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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 1 ■ ■ 5 6 ' -Trr^i-T^p^ ' ' FUNERAL DISC(|cRSE PRJIACHED AT DARTMOUT|:, ». ? January 4th, 1874, ON THK DEATH OF THE LATE \ JAMES W^. JOHNSTOJ^, Judge in Equity for the Province of Nova Scoti^^ .** > BY THE REV. E.4 ClUjpfy, D. D. Professor qfAcadKa CoHegf. >!■ ;•,■ ^•79 r ■'■y. , -Sl; HALIFAX, N. $. ' PRINTED BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW. 187 4^ 4- •'., mm "? ■^ ■Mt r"*' % i •-. • # I # H- Si '•^••i^iJV- • :*. \ ■*;.. '-<* m ■jf,,.-,, ■ ■•f ' ^,;,;-.. * >7 ■ '■ »* ^ 1 ■ " V !' , il.'* * '■''4 ,^"'^'7^ • * , " ' '■'. . - ' ' . /' j;, ;;lt'. » ... ^^. 5TW „ ;" « 1 • f * • * /v /^9 SERMON. ( 2 Sam. iii. 38. — " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man' fallen this day in Israel ? " Abner had killed Asahel, Joab's brother, in open 'war- fare ; Joab in revenge killed Abner by treachery and' in a state of peace. Abner, moreover, had been aiming to assist David, Joab's master, by uniting all the tribes of Israel under him in fulfilment of God's promise, that he would take away the kingdom from Saul, and give it to David ; he was there- fore acting as a friend when he was thus foully murdered. Now Abner was a man of mental and physical power, and consequently possessed of great influence, and the treacherous assassination of such a man was a bold and dangerous crime, and threw out in strong relief the ability and weight of the man thus shamefully lost to David and to Israel. , , • ■ ; . •-- ••■-,; • •- i.. • . -.■ ^ '- We plainly see all this in its effect on David's feelings and conduct ; he showed all honor to the remains of the murdered General ; he followed the bier, notwithstanding his dignity and rank as king ; he wept at the grave, where "all the people lifted up their voices and wept " ; and finally, he justified his sorrow and fasting, by the pathetic words of our text, " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ! " t ^ .m..i. This feeling appreciation of departed greatness suggests some instructive thoughts. I. It especially shows that, one of tlie important values^- bestowed on the world in the good providence of God is seen in the gift to society of great men, men of high talent and influence. # 'PT^ ' Extraordinary providences, indeed, come about often from small, and, to us, inadequate causes, and vice even and crime may be overruled for good ; but the use made of great men is more of the nature of what we might term God's ordinary, rather that his extraordinary, ]: rovidence. The complicated form that events take, and the great 'difficulty, in many cases, of a correct interpretation of them, nii^ht make it not very easy to exemplify from history this general law, nor would there be time now to attempt it ; let it suffice 'to say, that any great names in science, and especi- ally in great moral influences would perhaps be most readily accepted as examples of the position ; and that Bacon there-- fore and Newton, Paul and Luther, Knox and Whitfield were great men, appointed as such, to the accomplishment of great ends. To apprehend the wide application of the rule, we should need to look far beneath the surface of things, and note the modes in which many events are brought about that an un- observant and thoughtless person might regard as mere acci- dents. Looking thus at past events with a keen eye, as naturalists examine each fact of nature, in all its relations and aspects, we discern clearly that minds, characters, ener- gies, talents, often of the greatest lustre, have been instru- ments whereby God causes events ; and thus the great in mind and character, and sometimes physical strength, often hold the same relation to the course of human destinies that great facts in nature, in their sphere, hold to earth's material necessities ; so that the sun balancing and warming the planets ; the seasons filling the granaries of the millions of mankind with food, seem to speak constantly of the brighter lustre and richer harvests of intellect and virtue. II. But when, further, the great in mind and talent are also great not only in moral but religious worth ; when they aid in the support and progress of God's saving truth, so that we may say of each of them, when taken from us, "a prince L ne •and a parent man is fallen this day in Israel," wc arc then witnessing the most distinguished mode in operation in which the Divine Being is pleased to square his providence, accord- ing to the law of employing great men for the accomplisliment of great designs* and thus, when not only a great man, but H great man in Israel, is fallen, our sorrow is of deeper tone, for the loss in this case is felt throughout the noblest of all societies, and touches the mightiest of interests, those that resj)cct not earth alone but Heaven. We knoiv indeed that God can at any time raise up other noble instruments to fulfil his will, equal to any that may be taken away, or even greater than tiiey, but while it is his, if he please, to exercise thus his infinite power, in bringing forward mighty men to serve him, it belongs to men, in the mean time, to mourn their loss, for a mighty man fallen in Israel must ever be a mighty loss, and we owe to it befitting lamentation. The