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GREAT men are studied as
patterns on which the lives of others may be more or less moulded. The
facts of a great, a useful, an honourably successful life, are set as an
example, and an inspiration to the young, and as a standard to those
whose years have brought the enjoyment rather than the pursuit of life's
prizes. The elements of greatness—what are they? Blackie, wise as the
Greeks who inspired him, has it: "A man is great amongst men, just
as Mount Blanc is great among Swiss, or Ben Nevis among Scottish
mountains a man rising above the normal level of his kind, with as
marked an elevation as these heights above the common reach of
heaven-kissing hills, and at the same time possessing all the qualities
and virtues that belong to terrestrial elevations generally." One does
not tire of quoting Professor Blackie, so breezy, so fresh, and so full
of suggestive wisdom. Thus, he adds, that a great man is essentially and
broadly human, and achieves in the exercise of his one special talent
the highest excellence, as Shakspeare did in the drama, only by the
social atmosphere which he breathes, and the human sympathies which he
cultivates. A great man must be deficient in no function that makes a
man a man.
The Scottish people, at
home and abroad, have given many sons who, measured by this standard,
have not been found wanting, and among them Sir Sandford Fleming, is a
conspicuous figure. "The man and the moment" are the two things Matthew
Arnold think's to be necessary to secure great work. The time was
propitious and the man did not fail in the case of Sir Sandford. When
one casts but a cursory glance over his long career, the number and the
magnitude of his undertakings seem marvellous, but when the details of
that career have been unfolded, and the man behind them has been
revealed, then wonder changes to admiration, for the greatness of the
man, as well as of the work, has been discovered; and greatness, if it
has found expression in word or deed, sooner or later receives the
recognition and the homage it deserves. What Mr. Fleming found when he
arrived in Canada, was a country in its beginnings—the resourceful man's
brightest opportunity. How he wrought in its development, contributed to
its growth and greatness, and bore himself as one of its most notable
citizens, will one day, no doubt, form the theme of a thrilling
biography ; here a great subject can only be very briefly outlined.
As seen to-day, Sir
Sandford has many of the traits that are attributed to the sons of the
Ancient Kingdom of Fife, of which he is a native. He is ample of
stature, with a certain majesty of bearing. His features are leonine,
and one sees at a glance the force of character which has won success by
the strenuous application of extraordinary talent to the solution of
great problems. But while every line indicates energy and a rugged
strength, the kindliness and the goodness which never fail him are also
to be read in his open countenance.
Shirra Hall, Kirkcaldy, was built of stones taken from the church, of
which the famous Scotch minister, the Rev. Mr. Shirra, was the pastor.
The best known of Mr. Shirra's homely and quaint sayings is thus told :
One day, when reading from the 116th Psalm, " I said in my haste, all
men are liars," he quietly remarked—"Indeed Dauvid, gill ye had lived in
this parish ye might hae said it at your leisure." And for the sake of
Shirra Hall, one other anecdote, as related by W. Ford, may be allowed.
One day, observing a young girl with a large and rather gaudy new
bonnet, with Which she herself seemed moderately pleased, and also
noticing or suspecting that his wife was indulging in a quiet nap, he
paused in the middle of his sermon and said "Look ony o' ye there if my
wife be sleepin', for I canna see her for thae fine falderals on Jenny
Bain's new bonnet."
It was in Shirra Hall
that Sir Sandford Fleming was born, on the 7th of January, 1827. His
father was Andrew Greig Fleming, and his mother's name was Elizabeth
Arnot. He attended the grammar school of his native town, then under the
control of Mr. William Black, whose signature certifies to the "
superior diligence of Master Sanford Fleming," at an early age. He was
often "dux" of his classes, and he gave every promise of a bright
future. The church his family attended was that formrly ministered to by
Mr. Shirra, but the building was a more modern structure. Kirkcaldy was
then a town of about 8,000 inhabitants, but the enterprise which has
placed it among the leading industrial centres of Scotland to-day, was
abroad, and young Fleming imbibed not a little of its spirit ere he left
his native land for Canada at the age of eighteen. At that time, 1845,
the passage across the Atlantic was quite a formidable thing, and it was
not uncomon for friends to consider the voyage as a separation for life.
