A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various

has not engaged actively in them. However, he does not conceal his opinions when called upon to express them. Thus he desires the continuation of Sir John A. Macdonald’s administration because he thinks the national policy would run great dangers in the hands of Mr. Blake, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company would find very little sympathy with him, in case of necessity. This company, being still in its infancy, may yet want the support of the government, and Mr. Branchaud thinks it would be to the interest of the country to grant such help. It is hardly to be expected that a man who has tried to arrest its progress in each phase of its existence would be kindly disposed towards it at a given moment. At all times he has repudiated the Rielite movement in Lower Canada, as tending to arouse prejudices and race hatreds, and to retard the progress of the country, and the conduct of the government in letting the law take its course, has had his entire approbation, as the only practical way of restoring peace and harmony, which would have been threatened as long as Riel would have lived. In conclusion we may state that Mr. Branchaud has been the promoter of the Beauharnois Junction Railway Company. The road is intended to run from Ste. Martine to Dundee, where it will connect with the American system. The building of this railway will place Beauharnois—undoubtedly a town of future importance, on account of the beauty of her site on the St. Lawrence, and the extent of her water powers—in the first rank among the important cities of the Dominion. Mr. Branchaud has worked for several months to organize the company, and he is confident that his efforts will soon be crowned with success. He was ever ambitious to see his native place prosperous, and in the evening of his life he is happy in the hope that the earnest wish of his heart will soon be gratified. The Hon. James Ferrie is president of the new company, and Mr. Branchaud vice-president.

Irving, James Douglas, Major, and Brigade-Major of Military District No. 12, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was born at Charlottetown, on the 12th February, 1844. His father, Robert Blake Irving, was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and emigrated to Prince Edward Island about the year 1832. Here he engaged in the profession of teaching, and in addition took an active interest in politics on the Liberal side until the confederation of the provinces, when party lines having been broken, he became a supporter of the Liberal-Conservative party. He was of a literary turn of mind, and contributed largely to the columns of the Examiner newspaper when it was under the editorial management of the late Hon. Edward Whelan, writing strongly in support of responsible government, free schools, the settlement of the land question by the government purchasing from the proprietors and reselling to tenants, and for confederation. He married in 1843 Joanna Charlotte, a daughter of Thomas Rhodes Hazzard, a U. E. loyalist, who came to Prince Edward Island from Providence, Rhode Island, with his father and family at the conclusion of the war with the revolted colonists. Major Irving received his education in his native parish in the private school taught by his father. On the 26th of March, 1867, he was appointed a lieutenant in the Active Militia of P. E. Island, and was shortly afterwards promoted to a captaincy. After confederation he was given a commission in the Canadian Artillery Militia, and subsequently commanded the P. E. Island provisional brigade of Garrison Artillery. On the 1st of April, 1885, he was appointed brigade-major of Military District No. 12, and this position he at present holds. He was deputy-prothonotary of the Supreme Court of P. E. Island from 1st March, 1871, to 1st April, 1885; registrar of the Court of Chancery, and also that of the Vice-Admiralty Court from 28th March, 1876, to 1st April, 1885; and Clerk of the Crown for P. E. Island from 1st August, 1883, to 1st April, 1885. For many years Major Irving has been an active member of the Caledonian Society, and in general takes a deep interest in all that appertains to his native island.

