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SIR OLIVER MOWAT
BY FRANK VEIGH.
This is verily an age
of Grand Old Men. Every country seems to possess a citizen who stands
out pre-eminently, though the calendar shows he has more than filled
man’s allotted span. Such instances go far to prove that advancing years
need not involve incapacity and decrepitude. The very first name that
occurs to one in this connection, is the old Hungarian Liberator, Louis
Kossuth, who has just passed away in his ninety-second year. Such an
one, too, is the Grand Old Man of the Vatican, who has filled the
Pontifical chair for sixteen years, and who at eighty-four ably rules
his ecclesiastical empire. And what a noble honor as Great Britain
can show of Grand Old Men: Gladstone, with his eighty-four years, and
his sixty years of Parliamentary life; Earl Grey, a statesman who has
seen nine decades; Froude and Herbert Spencer, Newman Hall and Prof.
Blackie. Germany has her Bismarck, a giant, though a trembling one, at
seventy-nine; America boasts of a member of the New England guild of
literature in Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose pen, at eighty-four, writes
vigorously on the death of Parkman; France points to Pasteur and Leon
Say, who nave crossed the boundary line of three score and ten; Italy,
in her new storm and stress period, turns to Crispi to take the national
helm. Thus in almost every country, and in almost every department of
life’s activities, one can easily single out those who, by reason of
their achievements, have deserved the title of Grand Old Men.
We, in Canada, have a few who have earned this distinction. Sir John
Macdonald died at the ago of seventy-six, after over forty years of
exciting political leadership; Sir Charles Tupper, at seventy-two,
represents us in England; and Goldwin Smith, by reason of his seventy
years, can now refer to himself as one of the growing-old fraternity.
Ontario has her Grand Old Man in Sir Oliver Mowat,—a man who was born in
the year in which George III. died, and Queen Caroline was under trial;
who came into the world as the great Napoleon went out, and when Canada
was under its first Governor General, Earl Dalhousie, and Lieutenant
Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, was a familiar personage in what is
now Ontario. Sir Oliver has seen the forest transformed into field and
farm, and the land peopled by thousands where scores once lived. Such a
man is, in truth, growing old, but the growth is so gradual and youth so
tenacious in its hold of Ontario’s premier, that Father Time may well be
disconcerted. Even in these days of high-pressure civilization, Sir
Oliver might justly claim that his life, though comparatively long, has
not only been active but resultful. He has filled a great variety of
positions, including those of ensign in a Kingston Militia Company, a
practising attorneyship, the positions of school trustee and alderman,
Queen’s Counsellor and Vice-Chancellor, LL.D, and M.P.P., Provincial
Secretary and Postmaster General, and Premier and Attorney-General for
twenty-one years.
His personality is interesting from many points of view. He is the son
of John Mowat, a specimen of the stalwart, vigorous, clear-headed type
of men that spring from Caithness soil. Whether the son shouldered the
musket of a militiaman because the father was one of the line, may be
hard to tell, but certain it is that John Mowat, when a mere lad, joined
the “Third Buffs,” as they were called, and saw active service in the
Peninsular war, and in after years told many a tale of his adventures,
and especially of the battle good old fighting days. Retiring from the
army, in 1816, he settled in the classic town of Kingston, where the
future Premier was born on July 22nd, 1820.