people that should neglect to pay a debt like this must be sunk in ignorance or sordid degradation, for every generous nature responds like David at once to the claim of honor to the departed great men, and still more the good men, of the earth. And he who bestows befittins: honor, receives honor in return. The living and the dead have met together. Ilea- ven has communed with earth in other sort than its more familiar daily visits to good men. Fancy might truthfully fill the scene with the noblest names come down from hea- ven on a new errand, — to receive another great soul to the gathered conclave of the great. But what Fancy paints. Faith, in some sort reveals, when, in such manner as the Apostle meant, we '*come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, whose names are written in hea- ven." Honor is at such times shed down from heaven upon earth : and, I believe, a watchful spirit may sometimes find in an inward apprehension, almost awful and yet not unjoyous, mysterious evidence of the honor then distilled. ' 6 A nation may in this way receive a new impulse towards virtue. The tens of thousands who followed the remains of " Albert the Good" touched a chord with which millions of hearts vibrated ; and in the honor paid to the remains of England's iron Duke the empire thrilled with the granduurof that lofty sense of duty so long embodied in his honored form. Fidelity to duty was then stamped anew on the national character ; and turning to think of its religious results, who can estimate the value of that impression reproduced perhaps, and enhanced in the nobler form of fidelity to God. The fields of missionary and other benevolent labors have their Wellingtons born morally, it may be, of the noble old sol- dier's stern but heroic maxim. And it is perhaps well to add, that when pulpits and people, Sabbath schools, and bible classes, all closets and all thoroughfares, every business, calling, and office, occupied or trod by the Disciples of Christ, shall respond with a deep inspiration to this noble precept chisseled in the martial form of the Victor of Waterloo, the world shall have begun a new career, the Church shall have crossed another Jordan than that of Palestine, and another Canaan shall have begun to be possessed ; the present meagre proportion between Omnipotent law and shrivelled perform- ance shall visibly enlarge ; high principles, stereotyped often in the curt crisp words, and vitalized in the lives of the great and good, shall throw, like Archangels, new beams of light over the world ; and men everywhere shall with wonder hold new converse concerning the strange and mighty things that are coming on the earth ; seeing then in clear perspective how great truths enshrined in great men have wrought mightily in that stupendous progress. III. But there is a grandeur attending this subject that deserves especial notice. One is sensible of standing on lofty ground when he is not now looking at the confused and motley face of things as viewed from without, with no regard to their general results •(Is of of of of u. al 10 or tendencies, but has entered into the interior chambers, so to speak of the Divine Government, and there has caught a glimpse of the vi^onderful order underlying all the seeming confusion ; the vastness of the plans, so far as he may dimly see them, that have involved the rise and fall of nations, and the destinies of races and dynasties ; and the magnificence of the instrumentality employed in those plans — the loftiest among human minds swayed by an unseen power, that brings all that is great in intellect and noble in character to fulfil the infinite purposes of God. The man who thus discerns and adores the Divine minis- trations, is one on the top of Pisgah beholding the beauty and plenty of the promised land ; the man who sees only the sur- face is one of the laborers at the mountain's foot, who, deep in the valley, sees nothing but the herd he tends, or the fruit he gathers. But still another thought adds much to the grandeur of the principle — great men for great events ; — it is the concep- tion that imperfectly, and yet with great fulness of assurance steals over us of the wonderful greatness of him who makes the morally and intellectually great. We rise naturally and rapidly upwards from the work to the workman with the consciousness of a constantly widening power. The works of great men are admirable. Every nerve is stirred within us when we discern and understand the beauty and poetic power of the Paradise Lost or the Merchant of Venice, and we rejoice over the noble thoughts there en- shrined ; but how much more wonderful the mind itself of that Milton or of that Shakespeare who composed those poems, who conceived those thoughts and painted those characters ; what then must we think of him who formed and gifted the poet's mind, and who throws out of his vast laboratory scores of such gifted minds, and employs them on his varied work according to his Will ! A view which thus presents the Boblests instruments actually in the hand of the Infinite 8 Workman leads the mind to tend, as all things are dcsijifned to do, upwards to God. We see the harmony that breathes througli all, when we thus look at great men, — great in mind and action, — as God's great