One of the parting incidents which impressed itself on Mr. Fleming's
memory was the gift of a silver crown of George III., by a cousin named
Robert Imrie, who said, in giving it ''Take this crown, as a keepsake,
and as long as you have it, you will not want money." Only the other
day-, Sir Sandford opened an old desk which had not been used for forty,
odd years, and there lay his cousin's keepsake, the George III. silver
crown; also a letter to his father written on board ship on his voyage
to Canada. Associated with this letter is a pathetic incident which has
to be. recorded. The sailing vessel on which he shipped from Glasgow for
Quebec took forty days on the out-trip. She encountered a great storm
and was driven far out of her course, and her safety was a matter of
doubt. She was laden with tons of railway iron bars, which were tossed
against her sides with every pitch and lurch of the vessel. Mr. Fleming
saw that if the terrific storm continued any length of time the iron
would crash through the vessel, and as no abatement seemed likely he
composed himself for the worst. In these circumstances he wrote an
account of the situation to his father, giving day and hour, and the
position of the ship. This letter he put into a bottle and sealing it
consigned it to the deep. The me- sage travelled, slowly but safely., to
the coast of Devonshire, where it was picked: up by a fisherman and
forvardec to Kirkcaldy. Before it had reached there, however, his father
had heard direct of the safe arrival of the ship at Quebec, and the
bottled missive caused no alarm.
On his arrival in Toronto Mr. Fleming at first engaged in the profession
of land surveyor. He afterwards joined the engineering staff of the
Northern Railway, having qualified himself for that calling in the Old
Land. His ability was soon recognized, and he rose in the service of the
company until lie became Chief Engineer of the road in 1857. The
question of railway transportation was the most important before the
cbuntry for many a year during and after that peri6d, and Mr. Sandford
Fleming's genius for railway construction found increasing exercise in
laying down plans and comprehensive schemes, as well as in active
operations. What the country owes to his counsel, to his energy, and to
his advocacy, cannot here be told, but the record remains a monument to
his name in the annals of railway development. In partnership with
Messrs. Ridout & Schreiber he carried out Several large contracts, and
established his name as a business man of large grasp as well as an
engineer of professional distinction. He had become so thoroughly
identified with railway enterprise that, when the people of the Red
River settlement moved to establish railway communication between
themselves and Eastern Canada, he was chosen their commissioner to
London, to lay their case before the Imperial authorities.
The following letter
intimating his selection will be read at this distance of time -with
peculiar interest, as showing how slowly Her Majesty's mails travelled
in those days ; the letter which is dated February 2nd, did not reach
Mr. Fleming, in Toronto, until the 29th of July following. The post
marks on the envelope are: "Pembina, Minn.," February 7th; "Detroit,
Mich.," July 22nd ; " Toronto, C. W.," July 23rd, and one more mark, not
decipherable:
MACDUFF HOUSE,
RED RIVER SETTLEMENT,,
Feb. 2nd, 1863.
Sanford Fleming, Esq., C. E., Toronto.
My DEAR SIR,—By last mail
we forwarded to you a Memorial and certain Resolutions passed by the
people of Red River. The memorial related to the proposed opening up of
the Lake Superior route, its practicability and its desirableness and
the Resolutions among other things contained your appointment as our
Delegate, to look after our interests. Previous to receiving Mr. McNab's
letter the people of Red River had appointed me as delegate to England,
to look after the same object, and at the same [time] to endeavour to
procure for this settlement elective institutions and the establishment
of a system of responsible government. Notwithstanding my appointment,
however, I was so delighted at the prospect of help in Canada, and
securing your raliable services, that, in conjunction with my partner,
Mr. Caldwell, of The Nor'-Wester, I called the meetings and pushed
through the memorials and resolutions above referred to. I write to ask
you, while pushing the Road and Tele- graph matters, also to push our
views with regard to elective institutions. We want responsible
government, and a Governor appointed by the Queen. At present, governor
and legislators hold their appointments from the Hudson Bay Co., in
London, and this irresponsible squad gives anything but satisfaction. To
keep you posted in matters relating to this country, I have directed The
Nor'- [Fester to be sent to you and Mr. John Mc- Nab regularly. Should
you leave for England, send your address. Write me regularly, giving in
full everything that passes relating to this country. Clip out what you
see in Canadian and English journals, and enclose with your
correspondence—all of which the Nor'-Wester will do full justice to. Get
the Memorials and Resolutions widely I published and such extracts from
our journal as will interest parties in this country, and your present
undertaking.
