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Me hee. = i 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 powerful 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 representative 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 influence 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 Malloch, 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 gentlemen, 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 continued 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 retirement of Mr. Baldwin, he reluctantly consented to accept the Attorney-Generalship of Upper Canada, ate orn sig ie a one aa bő = 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 November, 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 profound 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, accompanying 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 LieutenantGovernor, July zoth, 1875, at a salary of $9,000 per id =
