Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/278

 , in addition to copper and silver which were legal tenders for small sums, consisted of bank-notes, secured mainly on the Scottish principle of the double liability of shareholders. In a season of panic this security was found to be insufficient. Gait then put forth a government issue of low denomination, well secured and amounting in all to about $2,000,000. It was negotiated by the government bankers, but encountered opposition from other corporations. He increased the amount to $8,000,000 in 1866, and made the notes legal tender for their face value. This portion of his plan, extended to the dominion in 1870, and now expanded to $22,000,000, remains, and is the common currency of the country.

During the first parliament of the federation Gait continued to give the government a general support. He retired from political life in 1872. On several occasions he was engaged in work of a diplomatic nature. He was member of the Council of Commercial Treaties which was organised by the home government in 1865 for the British provinces. The year following he was commissioned to the United States to negotiate a renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. He sat as Canada's nominee on the Halifax Commission (1877), which determined the compensation to be paid by the United States for the use of the British American fisheries under the treaty of Washington (1870).

An unsatisfactory mission to France and Spain to draw up, in conjunction with the resident British ministers, commercial treaties with these countries on Canada's behalf consumed a large part of his time in 1878-9. From 1880 to 1883 he acted as high commissioner for the dominion in England. He was Canadian delegate at the Paris Monetary Conference of 1881, and the International Exhibition of Fisheries of 1883.

In 1867 Gait declined the honour of C.B. (civil), but was created K.C.M.G. on 5 July 1869, and advanced G.C.M.G. in 1878. In the same year Edinburgh University conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. He received a diploma in 1883 for his services in connection with the International Fisheries Exhibition.

He died on 19 Sept, 1893, at Seaforth, his country residence near Montreal. He was twice married: (1) in 1848, to Elliott, daughter of John Torrance of St. Antoine Hall, Montreal; (2) in 1851, to Amy Gordon, sister of his first wife.

After his retirement from politics he put forth a number of pamphlets, among which are the following:
 * 1) 'Letters to the Hon. James Ferrier,' Montreal, 1872, which deals with local issues of the day.
 * 2) 'Civil Liberty in Lower Canada,' and 'Church and State,' Montreal, 1876, both of which follow very closely the general lines of Gladstone's 'Vaticanism' with applications to Canadian conditions.
 * 3) 'Future of the Dominion of Canada,' 1881, and 'Relations of the Colonies to the Empire: Present and Future,' 1883, both of them published in London.



GALTON, DOUGLAS STRUTT (1822–1899), man of science, captain royal engineers, second son of John Howard Galton of Hadzor House, Droitwich, and of his wife Isabella, eldest daughter of Joseph Strutt of Derby, was born at Spring Hill, near Birmingham, on 2 July 1822. He was educated at Birmingham, Geneva, and at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, where he was a contemporary of Lord Cross, Tom Hughes, and Theodore Walrond. He passed through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich with distinction, and received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 18 Dec. 1840. His further commissions were dated: lieutenant, 1 Oct. 1843; second captain, 31 Aug. 1851; first captain, 14 March 1855. After the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham, Galton was employed in 1842, under Sir [q. v.], in the removal of the wreck of the Royal George at Spithead by blasting, when firing the charges was attempted for the first time by electricity. He then went to the Mediterranean, and, after serving at Malta and Gibraltar, returned home in 1846 and joined the ordnance survey.

In 1847 Galton was appointed secretary to the newly formed railway commission. He also served as secretary to the royal commission on the application of iron to railway