men. His spiritual agency, coming bright and flaming from his Altar in Heaven, to pre- sent here, through him that sent them, the offering of great ability, as God's hand, working yet more and greater wonders. There is thus no adulation of the great in speaking of their excellencies, for all are humbled by the stupendous con- trast, (happily so, when the heart is right) into that myster- ious, often ecstatic condition which the soul may know when it rejoices that " God is all in all," — the spiritual pantheism, of whieh the so-called pantheism of former and recent ages is a base material and idolatrous copy. IV. I cannot well close this part of the discourse without a brief word on the principle — great men for great ends — in its practical bearing on human duty. We are reminded by it of the need there is of consecrating talent to God. We speak indeed of Gcd providing for himself the human agents his work requires ; but as in so many other cases so i in this we have our part to perform ; his Omnipotent con- trol does not disturb by the slightest touch the unity, com- pleteness or independence of human will or purpose ; it is man's duty, irrespective of what God may do, to devote to him all the talents he has bestowed, and to aim at the best results as though all depended on the exertions of each. The raising up, therefore, of great men for great duties, and , their removal to their rest is ever setting before our minds how vast a need there is of this supply of intellect and char- acter as essential elements in the successful progress of the world's affairs. It is the most important of the harvests of earth, one of the world's vast needs. We see, then, why every man, and especially every young man should aim to be one of the best and greatest of men ; and in some things all may be great. Duty makes no more urgent demand than 9 led ICS iid |7» e- at 8. of I this, and it is addrossod to every liiunan soul without receive. No one I trust will understand these remarks to imply tliat there is no need of Divine aid, or that any man will ever do right without the spirit of God. V. From these thoughts we may naturally turn to the immediate object of this commemorative service. No one would have shrunk, with more sensitive modesty, from public praise than he, if living whose loss we this day unite to mourn. But a faithful record of the truth, and the benefit justly to be sought in good examples, no less than the consideration last alluded to, the glory of God in his human instruments, equally demand that no such obstacle shall hin- der an honest statement of excellencies that remain with us as our inheritance, despite our loss — ours to acknowledge, to be grateful for, and, if possible, to imitate. The late Judge Johnston was, unquestionably one of Nova Scotia's great men ; and when we enumerate the ele- ments of greatness in him that almost all men saw and felt, we have an instinctive conviction that, with the same concur- ring circumstances he would have been a great man every- where. It may be mentioned here that the subject of these remarks was born at Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, where his family then resided, on the 17th day of August in the year 1792 ; his death took place at Cheltenham in England on the 21st of November last. But it is not to his early life that we would chiefly look for proofs of what he was, the ripened man is the true exponent of the elements that compose his character. It may serve, however, to give a measure of compactness to the moral picture here attempted, just to say, that Scotland, and the late Dr. Henry Duncan of Dumfries, an eminent Presbyterian clergyman, and one of the first leaders in the Free Church movement, have the credit of that careful early training that sowed many precious seeds of knowledge, and commenced many excellent habits that grew Jitat 10 together into a strong and well proportioned mind. One of the prominent mental features resulting from that training was, and to the last contdnued, a high appreciation of all •knowledge, and unceasing employment and progress in its acquisition. Mr. Johnston's legal studies commenced with the late Judge Ritchie of Annapolis. Called to the bar in 1814, he opened his first office in Kentville in the county of King's. His rising ability was immediately observed, and a partner- ship in connection with one of the most prominent lawyers then in Halifax was soon offered and accepted by him ; and a very few years of active labor sufficed to raise him to the very highest rank in the practical pursuit of his profession. Among the intellectual features that marked his legal career, were, a strong and comprehensive grasp, a memory that seemed ever obedient to his will, together with a rapidity of perception that gave wonderful readiness at repartee, seiz- ing like lightning on the mistakes, or unwise or weak argu- ments of an opponent, and turning them in an instant to the disadvantage of the opposite side, and to the marked advan- tage of his own. This mental superiority, aided as it was by untiring perseverance and industry, was alone sufficient to win the highest honors of the bar. But a far loftier form of character, that gave at all times great weight to Mr. Johnston's legal worth, and on certain occasions