McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 
 DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE
 
 McCAUL: CROFT: 
 FORNERI 
 
 PERSONALITIES OF EARLY 
 UNIVERSITY DAYS 
 
 BY 
 JOHN KING, M.A., K.C. 
 
 Qtu tut mtmoret altos 
 fee fro nurendo 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 ,3O3JJCO YTI8H3VmU , 
 OTKOHOT 
 
 TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPA^rY OF CANADA, 
 LIMITED, AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE ;: :: MCMXIV
 
 MAIN ENTRANCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
 TORONTO
 
 PERSONALITIES OF EARLY 
 UNIVERSITY DAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN KING, M.A., K.C. 
 
 Qui sui memores alias 
 fecero mcrendo 
 
 VIRGIL 
 
 TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, 
 LIMITED, AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE :: :: MCMXIV
 
 Copyright, 1914 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LIMITED 
 
 Copyright in Great Britain
 
 TO 
 
 IN TOKEN OF 
 OUR COMMON ALMA MATER
 
 A FOREWORD 
 
 A PREFATORY note seems fitting for the appear- 
 ance of this little book. The biographical sketches 
 contained in it were written primarily for an under- 
 graduate and student constituency, and were pub- 
 lished originally in the early numbers of The 'Var- 
 sity newspaper. From time to time requests have 
 been made, which could not be acceded to, for 
 copies of the journal in which the memoirs were 
 printed. These requests came principally from Uni- 
 versity men, and from friends and admirers of all 
 three personalities who were widely known in Can- 
 ada and in the academic life of the time. One of 
 the memoirs being about to be published separately, 
 the writer was persuaded to have all three appear 
 together in their present form. Hence their re- 
 publication. 
 
 Some autobiographic notes left by Professor 
 Forneri have been freely drawn upon in the story 
 of his adventurous career. The facts relating to 
 Dr. McCaul and Professor Croft have been de- 
 rived from authentic sources. Although necessar- 
 ily changed and supplemented, particularly with 
 respect to the first President of University Col- 
 
 7
 
 8 A FOREWORD 
 
 lege, the narratives appear substantially as they 
 were first written. The trio of whom they were 
 written have long since quit the scene. So have 
 their colleagues in the professoriate of that day. 
 Sir Daniel Wilson and Young of Edinburgh, Bea- 
 ven of Oxford, Cherriman of Cambridge, Chap- 
 man of London, Hincks of Belfast all have 
 "crossed the bar." And so, probably, has many a 
 gownsman who sat under them. To their succes- 
 sors, whether professors or students, and to the 
 older graduates especially, these pages, imperfect 
 though they be, may, it is hoped, not be unwelcome. 
 They are a simple recital of the life-history of men 
 who were intimately associated with the early for- 
 tunes of the University of Toronto, who, with 
 others of the old regime, gave of their best to help 
 to make it what it is to-day, who were eminent as 
 scholars and teachers in their several departments 
 of learning true to worthy ideals of public duty 
 and service, and who passed off the stage with 
 "honour, love, obedience, troops of friends." 
 
 J.K. 
 TORONTO, 
 DECEMBER, 1914.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 13 
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 103 
 
 JAMES FORNERI
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 MAIN ENTRANCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO . Frontispiece 
 
 Facing Page 
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL, LL.D., Principal of Upper Canada 
 College, Toronto, 1839-1842. (From an engraving in the 
 possession of his daughter, Mrs. Alan Macdougall, Toronto) 40 
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL, LL.D., Professor of Classics, 1842- 
 1880; Vice-President of the University of King's College, 
 Toronto, 1842-1849 ; President, 1849-1853 ; First President of 
 University College, Toronto, 1853-1880. (From an oil paint- 
 ing by A. Dickson Patterson, A.R.C.A., in University Con- 
 vocation Hall) 92 
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT, D.C.L., F.C.S., First Professor of Chem- 
 istry and Experimental Philosophy in the University of 
 King's College and University College, Toronto, 1842-1880. 
 (From an oil painting by A. Dickson Patterson, A.R.C.A., in 
 the Senate Chamber of the University) .... 134 
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT, Captain of No. 9 (University) Company, 
 Queen's Own Rifles, Toronto. (From a photograph, taken 
 in 1867, now in the possession of R. E. Kingsford, M.A., 
 LL.B., Toronto) . . . .. 142 
 
 JAMES FORNERI, LL.D., First Professor of Modern Languages 
 in University College, Toronto, 1853-1865. (From a photo- 
 graph taken in Belleville, Ont., after his retirement) , . 162 
 
 COAT OF ARMS OF THE FORNERI FAMILY 254
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL, LL.D. 
 
 FIRST PRESIDENT OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
 TORONTO
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 
 
 DEAN STANLEY, in a review of the life of a not- 
 able Englishman, remarks that sometimes famous 
 men have had to be sought for in obscure country 
 parsonages, or in sequestered nooks of their own 
 choosing. This is a characteristic of English so- 
 cial life, against which may be placed another 
 peculiar to this country, namely, the difficulty of 
 tracing the antecedents of prominent Canadi- 
 ans, born and bred in the British Isles, who 
 emigrated to Canada in what may be called its 
 colonial days, and who here emerged into the full 
 light of distinction and influence. Their names 
 may in time have become as familiar as household 
 words, but their family history in the old land is a 
 sealed book which has seldom been opened even 
 by themselves. This reticence, which makes itself 
 felt in word and action, often extends into the 
 domain of biography. So much so, that it is all 
 but an impossible task to enter the penetralia where 
 can be found family ancestry and hereditary char- 
 acteristics, and the earlier facts and incidents of 
 their lives. We meet with this experience in writ- 
 ing of the careers of not a few of the public men 
 
 15
 
 16 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 who have left a marked impress upon our national 
 life and the character of our national institutions. 
 The interest attaching to a life and career in a new 
 country overshadows the memories of a past associ- 
 ated with other lands. 
 
 These remarks are quite as applicable to the sub- 
 ject of this memoir as to many other old country- 
 men who became eminent Canadians. Dr. McCaul, 
 like Sir Daniel Wilson, his successor in the Presi- 
 dency of University College, was never communi- 
 cative as to his ancestry, or the history or antece- 
 dents of his family. And he was just as averse to 
 newspaper publicity in regard to matters of this na- 
 ture. He well knew that, in a country described by 
 Goldwin Smith as "rough, raw, and democratic," 
 and where every man is the architect of his own 
 fortune, his reputation as a scholar and professor 
 and the Head of the first educational institution in 
 the Province, depended on no such considerations. 
 His successor in office, who declined more than 
 once to furnish the facts of his early life and career 
 for publication, said on one occasion : "We should 
 not live too much in the past, or sermonize over it 
 immoderately. This is a practical, work-a-day 
 world, engrossed in the daily round, the common 
 task ; what we are ourselves and what we do is of 
 greater concern to the communities in which we 
 live and labour than who our fathers were, or what 
 they did."
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 17 
 
 Ancestry Parentage Early Years 
 
 Dr. McCaul was evidently of the same opinion, 
 for he certainly acted upon it. The fact, however, 
 is that he was a member of a well-known Irish fam- 
 ily, one of whom was a professor of Hebrew in 
 King's College, London, and another engaged in 
 business in Dublin. His ancestors had emigrated 
 from Scotland at an early period to the north of 
 Ireland, and, like many other Scottish immigrants, 
 were known as "Ulster Scotsmen." There are to 
 this day, in the old country and in Canada, Mc- 
 Colls and McCauls, the former Scots or of Scottish 
 descent, and the latter Irish or of Irish descent, 
 whose names, although not spelled the same, have 
 the same pronunciation. Is it too much to assume 
 that both have a common ancestry in the land of 
 the heather, "the Mother of half a world's great 
 men"? 
 
 Be this as it may, there seems no doubt that 
 McCaul's parents, perceiving his abilities and am- 
 bition at an early age, did their best to promote his 
 desire for a successful college career. That they 
 judged truly, that their efforts were diligently sec- 
 onded by the youth himself when he entered the 
 lists as a competitor with some of the cleverest 
 young men of his time, and that he brought honour 
 and fame to the home and household where his 
 tasks were first begun and his love of learning
 
 1 8 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 stimulated, all this goes without saying as we 
 trace the principal events of his life in the old land 
 and in this country, which owes so much of its 
 highest development and the enrichment of its citi- 
 zenship to men of Irish birth or extraction. 
 
 John McCaul was born March 7, 1807, in the 
 city of Dublin, the intellectual centre and literary 
 metropolis of Ireland, and the seat of a famous 
 University. He was one of very many in the long 
 muster-roll who, in arts, in arms, in song, have 
 given the Irish capital an illustrious name by claim- 
 ing it as their birthplace. In his boyhood he was 
 first a pupil at a private school popularly known in 
 the city as "White's School," and which had quite 
 a reputation for efficiency in training and strictness 
 in discipline. It corresponded in these particulars, 
 although not otherwise, with the late Dr. William 
 Tassie's school at the town of Gait in this Province, 
 and with the old Royal Grammar School at Kings- 
 ton, of which George Baxter was Head-master, and 
 where, as we have heard Sir Richard Cartwright 
 say, the boys were "well drilled and sometimes well 
 flogged." From the class rooms at White's, where 
 he was a fellow pupil of many youths belonging to 
 some of the principal families in Dublin and its 
 suburbs, young McCaul went to the "Moravian 
 School" in Antrim. His stay there was compar- 
 atively brief. It was a school at which there were 
 pupils in residence, and where fees were charged
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 19 
 
 for tuition to all pupils alike. The newcomer ap- 
 pears to have been a resident; but the school, of 
 which much had been heard before he left home, 
 did not apparently come up to his expectations, and 
 he returned to White's, where his school life ended. 
 It ended because during the previous years he had 
 as the goal of his application and diligence the 
 college lecture room and a University degree. His 
 return to White's was for the fulfilment of that 
 purpose. He remained there a twelvemonth for a 
 final "grind" before entering the University of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, as a matriculant in the 
 Faculty of Arts. This he did in 1820, while he 
 was yet in his fourteenth year. 
 
 Career at Trinity College, Dublin 
 
 During the first three years of his undergrad- 
 uate course, McCaul devoted himself more particu- 
 larly to the study of mathematics, in which, as he 
 once said in Convocation Hall, he gained his first 
 college prize. Dr. Sandes, afterwards Bishop of 
 Cashel, was his mathematical tutor. This prize, 
 which was the young student's first reward of merit, 
 was founded in 1796 by John Law, Lord Bishop 
 of Elphin, a brother of Lord Chief Justice Ellen- 
 borough. He donated to the University the sum 
 of seven hundred guineas, on the express condition 
 that it should be applied to encourage the study of
 
 20 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 mathematics according to a scheme which he drew 
 up himself, and which, with a slight modification, 
 made during his own time, has remained in all its 
 original integrity and usefulness. 1 
 
 In his fourth academic year McCaul gave spe- 
 cial attention to classics, which was afterwards 
 his favourite subject, and the one which brought 
 him the highest honours and rewards as a scholar 
 and professor. He was the winner not only of im- 
 portant and valuable prizes, but also of a scholar- 
 ship of the annual value of 20, tenable for 
 five years. The scholarship entitled him, in addi- 
 tion, to free rooms and meals in residence. His 
 career as a student, up to this point, had been 
 a series of brilliant successes, all the more notable 
 on account of the acknowledged abilities of the men 
 who were his competitors. The crowning honour 
 came when he graduated with the highest distinc- 
 tions the University could bestow, namely, the Uni- 
 versity gold medal in classics, and, later on, the 
 Berkeley Greek medal for superior scholarship in 
 the Greek language. Two of his competitors for 
 these much coveted distinctions were the Rev. Dr. 
 Greig, Bishop of Cork, and the Rev. Dr. Hamilton 
 Verschozles, Bishop of Killaloe, both of whom were, 
 
 1 History of the University of Dublin (p. 175), by W. B. S. 
 Taylor, F.M.A. The author includes Dr. McCaul in his list of 
 distinguished graduates of the University, and says he "obtained 
 a very high place at scholarship examinations."
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 21 
 
 and continued to be as long as they lived, his warm 
 personal friends. 
 
 It is an interesting fact in connection with these 
 highest awards of an ancient University, which 
 were given at the annual commencement, that the 
 awarding of the series of gold medals began in 
 1793. In that year the Provost, who was the Head 
 of the College, and the Senior Fellows resolved that 
 a gold medal should be given to such students as 
 shall have answered every examination from their 
 entrance to the taking of their Bachelor's degree, 
 "provided they shall have got judgments, at 
 each examination, not inferior to one Bene with 
 Valde Benes" This quaint mode of preferment 
 was altered in 1816, when the medals were given, 
 one to the best answerer in classics, and the other 
 to the best answerer in science, at an examination 
 held in distinct courses prescribed for that purpose. 
 It was apparently under this altered regulation that 
 McCaul won his gold medal in classics a splendid 
 prize, and one which the Hon. Edward Blake, Chan- 
 cellor of the University of Toronto, used to say was, 
 in his opinion, the prize par excellence of the grad- 
 uating year. 1 
 
 The Berkeley gold medal was founded by the 
 
 1 The regulation at Trinity was subsequently changed, and the 
 gold medals for classics and science were superseded by the 
 substitution of Moderatorships, with gold and silver medals, in 
 classics, mathematics, and some other departments.
 
 22 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Rev. George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, an emi- 
 nent divine whose benevolent benefactions were 
 circumscribed only by his slender fortune. The 
 poet Pope ascribes to Berkeley "every virtue under 
 Heaven." The good Bishop presented to the Col- 
 lege the sum of one hundred and twenty guineas 
 and an engrossed medal die, for the purpose of 
 establishing annual gold medal prizes to encourage 
 Bachelors of Arts to continue the study of the 
 Greek language. Agreeably to the Bishop's inten- 
 tions, the Provost and Senior Fellows, in 175^, 
 agreed to give annually forever two gold medals 
 to the worthy graduates who had earned these 
 awards. In McCaul's time, these medals were given 
 to the Middle Bachelors, as they were called, who 
 had attended the lectures of the Regius Professor 
 of Greek with exceptional diligence and acquire- 
 ments for two academic years, commencing with 
 the term in which they had taken their Bachelor's 
 degree. 
 
 University Tutor, Examiner, Chaplain 
 
 Upon obtaining his degree McCaul gave much of 
 his time to "coaching" pupils for the University 
 examinations, and he achieved so many signal suc- 
 cesses in this capacity that, upon receiving the de- 
 gree of Master of Arts in 1828, he was appointed 
 University Examiner in Classics, an office which he 
 held until shortly before he left Ireland for Can-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 23 
 
 ada. In 1835, the degrees of LL.B. and LL.D. 
 were conferred upon him by the University, upon 
 his undergoing the prescribed tests, which were 
 real tests of merit, while the special and very rare 
 compliment was paid him of remitting the fees 
 exacted for those degrees. Previous to this time, 
 he had been admitted to holy orders to the diacon- 
 ate in 1831 and to the priesthood in 1833, and 
 was frequently called upon to officiate in chapel and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 From all that is known of McCaul during his 
 long residence in Toronto, we may well believe that 
 his services in a clerical capacity were very accept- 
 able to the members of the University and to those 
 of his own communion in the diocese of Dublin. 
 His elocutionary powers as a speaker and a reader 
 were of a high order, and these, apart from his 
 attainments otherwise, were calculated to make him 
 persona grata in these duties of his sacred office. 
 In later years, after he came to Canada and was 
 appointed Vice-President of King's College, Tor- 
 onto, he frequently conducted the services in the 
 College chapel. He was sometimes also called upon 
 to take part in the public services of the Church of 
 the Holy Trinity, which he and his family usually 
 attended, and, on special occasions, in some of the 
 other Anglican churches of the city. Whenever 
 this was known beforehand, he seldom failed to 
 have a fair representation of the University stu-
 
 24 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 dents in his congregation. He was to them, in all 
 these and similar public efforts, an admirable ex- 
 emplar of the manner in which such duties should 
 be performed. He was ready and willing also to 
 give the benefit of his self -discipline and experience 
 to those who had duties of a like kind imposed upon 
 them. One instance of this may be mentioned. In 
 the old Convocation Hall, which was never used as 
 such when restored after the great fire of 1890, 
 Dr. McCaul made some of his most memorable 
 speeches and addresses. His fine melodious voice, 
 as he stood on the dais, was heard distinctly by 
 those seated or standing at the farthest end of the 
 Hall. A young graduate, who was on the pro- 
 gramme for an address at one of the public func- 
 tions of the College Literary and Scientific Society 
 to be held in the Hall, had often noticed the Doc- 
 tor's success in this particular, and he went to him 
 to learn the secret. After giving the coming orator 
 some sound practical hints on the management of 
 his voice, the Doctor said: "Speak slowly and as 
 distinctly as possible, and at the same time fix your 
 eye on two or three persons near the door of the 
 Convocation Hall. When you have raised your 
 voice to a pitch at which, as far as you can tell, you 
 have gained their attention and they apparently 
 hear you without undue effort, keep the voice at 
 that pitch, and I believe you will hold your audi- 
 ence. This, at all events, is my method." The
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 25 
 
 young orator acted on this advice and succeeded to 
 his heart's content. 
 