Creed, Herbert Clifford, Fredericton, was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 23rd, 1843. His father, George John Creed, of Faversham, Kent, England, was clerk in the Royal Engineer department (with rank of lieutenant), at Halifax, N.S., for thirty-five years. He was the eldest son of Richard Creed, who also was in Her Majesty’s service, as clerk of works, R. E. D., with the rank of captain. Both father and son were, at the time of their decease, retired from active service upon ample pensions. Richard Creed’s youngest daughter was the wife of the late Hon. Jonathan McCully, senator of Canada, and afterwards judge of the Supreme Court. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Susan, eldest daughter of John A. Wellner, of Halifax, N.S., a manufacturer and at one time owner of extensive property in that city and in the county of Hants. He was of a family that came out from England among the original settlers of Halifax, with Governor Cornwallis. Herbert Clifford Creed received his academic education chiefly in the High School connected with Dalhousie College, Halifax. He matriculated in the earliest class of undergraduates in Dalhousie College in 1857, studying till 1860, the college proper having in the meantime been discontinued. In 1861 he entered Acadia College, Wolfville, N.S., and took the regular four years’ course there under the presidency of the late Rev. J. M. Cramp, D.D. He graduated in 1865 with honours in classics, having also held the highest place in his class throughout the whole course. From August, 1860, to June, 1864, Mr. Creed was teacher of French at the Collegiate Academy and Ladies’ Seminary at Wolfville, N.S.; from the autumn of 1865 till the spring of 1869, he filled the position of head master of the County Academy at Sydney, C. B.; and from 1869 till June, 1872, was principal of the Seminary at Yarmouth, N.S. In 1869 the degree of A.M. was conferred upon him. In the following autumn he accepted the principalship of the English High School, Fredericton, N.B., but resigned it at the close of 1873, in order to take a position offered him in the Provincial Normal School of New Brunswick, and here he has continued, with various changes of work, down to the present time. His position now is officially designated as “Mathematical and Science Master, and Instructor in Industrial Drawing,” the term “Professor” not being applied to the instructors or teachers in this Normal school. Mr. Creed was elected a member of the Board of Governors of Acadia College in 1883; a senator of Acadia College in 1882, and secretary of the Senate in 1883; all of which offices he now holds. In 1871 he was made one of the examiners of the college, and filled the position for several years. He is secretary of the Educational Institute of New Brunswick, having been re-elected every year from its organization in 1877; vice-president of the Baptist Convention of the Maritime provinces for the current year; a director of the Baptist Annuity Association of New Brunswick and of the Maritime Baptist Publishing Co. He was at one time president of the Associated Alumni of Acadia College; president of the Fredericton Young Men’s Christian Association, and for eight years secretary of the Fredericton Auxiliary Bible Society. Mr. Creed has been connected with the following among other Temperance societies:—The Sons of Temperance since 1857, and is a P.W.P.; the Temple of Honour and Temperance from 1871 to 1875, and is a P.W.C.T. and past deputy G.W.C.T.; the Temperance Reform Club; the New Brunswick Branch of the Dominion Prohibitory Alliance. He has also been connected with the Masonic order, in which he is a past master; the Independent Order of Oddfellows as a P. G. and a P.D.D.G.M., Independent Order of Foresters, and is at present H.C.R. (presiding officer) of the High Court of New Brunswick; and is a past commander in the American Legion of Honour. Mr. Creed has written largely for the press, for the most part anonymously, on educational topics; on the temperance question; on matters of Christian doctrine and practice, etc; and has also prepared a variety of matter for school texts and other books. On November 4th, 1867, he was married to Jessie S., third daughter of John F. Marsters, of St. John, N.B., customs broker and forwarding agent, and has a family of four children, three sons and a daughter. Mr. Creed has been a member of the Baptist church since he attained his seventeenth year.

Harrison, Thomas, LL.D., President of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, was born at Sheffield, New Brunswick, on the 24th October, 1839. He is son of Thomas Harrison, by his wife Elizabeth Coburn, and grandson of James Harrison, of the county of Antrim, Ireland, who emigrated to South Carolina in 1767. During the Revolutionary war Lieutenant James Harrison, with his elder brother, Captain Charles Harrison, fought under Sir Henry Clinton, on the British side, and in 1783 these gentlemen came among the loyalists to New Brunswick. Charles Harrison was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the militia of the county of Sunbury, by Governor Thomas Carleton, in 1784, and the two brothers settled at Sheffield, Sunbury county. James Harrison married Charity Cowperthwaite, of a Quaker family from Philadelphia, and in 1806 died, leaving five sons and four daughters. Their descendants are numerous, and are mostly settled in New Brunswick. Thomas Harrison, the subject of our sketch, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, under the tutorship of Dr. Salmon, F.R.S., whose works have for many years been the standard treatises