won for him unparalleled elevation, was found in the exceeding nicety and strength of his moral sensibilities. Our departed friend was a thoroughly honest and honorable man, full of indignation at oppression and tyranny, and all injustice, fraud and meanness, and deeply moved also at moral worth. This is the tribute that not only his friends but his hottest opponents have repeatedly rendered to him whether viewed at the Bar, in the arena of Politics, or oa the Bench* The fine perception and deep sense of the moral quality of which I speak, gave at times astonishing power and i I ■ II 1 jii> IVftp||l|||U.i n e of ing all its ate he i eloquence to his public addresses ; they rose at such times to the sublime, and swayed an audience as with the force of a tornado. These bursts of extraordinary eloquence may have seemed only occasional when compared with the speaker's more ordinary experience ; but at all times an auditor might be sure of finding in Mr. Johnston a strong, clear and keen intellect, that never sunk to mediocrity, and a powerful logic that swept like a tide to its conclusions. We have said that, as might have been expected from so remarkable a moral temperament, our departed friend hated opi)ression, tyranny and injustice ; let me add that he seemed to love nothing better than to employ his fine abilities in opposing all wrongs, and making his profession the instru- ment of their punishment ; and this with a calm dignity that removed all suspicion of personal animosity or interest. Some traits in Mr. Johnston's political history are valu- able, though now known by few, and illustrate well his stern intcgiity. It was long before he entered the arena of political con- test. At an early period, a strong party was anxious to introduce him into the representative body in the Legislature of this Province, and offered the most tempting inducements, but in vain, INIr. Johnston saying at the time to a friend that mere party politics were his abhorrence, and that he never would mix in that form of public life, unless the party he joined were drawn together by great principles that con- vinced his judgment and conscience as deserving support ; and true to this course of conduct he remained in the quiet prosecution of his work as a Barrister and Advocate until the year 183?s, when at the earnest solicitation of the then Lieu- tenant Governor, being already Solicitor General, he accepted also a seat in the Legislative Council with the important object of watching the progress of that change in the consti- tution of the Colonies which was termed Responsible Govern- i' ( •( "iViUJ ifH 12 incnt, and applying his legal skill to the introduction of such guards and modifications as might be deemed necessary in so radical a change of our political constitution. " Mr. Johnston's subsequent political life was marked by several noticeable facts. Resiijnins; his seat i^ the Legislative Council, he was repeatedly elected as a Representative of the populous county of Annapolis with overwhelming majorities. As Attorney General, he led the Government, on its present responsible basis, on three several occasions, covering a period of about nine years. He had met Lord Durliam the High Commissioner for settling the troubles in Canada as one of the Delegates appointed to confer with his lordship on contemplated clianges in Colonial Government. He then and afterwards strongly advocated the present union of the Provinces in one Dominion ; and in 1864, after a long and laborious public life, he accepted the office of Judge in Equity and as is generally known, he felt himself called, a few months since, to decline the office tendered to him, and at first accepted, of Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, which his long continued and important public services had so well deserved. » We have given this rapid sketch of his professional and public life mainly to recall the recollection of the great in- fluence, now but feebly conceived, produced by the accession of such a man to the Church of God, and to a religious community in the state in which he found the Baptists of Nova Scotia. Previous to the year 1828, these churches almost destitute of any accessible means of liberal education, and excluded for many years from the use of means enjoyed by others, were nearly powerless to produce the impression in society which the fine native talent possessed by many, and the pure lives and earnest piety of most of their early ministers so well de- served. This deficiency was from the first perceived by Mr, Johnston, and he entered with others enthusiastically upon means for their relief. i 13 Hich M 80 ITenoe arose Horton Academy, and various instrumental- ities for its sup[)ort, which owe more than can be easily calcu- lated to the great pei^on.J labor and self sacrifice with which Mr. Johnston maintained and promoter , in his place in the Legislature and the Government, as well as before many an audience gathered for this especial purpose in various parts of the country, all those means for advancing education which the Baptist people have instituted, resulting finally in the foundation, and to a great extent the endowment, of Acadia College, of which institution he has been a Governor by repeated elections from its earliest