The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4). Dent John Charles

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СКАЧАТЬ was the grandson — of the William Hume whose tragical death has already been recorded. This lady, who shared alike the struggles and triumphs of her distinguished husband till the close of his earthly career, still survives.

      The Blake brothers were induced to emigrate to this country, partly because their prospects at home were not particularly bright, partly in consequence of the strong inducements held out by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Sir John Colborne. The representations of Major Jones, the elder brother's father-in-law, doubtless contributed something to the result. The Major was a retired officer who had served in this country during the war of 1812-'13-'14, and had taken part in the battles of Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane. He was fond of fighting his battles over again by his own fireside and that of his son-in-law. He was never weary of enlarging on the beauty and primitive wildness of Canadian scenery, the pleasures and freedom from conventionality of a life spent in the backwoods, and the brilliant prospects awaiting young men of courage, energy, endurance, and ability, in the wilds of Upper Canada. The Blake brothers were Irishmen, and were gifted with the national vividness of imagination. They doubtless pictured to themselves the delights of "a lodge in some vast wilderness," where game of all sorts was abundant, and where game laws had no existence. They had of course no adequate conception of the struggles and trials incident to pioneer life. They were not alone in their notions about Canada. Many of their friends and acquaintances about this time became imbued with a desire to emigrate, and upon taking counsel together they found that there were enough of them to form a small colony by themselves. Having made all necessary arrangements they chartered a vessel — the Ann, of Halifax — and sailed for the St. Lawrence in the month of July, 1832. Among the friends and relations of the brothers Blake embarked on board were their mother, who had been left a widow; their sister and her husband, the late Archdeacon Brough; the late Mr. Justice Connor; the Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, late Bishop of Huron; and the Rev. Mr. Palmer, Archdeacon of Huron. After a six weeks' voyage they reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence, whence by slow degrees they made their way to Little York, as the Upper Canadian capital was then called. Here they remained until the following spring, when they divided their forces. Some of them remained in York; others — including Mr. Connor and Mr. Brough — proceeded northward to the township of Oro, on Lake Simcoe; and others settled on the Niagara peninsula. The elder Blake had meanwhile been appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor to a Rectory in the township of Adelaide, and there he accordingly pitched his tent. His brother, the subject of this sketch, purchased a farm in the same part of the country, at a place on Bear Creek — now called Sydenham River — near the present site of the village of Katesville, or Mount Hope, in the county of Middlesex. He then had an opportunity of realizing the full delights of a life in the Canadian backwoods. "With whatever romantic ideas of the delights of such a life Mr. Hume Blake had determined on making Canada his home," says a contemporary Canadian author, "they were soon dispelled by the rough experiences of the reality. The settler in the remotest section of Ontario to-day has no conception of the struggles and hardships that fell to the lot of men who, accustomed to all the refinements of life, found themselves cut off from all traces of civilization in a land, since settled and cultivated, but then so wild that between what are now populous cities there existed only an Indian trail through the forest. Mr. Blake was not a man to be easily discouraged, but soon found that his talents were being wasted in the wilderness. In after years he was fond of telling of the rude experiences of life in the bush, and among other incidents how that he had, on one occasion, walked to the blacksmith's shop before mentioned to obtain a supply of harrow-pins, and, finding them too heavy to carry, had fastened them to a chain, which he put round his neck, and so dragged them home through the woods."

      It was during the residence of the family at Bear Creek that the eldest son, Edward, was born,5 but he was not destined to receive his educational training amid such surroundings. While he was still an infant the family removed to Toronto. A life in the backwoods had been tried, and was found to be unsuited to the genius and ambition of a man like William Hume Blake. He had tried surgery, divinity, and agriculture, and had not taken kindly to any of those pursuits. He now resolved to attempt the law, and commenced his legal studies in the office of the late Mr. Washburn, a well-known lawyer in those days. During the troubles of 1837 he was, we believe, for a short time paymaster of a battalion, but fortunately there was no occasion for his active services. In 1838 he was called to the Bar of Upper Canada, and was not long in making his way to a foremost position. His rivals at the Bar were among the foremost counsel who have ever practised in this Province, and included Mr. (afterwards Chief Justice) Draper, Mr. (afterwards Judge) Sullivan, Mr. Henry John Boulton, Mr. (now Chief Justice) Hagarty, Robert Baldwin, Henry Eccles, and John Hillyard Cameron. Mr. Blake soon proved his ability to hold his own against all comers. He enjoyed some personal advantages which stood him in good stead, both while he was fighting his way and afterwards. His tall, handsome person, and fine open face, his felicitous language, and bold manly utterance gained him at once the full attention of both Court and Jury; and his vigorous grasp of the whole case under discussion, his acute, logical dissection of the evidence, and the thorough earnestness with which he always threw himself into his client's case, swept everything before them. In the days when such men as Draper, Sullivan, Baldwin and Eccles were at the Bar, it was something to stand among the foremost. Mr. Blake became associated in business with Mr. Joseph C. Morrison — now one of the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench — and some years later, his relative, the late Dr. Connor, who in 1863 became one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, entered the firm. Business poured in, and the number of Mr. Blake's briefs increased in almost geometrical proportion. His arguments were of due weight with the judges of those times, but with juries his force was irresistible. Many incidents have been related of his forensic triumphs. Among other cases recorded by the writer already quoted from, that of Kerby vs. Lewis occupies a conspicuous place. The question at issue was Mr. Kerby's right to monopolize a ferry communication between Fort Erie and some point on the American shore. This right the defendant contested, and employed Mr. Blake to conduct his case. The judges appear to have leaned strongly to the side of the plaintiff, and granted a succession of new trials, as, on each occasion, Mr. Blake's telling appeals to their sympathy with the defendant, as the champion of free intercourse between the two countries, extorted from the juries a verdict in favour of his client. It is said that the Court finally refused to grant any further new trials in sheer hopelessness of any jury being found to reverse the original finding.

      Another proof of his energy and ingenuity was given in the Webb arson case, which made a considerable noise at the time. Webb was the owner of a shoe store in Toronto. Having on more than one occasion obtained compensation from fire insurance companies for losses he had sustained, suspicion was excited against him, and, on another fire occurring, the companies decided on prosecuting. Webb retained Mr. Blake. The theory of the defence was that a stove-pipe from the adjoining store, which connected with Webb's premises, had become heated, and had ignited some "rubbers" hanging in the vicinity. The prosecution denied that "rubbers" were combustible in any such sense as the defence represented. To put his theory beyond a doubt, Mr. Blake, on the evening before the trial, had set his two boys, Edward and Samuel, to look up every piece of information they could obtain from encyclopaedias or other sources as to the properties of rubber. Then an old pair of "rubbers" was procured, experiments were engaged in, and both father and sons were occupied during the greater part of the night in their investigations, to the no small discomfort of the other members of the household. When the trial came on next day, after the case for the prosecution had been presented, Mr. Blake began his defence. He dissected the prosecutor's evidence with an amazing fund of irony and sarcasm, and requested the jury to place as little reliance on the general testimony for the prosecution as they would soon do on the theory of "rubbers" being non-combustible. Then a candle and a pair of old "rubbers" were produced; a few strips cut from the latter were held in the flame, and the interested crowd of spectators saw them burn. The jury accepted this as sufficient, at all events, to cast doubts on the whole case against the prisoner, and Webb was acquitted.

      The "Markham gang," as they were called, are still well remembered by the older inhabitants of Toronto and the adjoining country. In several of the prosecutions arising out of the outrages of the gang, Mr. Blake was defending counsel, and invested the defence with additional interest, СКАЧАТЬ