In haste, I remain, dear
sir, Yours respectfully,
JAMES ROSS.
This was an historical,
and a very important mission, and it was conducted with conspicuous
ability. Her Majesty's Government recognized his peculiar fitness for
such work, and in conjunction with the governments of Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick, asked him to "conduct it survey for the first link in a
railway which would extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific within
British territory." The construction of the great Intercolonial line
followed, and during its construction Mr. Fleming acted as chief
engineer. At this period he had much railway projecting, surveying and
constructing on hands. In addition to the Inter-
colonial, he was, in 1871, appointed engineer-in-chief, to carry on
Pacific railway surveys, and ill he was asked to take charge of an
expedition which was to travel on the general route of the projected
railway. The story of this survey is told in Principal Grant's book
"From Ocean to Ocean." Dr. Grant's summing up was that ''the expedition
had special services to perform in connection with one of the most
gigantic public works ever undertaken in any country by any people."
"The Intrcolonial links, with rails of steel, the provinces of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick with the province of Quebec ; the Grand Trunk
unites Quebec and Ontario; the Canadian Pacific Railway is to connect
the latter with Manitoba and British Columbia, as well as with the
various unborn provinces which, in the rapid progress of events, shall
spring up in the intervening region." Thus, when the Dominion Government
decided upon a trans-continental railroad through Dominion territory,
Mr. Fleming was selected to project the scheme, and to make the surveys.
Practically and professionally he is the father of the Canadian Pacific
Railway, and if he had done nothing else during his whole career his
name would go down to posterity. But before he retired from his position
on that road, in 1880, his surveys had "established the practicability
of the railway, and the means of overcoming the formidable barriers
imposed by nature had been determined. Construction of the work was
being proceeded with at both ends and between Lake Superior and the
heart of Manitoba, in all ranging over some two thousand miles, and six
hundred miles were nearly completed." He is still a director of the
company, and manifests a deep interest in all its affairs. He had turned
his attention to Newfoundland long before this—indeed while engaged on
the Intercolonial and Canadian Pacific railways. His examination of the
island colony was for the purpose of ascertaining whether a railway
service could be established across the island. The reports made by his
engineer were satisfactory, and then the local government asked him to
conduct surveys for a railway from St. John's to St. George's Bay. On
these surveys the railway now completed by Mr. Reid proceeded, so
Newfoundland also claims him as the chief projector of her great railway
line.
His busy brain also
conceived the idea of the Pacific cable, which in connection with the
overland telegraph system "would complete the electric circle of the
globe, and bring Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India
and South Africa into unbroken telegraph touch of each other without
passing over foreign soil." In 1879 his scheme for the carrying out of
this magnificent project was submitted to the Canadian Government, and
he has been the life and soul of the scheme ever since. He has been much
in evidence in connection with it, at conventions, conferences, and in
the press. Without his figures and his arguments the project would have
died before now, but it bids fair to be taken up, and carried on to
completion. At the colonial conferences Of 1887 and 1894, he urged his
views, and on other occasions, notably last fall, in London, he has
stood the strongest supporter of the undertaking. In 1893 he went on a
special mission to Australia and England in connection with the Pacific
cable, and in 1896 he was a representative from Canada at the Imperial
Pacific cable conference. His services to this one cause have been
enormous.
Science and literature
have had in Sir Sandford a liberal patron and an earnest devotee. One of
his most notable services has been in connection with the acceptance of
universal or Cosmic time. So important has his labours in this field
been that the story of how he was led to study the question might well
be given, did space permit. Briefly, he was passing through Ireland and
made a railway detour to visit a friend. In order to regain his
travelling connections he found it necessary to drive across country
rapidly to a railway station from which a train was announced in the
"Official Railway Travellers' Guide," to leave at a certain hour. He
arrived before the specified time, but there was no train, and he found
on enquiry that there would not be one for twelve hours. He drew forth
his guide-book and pointed to the time column there, and asked the
officials to bring on their train, as forward he must get. He was told
the printer had made the mistake of inserting p.m. for a.m.—that was
all! Of course nothing could be done but to wait. To the discomfort of
the accommodation was added the disappointment and loss caused by the
upsetting of his plans, but from the incident came the thought that a
simple printer's error should be impossible in a railway time-table, and
that to avoid it absolutely the twenty-four hours of the day should be
enumerated instead of only twelve. But his ideas were his own, and being
new met opposition. He made a careful study of the subject in all its
bearings, and in 1879 contributed an elaborate paper to the Canadian
Institute, which effectually set the ball a-rolling. The title of the
paper was " Time Reckoning," and the writer's object was to show:
1st. The difficulties
which arise from the present mode of reckoning time, owing to the
extension of telegraph and steam communications by land and water.