inception till his death. In the course of these important labors, (it may be well specially to say) Mr. Johnston repelled, and signally defeated the endeavours made by certain prominent individuals to pre- vent the Baptist Body sharing with others in the public monies then civen to different Relio:ious communities for higher edu- O O O cation, and thus saved them from pecuniary loss, and from what was harder to bear, a humiliating disregard of their equal rights. The result of the circumstances here detailed has been a great change in the Baptist Body in Nova Scotia. From being a feeble portion of our people, almost unknown or unthought of in the social scale, they have come to possess great civil weight, they have increased rapidly in respecta- bility as well as wealth, and have now among them a large number of educated and able men ; and I think it is not too much to say, that they owe these solid advantages and this high position more to Mr. Johnston's personal labors and eminent character than to those of any other man in Nova Scotia, though many excellent and able men and leaders among them joined heartily with him in his efforts for their benefit. But while so many are witnesses of how much these great public ends owed to our valued brother, there are compa- ratively few now living who can speak adequately of his 14 personal religious life. A deep attachment to the Gospel, as revealing the way of Salvation and the Kingdom of the Redeemer, early possessed his mind and moulded hie charac- ter, producing a spirit of marked obedience to the authority of Christ. All his fine natural characteristics became conse- crated to his service, and were doubtless heightened by a new spiritual power. Our lamented friend joined the Baptists in 1832, having for several years previous held their belief and united in their worship. For a considerable period he found time amid his severely engrossing engf.gements to superintend a Sabbath pchool. He was rarely absent from the meetings appointed by the Church for prayer ; in these he never declined taking his part ; and in all his intercouse with christians, as well as in the meetings of the Church for counsel or mutual instruction, no one gave stronger evidence of a meek and christian spirit, and of solemn reverence for God and for his word. It was often a touching sight to see this man of consum- mate ability, a prince and a great man by natural endowment and social position, so unaffectedly and modestly putting himself on equal level with the lowliest of the flock, and counting that to be his joy and honor. Of a piece with this was his demeanour in his own house, where the plainest of our ministers o ten partook of his abundant hospitality. It is cheering to be able to add to these few remarks on our revered friend's christian life, that as he drew towards its close on earth, there was a happy and manifest deepening in him of the religious element. His friends in this country had not the satisfaction of listening to his parting words, but in all his correspondence during the period of his failing health up to the latest communication that they have received, the earnestness of his exhortations on the duty and comfort of devotion to the Saviour, gave clear and happy intimation of a soul ripening for eternal life. " He never wearied (writes i ' I . ^awmiHpii I 1. 1 \c 'U as the irac- \mty pnse- yy a ring- one who never left him) of the story of the Cross and the Saviour's love to Sinners," and in this sweet spirit of faith and hope, trusting in him alone, with his mental faculties unimpaired amid greatly ii»creased bodily weakness, but without a complaint, patient and unselfish to the last, part- ing with entire resignation from all earthly things, he gently fell asleep in Jesus, and entered, we doubt not, the glory of the just. AVe cannot but mourn the loss of a brother like thia, — nay, it is doubtless right to mourn in view of the greatness of our loss, and of the deep griefs we would fain relieve ; but f while we mourn we must not lose sight of great grounds of m rejoicing. To those deeply suffering ones especially we say, j think of the rest, now, we are assured enjoyed by that precious soul ; what is even the comfort of his presence, the joy of his society, the satisfaction of the just honours he had won, — what all earthly good, compared to that eternal rest in Christ ! To all we say, let us not forget to use and to re- joice in the lesson our text has given us. Great ends are wrought through great and good men becoming "God's hand " for good ; the work done, the workman goes to receive his reward ; — the ends he accomplished, — the benefits of his rare and eminent labors — remain with us. We may not always know how to trace those ends. We see somewhat clearly the influence of such a man as our honored brother when directly exerted for the protection or advancement of our churches or people ; or in the worthy standing in the country he so greatly helped them to obtain ; and the educa- tion he so largely promoted ; but when we remember too the high honor, dignity, and gentlemanly courtesy, of the advocate and the judge ; the reverence for justice and truth of the legislator ; the admirable moral temperament of the man ; the lowliness of mind and quiet modesty