dr. Rolph, offered him a partnership to induce
him to go to Toronto, and some years afterward, asa
further inducement, had him appointed Professor of
Surgery in the Toronto School of Medicine—but Dr.
Brouse at the time not being robust, at the request
of his friends, settled in Prescott, where he has since
practiced his profession. He married in 1857, Fanny
A. Jones, daughter of the late Alpheus Jones, Esq.,
Post Master and Collector of Customs for that town.
He is surgeon of the 56th Battalion, is a member of
the Senate and Board of the University of Victoria,
is the Managing Medical Director of the Toronto
Life and Tontine Company, was appointed member
as far back as 1849, has been elected, by the united
vote of the physicians, a member of the Medical
Council for Ontario, at the elections for 1866, 1869
and 1872, continuously since its first formation, and
was elected President of the Council in 1870. Dr.
Brouse has represented his town in the County
Council, and was the choice of the people for Mayor.