 Editorship of Ancient Classics Authorship 
 
 During his years of residence in Trinity Col- 
 lege, where, as already noticed, he enjoyed special 
 privileges as a University scholar, Dr. McCaul pro- 
 duced a number of works which have always been 
 regarded as valuable contributions to classical 
 learning and literature. Those years were well 
 spent. They were years in which he "scorned de- 
 lights and lived laborious days." He devoted his 
 whole available time to those post-graduate studies 
 some of the fruits of which are to be found in 
 the works referred to, and which at once gave him 
 an established reputation as a finished classical 
 scholar. It was during this comparatively brief 
 period that he wrote and published "Remarks on 
 the Classical Course Taught in Trinity College, 
 Dublin," "Horatius Textum recognovit, notisque 
 aliorum turn suis instruxit" and a series of treat- 
 ises on the Metres of Horace (two editions), Ter- 
 ence, and the Greek Tragedians. These were, for 
 many years, the only text books on their respective 
 subjects used at Trinity College, Dublin, and, along 
 with his other works, are still recognized as valu- 
 able repertories of classical learning. He subse- 
 quently published his editions of Longinus, Thu- 
 cydides, and the Satires and Epistles of Horace, the
 
 26 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 edition last named being at once adopted as the 
 standard text-book by the Grammar Schools of Ire- 
 land. He was also the author of a disquisition on 
 the "Scansion of the Hecuba and the Medea of 
 Euripides," of lectures on Homer and Virgil, and 
 of an edition of selections from Lucian. 
 
 The young scholar's plunge into classical author- 
 ship and editorship was, as he himself admits, a 
 somewhat venturesome undertaking. And this was 
 particularly the case with respect to the works of 
 the renowned Roman satirist and lyrist, whose 
 complete artistic success in his two great tasks of 
 the naturalization in Latin of the Greek lyric spirit, 
 and the perfect development of the old Roman 
 satire, has made him one of the most influential 
 writers of the world, and has secured his fame as 
 long as order or culture shall endure. The liter- 
 ature on Horace in modern Europe and in America 
 is enormous, but it is questionable whether the 
 accumulation of the last sixty or seventy years is 
 of finer quality than that which was extant in the 
 year 1833, when the young Irish scholar made his 
 first venture as a Horatian critic and expositor. 
 At that time the works of Horace were already be- 
 fore the public in such a variety of forms, the num- 
 ber of commentators was so great, and the mass of 
 annotation on almost every point that might cause 
 difficulty to the reader so fully illustrated and ex- 
 plained, that the announcement of another editor
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 27 
 
 might justly excite surprise. The young author was 
 conscious that an unfavourable impression might 
 arise from this; and he felt, in presenting new 
 editions of the Metres and of the Satires and 
 Epistles, that he exposed himself to the imputation 
 either of unjustly depreciating the merits of others, 
 or of presumptuously overrating his own. It was 
 not his intention, however, to anticipate these 
 charges by aspersions on the knowledge or indus- 
 try of previous editors, nor yet by professions of 
 what he himself had been able to effect. With re- 
 spect to both the Metres and the Satires and Epistles 
 he merely stated the design which he had in view 
 and the plan which he had pursued in preparing the 
 books for publication. His readers would "then 
 be better qualified to pronounce how far the re- 
 proof of the poet might be applicable: In silvam 
 non ligna feras insanius." 
 
 One objection, perhaps the only one that could 
 be offered to the plan outlined by the editor, was, 
 that instead of removing doubts it rather tended 
 to excite them, by perplexing the reader with a 
 variety of conflicting opinions. This he endeav- 
 oured to obviate by giving the explanation which he 
 regarded as correct. This was not done from any 
 desire to set up his own judgment as a standard, far 
 less as being superior, but because "it appeared 
 reasonable that the same person who suggested the 
 difficulties should also assist in the solution; and,
 
 28 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 moreover, the student may justly require that the 
 guide, to whose direction he submits, will not desert 
 him in those places where his assistance is most 
 required." In some passages, where it seemed im- 
 material which opinion was selected, he expressed 
 no preference, whilst in others, where he was not 
 satisfied with any interpretation which had been 
 given, he either ventured to offer suggestions of 
 his own, or did not hesitate frankly to confess 
 ignorance. In the illustrations of history, geogra- 
 phy, antiquities, and biography, which were inter- 
 spersed through his work, he had regard to con- 
 ciseness, trusting by their brevity to induce the 
 student to consult the proper authorities. 
 
 Lecture-room Methods 
 
 A regard for conciseness, it may be remarked, 
 was a feature of Dr. McCaul's method in the lec- 
 ture room with respect to most of the authors in 
 the classical curriculum which were assigned to 
 himself as the professor. While not devoid of 
 explanation or exposition, especially as to the more 
 difficult points in the text, his lectures consisted in 
 the main of a few pithy sentences enlivened occa- 
 sionally with a dash of humour, or some amusing 
 incident in his long experience as a teacher. The 
 student having "read his lines," the remarks which 
 followed from the lecturer, either voluntarily or in 
 answer to questions, which he rather encouraged,
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 29 
 
 were full of suggestions as to the particular diffi- 
 culty or topic in hand. It was less in what he 
 actually said than in what he suggested as to 
 sources of information and modes of investigation, 
 that these fifty or sixty minute exercises were in- 
 structive and valuable. On many occasions it was 
 not a lecture, in the popular sense of the term, but 
 rather a dialogue between teacher and student, in 
 which the latter was initiated into the method of 
 dissecting and analysing a particular passage, so 
 that he might be directed to the various lines of 
 inquiry or argument by which it might be ap- 
 proached and fully investigated. It was a method 
 that was thoroughly judicial. 
 
 Opinions of Editors of Horace 
 
 Dr. McCaul's opinions of other editions and 
 other editors of Horace are interesting, especially 
 to the University students of his regime who had 
 few aids, comparatively speaking, in their studies 
 of the Satires and Epistles and even of the Odes, 
 fewer certainly than has the student of to-day. 
 Dr. Charles Anthon, of Columbia College, New 
 York, will be gratefully remembered by the student 
 of that time. His editions of the classics were al- 
 ways popular and were widely used, and although 
 his translations of the troublesome passages of 
 an author were sometimes exceedingly free, they 
 helped, metaphorically speaking, many a lame dog
 
 30 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 over the stile, and gave him a confidence in the 
 examination hall and a peace of mind afterwards 
 for which even the lapse of years has made him 
 not ungrateful. Dr. McCaul had a good opinion 
 of Anthon, and spoke well of his edition of the 
 Satires and Epistles. Through the favour of a 
 friend he had received what he understood was the 
 only copy which had reached Ireland. It came into 
 his hands when his own work was considerably ad- 
 vanced, but he speaks of it as "a compilation fully 
 attesting, by abundant and diversified matter, the 
 industry and perseverance of the laborious editor." 
 So far as the text was concerned, Dr. McCaul 
 adopted that of Doring's edition as the basis. He 
 occasionally introduced other readings from a com- 
 parison of Bentley's and Gosner's, but he rejected 
 conjectural emendations, although there were not 
 a few passages in which he would gladly have 
 adopted them. In this part of his work he had 
 anticipated great assistance from the early edition 
 by Fea, but in this he was disappointed. Doring 
 had passed a severe judgment on Fea's edition, but, 
 although Dr. McCaul was well aware of this, he 
 had heard high encomiums pronounced on it by 
 eminent scholars. Fea, he said, "possessed no 
 other qualification for an editor than industry ; and 
 even this he has grossly misapplied, in attempting 
 to depreciate the talents and research of Bentley. 
 The reputation of that illustrious critic stands on
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 31 
 
 a basis too firm to be overthrown. Naturally en- 
 dowed with acute penetration, the most retentive 
 memory, and delicate discrimination, he availed 
 himself of all the advantages of a most extensive 
 course of reading, and, whatever censures he may 
 have incurred by rashness or overconfidence, dis- 
 played more scholarship, even where he was wrong, 
 than others have done where they are confessedly 
 right." 
 
 Criticisms of the Roman Satirists 
 
 Dr. McCaul's descriptions of the Roman satir- 
 ists are models of terse and graphic criticism. "The 
 four great satirists of Rome," he says, "were 
 Lucilius, Horace, and their imitators, Juvenal and 
 Persius. Of the merits of the first, we have not 
 materials to form an accurate opinion; but, if we 
 may conjecture from the style of some fragments 
 which time has spared, and the commendations 
 which have been bestowed on him by the best judges 
 of antiquity, we must regard him as a genius of 
 the highest order, uniting boldness to acute pene- 
 tration and great force of expression to accurate 
 observation ; the daring exposer of vice, and rigor- 
 ous censor of individual blemishes; possessed of a 
 remarkable flow of language, much vivacity and 
 humour, and extraordinary vehemence and se- 
 verity." * 
 
 1 Lucilius is said by Horace (Sat. i, 1. 61) to have been the 
 first writer of Roman satire, by which he means that Lucilius
 
 32 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 "Juvenal," he said, "adopting Lucilius for his 
 model, and bringing to the work great rhetorical 
 practice, has produced the most splendid specimens 
 of declamatory invective. Living at a period when 
 even the semblance of liberty was extinct, when all 
 the original spirit and manners of the Romans had 
 become antiquated, and vice boldly appeared with- 
 out disguise, patronized by rank and fashion, he 
 drew the picture of the time in vivid colours, with 
 all the boldness of a master hand. Hence his Sat- 
 ires are characterized rather by severity than hu- 
 mour, by harsh invective than playful raillery. His 
 language, copious and florid, is luxuriant even to 
 excess, and sometimes is too highly finished to 
 appear easy, too ornate to seem natural." 
 
 These brief and cleverly pointed analyses could 
 scarce avoid a comparison of Juvenal and Horace. 
 The comparison is made with a graceful incisive- 
 ness that marks the acute critic and the accom- 
 plished student of a language which has added not 
 a little to the beauty of style and expression of our 
 English mother tongue. Contrasting the qualities 
 of Juvenal's Satires, above described, with those 
 of Horace, the critic says: "Horace, on the other 
 hand, excels in the free conversational ease with 
 which he 'talks us into sense/ without any appear- 
 
 was the first who constructed it on those principles of art which 
 were considered in the time of Horace as essential requisites in 
 a satiric poem.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 33 
 
 ance of effort or design. Making folly the object 
 of his satire, he rather banters than inveighs. In- 
 stead of presenting a striking portrait of vice, to 
 excite our disgust and abhorrence, his sketches of 
 character are sportive and amusing. Possessed of 
 a keen perception of the ridiculous, he laughs at 
 the follies of the time, as if he were not so much 
 offended as diverted by them. His censures seem 
 to proceed from a good-humoured adviser, not an 
 austere moralist. His sarcasms and maxims are 
 not calculated to render his readers discontented 
 and misanthropic; he rather instructs them how to 
 enjoy life and feel satisfied with their condition. 
 Juvenal writes as if his temper had been soured by 
 disappointment, or his indignation roused by injury, 
 and then, disgusted with society, and dissatisfied 
 with life, he gave vent to his natural acrimony in 
 sweeping condemnations of men and manners. But 
 Horace never seems discontented with the circum- 
 stances in which he is placed. An observant man 
 of the world, he perceives the absurd and unnatu- 
 ral conduct of the majority; the companion of the 
 noble and polished, he ridicules vulgarity and af- 
 fectation ; independent in mind and contented with 
 the competence which he enjoyed, he condemns 
 the mean servility which procures money, and the 
 avarice which hoards it up; and with courtly com- 
 plaisance rather ridicules vice with the freedom 
 of one who had experienced and dreaded its seduc-
 
 34 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 tive influence, than exposes it with the asperity oi 
 inflexible virtue." 
 
 Persius, who is in Dr. McCaul's quartette of 
 famous satirists, is described as "modest and 
 gentle in his manners, virtuous and pure in his 
 whole conduct and relations. He stands out con- 
 spicuously from the mass of corrupt and profligate 
 persons who formed the Roman society of his age; 
 and vindicated for himself the right to be severe, 
 by leading a blameless and exemplary life. His 
 six Satires are remarkable for the sternness with 
 which they censure the corruption of morals then 
 prevalent at Rome, contrasting it with the old Ro- 
 man austerity and with the Stoic ideal of virtue. 
 The language is terse, homely, and sometimes ob- 
 scure, from the nature of the allusions and the ex- 
 pressions used, but his dialogues are the most dra- 
 matic in the Latin tongue." 
 
 To these criticisms by the young editor and com- 
 mentator, which are fair examples of his style, may 
 be added the following passing reference to an old 
 classical controversy: "It has been questioned 
 whether there be any essential difference between 
 the Satires and the Epistles of Horace as species of 
 composition. Casaubon and others comprehend 
 both under the general title Sermones, and regard 
 the Satires as the condemnation of what is wrong, 
 whilst the Epistles inculcate what is right; and 
 thus, together, they form a system of moral in-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 35 
 
 struction. But there appears no sufficient reason 
 for considering the latter as the continuation of 
 the former. The Epistles are not addressed to 
 individuals that their names may be merely an 
 inscription on them, but enter often with great 
 minuteness into particulars connected with them- 
 selves or their and the author's friends asking 
 or giving information or advice, gently noticing 
 what appeared to require amendment, and occa- 
 sionally introducing moral precepts. Such, at least, 
 are most of those contained in the first book, whilst 
 the second is mainly occupied with the subject of 
 criticism, suggested, however, by the circumstances 
 of the person to whom each is addressed." 
 
 Life of Horace 
 
 A no less interesting and ingenious part of Dr. 
 McCaul's edition of the Horatian Satires and 
 Epistles was the "Life of Horace," collected from 
 the poet's own writings : 
 
 fit ut omnis 
 
 Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella 
 Vita. 
 
 For the production of this "Life," unique as be- 
 ing a piece of indirect autobiography, Dr. McCaul 
 appears to have examined with loving scrutiny and 
 care every line which flowed from the poet's pen. 
 Besides the artistic creations with which his book 
 was immediately concerned, the writer enlisted the
 
 36 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Odes and Epodes as aids in his delightful task. 
 From all these masterpieces of the Latin world he 
 educed the life story of the man who was the friend 
 of Virgil and Varius, of Augustus, the Emperor 
 who has given his name to that golden age of Ro- 
 man literature, and of the Emperor's friend, 
 Maecenas the great Etruscan noble who endowed 
 the poet with his farm near Tivoli, in the Sabine 
 country, established his independence, fostered his 
 fame, sought his intimacy, and loved, honoured and 
 encouraged him as much as one man could another. 
 In the performance of this task the writer cited 
 only those passages which appeared sufficient to 
 establish the points which he laid down. The story 
 might obviously have been extended to greater 
 length, and have been illustrated by many more 
 quotations. But, as it is, it shows in a remarkable 
 degree the author's exhaustive research, his inti- 
 mate knowledge of the poet's writings, and his per- 
 fect acquaintance with the splendid period in which 
 he flourished. 
 
 Metres of the Greek Tragedians 
 
 With respect to his "Metres of the Greek Trage- 
 dians, Explained and Illustrated," Dr. McCaul ex- 
 pressed the opinion that Greek Prosody formed a 
 branch of classical literature which had been but 
 lately pursued with the attention which it merited. 
 There was, however, at that time an increasing de-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 37 
 
 sire for information on the subject, excited by the 
 judicious introduction of the Greek Tragedies into 
 the earlier part of the undergraduate course at 
 Dublin University. His treatise sought to meet 
 this desire by laying before the junior classical stu- 
 dent a concise explanation of the metres used by 
 the Greek tragedians. In doing so the author con- 
 fined himself to the statement and illustration of 
 their principal laws, without entering into the ex- 
 amination of topics, which, although connected with 
 the subject, appeared unfit to be introduced in an 
 elementary work. 
 