of the Christian ; we cannot but trust that these features of character have stamped many indelible impression* of their likeness on the multitudes. >>*■ 16 old and young, and of every variety of rank and disposition, with whom, in his long life, approaching eighty-two years, he came in contact ; and especially, let it be at once our dutv and our solace, to glorify God for our brother's honored and useful life ; and for that open door of faith in Christ, which we are assured he entered, that receives alike the old and youug, tlie lich and poor, the feeble minded and the strono-, bathing the whole in the liglit of christian hope, and of joyous anticipation of a yet better life to come. And as God is thus removing from our midst, one after another, the honored forms that had become to many the personification of high talent and christian worth, what a trumpet call seems to be heard in this, rousin"- our vounr' men of talent and promise to hasten forward to the ground where other Princes and great men, in mental and moral power, are needed, to replace those that are fallen, so that honest warfare against incapacity, and ill example, and all corruption in the world or in the Church, may not be checked or retarded for want of powerful men, acute and talented minds, and good soldiers of our Lord Jesus Christ. In peace then may these honored ashes rest, covered with the sod of a far distant soil. In peace and calm resignation may wounded hearts bow to the will of Him who has called our friend to himself; and in this and all the ills of life, may we more and more discover that mystic way that through seemingly hostile and jarring elements, through disappoint- ments and less, through sorrow and heavy griefs, is never- theless bringing all who trust in Christ into the kingdom of Eternal Peace. M.f./' 1 ^.. ■n '"'jf 'T!:;; ' ■ •■ i■:t;:• |;• '■■■■ ' ■I ■ : : ■■■ I i'ui ^;,i-:ia! «IJii!i^lll,J).UJ wm^ *.4 'ars, hitv [and fiich inci \ar )US a |ipp^n(lix. ■ . • 'I ■ ^' ■ < 1 . ]% The following articles iVom the St. Jama* Mafjnzine and the London Law Times are added, and will be read with interest by the numerous friends of Judge Johnston : THE HON. JAMES W. JOHNSTON, LATE JUDGE IN EaUITY OF THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA. (From St, James' Magazine, and United Empire Review, for January, 1874.) We have to record the death of a very prominent Canadian statesman and jurist, the Hon. James W. Johnston, late Judge in Equity of the Province of Nova Scotia, who «lied at Chelten- ham on the 21st November, at the advanced age of 81. Judge Johnston was the descendant of a distinguished United Empire Loyalist family, or, as it is generally expressed in the Colonies, he was sprung from a " U. E" stock. His grandfather who wjis of the Annandale family, was Lieutenant-Governor of Georgia in the troubled times that preceded the revolution ; and when the evil hour came his sons all took up arms for " King George and a United Empire," and three of them fell in action. On one occa- sion one of them was saved from the fury of the rebels by taking refuge in a coffin, and being mourned over by sympathetic friends, " They wept the living Hector as the dead." Judge Johnston's father was a captain in a regiment of New York volunteers, raised by a grandfather of the late Judge Haliburton, Major Alexander Grant, a well-known Scotch officer, who fell mortally wounded at the storming of P^ort Stanwix and died in the arms of Captain Ji.hnston. An ancestdV of Admiral Coffin was also a brother officer of Captain Johnston. After the war was over Captain Johnston having, in common with his fel- low U. E loyalists, lost everything, was compelled to take to the medical profession, and, after studying in Scotland, practised up to his death in Jamaica, where the subject of this notice was born in the year 1792. Accident took him to Nova Scotia, where he practised as a barrister with great success. He had not only great energy and immense powers of application, but also a gift of eloquence which was unrivalled in that country, and which would have given him an eminent position in any arena as a pub- lic speaker. He yielded reluctantly to the earnest solicitations of 18 his friends to take a part in politics, and at 45 ho bcfjan a career which WHS almost uniformly sn(;cessfnl. During thirty years he represented the county of Annapolis, and was during that period the leader of the Conservative party, who regarded him with the utmost confidence as a safe aiiil thoroughly high-minded patriotic leader. The best record of his public life is the history of his cojintry during the long period of his connection with his party. We shall ni)t bo doing more than justice to him when we say that no ('anadian statesmen at the pr.