Page:The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt.djvu/622

LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR A. T. GALT Sir Alexander was survived by Lady Galt and by three sons and eight daughters: Elliott Galt, of Montreal; John Galt, of Winnipeg; Alexander Galt; the Misses Kate and Selina and Muriel Galt, Mrs. Robert Grant, Mrs. A. R. Springett, Mrs. C. A. Magrath, Mrs. A. D. Durnford, and Mrs. W. Harvey Smith.

It was a year of deep depression, of world-shaking business failures, and of national doubt and despondency. Yet the turn of the tide was near, and before the century had ended, the abounding prosperity of the country, west and east, and the growth of a strong sense of national unity and national consciousness had justified the faith that he and his fellow-builders had held alike through good and through ill report.

To his friends he left a warm and lasting memory. He was not a man who could easily unbend in public life; of the hand-shaking arts of the lesser politician he had few. In private intercourse, however, he was a rarely genial and delightful companion. His courtly manners were no conventional and external acquirement, but the expression of a wide and genuine sympathy and a kindly considerateness that paid no heed to rank or place. It was significant that alike in his middle and in his later years, young men were among his closest friends.

To the wider public he left a tradition of good work well done. Alexander Tilloch Gait had given nearly sixty years to his adopted country. They were years of momentous change, years which saw the scattered, struggling, backwoods provinces grow into a nation. In this development he had taken a distinctive and essential part, a part marked by untiring effort, a high and sensitive honour, and a constructive vision which was never content to let chance and drift settle the affairs of state. The name of Galt will not soon pass from the memory of the country he served. 576