 The illustrations were selected chiefly from the 
 four plays of Euripides, edited by Person, as it 
 appeared to him (the author) most probable that 
 these would be in the hands of the class of stu- 
 dents for whose use the treatise was intended; but 
 some were, for local reasons, taken from the "Aga- 
 memnon" of u^Eschylus. Dr. McCaul was desirous 
 that his work should excite the literary public in 
 Ireland to pursue the examination of the subject, 
 and be the foundation of future improvements, and 
 this desire was gratified to a large extent by the 
 adoption of the treatise by the University classes, 
 and by the reception it met with in other educa- 
 tional institutions in Ireland. Indeed, the favour 
 with which the treatise was received was not con- 
 fined to the author's own country, but was extended 
 in time to the schools and colleges of other lands.
 
 38 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Principal of Upper Canada College 
 
 While engaged in these post-graduate studies and 
 the work of authorship and editorship, an event 
 occurred which led to the main turning point in 
 the young scholar's career. From far across the 
 Atlantic a request was sent by Sir George Arthur, 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, to the 
 Colonial Secretary to procure the appointment of 
 a Principal for the only College that could then find 
 a seat in the chief city of the most westerly province 
 of Canada. The minutes of the Council of the 
 University of King's College, afterwards the Uni- 
 versity of Toronto, and with which at that time 
 Upper Canada College was intimately connected, 
 show that difficulties had been experienced in select- 
 ing a Principal, and that at a special meeting held 
 in May, 1838, at which the Governor, as Chancel- 
 lor of the University, presided, it was decided to 
 take the action above referred to. In the same 
 resolution it was recommended that, "in considera- 
 tion of the great importance of having a suitable 
 person to preside over the College," a suggestion 
 should be made to the Colonial Secretary that "His 
 Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury be requested 
 to afford his assistance and advice in making a 
 selection, in order that the Province may have the 
 advantage of His Grace's intimate acquaintance 
 with the Universities, and his perfect knowledge
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 39 
 
 of the qualifications required for the duty." The 
 appointment thus virtually rested with the Arch- 
 bishop, although in fact made by Her Majesty's 
 Government. It was offered to Dr. McCaul, who 
 at once accepted and sailed for Canada late in 
 November, 1838. He arrived in Toronto on the 
 evening of January 25, 1839, not long after the 
 Province had experienced a spurt of civil war, and 
 when it was on the eve of a notable political revo- 
 lution in its system of government. 
 
 Founding of Upper Canada College 
 
 The institution of which Dr. McCaul was ap- 
 pointed Principal was founded by Sir John Col- 
 borne (afterwards Lord Seaton), a veteran of the 
 Peninsula and Waterloo. Besides being a dis- 
 tinguished soldier, Sir John was also an educa- 
 tional reformer, having, prior to his coming to Can- 
 ada, been instrumental in effecting reforms in 
 Elizabeth College in the island of Guernsey, a foun- 
 dation of Elizabethan times. Sir John Colborne 
 succeeded Sir Peregrine Maitland as Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the Province in 1828. In March of 
 the previous year a royal charter had been granted 
 by His Majesty George IV, for the establishment 
 at York (now Toronto) of the University of King's 
 College, which subsequently became the University 
 of Toronto. In the following year (1828) the in- 
 stitution was endowed with a share of the lands
 
 40 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 which His Majesty George III had set apart, some 
 twenty years previously, for educational purposes, 
 including the foundation of a certain number of 
 Royal Grammar Schools in different parts of the 
 Province. One of these had been established at 
 York, and was in existence when the new Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor assumed office. Meanwhile the 
 Corporation of King's College had been created 
 under the authority of the charter, and plans were 
 in progress for the erection of the University build- 
 ings. The charter, as will be seen, had been framed 
 in the interests of the Church of England, and 
 roused strong opposition from the other religious 
 bodies on account of its exclusively sectarian char- 
 acter. The Colonial Office was aware of this, and 
 Sir John Colborne, as the event proved, had re- 
 ceived instructions in regard to the matter. Upon 
 his arrival at the seat of government at Toronto, 
 he stayed proceedings for the erection of the Uni- 
 versity buildings, and, by an Order in Council, 
 brought into operation a Minor College which ere 
 long became widely known as Upper Canada Col- 
 lege. The former name was given apparently be- 
 cause the institution was intended to meet imme- 
 diate needs, and to be preparatory to the proposed 
 University whose charter was then a subject of 
 dispute. The Royal Grammar School, which had 
 been in existence for many years, was merged in 
 the new College, which, by reason of its close rela-
 
 THE REV. JOHN MCAUL, LL.D. 
 
 Principal of Upper Canada College, Toronto, 1839-1842 
 
 (From an engraving in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Alan 
 Macdougall, Toronto)
 
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 years prev 
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 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 41 
 
 tions with the proposed University and the ad- 
 vanced character of its educational work, speedily 
 became an important institution. Its founders took 
 as their model the great English Public Schools, 
 and although in later years the constitution and 
 government and endowment of the College under- 
 went some radical changes, it has worthily main- 
 tained the high standard of training and efficiency 
 as a great Canadian Public School which was con- 
 ceived and aimed at by its founders. Upper Can- 
 ada College has a roll-call of honour and distinction 
 that would do credit to any of the historic schools of 
 England. 
 
 The founding of Upper Canada College led to 
 a series of events more or less affecting Dr. Mc- 
 Caul's career in Canada. Some of these had hap- 
 pened before he came to the country, and others 
 were subsequent. One of the most serious was the 
 diversion to the use and benefit of the new College 
 of a sum of over 42,000 of the proceeds of the 
 endowment and annual income of the University. 
 This had much to do with the long delay in bring- 
 ing the University into practical operation. There 
 was also the controversy over the charter among 
 the religious denominations, which gathered force 
 and volume from year to year, and in the course of 
 which unsuccessful attempts were made at different 
 times to give to Upper Canada College university 
 powers and functions.
 
 42 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 At the time of the foundation of the College and 
 for some years afterwards, the English Church, 
 which was the State Church, had control. This 
 was obnoxious to the other religious bodies, but not 
 so much so as the provisions of the University 
 charter. The College was generally regarded as 
 taking the place, on an enlarged scale, of the Royal 
 Grammar School, and, so far from exciting oppo- 
 sition, was felt to be, in the then condition of the 
 country, an educational boon. The accession of the 
 Whigs to office in England, in 1828, was also a 
 mollifying influence, so far as the Anglican con- 
 trol of the new College was concerned, it being 
 generally understood that the Whigs favoured a 
 liberal educational policy in Canada and would give 
 effect to it. These influences were sufficient to pal- 
 liate for a time the dominance of the State Church. 
 But they were not sufficient to prevent independent 
 educational movements by two other religious de- 
 nominations. The Methodists established the Up- 
 per Canada Academy in 1836 and Victoria Col- 
 lege in 1841, while the Presbyterians obtained a 
 royal charter for Queen's College in 1842. 
 
 Early Years of Principalship Marriage 
 
 The recommendations which had secured Dr. 
 McCaul's appointment as Principal of Upper Can- 
 ada College were of the highest character. It is 
 questionable whether any scholar of the mother
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 43 
 
 country, who has been called to fill an academic 
 position in Canada, has been the recipient of more 
 enviable testimonials of eminent ability, scholarly 
 accomplishments, and private worth. And they 
 were so regarded, as the records show, by the Coun- 
 cil of King's College. 
 
 The new Principal assumed office on January 
 29, 1839. He succeeded the Rev. Dr. Harris, who 
 had organized the College ten years previously. 
 Dr. Harris was a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 
 whence, by the way, came the pattern for the gown 
 afterwards worn by the undergraduates of King's 
 College and the University of Toronto. He had 
 under him a staff of college-bred masters, trained 
 for the most part in England, who at once became 
 enthusiastic supporters of the new Principal. 
 
 For a brief period after his settlement in Tor- 
 onto, Dr. McCaul experienced a feeling of disap- 
 pointment. There was no hope, as there once was, 
 of the College of which he was the Head ever 
 attaining the status of a university. Although 
 superior in its curriculum and equipment to the 
 Royal Grammar School which it had displaced, it 
 was still in reality a Public School with a small con- 
 stituency from which to draw recruits, exposed to 
 popular prejudice, and with an uncertain future. 
 His ambitious dreams of what he had hoped to 
 accomplish in his new undertaking seemed far from 
 realization, and we can scarcely wonder if he looked
 
 44 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 back, with just a tinge of regret, to his old College, 
 where he was one of the coming men, and where 
 the path of promotion and distinction was still in- 
 vitingly open. It was but a transient longing. Can- 
 ada is indebted to one of her own daughters for 
 reconciling the waverer to his new home, where he 
 soon found the enlarged sphere of public usefulness 
 for which he longed. In October, 1839, he was mar- 
 ried to Miss Emily Jones, second daughter of the 
 Hon. Mr. Justice Jones, of Toronto, a member of an 
 old Canadian family, and thus, in the haven matri- 
 monial, found an anchorage at once happy and 
 secure. In the Toronto of her time, Mrs. McCaul 
 was a familiar personality who lent the graces of 
 womanly refinement to the social side of academic 
 life amongst the boys of the College and the Uni- 
 versity men of the day. 
 
 The McCaul Regime at Upper Canada College 
 
 The McCaul regime at Upper Canada College 
 has been fortunate in its chronicler. William 
 Wedd, M.A., LL.D., the oldest living graduate of 
 the University, is one of the old boys who was un- 
 der Dr. McCaul. He was for many years the first 
 classical master of the college, and, a few years 
 ago, received the highest degree of his University 
 for his services to collegiate education. In his ap- 
 preciative contribution to the history of the Col- 
 lege, Dr. Wedd has told us that, without seriously
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 45 
 
 departing from the lines laid down by his predeces- 
 sor, Dr. McCaul gave a fresh start and an abiding 
 impulse to the career of the College. He expanded 
 and supplemented the curriculum by the introduc- 
 tion of new subjects ; he held fortnightly examina- 
 tions, for the best annual results of which he insti- 
 tuted and donated the Head-master's Prize; while 
 devoting himself sedulously to details in the courses 
 of all the Forms, he gave special attention to the 
 Seventh Form, his own peculiar charge, making 
 the instruction imparted in that Form as much as 
 possible of a university character, and developing 
 the course otherwise along university lines; he 
 also rearranged the prize list, and the subjects of 
 examination for prizes, placing the prize offered 
 by His Excellency the Governor-General at the top 
 of the list. He was also instrumental in securing 
 the foundation by the Council of King's College, 
 in 1841, of twelve Exhibitions open to all Canada, 
 to be competed for by candidates of the standing 
 of the Fourth Form, and tenable for three years. 
 There were many other changes and improve- 
 ments in the College under Dr. McCaul's adminis- 
 tration. His style of teaching was of an advanced 
 and original character, while in faith and morals 
 there was the occasional word in season, but above 
 all the silent teaching of his own life and conduct. 
 "We were insensibly led on," says Dr. Wedd, "to 
 revere all that is sacred, to be obedient to duly con-
 
 46 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 stituted authority, to be ourselves actuated by manly 
 and honourable sentiments, and always to show con- 
 sideration for the feelings of others." 
 
 Personal and Intellectual Influences as Principal 
 
 Dr. McCaul's tenure of the Principalship of 
 Upper Canada College was comparatively brief, 
 but it left an impress which his old boys, many of 
 whom have filled high positions in the country, 
 have never forgotten. In one of the best told tales 
 of English Public School life, it is said that, in the 
 opinion of the boys at Rugby, there was no greater 
 school-master in the world than their Head-master, 
 Dr. Arnold. His greatness, in their minds, was not 
 so much an attribute of his authority as the natural 
 and just homage paid to virtues that truly deserved 
 it. It inspired the hero of "Tom Brown at Ox- 
 ford," in his darkest days of undergraduateship, 
 with new hope and fresh endeavour. Many a year 
 after, manly Tom Hughes, in Tennessee, planting 
 a colony of Englishmen, instilled into his fellow 
 countrymen those principles of truth and justice, 
 and that spirit of self-reliance and faith in one 
 another, which he himself had early imbibed from 
 his old Rugby preceptor. There is, indeed, much 
 more to be learned at college than the tasks of the 
 class room or the lecture room; there are lessons 
 which are indelible in life's fresh springtime, which 
 form character, and develop the best that is to
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 47 
 
 be found in young manhood. There is the per- 
 sonal touch that is never effaced from an impres- 
 sionable nature. The ruling spirit at Upper Can- 
 ada in 1839-42 was of that healthful old Rugby 
 type. There was good scholarship as well as good 
 discipline at the head of the College, and discipline 
 of the boyish heart and disposition, as well as of 
 the mind and daily conduct. "He was/' said one of 
 his pupils, "a high-minded, devoted and impartial 
 instructor, who made stubborn tasks a delightful 
 pastime, and imbued us all with much of his own 
 enthusiasm in the discharge of duty. He taught 
 us to have noble purposes and lofty aims, manli- 
 ness of feeling as well as of action, and the in- 
 stincts of gentlemen. He was felt to be the per- 
 sonal friend of every boy in every Form." 
 
 In Upper Canada College Dr. McCaul found 
 many things to try his mettle and prove the stuff 
 he was made of. He had had previous experience 
 of the student individually, but none of students 
 in the mass, and more especially of high spirited 
 youths in a large Public School, with the Form sys- 
 tem of Rugby and Harrow, and assistant masters 
 to be controlled and directed in addition to the pupils 
 themselves. But he was in every way equal to the 
 task. He found the College in many respects a 
 fallow field, but the earth was kindly there, the 
 chief husbandman was skilled, and he left it a 
 comely vineyard, hardy, vigorous, and abounding.
 
 48 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Appointment to University of King's College 
 
 In 1842, Dr. McCaul left Upper Canada Col- 
 lege for a sphere of duty which was greatly en- 
 larged and extended in importance and influence 
 during the next decade, and in which he achieved 
 his most enduring successes. In that year he 
 was appointed Vice-President of the University of 
 King's College and Professor of Classics, Logic, 
 Rhetoric, and Belles-lettres. 
 
 Dr. McCaul's resignation of the Principalship of 
 Upper Canada College was made the ready occa- 
 sion of showing the estimation in which he was held 
 by all connected with the College. He was pre- 
 sented with a handsome service of plate by the 
 College boys generally, and to this was added a 
 similar token of their grateful appreciation of his 
 kindness, by the pupils of the Seventh Form, which 
 was more immediately under the Principal's care. 
 From the Masters of the College he was the reci- 
 pient of a valedictory address couched in terms of 
 the highest admiration and respect. On leaving 
 the main building he was received by the boys in 
 a lengthened line reaching to his residence on the 
 grounds, and opening to the right and left on either 
 side, and, as he advanced, each head was involun- 
 tarily uncovered and many were the wishes audibly 
 expressed for his future welfare and happiness. 
 His words of farewell to his youthful charges were
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 49 
 
 a finished illustration of unstudied eloquence. They 
 marked "the old man eloquent" of future years, 
 when, whether on platform, dais, or at the festive 
 academic board, surrounded by those who were 
 keeping alive the memories of Convocation Day, 
 he never failed, by the chaste elegance of his lan- 
 guage, the apt and just sentiments which it con- 
 veyed, and the graceful and happy manner in which 
 it was uttered, to crown the oratorical efforts of 
 the occasion. 
 
 University Reform Dr. McCaul's Attitude 
 
 The appointment of Dr. McCaul to the Univer- 
 sity of King's College was a very important event 
 in his career, for it brought him face to face with 
 an agitation for University reform which had con- 
 tinued almost unabated since the granting of the 
 charter in 1827. This agitation was felt in a minor 
 degree in the class rooms of Upper Canada Col- 
 lege. King's College was in a different position. 
 Its constitution was the chief point of attack; the 
 defenders of privilege, with a militant churchman 
 at their head, were firmly entrenched within its 
 walls; the question of reform was there a burning 
 question, and it so continued until the Baldwin Act 
 of 1849 brought peace with honour to the warring 
 sectaries. That the Vice-P resident of King's, the 
 holder of one of its principal professorships, should 
 be drawn into the controversy was inevitable. It
 
 50 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 was a controversy at times angry and acrimoni- 
 ous. The movement for a reformed University 
 was a movement for the open door in higher 
 education open alike to professoriate and student, 
 to all creeds, sects, and denominations, with no bar 
 or test of religious faith, and with no claim for 
 honour or preferment save merit alone. It was in 
 principle akin to the opposition to a State Church 
 and for the equality of all churches before the law; 
 and to the struggle against an irresponsible Execu- 
 tive and for a free Parliament. And like these it 
 could have but one issue. 
 
 The merits of this educational controversy, and 
 Dr. McCaul's attitude towards it in its later years, 
 may be better understood by a brief retrospect of 
 its history. 1 
 
 Early History of the University 
 
 The proposal for the establishment of a Col- 
 lege or University, for the promotion of higher 
 learning in Upper Canada, was part of the policy 
 of Col. John Graves Simcoe, the first Governor of 
 the Province. This policy was so indicated by him 
 soon after the organization of the Provincial Gov- 
 ernment under the Constitutional Act of 1791. 
 
