Stranica 334 [334]
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186
Commissioner of Public Works, a position which he
still retains. He is the President of the Roman
Catholic Literary Association of Brockville, and was
one of the originators of the Ontario Catholic
League. He married Miss Lafayette, daughter of
John Lafayette, of Brockville.
Among the self-made men of the Dominion,
Mr. Fraser occupies a foremost place. Born of the
people, his struggle in early life for an education
and a profession was long and arduous. He began
his career as a compositor in the RECORDER office.
Perseverance, ability and ambition surmounted every
obstacle and placed him in the front rank as a public
man. Unaided by fortune and unassisted by power¬
ful friends, he entered the Local Legislature, where
his talents were at once perceived and appreciated.
He is an accomplished and fluent debater, the
acknowledged champion of Liberal principles
upon the floor of the House, and the repre¬
sentative Roman Catholic of the Province of
Ontario. In the management of the Department
of Public Works, he has developed administrative
ability of a high order, and conducted the public
affairs entrusted to his charge with zeal and efficiency.
A young man, his advancement has been rapid and
well deserved, honestly and fairly won, and his in¬
fluence may be counted among the potent forces
Ontario but also in the Dominion.
SIR WILLIAM B. RICHARDS.
The Hon. Sir William Buell Richards first saw
light in the Town of Brockville, May 2nd, 1815.—
After attending the Johnstown District Grammar
School and an academy at Potsdam, New York,
he studied law with Andrew Norton Buell, Esq.,
and subsequently with the late Judge George Mal¬
loch, and was called to the Bar of Upper Canada in
He soon entered upon an
In 1849, he was
Michaelmas Term, 1837.
extensive and varied practice.
elected a Bencher of the Law Society, and in 1850,
the late Robert Baldwin, then Attorney-General for
Upper Canada, advanced him, with nine other gentle¬
men, to the dignity of a silk gown.
The members of the Liberal party in the County
of Leeds, after repeated solicitations, induced the
future Chief Justice to enter the political arena asa
Reform condidate, and in January, 1848, he became
a member of the Canadian Assembly, as memper for
Leeds, after a hotly contested campaign. He con¬
tinued to hold the seat during active political life,
and to this day the proudest boast of the pioneer
Liberals is that they made William Buell Richards
their representative. In October, 1851, on the retire¬
ment of Mr. Baldwin, he reluctantly consented to
accept the Attorney-Generalship of Upper Canada,
ate orn sig ie a one
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but in June 1853, he succeeded the late Mr. Justice
Sullivan as a Puisne Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas. Ten years later, he was advanced to the
Chief Justiceship of the same Court, and in Novem¬
ber, 1868, he was appointed Chief Justice of the
Province of Ontario. In October, 1875, upon the
organization of the Supreme Court of the-Dominion,
he was offered and accepted the highest judicial
office in Canada—that of Chief Justice of the newly
constituted Supreme Court.
Previous to this, he had acted as commissioner,
north-western boundary of that Province. Again,
more recently, he discharged the duties of Deputy
to the Governor-General, during the absence from
the Dominion capital of the Earl of Dufferin. In
1877, he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen,
as a mark of appreciation of his distinguished
services upon the Bench.
Chief Justice Richards is esteemed a man of pro¬
found legal knowlege and sagacity—a judge whose
decisions, always clear and perspicuous, have seldom
been reversed on appeal.
In consequence of continued ill-health, Justice
1878, his important and
honorable office, and removed to the south of
Richards resigned, in
France, where he at the present time resides.
In 1846, Chief Justice Richards married Deborah
Catherine, the daughter of Muirhead Butler, Esq.,
Barrister-at-Law, of Niagara, Ontario, a grandson
of Colonel John Butler, of “ Butler’s Rangers.”—
HON. ALBERT N. RICHARDS.
Albert Norton Richards is the youngest son of
the late Stephen Richards, Sr. He was born at
Brockville, December 8th, 1822, and studied law
with his brother, the ex-Chief Justice, being called
to the Bar of Upper Canada in Michaelmas Term,
1848. In 1863, he was created a 0. C. He became
a member of the Canadian Assembly, for South
Leeds, in 1863, retaining his seat until January, 1864,
when he accepted the office of Solicitor-General
under the late Sandfield McDonald, when he was
defeated. In 1872, he was elected for the same
constituency in the House of Commons, remaining
the member until the House was dissolved in 1874.
In 1869, he was appointed Attorney-General of the
Provisional Government of the North-West, accom¬
panying the Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. William
McDougall, C. B.
Removing to British Columbia, he became the
legal agent of the Dominion Government in that
Province, being subseguently appointed Lieutenant¬
Governor, July zoth, 1875, at a salary of $9,000 per
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