Sir Oliver’s school-boy days make of Corunna, where Sir John Moore so
bravely held the French in check. It is not improbable that he also
visited the St. Lawrence on one of England’s numerous military
expeditions in those a period of which the truest conception may best be
gained from his own eloquent words spoken at the opening of the new
Parliament buildings, in 1893:
I have been calling to mind that I have now outlived nearly all my early
contemporaries and early associates, und many of later date. I call to
mind that in my own time, and within my own memory, a transformation has
been accomplished in the political condition of the province, and in
everything that goes to make up a great and civilized community. I
remember when neither our province, nor any other British province, had
responsible government. I remember when the conduct of provincial
affairs was not by the elected representatives of the population,
nor by persons of their appointing, or having their confidence. I knew
the province when it had no municipal institutions, now known to be
essential to local interests and local progress. I knew the province
when the various churches amongst which its people were distributed,
were not equal before the law; when the established church of old
England was practically the established church here, and when there were
claimed for it the exclusive rights and privileges of an establishment,
and one-seventh of the whole land of the country. I remember the
province when there was in it not one university, not one college, and
no system of public schools. I remember when, at every election, there
was but one polling place for a whole county, no matter how extensive;
when the election lasted for a week, and when, except in towns, the only
voters were freeholders. I remember when the province had not a mile of
railway, nor, I believe, a mile of macadamized road. I remember when the
principal cities of the present day were but villages—when this great
city of Toronto was “Little York,” and its population was three or four
thousand. I remember when the whole province had — or was supposed to have—a population of but 150,000, and therefore less than the
population now of Toronto alone. My memory thus goes back of the time
when I began the practice of my profession here, a half century ago. The
city had then a population of but 15,000, and Upper Canada a population
of but half a million. The changes which have taken place in our
province in that half century have been very great. Its progress in
population, in wealth, in education, in intelligence, in political
freedom, and in most other things which serve to make a country
attractive and great, has in fact been enormous.
His early education was received chiefly from private tutors, nine in
number, and all of whom, with one exception, have passed away.
Choosing the law as his profession he, strangely enough, entered the
office of the man who was to become his strongest political foe for many
years, John A. Macdonald, at the time but twenty-two years old, while
the young student was seventeen. When he arrived at manhood, Mr. Mowat
was called to the bar and practised for a short time in his native city,
and then removed to Toronto, where he has since lived. In this city,
where he commenced his public life as an alderman for the years 1857 and
1858, only two of his associates in the City Council now survive him.
It was during this time
that he argued and won what was known as the famous £10,000 case, a case
involving the then Mayor of Toronto who had sold Mie debentures of the
city at a profit which he put in his own pocket until an adverse verdict
compelled restitution.
During the succeeding years of his professional practice, his
advancement in South Ontario was the first constituency to choose him as
its representative — a position in which he continued from 1857 until
1864. His first opponent was the late Justice Morrison. Referring to
this representation in a recent address in South Ontario, Sir Oliver
said:—
It is thirty-six years and more since I made my first appearance in the
South Riding
His public career was
rapid. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1856, as well as one of the
commissioners to consolidate the Statutes of Canada and Upper Canada,
and in the following year he entered upon parliamentary of Ontario
county as a politician, and twenty-nine years and a few months since I
ceased to be the member for the riding. I don’t see to-day many of the
old faces that I used to see at political meetings during that time. I
seem to have survived most of my old South Ontario friends, and of my
opponents too; and though some remain, most of these appear to have
left the field of active politics to a younger generation. When I made
my first appearance in the riding, I do not know that there were a dozen
persons in the riding who knew me personally, but the electors were made
aware that I had the confidence of the great Reform leader, Mr. Brown,
and other prominent Reformers of that time, and that they desired to
have me in Parliament. 1 discussed at public meetings in the riding the
questions of the day, and when the election came on I had the honor of
being selected and nominated as the Reform candidate, with the
concurrence of the other aspirants for that honor. I remember with
gratitude the hearty support which I received from them and from the
whole Reform party, as well as from a sprinkling of Conservatives at
that election and at subsequent elections. I represented the riding for
nearly seven years. During those seven years it happened that I was five
times before the people for election—thrice at as many general
elections, and twice at bye-elections, the two bye-elections being in
consequence of my accepting the office of Provincial Secretary in the
Brown-Dorion Government of 1858, and of Postmaster General in the
Coalition Government formed in 1864, with Sir Etienne Tache as Premier,
for the purpose of settling the difficulties between Upper and Lower
Canada, and settling the difficulties which there also were between
Protestants and Roman Catholics as to Separate Schools in Upper Canada,
and kindred matters. I had also been Postmaster-General in the
Macdonald-Dorion Government, formed in 1863, just before the general
election of that year.