 1 The writer is indebted for valuable information on the sub- 
 ject of this and the following sections to the chapter by Dr. 
 Burwash, ex-President of Victoria College, in the volume, The 
 University of Toronto and Its Colleges, 1827-1906, published 
 by the Librarian, 1906.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 51 
 
 Colonel Simcoe, who left Canada long before his 
 plans matured, favoured provision being made out 
 of the public funds and the public lands for the 
 erection of free Grammar Schools, and "in course 
 of time, of a College or University." This proposal 
 had the sympathy of the Imperial Government, who, 
 in response to an address from the Legislature, 
 favoured an appropriation of the waste lands of 
 the Crown for the purpose, the Colonial Secretary 
 at the same time asking for the appointment of a 
 committee of the Executive Council, judges, and 
 law officers of the Crown, to report upon the sub- 
 ject. This committee recommended an appropri- 
 ation of five hundred thousand acres of land for 
 educational purposes, of which one half should be 
 reserved for a University at York (now Toronto), 
 and that Grammar Schools should be established at 
 certain places named in the report. Grammar 
 Schools were thereupon founded at Kingston and 
 Cornwall, and later on at Niagara and York. These 
 events took place in or about 1797-98. The land- 
 ed endowment being unproductive, the Grammar 
 Schools had to be provided for from other sources, 
 while the pressing needs of education were sup- 
 plied by Elementary Schools, supported by volun- 
 tary effort. These were recognized by the Act of 
 1816. 
 
 The condition of Upper Canada at this time was 
 not favourable to the project of a University, and
 
 52 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 it was not until about 1820 that any steps were 
 taken to further it. Sir Peregrine Maitland was 
 then at the head of the Provincial Administration. 
 He was a warm sympathizer with the project, and 
 had an ardent coadjutor in the Rev. Dr. John 
 Strachan, an Aberdonian Scotsman, formerly a 
 member of the Church of Scotland, but who subse- 
 quently took orders in the Anglican Church. Dr. 
 Strachan, who had come to Canada with the ex- 
 pectation of assisting Governor Simcoe in his edu- 
 cational plans, soon became a commanding person- 
 ality in the Province. Commencing his career as 
 a private tutor in Kingston, he was ere long curate 
 at Cornwall and the successful Head-master of the 
 Grammar School there; thereafter Rector of York 
 and the Head-master of its Grammar School, and, 
 later on, Archdeacon of York and first Bishop of 
 Toronto. While he was still Archdeacon he was 
 also a member of the Executive Council and of the 
 Legislative Council, and President of the Council 
 of Education. When, therefore, in 1820-26, the 
 project of a University was again to the fore, Dr. 
 Strachan was the man of the time. He was com- 
 missioned to England to secure the consent of the 
 Crown to an exchange of the unproductive lands 
 of the endowment for other lands yielding an im- 
 mediate revenue, and, at the same time, to obtain 
 a royal charter for the proposed University.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 53 
 
 Objections to the Charter 
 
 Dr. Strachan's mission was successful, but the 
 charter roused instant and widespread opposition 
 for the reason that it was designed to found a Uni- 
 versity in close connection with the Church of Eng- 
 land, which represented a considerable minority of 
 the population. Importuned by petitions setting 
 forth the objectionable features of the charter, a 
 committee of the House of Assembly reported 
 strongly against it. "The sectarian character and 
 tendency of the institution," said the report, "will be 
 manifest; the alarm and jealousy which this circum- 
 stance will produce throughout the Province," and 
 which "it has in some measure produced," will 
 "prevent parents and guardians from sending their 
 children to it, and so limit the benefits which might 
 otherwise be derived from the institution." "To 
 be of real service the principles upon which it is 
 established must be in unison with the general sen- 
 timents of the people. It should not be a school of 
 politics, or of sectarian views. It should have about 
 it no appearance of partiality or exclusion. Its 
 portals should be thrown open to all, and upon none 
 who enter should any influence be exerted to attach 
 them to any particular creed or church. . . . Most 
 deeply, therefore, is it to be lamented that the prin- 
 ciples of the charter are calculated to defeat its
 
 54 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 usefulness and to continue to a favoured few all 
 its advantages." 
 
 This report had a far-reaching effect. It pro- 
 duced an address to the King praying for the can- 
 cellation of the charter and the granting of one free 
 from these objections; it called forth numerously 
 signed petitions to the British Parliament which 
 were carried to England by an influential deputa- 
 tion ; and it secured from a Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons the following recommenda- 
 tions: a change in the constitution of the Uni- 
 versity; two theological professors, one of the 
 Church of England and one of the Church of Scot- 
 land; no religious tests for the President, profes- 
 sors and others connected with the College, but 
 that, with the exception of the theological profes- 
 sors, they should sign a declaration that, in any 
 references to religious subjects in their lectures, 
 they would recognize the truth of the Christian 
 revelation, and would not inculcate any particular 
 doctrines. 
 
 These changes were not acceptable to the oppo- 
 nents of the charter. Their objections were to the 
 Anglican Bishop being constituted the Visitor with 
 supreme judicial control of the University, requir- 
 ing the President to be a clergyman in holy orders 
 in the Church of England; and making the Arch- 
 deacon of York ex-officio President; placing the 
 executive government of the University in a Coun-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 55 
 
 cil composed of the Chancellor, the President and 
 seven members, who must be members of the 
 Church of England and subscribe to her articles; 
 and restricting degrees in Divinity to persons in 
 holy orders in the Church of England, thereby ex- 
 cluding clergymen of the Church of Scotland and 
 those of all other denominations. 
 
 Dr. Strachan and his friends defended the char- 
 ter as being thoroughly liberal in its terms and 
 tendencies, but the agitation continued until the 
 retirement of Sir Peregrine Maitland and the ap- 
 pointment of his successor, Sir John Colborne, as 
 Lieutenant-Governor in 1828. The interval saw 
 the creation of the Corporation of King's College 
 and the organization of the University, as far as 
 possible. A Council was appointed, the chief mem- 
 bers of which were the Lieutenant-Governor, who 
 was ex-officio Chancellor, and the Archdeacon of 
 York, who was ex-officio President. The new 
 landed estate which was to be a source of profit was 
 conveyed to the Corporation; steps were taken for 
 the erection of buildings on a suitable site; a regis- 
 trar and bursar were appointed, and arrangements 
 made for securing an income from the landed en- 
 dowment. 
 
 Attitude of College and Legislative Councils 
 
 When the Whigs took office in 1828 the offend- 
 ing University charter was suspended, and pro-
 
 56 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ceedings for the erection of the University build- 
 ings were stayed. But the College Council disre- 
 garded the suspension, and in 1830 the House of 
 Assembly protested on two occasions against the 
 objectionable features of the charter, asked for its 
 cancellation and for the grant of a new charter 
 free from such objections. In November, 1831, the 
 Colonial Secretary, Lord Goderich, demanded the 
 surrender of the charter and of the endowment 
 lands. This was refused by the College Council, 
 who at the same time made an offer of compromise 
 which the House of Assembly declined to accept. 
 This occurred in 1832, and twice during the next 
 three years a bill for the amendment of the charter 
 passed the Assembly and was rejected by the Legis- 
 lative Council. It was one of a large number of 
 bills of one kind or another which were adopted by 
 the House of Assembly, but were thrown out by 
 the Legislative Council, thereby greatly intensify- 
 ing the standing conflict between the two Houses. 
 The communications at this juncture between the 
 Lieutenant-Governor (Sir John Colborne) and the 
 Colonial Office show that suggestions or recom- 
 mendations for the modification of the charter by 
 the interposition of His Majesty's Ministers, and 
 their sanction for the immediate opening of the 
 College, were not favourably entertained. "The 
 decision of such a question," said Lord Glenelg, "by 
 His Majesty's advisers in England would be con-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 57 
 
 demned with plausibility, and not indeed without 
 justice, as a needless interference with the internal 
 affairs of the Province." Had this wise discretion 
 been always exercised, how different might have 
 been the early history of Upper Canada ! 
 
 Under instructions from the home authorities, 
 Sir Francis Bond Head, who succeeded Sir John 
 Colborne as head of the Provincial Government, 
 tendered the mediation of the King between the 
 contending parties in the Legislature, and the pre- 
 viously rejected bill for amending the charter was 
 again passed by the Assembly and again rejected 
 by the Legislative Council. A general election in 
 1836 gave the Conservatives a majority in the As- 
 sembly, and, in the following session, a bill passed 
 both Houses and was assented to making large 
 concessions to public opinion by important amend- 
 ments to the charter. Under these amendments 
 the Justices of the King's Bench became Visitors 
 of King's College in place of the Lord Bishop of 
 Quebec. In future the President of the Univer- 
 sity was to be appointed by the King and need hold 
 no ecclesiastical office. The College Council was 
 to be composed of twelve members, namely, the 
 Chancellor, the President, the Speakers of the two 
 Houses of the Legislature, the Attorney-General, 
 the Solicitor-General, the five senior professors of 
 the Arts and Faculties of the College, and the 
 Principal of the Minor or Upper Canada College.
 
 58 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 There was a further provision that it should not 
 be necessary that any member of the College Coun- 
 cil, or any professor to be at any time appointed, 
 should be a member of the Church of England, or 
 should subscribe to any articles of religion other 
 than a declaration that he believed in the authentic- 
 ity and divine inspiration of the Old and New 
 Testaments, and in the doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 These modifications of the University charter, 
 after a long period of dispute, indicated a marked 
 change of view on the Conservative and ecclesiasti- 
 cal side of the question. The arguments of that 
 side had been presented with great skill and abil- 
 ity, especially to the Legislative Council, whose 
 ears were very "open to the cry." The issue of it 
 all showed moderation and wisdom, but none the 
 less a constrained feeling on the part of the de- 
 fenders of the charter that, at that time at all 
 events, a University controlled by an Established 
 Church was practically impossible in Upper Can- 
 ada. As it was, however, the Presidency of the 
 College, held by an aggressive churchman, was un- 
 changed; his Council were Anglicans; and the Di- 
 vinity Chair was still their appanage. There was 
 room enough and to spare for future controversy. 
 
 Overtures for College Union The First Baldwin Bill 
 
 The academic work of the University was en- 
 tered upon in October, 1843. For several months
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 59 
 
 prior to that time, strong efforts were made by the 
 authorities of Queen's College, Kingston, to bring 
 about a union on equitable terms with King's Col- 
 lege. For this purpose Bishop Strachan, the Presi- 
 dent of King's, was asked to place certain resolu- 
 tions and statements, on behalf of Queen's, before 
 the College Council, but this request was refused. 
 The Government, on being appealed to, approved 
 the principles of the union scheme, but required the 
 concurrence and co-operation of the Methodist 
 body. This led to an exchange of views between 
 Queen's and Victoria, in which, strange to say, 
 there was practical agreement between the two par- 
 ties in favour of the principle of University fed- 
 eration which prevails to-day, namely, a central 
 authority charged with certain university duties 
 and functions, and separate colleges with teaching 
 faculties in Arts. This idea of a college union in 
 one university was further elaborated by Dr. Lid- 
 dell of Queen's. Finally the Government and Par- 
 liament became seized of the question, and the Hon. 
 Robert Baldwin introduced his bill in the session of 
 1843 providing for further changes in the constitu- 
 tion of the University. 
 
 This first Baldwin bill provided for the constitu- 
 tion of a University which was to absorb all the 
 powers and functions of King's College, and also 
 the endowment, subject to cash allowances to the 
 Colleges for a limited period. The government of
 
 60 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the University was to be placed in the hands of 
 representative bodies, the executive authority in a 
 Caput, and the legislative authority in Convocation 
 to be composed as provided. The University was 
 to embrace four Colleges, namely King's, Queen's, 
 Victoria, and Regiopolis, and the university powers 
 and offices of each of these Colleges were to be 
 abrogated. This bill, the prominent feature of 
 which was its liberal spirit, never went through. 
 A difference of opinion between Sir Charles Met- 
 calfe and his advisers on the interpretation and 
 application of "responsible government" resulted 
 in the resignation of the Ministry and the disso- 
 lution of Parliament. 
 
 Abortive Attempts at Legislation 
 
 In the newly elected Assembly the Conservatives 
 had a majority. In March, 1845, Mr. W. H. 
 Draper, the head of the new Administration, in- 
 troduced the Baldwin bill with certain amendments, 
 the principal of which were a change of name to 
 that of the University of Upper Canada, and con- 
 cessions to the Church party by the repeal of the 
 amending Act of 1837. An insuperable difficulty, 
 however, arose through the claim of the Church of 
 England to the charter and the endowment of 
 King's College. This proved to be such an apple 
 of discord that the bill had to be dropped. 
 
 It is noticeable that, in the literature of the sub-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 61 
 
 ject at that time, Dr. McCaul, under the pseudonym 
 of "A Graduate," followed Bishop Strachan in a 
 pamphlet supporting the claim of the Church party 
 to the original charter of King's College and to the 
 endowment. 
 
 There were two other vain attempts at legislation 
 with respect to the constitution of the University 
 before the Baldwin Act of 1849,* namely, the 
 Draper bill and its supplements of 1846, and 
 the bill of Mr. (afterwards Sir) John A. Mac- 
 donald in 1847, a ^ f which were in the nature of a 
 compromise. The passage of the former bill and 
 its supplements was made impossible by an extreme 
 section of Mr. Draper's own party. The Mac- 
 donald bill, which provided for large concessions 
 to the Anglican Church, and for a division of the in- 
 come of the endowment amongst the four Colleges 
 and the Grammar Schools and for education gen- 
 erally, was killed in its passage by the united influ- 
 ence of the Liberals led by Mr. Baldwin, and of 
 King's College, led by Dr. McCaul, who persuaded 
 Bishop Strachan to withdraw his previous assent to 
 the bill. In the general election, which followed 
 soon after, the University question, linked up with 
 that of the Clergy Reserves, was made the battle 
 cry of the Liberals, who carried the country and 
 were restored to office with Mr. Baldwin at their 
 head. Then followed the Baldwin Act of 1849, 
 1 12 Viet, ch. 82.
 
 62 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 which gave the Government complete control of 
 the University and its endowment, and secularized 
 these by removing them from the dominance of any 
 ecclesiastical body. 
 
 The Baldwin Act of 1849 
 
 The principal opponents of this second Baldwin 
 bill were Bishop Strachan, the trustees of Queen's 
 College, a section of the Council of King's College, 
 which was decided in its opinions, and the Church 
 of England, which last-named body claimed control 
 of the University and its endowment. The main 
 objections to the bill were its provisions for the 
 secularization of the University, which, it was said, 
 ignored religion in the scheme of education, and its 
 principle of centralization, which, it was urged, was 
 not in the interests of higher education. The re- 
 ligious objection had tremendous influence. It com- 
 pelled an amending Act, in 1850, permitting, at their 
 own expense, religious instruction by representa- 
 tives of the different denominations. But, more 
 than that, it was one of the main factors in causing 
 the resignation of Bishop Strachan as President of 
 King's College, and the unhappy schism in the 
 Anglican body which led to the establishment of 
 Trinity College by the zealous Bishop and his band 
 of loyal supporters all which marks the opening of 
 a new and remarkable epoch in University history. 
 Under the Act, which came into operation on Jan-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 63 
 
 uary i, 1850, and under later legislation which 
 took effect in April, 1853, the designation of the 
 University was changed to that of the University 
 of Toronto, thus following time-honoured prece- 
 dents in older countries in which ancient and fa- 
 mous universities are named after the cities in 
 which they have their seats. The University was 
 at the same time organized on the model of the 
 University of London, and the teaching in the 
 Faculty of Arts was transferred from the Univer- 
 sity to University College. The College was thus 
 created, and has ever since been, a separate cor- 
 poration on the same foundation as the University 
 itself. 
 