-sent day can c'aim the same standing as the late Jiulgo Johnston. There are amoiig them many hard-workers, and not a few able and eloquent men, but the subject of our notice combined in himself the polish and honour of the gentleman of the old school with the morality of the Christian, and possessed great energy and industry with great acuteness and remarkable eloquence — a rare combination that left him without a rival in his own country. lie was offered the appointment of Lt. -Governor, and was strongly urged by men of all parties to accept the appointment ; but he felt that his day was closing, and that he would not long survive his old rival—*' a focinan worthy of his steel" — the late Joseph Howe, who only enjoyed the post of Lt. -Governor a few weeks. The same year has seen them both pass off the stage. It will be fortunate for the Dominion if it can find public men of as hijih a tone of patriotism to take their place. The present discouraging aspect of politics in that country makes us look back with the more admiration on a Colonial states- man who has left his successors a worthy example for them to follow. Judge Johnston has left behind him a numerous family, one of which is well known to our readers as the author of some very clever and amusing articles entitled " Recollections of an American Female Seminary." (See St. Jamrs' Mag.vzine, August, 1872, to January, 1873.) ^ ■:^ . .; ; / THE HON. J. W. JOHNSTON. ' ' ' ■'"'•' ( Frovi the London Law Times.) The late Hon. James W. Johnston, Judge in Equity of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, whose death at Cheltenham, at the age of eighty-one, was recently announced, was born at Kings- ton, Jamaica, in the year 1792, his grandfather was a Scotchman of the Annadale line, who married a Miss Peyton, a lady of French Huguenot descent, he had been Governor of the Province of Georgia while the Uuited States were still a colony of Great Brit- ain. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war, his sons all entered the British army to aid in the suppression of the rebellion ; one of them raised and commanded a troop of horse known as ^' ,* 4 19 > Johnston's Horse : at its head he was killed in a successful skirmish against the rebels. On the declaration of the independance of the States of America, Governor Johnston with his family left the Southern States and returned to Scotland, havin;; in common with all the loyalists lost his whole fortune. The fatlier of the subject of this raem^'ir, who had been a captain in the New York Volun- teers dunM:x the war, at its close, studied medicine at the Edinburgh University, where he obtained his degree. He after- wards removed to Jrniaifa, having previously married the only daughter of Captaiu Leichenstein, of Austrian extraction. His children were all sent to Scotland for their education, the subject of the present sketch being placed with a private tutor, the late Rev. Dr. Duncan of Riithwell, the originator of savings banks in Scotland. His connection with Nova Scotia, where most of his life was passed, arose from the fortuitous circumstance of a temporary visit to Halifax with his mother, whose health required change to a northern climate. He then studied for the Bar, and was admitted in or about the year 1813. Mi . Johnston quickly rose to the head of his profession, and at about the age of forty-five he entered the arena of politics. He was elected a member for the county of Annapolis, N. S., Canada, one of the largest constituencies of the province, which he represented without a break, having run nine or ten successful elections, till his elevation to the Bench. During his whole political career he was the leader of the Conservative party, and Attorney-General and leader of the Government when- ever that party w.is in power. He was created Honorable by the British Government. In 1857 he, together with Mr. Adams Archibald, was sent on a delegation to England on behttlf of the province of Nova Scotia to adjust the respective claims of the Mining Association and the Province in regard to opening the mines and minerals and to free them from the royalty of the Duke of York. He was one of the earliest advocates of the confeder- ation of the Canadian provinces, which he warmly supported throughout his whole career. In 1863 he was appointed Judge in Equity of the Supreme Court, an office which he was the first to fill. In 1872 his health being very delicate, he left Canada to seek a more southern climate. In the following year he was offered the governorship of the province of Nova Scotia, which he at first accepted, and the appointment was hailed with acclamation through the length and breadth of the country. The newspapers of the Conservative and Liberal parties vied with each other in welcoming it, and in bearing testimony to the high talent, the phivalrous honour, and the unswerving rectitude of Judge John- ston. His failing health, however, obliged hina most reluctantly to renounce all idea of returning to the home of his adoption, where he had left so many warm friends, and he was compelled to decline the appointment. 1) 20 »'•■ ■ • \i>tv't\^m e< ^'('**"5 liVMlrr."^ «t rK*ir-tM»'>'-T l.(;lV».f^>rtt>^n'Ki»m^ *■!;;';::■; ;1'7 ■;.:•/ !« itmawaMi. „■,„ ,i..o.;.v.. m,..v. ', ■ • -f ., ' nth %(f?r'rilii #tl^ ^ ,, ft . ; - t .' ! f -vif\'»'/'n«r » Jt: •'t^stoirja "T"''** *'■' f I-AY him down— his race is run ; '. «,i t,ft mr f p' ^' "''.'' Lay him down — his work is done ;.:jjl,,j.'> ^ ^.\,jf ^ ' 'fif ' Henceforth give that noble head, , ?•• ,••..,. ?*?U Place among our honored dead. I, , Four score years had bent his frame, ,. • , u V f^'l fei«!'U But untarnished left his name ; i» 'ul . ,,,jj^j^j .j,,,,5 ij Truth and honor, never dim, '^.' .'^? * '^- ,'' . ^. '' # • Is our epitaph for him. .'''.t?