In 1864, the year in which he accepted the position of Vice-Chancellor,
he formed one of the famous British North American conference at Quebec,
where the terms of Confederation were settled. He is thus one of the
fathers of Confederation. The passage of the Dual Representation Act in
the Ontario Parliament caused another radical change in Sir Oliver’s
life, the retirement of Edward Blake and Alexander Mackenzie from the
Provincial House, in 1872, leading to his call by the
Lieutenant-Governor to form a ministry. So he descended from the Bench
and re-entered the arena of public life, and has ever since that
time—twenty-two years ago— held the position of Premier and
Attorney-General. This is a remarkable record for a government, a record
without precedent in the history of British constitutional government,
excelling even the record of the ministry of the second Pitt which
remained in power from the end of the year 1783 until early in 1801—a
period of seventeen and a quarter years.
Such is the career, municipal, legal judicial and parliamentary,
sketched in briefest outline, of Ontario’s Grand Old Parliamentarian
and in his 74th year he is donning the armor for another quadrennial
contest with his political opponents. Notwithstanding his advanced
years, there is reason to hope for a considerable prolongation of Sir
Oliver’s political career, for he comes of an exceedingly long-lived
family, his father almost reaching the threshold of the seventies, his
mother eighty-two years, his grandfather ninety, and a sister of his
father’s dying only a few years ago, in Caithness-shire, at the age of
one hundred and one!
Sir Oliver may be said to be in his prime at seventy-four, a mellow
middle-age, and though, as he is seen daily walking from his residence
on St. George street to his office in the eastern wing of the Parliament
Buildings, a slow and cautious step, chiefly caused by
short-sightedness, and a little of the over-bentness of the years, may
be discerned, yet it only needs a conversation or a speech to convince
anyone that the mentality, the keen perception, the legal ability to
analyze a question, the readiness and skill in debate, and the vigor of
attack or defence in political and parliamentary warfare, are as much
his as when he first entered the lists so many years ago.
It may be interesting to refer to the subject of this sketch in other
and more personal connections. He first lived on Bay-street, and then he
lived in “the yellow cottage” on Church street, and later, in houses on
Jarvis, Beverley and Simcoe streets. A few years ago he removed to St
George-street, occupying the same house as did Sir John A. Macdonald
during his temporary retirement while Mr. Mackenzie was premier. This
new home is a spacious one, with a home-like atmosphere that is most
congenial The library—a large room well lighted by a bay window—is Sir
Oliver's chief workshop, and there he spends most of his time,
surrounded by his law library, an extensive, valuable one, containing
full sets of the leading reports and many rare and costly volumes. His
collection of books, however, has run over, so to speak, into the
hall-way and adjoining rooms, the shelves being filled with all that is
representative in general literature, for the Premier has always been an
extensive reader, and despite his public duties, finds time to keep
abreast of whatever is worth knowing in current literature. As a boy, he
was an omniverous reader, and as reading material was then scarce, his
avidity for study even led him to read to a finish such works as the
“Four-fold State,” and similar old heavy theological treatises.
A glance at the library leads to a reference to the Premier as a worker.
Such he is in the fullest sense of the term. With the aid of his capable
and experienced private secretary, Mr. S. T. Bastedo, he accomplishes,
even at his advanced age, what might well frighten a younger man. In the
morning he deals with his correspondence, which is very large, covering
a wide range of subjects. Six thousand letters a year is not an
overestimate of his mail, and it is a matter of courtesy with him to
have every communication answered. In addition, intricate and difficult
matters are often referred to him for a decision by the various
departments of the government; a great deal of legislation has to be
considered, framed and “seen through the House;” and between one and two
hundred meetings of the Cabinet Council have to be attended, from
which emanate over 800 orders-in-council yearly. Beside all this, three
months of the year are taken up by the sessions of the Legislature, when
the ordinary routine of daily work is doubled, and the tax upon a
minister’s time and strength greatly added to. From nine, in the
forenoon, till three or four o’clock in the afternoon, he works in his
own library, and then, excepting during the session, spends from four
o’clock till seven in his private office or the council chamber at the
Parliament buildings.