 Dr. McCaul's Position in the Controversy 
 
 In this great educational controversy, which is 
 inseparably connected with his career, there is no 
 mistaking Dr. McCaul's attitude. It is fully dis- 
 closed at every important stage of the argument. 
 As Principal of Upper Canada College, he was ex- 
 officio a member of the Council of King's College, 
 and shared the views and opinions of its members 
 on the University question. When the University 
 was organized and a professoriate appointed in 
 1842-43, there was an almost immediate division 
 amongst the members of the staff. Professors 
 Croft, Gwynne, and Potter were in favour of an 
 amendment of the charter, and of Mr. Baldwin's
 
 64 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 first reform bill ; President Strachan, Dr. McCaul, 
 and Professor Beaven were decidedly contra. 
 There was always a Conservative majority in the 
 Council who were exceedingly tenacious of their 
 vested rights and privileges, and were, for a long 
 time, successful in resisting any change by which 
 these might be jeopardized. In this position they 
 had the sympathy and support of the Upper House 
 of the Legislature, where Dr. Strachan's influence 
 was all but supreme. When at last it became evi- 
 dent that the establishment of a University on any 
 other than a liberal basis was impracticable, Dr. 
 McCaul, in common with many friends of King's, 
 accepted the situation with the best grace possible, 
 and was loyal to the new order of things. He had 
 always held to the view that the higher education 
 of the youth of the country should not be divorced 
 from religion, and in this he was in accord, al- 
 though not exactly from the same standpoint, with 
 the leaders of the Presbyterian and Methodist 
 bodies. But he disagreed with them in their stand 
 against a central University. He was strongly at- 
 tached to a policy of centralization, and was, there- 
 fore, opposed, notwithstanding the great conces- 
 sions then offered to the members of his own com- 
 munion, to a partition of the proceeds of the 
 endowment amongst the different Colleges, includ- 
 ing his own, as proposed by Mr. John A. Macdonald 
 in 1847.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 65 
 
 Dr. McCaul was, of course, sharply criticized for 
 his defence of the sectarian exclusiveness and sys- 
 tem of government of King's College. But what- 
 ever he said and did in support of his position was 
 far overborne by his admirable justification of the 
 University establishment of later years. In those 
 years, Dr. McCaul made full atonement, if any 
 such were needed, for his previous stand with the 
 forces of reaction. No more eloquent voice was 
 then heard in defence of the complete seculariza- 
 tion of the University, and the maintenance unim- 
 paired of its none too ample endowment. He lost 
 no opportunity or occasion to plead the cause of 
 the "open door" to higher education for students 
 and scholars of every creed and class, and of even- 
 handed justice to every religious denomination. It 
 was on one of such occasions, during the crisis of 
 the dangerous movement by the outside Colleges 
 against the State University and College, that Dr. 
 McCaul appealed to a great audience in Convoca- 
 tion Hall, and to the friends of the University 
 everywhere, to stand together with unbroken front 
 and undismayed, and closed his brilliant address 
 with the old Virgilian line, Tu ne cede mails; sed 
 contra audentior ito. It was like a voice from the 
 tomb of the Mantuan in Rome's Augustan age, and 
 stirred the deeper surges of feeling that sometimes 
 sweep over and move an audience by its eloquent 
 revelation.
 
 66 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 The Legislation of 
 
 Although the Act of 1849 changed both the con- 
 stitution and the name of King's College, it failed to 
 secure the co-operation of the denominational Col- 
 leges, Queen's, Victoria, and Regiopolis, with the 
 secular University in inducing them to give up their 
 degree-conferring powers, and confine themselves 
 to teaching the prescribed subjects of the Univer- 
 sity curriculum. The legislation for this purpose 
 had been too long delayed. But, apart from the de- 
 lay, the Colleges were unwilling to abandon their 
 University rights and privileges, unless, as teaching 
 institutions, they were permitted to share in the 
 benefits of the University endowment, from which 
 they were debarred by the Act. The University 
 also suffered from the cry that it was a "godless" 
 institution. This affected the attendance of stu- 
 dents, which was meagre as to numbers and was un- 
 promising for the future; the expectations of popu- 
 lar support were not realized, and were not likely 
 to be so long as the combined forces of denomina- 
 tionalism were hostile. Something had to be done 
 to meet these adverse influences, and the result was 
 the University Act of 1853. * 
 
 Under this Act, which repealed the Acts of 1849 
 and 1850, the privilege given to the denominational 
 Colleges of becoming affiliated to the University 
 1 16 Viet., ch. 89.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 67 
 
 was continued, but without the condition of surren- 
 dering their university powers, which had been im- 
 posed by the Act of 1849. The University, as pre- 
 viously mentioned, was also shorn of its teaching 
 functions, which were transferred to a new cor- 
 poration, University College. An endeavour was 
 also made to conciliate the denominational institu- 
 tions by a provision that the annual surpluses of 
 the University income fund, instead of being ap- 
 plied to capital, as under the Act of 1849, should 
 "constitute a fund to be, from time to time, ap- 
 propriated by Parliament for academical education 
 in Upper Canada." 
 
 Another "University Question" 
 
 Although inserted in the statute for a conciliatory 
 purpose, this particular enactment unfortunately 
 gave rise to another educational controversy. Start- 
 ing out with the assumption that the clause was 
 statutory authority for State aid in their academical 
 work, a claim was made by the denominational Col- 
 leges for a division of the University endowment. 
 In this new conflict of interests Dr. McCaul figured 
 as a strong defender of the integrity of the endow- 
 ment. On the same side, conspicuous by his readi- 
 ness and skill in debate, was Professor (afterwards 
 Sir) Daniel Wilson, 1 who was alert and active in 
 
 1 Dr. Wilson, as he was then familiarly called, was a man of 
 many talents. During the controversy above referred to, he
 
 68 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the disputation, and rendered splendid service. The 
 claim of the Colleges was based on the contention 
 that the character and extent of their teaching were 
 equal to that of the State College. Three of the 
 Colleges, Victoria, Queen's, and Regiopolis, had, as 
 early as 1846, put forth a claim for Provincial aid 
 in carrying on their work of instruction. This was 
 encouraged by the promising state of the University 
 revenue in 1853-56. A formal petition was then 
 
 had charge of the University side of the case, and conducted it 
 with marked ability before the Parliamentary committee of 1860 
 and in the press. Dr. Wilson was born in Edinburgh in 
 1816, a son of Archibald Wilson of that city, and a brother of 
 George Wilson, Professor of Chemistry in the University. He 
 was educated at the Edinburgh High School and at the Univer- 
 sity, which gave him his honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
 Dr. Wilson was eminent in archaeology, in ethnology, in history 
 and literature, was a skilled engraver and designer, a phil- 
 anthropist of wide sympathies, and a man of influential activi- 
 ties in ecclesiastical and civic affairs. He was secretary and a 
 Fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, and one of the 
 "limited twenty" honorary members of the Society of An- 
 tiquities of Scotland, a President of the Royal Canadian 
 Institute of Toronto, and, for several years, editor of its 
 Journal, and a President also of the Royal Society of Canada. 
 He was appointed Professor of History and English Literature 
 in University College in 1853, and a year later was offered the 
 Principalship of McGill College, Montreal, which he declined. 
 He wrote The Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time 
 (1847), illustrated by himself; The Prehistoric Annals of Scot- 
 land (1851), containing two hundred of his own engravings; 
 Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate (1852) ; Prehistoric Man 
 ( 1865 ) ; and The Right Hand : Left Handedness ( 1892) . These 
 and other productions of his pen, his steel engravings, e. g. 
 the copy of Turner's famous picture, Ancient Carthage: the
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 69 
 
 i 
 
 presented by the Wesley an Methodist Conference to 
 the Legislature praying for assistance to all the 
 chartered Colleges by an appropriation from the 
 University funds. In 1859, however, there was a 
 large deficit, with the result that, in the following 
 year, the various petitions and memorials from the 
 Conference, and from others similarly interested, 
 were referred to a Parliamentary committee to in- 
 quire into the manner in which the University Act 
 
 Embarkation of Regulus, which hangs in the University 
 Librarian's room, and his origination of institutes like the 
 News-boys' Home, are a few of the evidences of his work in 
 various spheres of energy and effort. Dr. Wilson had a genius 
 for the production of striking and artistic effects in architec- 
 ture, which is shown in the main building of the University. 
 He designed many of the curious and ingenious carvings in the 
 stone and wood work of the interior. The heavy projecting 
 cornices at the summit of the great tower, which so much en- 
 hance its majestic proportions, the beautiful doorway at its 
 base, and the large window above the doorway were also de- 
 signed by him. He worked hand in hand with the architects in 
 producing these and other ornate and graceful features of the 
 structure. Dr. Wilson enjoyed the friendship of Tennyson and 
 Carlyle and other men of letters of his time. He is remembered 
 as the natural successor of Dr. McCaul in the Presidency, as 
 an outstanding figure in the literary life of Canada, as a devoted 
 friend of literature, science, and art, and for his zeal in promot- 
 ing the moral and social betterment of a rapidly growing city. 
 He is also remembered by his students for the stimulus which 
 he gave to their tastes and reading and breadth of view in his 
 treatment of the subjects of his department. He taught the 
 lesson, which a distinguished occupant of the chair of History 
 at Oxford always taught, that "over all nations is humanity." 
 Dr. Wilson was knighted in 1888, and died in the summer of 
 1892, soon after revising the proofs of his last book.
 
 70 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 of 1853 had been administered and the money ex- 
 pended. The Conference petition for this purpose 
 also prayed that all the Colleges in Upper Canada 
 should be placed on the same footing in regard to 
 the University. A large mass of evidence was 
 taken by the committee, but it was never published. 
 There were, of course, petitions and memorials on 
 both sides of the question, and a good deal of acri- 
 monious discussion in the press and otherwise. 
 The agitation assumed such proportions that in Oc- 
 tober, 1 86 1, the Governor-General, Lord Monck, as 
 Visitor of the University and University College, 
 issued a commission for a visitation of both institu- 
 tions, with power to investigate and take evidence 
 and thereafter report to him. 1 
 
 The report of the Commissioners was a moderate 
 expression of opinion against a defective system of 
 control and management, rather than against those 
 who were charged with its administration. On the 
 much- vexed question of aid to the denominational 
 Colleges, there were these recommendations : ( I ) 
 that the land endowment of the University should 
 be administered by the Crown Lands Department; 
 (2) that in return for the land and in place of the 
 annual grants hitherto made to the denominational 
 Colleges by the Legislature, the capital of the en- 
 
 1 The commissioners were : Hon. James Patton, of Toronto, 
 Vice-Chancellor of the University, Chairman; John Beatty, 
 M.D., of Cobourg; and Mr. John Paton, of Kingston.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 71 
 
 dowment should be increased by interest-bearing 
 debentures to the amount of $971,000; (3) that, out 
 of the annual revenue of $84,000 from investments, 
 $28,000 should be appropriated to University Col- 
 lege, under the old name of "King's College," and 
 $10,000 to each of the other four Colleges, Victoria, 
 Queen's, Regiopolis, and Trinity; (4) that the Uni- 
 versity of Toronto, under the name of "The Uni- 
 versity of Upper Canada/' should prescribe the 
 Arts curriculum, and conduct the examinations in 
 each of these institutions, and should also grant the 
 degrees in Arts; and (5) that $3,500 should be set 
 apart for scholarships in the University and the 
 Colleges, and the balance devoted to the expenses 
 of the Senate in managing the affairs of the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 This report was fruitless so far as these recom- 
 mendations were concerned. Although there was 
 a continuance of the agitation, and pressure by both 
 parties on the Government and the Legislature, it 
 evoked no practical response ; public interest in the 
 dispute gradually languished and finally died away. 
 There was no surplus income from the University 
 investments; in fact, there was less than was re- 
 quired for the existing needs and efficient main- 
 tenance of the State University and its College. 
 Parliament was unwilling to add to the endowment, 
 and indisposed to meddle further in the solution of 
 a question in regard to which public opinion was so
 
 72 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 much divided. The political situation was also 
 greatly disturbed by a number of sectional issues 
 which had arisen between the Provinces ; there was 
 a succession of weak Ministries, and a state of prac- 
 tical deadlock between the rival political parties. 
 The educational controversy, or what remained of 
 it, soon became completely overshadowed by the 
 large and momentous question of a change in the 
 Canadian constitution. This took effect through 
 the agreement of the Quebec Conference of 1864, 
 and the subsequent passage of the Act of Confeder- 
 ation under which the whole question of secular ed- 
 ucation was relegated to the Provincial Legislature. 
 The Parliament of Canada had, for many years, 
 made annual grants to the denominational Colleges. 
 In 1869, despite the strenuous opposition of the Col- 
 leges, the Ontario Legislature, at the instance of the 
 Sandfield Macdonald Government, which was com- 
 posed of prominent members of both political 
 parties, discontinued these grants a stroke of 
 policy which, without seriously affecting the former 
 beneficiaries, happily ended the second "University 
 question." 
 
 Changes in University Government 
 I 
 
 Some important changes in the constitution and 
 government of the University, which had been fa- 
 voured by Dr. McCaul, were made in I873. 1 The 
 
 1 By an Act of the Ontario Legislature, 36 Viet., ch. 29.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 73 
 
 University Corporation, which prior to that time 
 was composed of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor 
 and Senate, was enlarged by the addition of Con- 
 vocation, a body composed of the graduates at large. 
 The Vice-Chancellor remained elective by the Sen- 
 ate, as he had been before and was for many years 
 afterwards, but the Chancellor was made elective 
 triennially by Convocation. 1 In the composition of 
 the Senate the Government appointees were limited 
 to nine, and there was a creation of certain ex- 
 officio members. These comprised the Superinten- 
 dent (later the Minister) of Education for the 
 Province, the President and two members of the 
 Council of University College, a representative of 
 the Law Society, the Principal of Upper Canada 
 College, a representative of each affiliated institu- 
 tion, a representative of the High School Masters, 
 and all former Chancellors and Vice-Chancellor s. 
 There was also an addition of fifteen members elec- 
 tive by Convocation. A change was also made in 
 regard to affiliated institutions. By the Act of 1853, 
 four Colleges (Victoria, Queen's, Regiopolis, and 
 Trinity) had been affiliated to the University with- 
 out having applied for affiliation status. By the 
 Act of 1873, the affiliation of all institutions which 
 had not been granted it on "special application" was 
 
 1 By the present University Act the office of Vice-Chancellor 
 was abolished, and the Chancellor was made elective quadren- 
 nially by the graduate body.
 
 74 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 revoked, and the right to grant this privilege was 
 given to the Senate, subject to the approval of the 
 Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council and of Convoca- 
 tion. The Act also empowered the Lieutenant- 
 Governor-in-Council to establish additional profes- 
 sorships in University College on the recommenda- 
 tion of the Senate. The right was also conferred 
 on the Senate, upon representations made to it in 
 that behalf, to enquire into "the conduct or effi- 
 ciency of any professor in University College, and 
 report to the Lieutenant-Governor the result of 
 such enquiry," and to make such recommendations 
 in the matter as it might think proper. 
 
 These various provisions of the statute, in regard 
 to which Dr. McCaul was consulted and of which 
 he, in the main, approved, made the Senate far more 
 representative than it had been of the educational 
 interests of the country, enhanced its authority and 
 influence as the governing body, and materially 
 strengthened the University in public favour and 
 confidence. 
 
