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Rh coin's Inn, London. In 1809 he set out on a tour of nearly three years in southern Europe and the Mediterranean, and while in the Levant his at- tempt to introduce British goods into the conti- nent by way of Turkey, in defiance of the Berlin and Milan decrees, led to considerable diplomatic correspondence. While abroad, he formed the ac- quaintance of Lord Byron and Mr. Hobhouse, and travelled much with them over land and water. On his return to England, he first appeared before the public as an author, and the published results of his observations while on the continent obtained a large degree of popularity. From this time until 1826, when he went to Canada, he published many works, which, though not uniformly successful, gained him public favor. His connection with Canada was through his appointment as an agent to urge on the imperial government the claims for compensation of Canadians who had sustained losses during the war of 1813. The resulting ne- gotiations and investigations led to the organiza- tion of the Canada land company, with a capital of £1,000,000. This association procured a grant of 1,100,000 acres in one block, and a scheme for emigration on an extensive scale was adopted. Mr. (lalt, in honor of whom the town of Gait, Ont., is named, was appointed superintendent of the com- ])any, and in 1827 began the work of colonization by founding what is now the city of Guelph. He then took an extended voyage on Lake Huron, visiting Detroit, Bulfalo, and other places in the United States, and on his return to Canada caused a road to be constructed through the dense forest lying between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. Notwithstanding Mr. Gait's energy, the affairs of the Canada land company did not prosper, and in 1829 he was recalled, and, after contributing sig- nally to the prosperity of Canada, was obliged to take advantage of the insolvent debtors' act. On his return to England he resumed writing, pro- duced many books, and contributed largely to newspapers and magazines. As a novelist he had no classic predilections, and was less distinguished for literary finish and the skilful elaboration of his plot than for rough common sense and a mild ele- ment of interest always sufficiently strong to secure his stories a reading. He wrote altogether about forty-five works, including " Lawrie Todd," a novel relating some of his Canadian experiences (1830) ; an " Autobiography " (2 vols., IS'S'S) ; and " Liter- ary Life and Miscellanies of John Gait " (3 vols., 1834). — His son, Thomas, Canadian jurist, b. in London, England, 12 Aug., 1815, was educated in England and in Scotland, and in 1828 emigrated to Canada with his father's family. Two years afterward he returned to Great Britain, remained there three years, and then, returning to Toronto, entered the eiAploy of the Canada land company, in which he remained six years. He then began the study of law in the oifice of Justice Draper, and was called to the bar of Upper Canada in 1845. In 1858 he was made queen's counsel and in 1869 a judge of the court of common pleas, after- ward was chief justice, and was kniglited in 1888. —Another son, Sir Alexander Tillocli, Cana- dian statesman, b. in London, 6 Sept., 1817; d. in Montreal, 19 Sept., 1893, was educated in Eng- land, and early displayed literary ability, contrib- uting to " Eraser's Magazine '" when only fourteen. He emigrated to Canada when a boy, and in 1833 became a clerk in the service of the British and American land company, whose operations were limited to the eastern townships of Lower Canada. He was appointed commissioner of the company in 1844, and held the office for twelve years, and under his management the business of the cor- poration became prosperous. In 1849 Mr. Gait was elected a member of parliament for the county of Sherbrooke, and though he was then a Liberal in politics, he opposed the administration of Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine, voted against the rebellion losses bill, and, despairing at that time of Canada's future, signed the annexation manifesto. When Toronto became the seat of gov- .ernment, after the de- struction of the par- liament buihiings at Montreal, Mr. Gait re- signed, and did not re-enter politics till 1853, when he was again elected for Sher- brooke, and continued in parliament till his resignation in 1872. On the I'esignation of the Brown-Dorion government in Au- gust, 1858, the gov- ernor-general, Sir Ed- mund W. Head, called upon Mr. Gait to form an administration, but he declined. The same year he proposed

resolutions in parliament in favor of a federal union of the British North American colonies, and these became the basis of the policy of the Cartier- Macdonald government, which he joined the same year. Together with Sir George E. Cartier and John Rose, he went as a delegate to Great Britain to urge the confederation of the British North American provinces, and the construction of the Intercolonial railway before the imperial govern- ment. He was a member of the executive council, and minister of finance, from August, 1858, till ]\lay, 1862. when the ministry was defeated on the militia bill, and held the same office again from March, 1864, till August, 1866, when he resigned in consequence of his opposition to the educa- tional policy of the administration relative to the British population of Lower Canada. He became a third time a member of the privy council, and minister of finance of the Dominion on 1 July, 1867, but resigned on 4 November of that year, for pri- vate reasons. He was a delegate to the Charlotte- town imion conference in 1864, and to that of Quebec the same year ; a member of the confeder- ate council of trade held in Quebec in 1865 ; a delegate to Washington respecting the renewal of the reciprocity treaty in 1866; and to the London colonial conference in 1860-'7. In 1868 he went to London with Dr. (now Sir Charles) Tupper, to confer with tlie imperial government on the Nova Scotia question, and again became finance minister on the resignation of Sir John Rose in 1869. He was a member of the fisheries commission of 1877, appointed under the treaty of Washington ; con- ducted negotiations on behalf of Canada for a commercial treaty with France and Spain in 1879, and in 1881 was the delegate for Canada at the in- ternational monetary conference in Paris. He was Canadian high commissioner to Great Britain from 1880 till 1883. Sir Alexander was a fluent speaker, and regarded as one of the ablest minis- ters of finance Canada has ever had. His mone- tary statements always have been noted for clear- ness. The most noticeable features of his financial administration were the consolidation of the pub- lic debt, with provisions lor its redemption ; the