It is always a source of wonder to easy-going people how Sir Oliver
Mowat succeeds at seventy-four in accomplishing such a vast amount of
work, and still retains an exceptional degree of health. The explanation
is simple. Trained habits of thought and labor make him, by
concentrating his mind on the work before him, quickly seize upon its
salient points and dispose of it while a life of regular and abstemious
habits, temperate in the broadest sense, has its reward in a high degree
of mental virility and physical strength. Another key to the secret is
that the Premier gives place to a yearly holiday time. An ocean voyage
that leads to John O’ Groat’s and the homes of his ancestors in
Caithnesshire, is as effective a tonic as a summer in a White Mountain
retreat, or a resting time by the sea. For some years he had a cottage
at Cacouna. Last summer he made an extended trip to the Lake of the
Woods district, and thereafter to the World’s Fair—a programme of travel
that might well have given pause to a younger man. But the Premier
undertook it in the highest of spirits and returned with them
undiminished. In 1881, he spent several months in Europe, and again in
1883, 1884 and 1888 visited England in connection with the Mercer
Escheat Case, the Boundary Award Dispute and the Indian Lands argument
before the Privy Council.
Sir Oliver is an adherent of the Presbyterian faith, and has been a
member of the St. James’ Square Church for some years, and rare indeed
is it that he is missed from his pew on Sunday mornings. His catholicity
of mind in religious matters is well known, and it is not a matter of
surprise that he was chosen President of the Evangelical Alliance for
several years in succession. Following Mr. Gladstone’s example, Mr.
Mowat finds recreation in a complete change of work, and during his
holidays wrote lectures on “The Evidences of Christianity,” and
“Christianity and some of its fruits,” both of which he has on several
occasions delivered to large audiences and the former of which has been
published, and has had an extensive sale.
A clerical friend of the writer, who has filled one pulpit for forty
years, is able to show a record of four hundred marriages and burials,
and I believe Sir Oliver could show an almost equal record of speeches,
had he kept track of them, during his half century of public life. While
lacking some of the qualities of a successful orator, the Premier may be
regarded as an effective speaker. No matter what the subject, or the
occasion or the place, he is invariably listened to with the keenest
interest, and never fails in that most difficult of feats— ‘catching the
public ear.' Without referring to any of his former utterances, one may
well regard his more recent speeches as among the best efforts of his
life, in their outline, scope, argumentative, force, and clear,
intelligible English. .
His public attainments have been recognized by our leading universities,
Queen’s College having conferred the degree of LL.D, upon him in 1872,
and Toronto University in 1889.
As a Scotch Canadian he naturally allied himself with the St. Andrew’s
Society, in which his fifty years of membership has won for him a life
membership.
The Grand Old Man of Ontario,— the legislative ruler of two millions and
a quarter of people, and of an area twice as large as that of Great
Britain and Ireland, larger than the German Empire, and almost as large
as France, extending from the vine-clad, steaming flats of Pelee, in the
latitude of Rome, to the frigid shores of Hudson Bay; and from the
wedding of the waters of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence to the far
distant Thousand Islands of the Lake of the Woods—has altogether an
almost unique record of political success untarnished by personal
corruption; a record which is not only a credit to himself, but, in a
land where vigorous and able men abound, one on which even the strongest
political opponents can look, not only without severe criticism, but
with a certain measure of national pride in his achievements. Friend and
foe can join in saying, as was said of Othello, “He has done the State
some service.” His Queen thus spoke when she conferred the honor of
knighthood upon him, making the ensign of 1825, on and after the 24th of
May, 1892, Sir Oliver Mowat, K.C.M.G.
Sir Oliver Mowat
A Biographical Sketch by C. R. W. Biggar, M.A., in two volumes (1905)
Volume 1
| Volume 2 |