 Relations to Educational Work 
 
 The relations which Dr. McCaul sustained to the 
 educational work of the University of King's Col- 
 lege, the University of Toronto, and University 
 College, are indicated by the character of the cur- 
 ricula and of the examinations in these institutions, 
 especially in his own departments. In King's Col-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 75 
 
 lege, the Faculty of Arts was the strong, central 
 Faculty, and overshadowed the others; and so it 
 was in the University of Toronto, as reorganized 
 in 1853. King's, moreover, was a teaching institu- 
 tion, which the University of Toronto was not; the 
 work of teaching the subjects of the University cur- 
 riculum being assigned to a separate institution, 
 University College. The general plan of instruc- 
 tion for King's College was prepared by the Presi- 
 dent, Dr. Strachan. He adopted the arrangements 
 and methods which were followed in the various 
 departments of King's College, London, along with 
 suggestions offered by those of the Scottish and 
 American Universities. This plan was carried out 
 in a general way when King's College was opened 
 in 1843. Dr. McCaul was then Vice-President, 
 and, owing to the President being also engaged 
 with the duties of his ecclesiastical office, was 
 practically the working head of the College. 
 He had had four years' experience in Upper 
 Canada College with the class of young men who 
 might be expected to enter the University, and 
 who, as a matter of fact, were its first students. 
 He took a leading and influential part, not 
 only in framing the curriculum but also the regu- 
 lations for carrying it out, and in the whole work 
 of organization in every detail. Precedents were 
 then set, and lines of academic work and methods of 
 administration initiated, which had a most impor-
 
 76 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 tant influence on University education in subse- 
 quent years. A perusal of the regulations and of 
 the curriculum of that time discloses a system of 
 instruction of such superior merit that its general 
 features, and, in some departments, many of the 
 details, are recognized in the system of the recon- 
 structed University of 1853. One of the require- 
 ments for matriculation, in the early years of 
 King's College, was a previous examination by the 
 Vice-President, who also prescribed the subjects 
 in the Greek and Latin languages and in mathe- 
 matics. For matriculation in 1843 there were pre- 
 scribed two Greek and two Latin authors, one of 
 the authors prose and the other verse in each lan- 
 guage. Later on the number and variety of clas- 
 sical authors were increased, with the addition also 
 of translation into Latin prose, and, for first-class 
 honours, additional work, which included transla- 
 tion into Latin verse. The undergraduate was re- 
 quired to take four or five classical authors in each 
 of the three years of his course, with additional 
 work for prizes and honours. Competent judges 
 have stated that, in King's College, "on the classical 
 side, the examinations indicate a high standard of 
 excellence." 1 
 
 The change in the constitution of the University, 
 
 1 See chapter on "The Arts Faculty" (p. 79), by Professors 
 R. Ramsay Wright and W. J. Alexander, in The University 
 of Toronto and Its Colleges, 1906.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 77 
 
 in 1853, necessitated a much larger teaching staff, 
 and also a change of curriculum. It was from this 
 curriculum that the curricula of later years were 
 gradually developed. The term of the under- 
 graduate course was extended from three to four 
 years. This involved five examinations, the same 
 as at present. The object of the lengthened course 
 was to meet educational conditions which had arisen 
 during the previous decade, and to bring the State 
 University and its College into closer relations with 
 the preparatory schools of the country. This pur- 
 pose was largely effected, especially with respect to 
 the teaching of classics required for matriculation. 
 The number and selection of the authors for this 
 examination were made more acceptable both to the 
 masters and the pupils of the schools generally, 
 while the previous standard of scholarship was not 
 impaired. The effect of the change was soon made 
 apparent by the gradual increase of candidates for 
 matriculation, and the wider distribution of hon- 
 ours and scholarships offered for competition. 
 Liberty was also given to candidates to enter the 
 University at any of the examinations, on certain 
 conditions as to age and as to taking work pre- 
 scribed for the earlier years of the course at the 
 later examination. This privilege was continued 
 till three years before Dr. McCaul's retirement 
 from the University. 
 Another feature in the system of instruction,
 
 78 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 which was introduced during Dr. McCaul's Presi- 
 dency of the College, was a fixed or general course 
 of work in all the departments for all undergrad- 
 uates alike, with additional work in each subject for 
 any candidate who was ambitious for honours. This 
 led, in a comparatively short time, to the system of 
 options, by which a candidate, who had shown spe- 
 cial excellence in the subject or subjects prescribed 
 for honours, was permitted to omit certain work in 
 the fixed course while continuing the work for 
 honours. Dr. McCaul was largely responsible for 
 the initiation of this system of options. Judging by 
 the continuance and extension of the system, from 
 time to time, its utility and advantages seem to be 
 scarcely arguable ; it has become firmly rooted and 
 is likely to remain so. One marked result of the op- 
 tion system has been to bring about two distinct 
 courses of study and instruction for undergradu- 
 ates of the University, namely, a Pass or General 
 course comprising all the ordinary work prescribed 
 in each department, and a course for Honours, in 
 which the prescribed work is confined to one or 
 more departments and is highly advanced and spe- 
 cialized, and, of course, more difficult than the Pass 
 course. A comparison of the later with the earlier 
 curricula of the University shows that the Honour 
 courses, both in number and specialization, have in- 
 creased to a remarkable extent. In Classics, the 
 Honour courses and the character of the instruction
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 79 
 
 always ranked high. The authorities already re- 
 ferred to, Professors R. Ramsay Wright and W. J. 
 Alexander, in their careful investigation of the cur- 
 ricula at different periods, and the regulations af- 
 fecting it, have declared that "in Classics a high 
 standard of scholarship has been demanded from 
 the beginning, and the development has been rather 
 in the aim than in the extent of the work required." 
 Speaking generally, what has been said of Dr. 
 McCaul's department may be said of other depart- 
 ments of University work and of the teaching of 
 the subjects comprised in it, during his time. 
 There were notable changes in the curriculum and 
 in the character of the instruction, indicating 
 marked progress and development, and there was 
 at the same time a high standard of examination. 
 This is particularly true of the department of Nat- 
 ural Philosophy under Professor J. B. Cherriman, 1 
 
 1 J. B. Cherriman, M.A., was a Fellow of St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, where he had taken a high position as a scholar in 
 the branches of the department similar to that of which he be- 
 came the head in University College, Toronto. He was at first 
 assistant to Professor Murray, who succeeded Professor Potter, 
 and, on Professor Murray's death, was appointed to the chair 
 which he filled with marked ability until his resignation in 1875. 
 A remarkable fact in connection with his appointment was the 
 simultaneous application of Professor John Tyndall for the 
 same chair. Tyndall was one of the great men of science of his 
 time a famous physicist, a master, in fact, of many sciences, 
 an author and lecturer of the highest reputation, and the suc- 
 cessor of Davy and Faraday as Professor of Natural Phil- 
 osophy in the Royal Institution. It is no reflection on the
 
 80 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 and of modern languages, a department of which 
 Professor James Forneri was the head for a period 
 of thirteen years, and of the department of Phi- 
 losophy, as it is now called, under Professor George 
 Paxton Young, 1 who was appointed in 1871, 
 and whose system of original and inspiring instruc- 
 tion changed the old order of things. It was, how- 
 clever graduate of Cambridge to say that the failure to secure 
 a man of the genius of John Tyndall for a professorship in the 
 University of Toronto was a most regrettable misfortune. 
 
 1 George Paxton Young, LL.D., Professor of Logic, Meta- 
 physics, and Ethics in University College, was a man of remark- 
 able abilities and scholarship, and of great educational influ- 
 ence. He was born in Berwick-on-Tweed in 1819, a "son of 
 the Manse," his father being a Scottish clergyman. He was 
 educated at the High School and the University of Edinburgh, 
 was trained for the Presbyterian ministry, came to Canada in 
 1847, became Minister of Knox Church, Hamilton, in 1850, and 
 resigned his charge on his appointment to a professorship in 
 Knox College, Toronto, where he occupied various chairs dur- 
 ing the period 1853-1864. He was then appointed Inspector 
 of the Grammar Schools of the Province, which were re- 
 organized and materially improved under his direction. He 
 was Professor in University College from 1871 till his death 
 on February 26, 1889. Professor Young's range of learning 
 was well nigh phenomenal. It was often said of him that he 
 could have filled the chair of Classics, Mathematics, or Oriental 
 Languages, as well as he filled his own. Professor Cherriman, 
 the head of the department of Natural Philosophy, declared 
 that Professor Young was the most remarkable mathematician 
 of his day. His papers, published in The American Journal of 
 Mathematics on The Theory of Equations and especially on 
 Quintic Equations, excited wide interest and discussion among 
 the mathematical scholars of the time. Dr. Daniel Wilson used 
 to say that Professor Young knew almost as much about poe- 
 try as about equations. In Mental and Moral Philosophy
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 81 
 
 ever, in the natural and physical sciences that the 
 expansion was most observable and remarkable. 
 Before Dr. McCaul's retirement, in 1880, two new 
 chairs were established, one in Geology, under Pro- 
 fessor Edward Chapman, 1 and the other in 
 
 Professor Young was the master of a school of his own, orig- 
 inal in thought and research as well as in methods of exposi- 
 tion, and with an impressive and widely diffused influence. 
 Dr. F. L. Patton, former President of Princeton University, 
 said he was one of the greatest dialecticians of the century. 
 His students have always spoken of him in terms of the highest 
 admiration. He was an educator in the true classical sense of 
 the word. He had a special faculty for unravelling the in- 
 tricacies and clearing away the doubts and difficulties of philo- 
 sophic problems, however profound or perplexing. He had a 
 genius for imparting instruction, and was "a prince among 
 teachers." The high standard which he set up in his depart- 
 ment made it difficult to fill his place. He once said that if he 
 had the choice of a successor it would be "Watson of Queen's," 
 and this opinion was subsequently acted upon. Professor Wat- 
 son's reply was the Shunammite's reply to the prophet: "I 
 dwell among mine own people." Professor Young was a 
 charming personality, and nowhere was this more in evidence 
 than in the bright circle of his friends of the Muskoka Club, 
 in the long summer days and at the evening camp fires of their 
 island home in Lake Joseph. 
 
 1 Professor Chapman had an interesting career. He was born 
 in Kent, England, in 1821, was educated in France and Ger- 
 many, and received a Ph.D. from Gottingen University in 1862, 
 and an LL.D. from Queen's University in 1867. He served in 
 the French army in a campaign in Algiers, became a civil engi- 
 neer, and subsequently Professor of Mineralogy in University 
 College, London; was the author of papers on scientific sub- 
 jects, of several text-books, and of a volume of poems. Outside 
 of his department, in which he was recognized as a high author- 
 ity, Professor Chapman was known as a scholarly and accom- 
 plished gentleman. He was an excellent teacher, and an artistic
 
 82 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Natural History under Professor William Hincks. 1 
 There was a beginning, also, of the practical and 
 research work required in the Honour Science 
 courses of study which led to the building and 
 equipment of laboratories for the proper prosecu- 
 tion of the work. 
 
 The University and the Province are greatly in- 
 debted to ex-President Dr. James Loudon for the 
 revolutionary changes on the Science side of the 
 University, which have been so widely beneficial 
 and in which he was the protagonist of reform and 
 
 illustrator of the subject matter of his lectures. He resigned his 
 professorship in 1898, after forty-two years of able service, and 
 returned to England, where he died in 1904. 
 
 1 Professor William Hincks was the second son of Dr. Hincks, 
 and a brother of Sir Francis Hincks, referred to in a footnote 
 in the biographical sketch of Professor Croft. He was edu- 
 cated for the Presbyterian ministry, but subsequently joined 
 the Unitarian church. He was distinguished as a naturalist, 
 and was the first Professor of Natural History in Queen's Col- 
 lege, Cork, in which city the family for a time resided. His 
 application for the chair in University College was received at 
 the same time as a similar application from Thomas Henry 
 Huxley, the great English naturalist and comparative anatomist. 
 Huxley was one of a group of original investigators and discov- 
 erers who shed lustre on the Victorian era. His papers in the 
 Philosophical Transactions and in the records of learned socie- 
 ties, and his various treatises on scientific subjects gave him a 
 wide reputation. He subsequently became Professor of Natural 
 History in the Royal School of Mines and Hunterian Professor 
 of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons. A man of Hux- 
 ley's gifts would have been a splendid acquisition to the Uni- 
 versity of Toronto. But he lacked the qualification of affinity 
 to the First Minister of the day, which doubtless was the prox- 
 imate cause of the accident which prevented his appointment.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 83 
 
 development against strong opposition. It was in 
 1874, when Dr. Loudon was a member of the Uni- 
 versity Senate, that that body adopted a resolution 
 in favour of practical instruction in science by mak- 
 ing laboratory work obligatory in the undergrad- 
 uate Science course. And it was upon his report 
 to the Government in December, 1875, regarding 
 the organization of a School of Practical Science 
 and laboratories in connection therewith, and which 
 was adopted on the recommendation of the then 
 Minister of Education, that buildings for the pur- 
 pose were thereafter erected and equipped. Three 
 laboratories, namely, the Chemical, the Biological, 
 and the Mineralogical and Geological, were at that 
 time established in the School of Science. The 
 Physical laboratory, which was accommodated in 
 the main building before the erection of the present 
 fine structure, which is its permanent home, was 
 the first of the kind organized in Canada. 
 
 The University Buildings 
 
 An undertaking in which Dr. McCaul manifested 
 a continuous interest, during the progress of the 
 work, was the erection of the new University build- 
 ing and the College Residence. The first Univer- 
 sity building, under the name of King's College, 
 was erected on the site of the present Legislative 
 buildings. It was only part of the edifice as origi- 
 nally designed, the plans providing for increased
 
 84 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 accommodation if needed for future requirements. 
 In 1853 authority was given the Government to ex- 
 propriate the original site for Provincial purposes 
 and for the acquisition of. another site for a new 
 building. 1 The old building was used for a time 
 by the University, along with the old Medical 
 School nearby, until the completion of the present 
 edifice, which in architectural taste and beauty is 
 unexcelled on the continent and is the pride of the 
 Province. 2 
 
 The building was opened for academic uses in 
 the beginning of the fall term of 1859-60. On Sep- 
 tember n, 1860, His Royal Highness the Prince of 
 Wales (afterwards King Edward VII), then on a 
 visit to this country, was welcomed in the new 
 building by the University Corporation. Having 
 replied to the address presented by the Chancellor, 
 he was, on the motion of the Vice-Chancellor and 
 the President of the College, and amidst much en- 
 thusiasm, admitted to the status of an undergrad- 
 uate of the second year in the Faculty of Arts. The 
 young Prince was accompanied by the Duke of 
 Newcastle and a distinguished party, and as he 
 walked slowly up to the dais in Convocation Hall 
 
 1 Under the Act 16 Viet., ch. 161. 
 
 1 The new building was commenced in 1856 and completed in 
 October, 1858, when the copestone was laid by the Governor- 
 General, Sir Edmund Walker Head. The total cost of the 
 structure was $355,907, on which an allowance for the original 
 site was made to the University income fund.
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 85 
 
 his eye caught the words in a scroll over the east- 
 erly window, Imperil Spem Spes Provincia Salu- 
 tat. 1 He subsequently remarked to the Duke, who 
 was authority for the story, that "he hoped he 
 might be able to deserve a compliment so happily 
 expressed." 
 
 There are other evidences than this apt and grace- 
 ful apothegm of Dr. McCaul's skill in devising ap- 
 propriate and tasteful inscriptions. The mottoes 
 on the honour certificates at graduation and on 
 the labels of the University prize books, the inscrip- 
 tions sculptured in the stone pedestals of the Rus- 
 sian siege guns in front of the Legislative build- 
 ings, the ornate mural tablet at the head of the 
 broad stairway of the main building of the Uni- 
 versity, and other devices of a similar character, 
 are all the products of his learned ingenuity. 
 
 On a later occasion, during Dr. McCaul's time, 
 the University welcomed another Royal Visitor in 
 the person of Prince Arthur, better known, per- 
 haps, as the Duke of Connaught, the present Gov- 
 ernor-General of Canada. The name of His Royal 
 Highness has, since his assumption of office, been 
 added to the roll of honorary graduates of the 
 University. So long as Dr. McCaul was connected 
 with the University, the arrangements for all such 
 academic functions were left in his hands. The 
 
 'The Hope of the Province welcomes the Hope of the Em- 
 pire.
 
 86 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 presentation addresses in every case were revised 
 and approved and occasionally drafted by him, the 
 reception ceremonies being marked by a simple but 
 none the less impressive grace and dignity worthy 
 of the Provincial seat of learning. 
 
 His Interest in Student Life 
 
 In addition to his duties proper as President and 
 Professor, and the business administration imposed 
 by these offices, Dr. McCaul evinced a lively inter- 
 est in everything pertaining to the student body. 
 He was a frequent spectator of the cricket and 
 football matches, and was seldom absent from the 
 athletic contests on the campus; he took an active 
 part in the arrangements and carrying out of the 
 popular social functions held in the building; and 
 he was also greatly interested in the meetings of 
 the College Literary and Scientific Society. He 
 was often called upon to preside at the public meet- 
 ings of the year, where his closing address, in adju- 
 dicating the merits of the debate, was one of the 
 most attractive features of the programme. 
 
 The College Literary Society in those days was 
 an important institution. It was to a certain ex- 
 tent the University Club, or at least the only Col- 
 lege organization affording the social intercourse 
 of club life. The day of class associations and 
 Greek letter fraternities had not yet come ; the Lit- 
 erary Society embodied the spirit of all these, and
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 87 
 
 it ruled the hour. Dr. McCaul enhanced the im- 
 portance of the Society by the interest which he 
 took in its proceedings. One instance may be men- 
 tioned. During the sixties, while the great Amer- 
 ican Civil War was raging, the Society had its 
 North and South partisans. Prominent amongst 
 these were a number of young Southerners, who, 
 on account of the disturbed state of their own coun- 
 try, were pursuing their studies at the University. 
 At a certain meeting of the Society a student of 
 negro blood was proposed as a member, and 
 straightway the Southern contingent were up in 
 arms against his admission. Quite a bitter feeling 
 was worked up on the question, but fortunately the 
 taking of the vote, which was to be by ballot, was 
 postponed. In the interval Dr. McCaul, to whom 
 the matter was reported, sent for the President of 
 the Society, who usually presided at the meetings, 
 and impressed on him the imperative necessity of 
 there being a vote in favour of the election of the 
 candidate. He said it would be an infinite disgrace 
 and injury to the College and the University, if any 
 respectable student were denied the privileges of 
 such a representative body on account of the colour 
 of his skin or the blood which flowed in his veins. 
 That sort of ostracism should not be tolerated in 
 any British institution, and least of all in an edu- 
 cational institution. He added that his opinions 
 on the matter, as President of the College and one
 
 88 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 of the Patrons of the Society, might be freely used 
 at the meeting as endorsing the nomination and 
 election of the candidate. The result of the bal- 
 lot, after an exciting debate, was that the Presi- 
 dent's wishes were respected and the candidate was 
 elected. 
 