2nd. The natural and conventional divisions of time.
3rd. The systems of reckoning time, ancient and modern.
4th. The necessity of meeting the defects caused by present usages, and
the useful results which would be obtained from a uniform non- local
system.
5th. The practicability of securing all the advantages attainable from
uniformity, without seriously interfering with existing local customs.
How he developed the
discussion of the question and carried the arguments of his opponents
triumphantly, is a matter of history to those who have taken an interest
in the subject. He established his position, however, only after
infinite pains and labour. His pioneer work has elicited praise from
those whose "well done" is worth having. The Council of the Canadian
Institute was not slow with its tribute. M. Otto Struve, the astronomer
Roal of Russia, was generous in his acknowledgments, and other
distinguished men and societies followed suit, after the battle had been
fought and won.
What the literary and
scientific men of Canada owe to him would be difficult to estimate. In
no small degree he was instrumental in the formation of the Canadian
Institute whose story of fifty years existence has been graphically told
only the other day. He was not only, one of the few patriotic spirits
who founded it, but it is questionable whether without his never failing
and persistent support it would have been instituted at all, at least
for many years after the time of its foundation. At one of the early
meetings when the fate of the project hung in the balance, only two of
the promoters appeared. One was Mr. Fleming. The story of that critical
meeting is thus told : ' After much silence and long waiting in vain for
other members to appear, the one addressed the other in these words,
'This looks bad—we must, however, proceed, as the saving is to make a
spoon or spoil the horn. Let one of us take the chair and the other act
as secretary,' and so agreed, dispensing in the emergency with a quorum,
they passed it series of resolutions with complete unanimity." One of
these resolutions proved the turning point in the path of progress and
thus launched the Institute has advanced and fulfilled the expectations
of its founders and friends. Sir Sandford Fleming's name is as a matter
of course closely, associated with its history, and he has ever proved
its willing friend.
In 1880 he was elected
Chancellor of Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., for a term of three
years. From term to term he has been re-elected since, and he still
adorns the chancellor's chair, giving time, thought and substance in
furthering the interests of that most excellent university, which draws
so much of its inspiration, and so many of its ablest men from Scotland,
and under whose shadow Scottish thought and Scottish customs are kindly
fostered, whether it be on football field, in the Ossianic Society, or
in the class-room.
As an author Sir Sandford
Fleming has done useful work. Among his volumes are: ''The Inter-
colonial; a Historical sketch"; "Short Sunday Service, for Travellers";
"Daily Prayers for Busy Households"; "Uniform Standard Time"; "A Cable
Across the Pacific"; "The Prime Meridian Question';' ''England and
Canada"; ''Old and New Westminster"; "Expeditions to the Pacific";
"Parliamentary vs. Party Government"; ''An Appeal to the Canadian
Institute on the Rectification of Parliament"; "The Early Days of the
Canadian Institute," etc.
In recognition of his
services he was created a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St.
George in 1877, and was promoted to be a Knight Commander of the same
order, in 1897. In 1882 he was presented with the freedom of the Burgh
of Kirkcaldy, one of the highest honours of Scottish citizenship. In
1884 he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from St. Andrew's
University; in 1886 he was awarded the Confederation medal by the
Governor-General in Council as an acknowledgment of his eminent services
as an engineer, and in 1888 he was elected President of the Royal
Society of Canada.. These are but a few of his public and academic
honours, of which there is a long and highly distinguished list. This
brief sketch cannot be better closed than in the words of Lord
Strathcona: "He is a man who has done great and good work, not alone for
Canada, but for the Empire as a whole."
The engraving
accompanying this article is from a photograph which was reduced from an
instantaneous full-size photograph taken by an amateur in Kirkcaldy some
years ago. It was taken without Sir Sandford's knowledge, while he was
standing in conversation with a friend in a drawing-room. Some think it
the best ever taken of him.
ALEXANDER FRASER. |