 Archaeologist and Epigraphist 
 
 The fruits of Dr. McCaul's ripe scholarship and 
 rare culture were not wholly lavished within the 
 College walls. His life there was a busy one, but, 
 like some of his colleagues, particularly Professor 
 (afterwards Sir) Daniel Wilson, he made time, 
 amidst its engrossing engagements, to devote to 
 other congenial pursuits. In archaeology and 
 archaeological studies he found a scholar's delight. 
 His researches into these recondite subjects re- 
 sulted in contributions to the general stock of 
 knowledge which have been invaluable, and have 
 given him a high reputation in the old world as 
 well as in the new. His work on "Britanno-Roman 
 Inscriptions," published in 1862, received flattering 
 encomiums in Britain and on the Continent, where 
 he was generally recognized as an ingenious and 
 learned epigraphist. This work was followed, in 
 1868, by a kindred volume on "Christian Epitaphs 
 of the First Century," which was warmly welcomed 
 by Biblical scholars everywhere, and enhanced, in 
 no small degree, the author's fame. The matter of
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 89 
 
 these two volumes first appeared in a series of ar- 
 ticles in the Journal of the Royal Canadian Insti- 
 tute in Toronto, of which Dr. McCaul was for 
 some years President, and always an active and 
 valued member, and which, unpretentiously but 
 none the less effectively, has rendered a distinct 
 public service in encouraging and stimulating orig- 
 inal thought and scientific research in Canada. 
 
 The prosecution of these antiquarian inquiries 
 was attended with peculiar difficulties. The Can- 
 adian archaeologist had at his command none of the 
 rich storehouses of material which were so acces- 
 sible to European investigators, and had often to 
 grope in the dark through many devious ways. But 
 although he laboured under the disadvantage of 
 being obliged to work from photographs and en- 
 gravings, where others had the originals before 
 them, Dr. McCaul has given, in many instances, 
 satisfactory explanations of inscriptions which had 
 baffled the most celebrated epigraphists of the age. 
 In the course of these studies the author made a 
 collection of books and documents and other ma- 
 terial of exceptional interest and value, which was 
 assigned a special section in the University library. 
 The collection, which was said to be unequalled on 
 this continent, was unfortunately destroyed, with 
 many other rare works, in the great fire of 1890. 
 Of the many losses occasioned by that event, it was 
 one of the most irreparable.
 
 90 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Litterateur Editor Composer of Musical Works 
 
 In the field of general literature, Dr. McCaul's 
 pen was seldom idle. He was editor of The Maple 
 Leaf, one of the pioneer Canadian monthlies, to 
 which the late Chief Justice Hagarty and other 
 clever men of that time in Toronto were occasional 
 contributors. The editor himself was a versatile 
 writer in the periodical literature of the day, and 
 it is to be regretted that his able and graceful con- 
 tributions in the form of pamphlets, reviews, and 
 magazine articles, which he seemingly regarded as 
 fugitive productions, have never been permanently 
 preserved. 
 
 Dr. McCaul added to his other accomplishments 
 a thorough knowledge of music, in which his well 
 known trained experience was found of eminent 
 service on many occasions. In his college days, 
 and for years after, he was possessed of a fine 
 tenor voice, and was a skilful performer on various 
 musical instruments. On the old rolls of mem- 
 bership of the Anacreontic and Ancient Concerts 
 Societies, in Dublin if these are in existence his 
 name will still be found. He was a popular mem- 
 ber also of the Bruderschaft, a celebrated musical 
 club in the gay Irish capital, the test for member- 
 ship of which was the ability to sing and play a 
 song of the performer's own composition. In or 
 about the year 1845 ne organized the first Philhar-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL gi 
 
 monic Society in Toronto. He was elected its 
 President, and so continued till its dissolution some 
 years after. When the Society was reorganized, 
 in 1871-2, Dr. McCaul was again chosen President, 
 but, in 1873, failing health unfortunately compelled 
 his retirement from active participation in its man- 
 agement. His musical works comprise several an- 
 thems of well known repute, and a pathetic sacred 
 song of rich melody, entitled "By the Waters of 
 Babylon." He was also the author of a number 
 of lighter compositions, of which the ballads "Mer- 
 rie England" and "In the Springtime of the Year" 
 were special favourites with Toronto audiences in 
 years gone by. Those who were present on the 
 occasion of the unveiling of his portrait in Convo- 
 cation Hall, 1 which was Dr. McCaul's last public 
 appearance at the University, can scarcely have 
 forgotten his pathetic reference to the singing of 
 
 1 The original portrait by Dickson Patterson, A.R.C.A., which 
 hung in the old Convocation Hall, was destroyed in the fire of 
 1890. It was replaced by a replica, painted and presented to 
 the University by the same artist. This second painting hangs 
 in the new Convocation Hall. There is also a smaller portrait 
 of Dr. McCaul in the Senate Chamber, formerly Professor 
 Croft's laboratory, where, as also in the library, and in Convo- 
 cation Hall, there are a number of portraits of prominent Uni- 
 versity men. The latest addition to the paintings in the Hall 
 is a portrait of the present Chancellor of the University, the 
 Hon. Sir William R. Meredith. This was unveiled at the Com- 
 mencement in June, 1913, by the Hon. Sir John A. Boyd, the 
 last Chancellor of the Provincial courts, who made the presen- 
 tation in a felicitous address on behalf of the donors.
 
 92 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 one of his ballads by Mrs. John Beverley Robinson, 
 then prominent in the musical circles of Toronto. 
 
 Retirement from the University His Family 
 Last Years 
 
 Dr. McCaul's growing infirmities compelled his 
 retirement in 1880, at the close of the academic 
 year. It was a rest well earned after more than an 
 ordinary lifetime spent in arduous and faithful de- 
 votion to the public service. During all those years 
 of "learned toil" he was a familiar figure to the 
 many generations of gownsmen who had streamed 
 through the cloistered College halls. His presence 
 seemed to permeate the place, which could never 
 afterwards be the same. Dr. McCaul had been so 
 long identified with the College and the University 
 that it was hard to realize that his active connection 
 with both had ceased. His severance of the tie 
 could scarce have been made without a pang of 
 genuine regret. To those, wherever they might be, 
 who had passed under his hand in the course of 
 over forty years of collegiate work, the announce- 
 ment of his permanent retirement came as a pain- 
 ful surprise. It seemed like the reluctant, tender 
 closing up of more than one chapter in the record 
 of old College days, and suggested many a bright 
 thought and pleasant memory of his genial, manly 
 influence, of acts of kindness done when most 
 needed, and of courteous and thoughtful consid-
 
 D 
 
 Professor of Classics, 1842-1880; Vice-President of the University 
 
 of King's College, Toronto, 1842-1849; President, 1849-1853; 
 
 First President of University College, Toronto, 1853-1880 
 
 (From an oil painting by A. Dickson Patterson, A.R.C.A., in Uni- 
 versity Convocation Hall}
 
 JL: < 
 
 illads 1. 
 miinent in the n 
 
 icnt from the 
 
 Dr. jVi 
 retir< 
 year 
 
 bin son, 
 ato. 
 
 His Family 
 
 ordina 
 votion 
 of "le 
 many 
 throut: 
 
 fill 
 clos 
 of old 
 thou 
 
 fiaisvi 
 
 
 
 mpelled his 
 cademic 
 tn an 
 hful de- 
 cars 
 the 
 
 who had streamed 
 
 t halls. His presence 
 
 te the place, which could never 
 
 cCaul had been so 
 
 and the University 
 
 active connection 
 
 o tie 
 
 of 
 
 they might be, 
 
 i in the course of 
 
 k, the announce- 
 
 :t came as a pain- 
 
 the reluctant, tender 
 
 chapter in the record 
 
 , 
 
 '?83 101 
 
 
 \io
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 93 
 
 eration for the hard-wrought, struggling student. 
 To University men everywhere and to the Prov- 
 ince at large it marked the close of a memorable 
 epoch in University history. The trust which Dr. 
 McCaul surrendered, when he passed from the 
 University into private life, was handed on to a 
 line of eminent successors, scholars of widely recog- 
 nized abilities, who have preserved and perpetuated 
 the best traditions of university life in Canada. 
 
 At the time of his release from active work, Dr. 
 McCaul was three years past the allotted span of 
 life. But, in spite of his infirmities, he seems to 
 have had, like many men of his sanguine temper- 
 ament, a prospective hope of more lengthened days 
 than were given him. He was often seen walking 
 with short, quick footsteps, and the stick which he 
 usually carried in the down-town streets of the city, 
 saluting his friends and stopping occasionally to 
 converse with them with the bright geniality which 
 age never withered. He once said to one of his 
 old students who met him, that he "hoped to live 
 many years yet." His forecast was not irrational, 
 but, as in many instances, it was full of that irony 
 which mocks the vain cares of men. He died on 
 April 1 6, 1886, in his eightieth year. He was sur- 
 vived by Mrs. McCaul, who died July i, 1896, and 
 by three sons and four daughters, namely : Lef roy 3 , 
 a barrister, who died in Toronto in the summer ^fef 
 1912; John, who settled in Muskoka;
 
 94 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 M.A., K.C., of Winnipeg; Mrs. Benson, since de- 
 ceased, wife of Judge Benson of Port Hope; Mrs. 
 Alan Macdougall, of Toronto; Mrs. Hutton, wife 
 of Maurice Hutton, LL.D., Principal of Univer- 
 sity College; and Miss Helen McCaul of New York. 
 
 Dr. McCaul's M any-Side dness 
 
 The restrictions of a biographical sketch will not 
 permit an extended estimate of Dr. McCaul's many- 
 sided character and versatile abilities. Toronto in 
 his time was the political, educational, and social 
 capital of the Province; it was, although in a minor 
 degree, as it is to-day, a city of colleges as well as a 
 city of churches. It was in this environment that 
 he, a young man trained in an old country of 
 settled government and institutions and manners, 
 commenced his career as an educationalist. He 
 was quick to apprehend and grasp the exigencies of 
 the new situation, and to fit himself into the new 
 order of things. He assumed his official duties dur- 
 ing a period of transition, political and educational, 
 in the affairs of the Province. In politics he was 
 a moderate Conservative, broad and tolerant in his 
 political opinions, and, what is essential to success 
 in a public man of either party, appreciative of the 
 force and strength and influence of the other point 
 of view. Although an Anglican and an Anglican 
 clergyman, and warmly attached to the institutions 
 and traditions of his church, he was familiar with
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 95 
 
 the argument which prevailed in the fierce contro- 
 versy arising out of the Clergy Reserves, He had 
 been bred in the belief that a State Church was 
 an indispensable adjunct to the policy of any Gov- 
 ernment controlled by either of the great political 
 parties. But he was not slow to perceive, as some 
 able men of his time were, that a State Church 
 would be a standing menace to the peace and con- 
 tentment of the Canadian people. Although a firm 
 believer in the principle that the education imparted 
 by the schools and colleges should be founded and 
 should rest on a religious basis, and although fet- 
 tered in his action by his declared fealty to King's 
 College, he recognized the limitations of the au- 
 thority, and the dangers of the dominance, or at- 
 tempted dominance, of any church in educational 
 policy and administration. 
 
 These were the articles of Dr. McCaul's creed, 
 political, religious, and educational, and he acted 
 upon them, as far as it was possible to do so, 
 throughout his public career. He never meddled 
 in party politics. He used to say that he was a 
 servant of the Government, whatever its political 
 or party complexion, and of the people irrespective 
 of race, creed, or nationality. When the name and 
 policy of King's College were changed, and an in- 
 fluential section of the members of his own com- 
 munion, led by Bishop Strachan, broke away from 
 the institution in its new organization and founded
 
 96 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Trinity College, he accepted the situation with 
 philosophic equanimity. Without questioning the 
 sincerity of motive which prompted the new move- 
 ment, he regretted such action as calculated to de- 
 feat and delay, for many years, the establishment 
 of one strong, well-equipped University, which, in 
 his opinion, should be the main aim and purpose 
 of a young and undeveloped country. He did not 
 believe, however, that the separation would be per- 
 manent ; he thought the schism was only temporary, 
 that it would last for an indefinite period, but would 
 end, as fortunately it did, in a fusion of university 
 powers. He held the same view with respect to 
 Victoria University, believing, as the event proved, 
 that the laity both of the Anglican and Methodist 
 bodies would in time be persuaded that their finan- 
 cial support of institutions in which they were in- 
 terested could be used more thriftily, and that a 
 great part of the educational needs of students 
 belonging to both denominations could be supplied 
 by the State College. Dr. McCaul did not live to 
 see the federation which, as time went on, he came 
 to hope for and believe in, but he was shrewd 
 enough to foresee it, and, had it come in his day, 
 no one would have rejoiced more than he in its 
 happy consummation. 
 
 It must also be said for Dr. McCaul that, al- 
 though brought up in an academic atmosphere and 
 amidst academic influences very different from
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 97 
 
 those which permeated the early years of the Uni- 
 versity of Toronto, and although having strong 
 convictions on some points of educational policy, 
 he used his authority in carrying out what may be 
 called the reform policy of the Baldwin Act with 
 judicial fairness and success. A prominent feature 
 of that policy was the non-sectarian character of 
 the University and University College. They were 
 both intended to be on the same foundation in that 
 respect as they were with respect to their endow- 
 ment and as State-aided institutions. And such 
 they have ever since remained. The University 
 has long since become a temple of conciliation and 
 reconciliation for all sects and denominations, so 
 far as higher learning is concerned, and such, we 
 may hope, it will always continue to be. 
 
 President of University College 
 
 Although he had been President and Vice-Chan- 
 cellor of King's College since the resignation of 
 Bishop Strachan in 1848, it was in the year 1853, 
 when the University was launched forth on her new 
 career of progress, that Dr. McCaul first assumed 
 the familiar and best known title of President of 
 University College. His advancement had been 
 rapid. In a little over ten years, solely through his 
 own merits, he had become the Head of the first 
 educational institution in the Province. It was in 
 this position and during all the years of its occu-
 
 98 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 pancy that Dr. McCaul established his place in the 
 galaxy of worthies who have an honoured name in 
 University annals, and whose services to Alma 
 Mater have given them a lasting claim upon the 
 gratitude of her sons. The record of University 
 College under Dr. McCaul's Presidency, and of the 
 University of Toronto, with which he was similarly 
 associated in the popular mind, is the highest tribute 
 to his educational leadership. It will not dim the 
 lustre which his career as one of our foremost 
 national teachers has shed over the scenes of his 
 early training, while the scores of graduates who 
 sat under him, many of whom have won their way 
 to positions of the highest honour and influence 
 in his adopted country, will cherish his labours and 
 his memory with true affection. 
 
 Personal Characteristics 
 
 The first President of the College was a striking 
 and attractive personality. He was the ideal, many 
 would say, of what a College President and Profes- 
 sor should be. Of more than medium height, erect 
 and well proportioned, with a dignified presence 
 and bearing, but with a kind and most courteous 
 manner, the respect and regard in which he was 
 held in the College and in the city seemed to be 
 the natural homage to be paid to such a man. His 
 intercourse with his students, and especially with 
 the Honour men and scholars of his own depart-
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 99 
 
 ment, was of a winsome nature. As recently as 
 the present year reference was made to these per- 
 sonal characteristics by an old graduate. 1 In a 
 charming reply to the toast of "The Graduates," 
 Dr. Kennedy, in recalling memories of his 
 undergraduate days, and the closer intimacy of pro- 
 fessor and student at that time as compared with 
 the present, paid a feeling tribute to his old Classi- 
 cal professor, whose personal magnetism and ad- 
 mirable traits of character and disposition inspired 
 the affection and won the heart of every student 
 who came under his spell. 
 
 Besides these personal qualities, which often 
 made the rough places smooth and conciliated acute 
 differences of opinion, Dr. McCaul possessed a 
 habit of mind which is always helpful to any one 
 in a responsible public position. To the discharge 
 of official duties, oftentimes of a difficult and deli- 
 cate nature, he brought administrative abilities of 
 the highest order. He was an excellent man of 
 business, and his great experience in University 
 law and practice, and the intricacies of college cus- 
 tom, was invaluable. He had an intuitive knowl- 
 edge of human nature, and displayed consummate 
 tact in the control and management of students. 
 
 1 George Kennedy, M.A., LL.D., the law adviser of the Pro- 
 vincial Crown Lands Department, and one of the oldest mem- 
 bers of the Ontario Civil Service, at a banquet of the College 
 Literary Society,
 
 ioo McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 The fact of his talents for leadership and govern- 
 ment having been successfully exercised during a 
 period in our history fraught with exceptional diffi- 
 culties and embarrassments proves that he could 
 be "all things to all men" in the best sense of the 
 maxim. He was destined to be a collegian, but he 
 might have achieved just as high distinction in the 
 sphere of diplomacy, or the stirring arena of Parli- 
 amentary life. 
 
 The occult, magnetic force of his personal influ- 
 ence, which he infused into all he did, was visible 
 in the lecture room as much as anywhere else. His 
 students, and especially those in the advanced course 
 of his department, could appreciate his academical 
 antecedents; they felt that he combined the highly 
 refined culture of other days with the special wis- 
 dom of our own, and they responded with alacrity 
 to the calls which he made upon them for intel- 
 lectual exertion, for enthusiasm in their work, for 
 the desire of knowledge for its own sake and its 
 inherent preciousness. 
 
 Dr. McCaul's winning qualities in all the rela- 
 tions of academic and private life were widely 
 known. The ovations which he repeatedly received 
 from the assemblages that crowded Convocation 
 Hall, and especially on the occasion when he met 
 his friends and admirers for the last time, and 
 bade a touching farewell to the University which 
 had so warm a place in his heart, were a triumph
 
 THE REV. JOHN McCAUL 101 
 
 for the man as well as for the scholar and hon- 
 oured public servant. The portrait which was then 
 unveiled has long since been assigned a fitting place 
 on the walls of the University, where, in the closing 
 words of the graduates' presentation address, it 
 serves "as a slight tribute to eminent services, as 
 a testimony of affectionate regard, as a memorial 
 which, in the coming years, shall portray for our 
 descendants, who kneel at this shrine of learning 
 and truth, the priest who first kindled its sacred 
 fire."
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT, D.C.L., F.C.S. 
 
 FIRST PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND EXPERIMENTAL 
 
 PHILOSOPHY IN KING'S COLLEGE, AND IN THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 
 
 THE "Memorials of Cambridge" is the title of 
 three beautiful volumes, perfect in all the embellish- 
 ments of the printer's art and enriched with the 
 finest etchings, that narrate the history and depict 
 the architectural graces of the cluster of ancient 
 Colleges on the banks of the Cam. The main inci- 
 dents in the lives and labours of the long line of 
 scholars who there made their home are portrayed 
 in those pages with sympathetic appreciation. No 
 Canadian University can boast of such a splendid 
 souvenir of its history, and, for many a decade, 
 never will. But we have a record of literature and 
 science that is closely identified with our schools of 
 learning; we can trace a line of scholars who have 
 made it a very honourable record, who have given 
 us literary prestige abroad, have kept the once 
 flickering lamp of science burning brightly and 
 beneficently at home, and who have passed it on 
 to their successors in that true priesthood which is 
 the hope and stay of our young nation. 
 
 When the memorials of some of these men who, 
 forty or fifty years ago, bravely held the outposts 
 of science in Canada come to be written, the name 
 
 105
 
 106 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 of the distinguished scholar and professor whose 
 career is outlined in these pages will be justly as- 
 signed therein a high place. Professor Croft was 
 one of the first professional teachers, if not the first, 
 of experimental philosophy in the chief Province 
 of the Dominion. He was one of the professors 
 appointed to King's College when, on June 8, 
 1843, it opened its doors to the ambitious youth 
 of Canada. Within its walls he sounded the 
 advance, and the first encouraging note of praise, 
 in favour of those mysterious agencies of na- 
 ture, and that practical knowledge of life, then 
 somewhat despised and decried, but which now rule 
 the world. More, perhaps, than any other man in 
 Canada, he deserves the credit of eradicating the 
 old-time prejudice against "hard and dry science," 
 of investing it with a garb of many attractions, and 
 of permanently popularizing it in the everyday life 
 of the common people. Over not a little opposition 
 and amidst not a few discouragements, his wide 
 range of knowledge and his professional abilities 
 could scarcely fail to triumph. He speedily en- 
 listed under his banner recruits of promise from 
 every quarter, and sent them forth, imbued with 
 much of his own enthusiasm, to win honours in sci- 
 ence both at home and abroad. He at first led 
 what seemed a forlorn hope, but, on the very day 
 he assumed the toga as a University professor, he 
 prophesied a signal victory, and promised his best
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 107 
 
 efforts to achieve it. He lived to win the battle, 
 spent the best years of a long and eminently useful 
 life in winning it, and retired from the field with a 
 consciousness of duty well done, and with the grati- 
 tude which is certain to follow one who, after a 
 long term of public service, has finished a work 
 which has been carried on with conscientious fidel- 
 ity and far-reaching success. 
 
 Professor Croft should be gratefully remem- 
 bered by every true Canadian. A pioneer of sci- 
 ence in his adopted country, an early, independent, 
 and fearless advocate of equal rights in educational 
 matters, a valued coadjutor in at least two of the 
 learned professions, a leading spirit in the great 
 volunteer movement of 1861-62, an old officer of 
 the University Senate, a College professor of nearly 
 forty years' standing, a generous friend of many 
 a student who needed a helping hand in his 
 college course, is not such a man well worthy a 
 foremost place amongst the University men of his 
 day and generation, and is he not entitled to a 
 high tribute of regard from those of our own 
 time? 
 
 The Croft Family Early Associations 
 
 Henry Holmes Croft was born March 6, 1820, 
 on Gower Street, in the city of London, England. 
 The family residence in which he first saw the light 
 stood hard by the very spot where may be seen
 
 io8 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the celebrated University of the English metropo- 
 lis, on whose constitution our own University was 
 finally modelled. In his home as a boy he could 
 hear the chimes of Bow Bells, and in after life, 
 wherever he was, they were a sweet memory; for 
 he was a thorough Englishman in feeling and sen- 
 timent, and had a passionate love for his native 
 land. He was in fact a member of an old English 
 family whose present head, Geoffrey Croft, resides 
 in Herefordshire. The Professor's paternal grand- 
 father occupied a position of trust under the Gov- 
 ernment, and was employed in confidential mis- 
 sions. The Crofts, for many generations, appear 
 to have been in the public service in one capacity 
 or another, and, during the Professor's lifetime, 
 several members of the family held important offi- 
 ces in the English Civil Service. 
 
 The future Canadian professor was the youngest 
 son of William Croft, a gentleman of acknow- 
 ledged abilities and scholarly tastes, who, for twenty 
 years, filled the post of Deputy Paymaster-Gen- 
 eral of the Ordnance under the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, William Holmes the Professor's godfather 
 Sir Henry Hardinge, Sir Henry Parnell and others, 
 who stand high in the military annals of the Em- 
 pire. If there be anything in the influence of early 
 associations in moulding future character, the 
 reader may here find a clue to the military zeal 
 which animated Professor Croft in after years,
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 109 
 
 and which was turned to good account during the 
 rise and progress of the volunteer movement in 
 Canada. As a boy he was a frequent witness of 
 the fascinating evolutions on the parade ground; 
 some of his companions were the sons of old army 
 officers, and he was early familiar with the entour- 
 age of a soldier's life. He was familiar also with 
 the personality of the hero of Waterloo, who, while 
 he left no honour unachieved, left no duty incom- 
 plete, as he rode into Ordnance headquarters on his 
 well-known cob in the course of his daily round of 
 inspection. 
 
 Schools and Schoolmasters 
 
 Croft received his early education in the city of 
 his birth. The reminiscences of his school days 
 would afford some striking instances of the ups 
 and downs of fortune at a time when Europe, tem- 
 pest-tossed with the wars of the first Napoleon, was 
 allowed a season of restful calm after the storm. 
 The fierce revolutionary spirit, however, was still 
 abroad, and the large English cities and towns were, 
 as in the days of the expulsion of the Huguenots, 
 so many arks of refuge, whither foreigners from 
 across the Channel and throughout the Spanish 
 peninsula, whose presence was found dangerous at 
 home, swiftly took their flight. Young Croft's first 
 schoolmasters were men of this stamp men who 
 had seen better days, who had staked all on the
 
 no McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 fickle turns of fortune, and who were then earning 
 a livelihood in the strange world of London. 
 
 Monsieur Debac, under whom Croft first passed, 
 was an old Napoleonic cavalry officer. He had been 
 a cuirassier of the guard, a man of wealth, and one 
 of the most dashing sabreurs of his regiment. On 
 June 18, 1815, a day of doom for Napoleon, he had 
 charged at the head of his squadron against the 
 solid squares of the "gallant Picton," had followed 
 his vanquished chief from the field, and had fallen 
 and lost everything with him in the crashing ruin 
 of his dynasty. Here he was, in the year '32, at 
 the dominie's desk, in the capital city of his con- 
 querors, swaying, with the hand which had once 
 drawn as brave a blade as any in France, a vigor- 
 ous ferrule over the sons of a number of English 
 gentlemen ! It is to be feared the belligerent spirit 
 of the master permeated his school. The "manly 
 art of self-defence" was cultivated quite as sedu- 
 lously as the groundwork of Latin and French and 
 the English branches. Fisticuffs, as a pastime, was 
 encouraged by the old trooper, and there is no 
 reason to doubt that young Croft held his own in 
 the encounters of the playground quite as well as 
 in the schoolroom. But M. Debac was also an 
 original mechanician, and his class in mechanics 
 was always a popular one with his pupils. There 
 he was at his best, and was wont to unfold the 
 arcana of his workshop, amongst other things an
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT in 
 
 ingenious model for feathering the floats in paddle- 
 wheel steamers. 
 
 Croft left Debac's school, where he acquired a 
 fair share of practical knowledge, for a school kept 
 by a Spanish refugee named Mandeville. The 
 Spaniard's system of instruction and discipline was 
 no very great improvement on the Frenchman's. 
 He was a schoolmaster who had mistaken his new 
 vocation, who, although well educated, was ill- 
 fitted, by his faults of temper and want of self- 
 control, to impart knowledge and manage with suc- 
 cess a lot of high-spirited English boys. Two or 
 three years sufficed at Mandeville's, when he left 
 for an academy on Gower Street that was at first 
 connected with London University, and afterwards 
 disassociated to seek an independent foundation in 
 Tavistock House. 
 
 A word in passing for Tavistock House. Who 
 that has read Forster's life of the brilliant novel- 
 ist who lies in the great Abbey the mausoleum of 
 England's honoured dead can forget the cher- 
 ished associations of Tavistock House? It was 
 there that Charles Dickens lived and wrought for 
 many a year with his fertile brain and bewitching 
 pen; there he delighted to gather around him, in 
 free and genial intercourse, the men of genius of 
 his day whose names are familiar as his own 
 "Household Words" ; there the gifted Stanfield and 
 other worthies in art romped with his children,
 
 ii2 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 and hallowed the magic circle of their happy home 
 life; and from there Dickens himself sent forth to 
 the world some of the brightest creations of his 
 inimitable fancy. 
 
 The Head-master of the academy in Tavistock 
 House was John Walker, a son of the John Walker 
 who was for some years Professor of Natural Phi- 
 losophy at Trinity College, Dublin. The first Presi- 
 dent of University College could tell more than one 
 sparkling anecdote of John Walker, the elder, who, 
 besides being a sound scholar and zealous teacher, 
 was a sort of "character" in his day at the famous 
 Irish University. The staff under John Walker, 
 the younger, was a very complete one. It com- 
 prised men of ability and culture, and the academy 
 was in the front rank of the schools that were at 
 that time open to the youth of London. The sev- 
 eral departments of instruction were under capital 
 control, and the training received there was well 
 calculated to lay the foundation of a sound and 
 liberal education. Maturin, an accomplished schol- 
 ar, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, who was 
 afterwards admitted to holy orders, was the Classi- 
 cal Master. He came of a clever family, and was a 
 relative of Robert Charles Maturin, an Irish dram- 
 atist and miscellaneous writer, who wrote a weird 
 and uncanny, although popular, novel entitled 
 "Melmoth the Wanderer." Every one knows that
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 113 
 
 Eugene Sue has the sole credit for the originality 
 of the "Wandering Jew," but the discerning reader 
 of "Melmoth" will detect, in Sue's story of his 
 hero, not a little internal evidence of the handiwork 
 of one of the brilliant family of Maturin. In this, 
 the last Public School which he attended, young 
 Croft applied himself diligently to his studies. He 
 was an eager and ardent student, and left the acad- 
 emy with the highest testimonials of ability and pro- 
 ficiency in a systematic course of training that was 
 very serviceable to him in after life. 
 
 A Clerk "Under Government' 
 
 His Public School life closed, it naturally became 
 a question with his father what course for the fu- 
 ture should be marked out for the youngest son. 
 Without any definite plan in this respect, the young 
 man was taken into his father's office, where his 
 elder brother, William, was already employed as a 
 clerk. The Ordnance Office, which was in those 
 days of large standing armies an important mili- 
 tary bureau, was then situated in the Tower of 
 London, whose ancient historic associations, and 
 once terrible mysteries, one may well believe were 
 subjects of intense interest to the newcomer within 
 its precincts. He remained there learning the rou- 
 tine of the office and working very hard for a year, 
 at the end of which the Ordnance Office was amal-
 
 ii4 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 gamated with the Army and Navy Pay Office, un- 
 der the miserly regime of Sir Henry Parnell. 
 
 The family were at that time living at North 
 Hyde, a pleasant suburban retreat eighteen miles 
 from the Tower, where they spent the long sum- 
 mer months. Those were the days of old-fashioned 
 road travel in London and its environs. There 
 were no hansoms, and the lumbering four wheelers 
 had not yet given place to the ubiquitous omnibus. 
 Mr. William Croft's third son was also in a London 
 office, and the father and his three boys, whose 
 companionship he loved, and who were strongly 
 attached to him, were every Saturday accustomed 
 to walk the whole distance to North Hyde, making 
 the return journey in the same way on the Monday 
 following. The good eight miles distance between 
 their Gower Street home and the Tower was of 
 course traversed every business day in the week. 
 They were all good pedestrians. The Professor 
 used to tell a story of his elder brother, William, 
 who, for a wager, without training, walked round 
 Regent's Park, twenty miles, in three hours and 
 forty-five minutes. The Professor himself was well- 
 known as a capital pedestrian, good for a long dis- 
 tance, and with unusual staying power; witness 
 the toilsome tramps to and from target practice in 
 the old University Rifles' days, when the gallant 
 captain was one of the freshest men in the party 
 at the end of the march. Where and when he
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 115 
 
 learned his pedestrianism goes without saying. The 
 exhilarating exercise of those long walks which 
 were often extended to and from North Hyde 
 and the Tower, provided a store of vigorous health 
 and strengthened his naturally robust and wiry 
 constitution. It was an experience which stood 
 him in good stead a few years later, when, along 
 with some college chums in Germany, he made a 
 somewhat remarkable tour afoot, in quest of scien- 
 tific information hidden away amidst the wild, ro- 
 mantic scenery of "the storied land of the Rhine." 
 
 The Chemist of Gower Street 
 
 The early beginnings of a life work in which 
 men have gained distinction, and rendered special 
 service to their fellow men, are often of significant 
 interest. It was when a pupil at Walker's school, 
 and when of course a mere lad, that Croft first 
 acquired a taste for chemistry and chemical science. 
 He there gathered a fair experimental knowledge 
 of the subject, mainly by his own unaided efforts, 
 and sometimes at the expense of other subjects in 
 the school curriculum in which he was less inter- 
 ested. The ardeur chimique, which then seized 
 him, was greatly stimulated by the lectures in 
 chemistry which he attended, as an occasional stu- 
 dent, at University College, London. The prosecu- 
 tion of these boyish studies, especially those of an 
 experimental kind of which he was passionately
 
 ii6 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 fond, was carried on under some difficulties. He 
 was living under his good father's roof, and chemi- 
 cal experiments in a private house are always ob- 
 noxious. His improvised laboratory, for months 
 and months, consisted of a few shelves, furnished 
 with all the apparatus he could collect, in a diminu- 
 tive china closet, three feet square, under the stone 
 kitchen stairway in the family residence on Gower 
 Street. Time and again in the still watches of the 
 night, which he disturbed with his empiric detona- 
 tions and sulphuretted odours, was he ordered to 
 purify the house of the noxious fumes from his 
 juvenile workshop, and thereafter, in short order, 
 to bed. These studies, so delectable to himself, but 
 which were the object of undisguised hostility at 
 home, were carried on unremittingly during the 
 spare hours of his term of service in the Ordnance 
 Office. He read eagerly whatever books he could 
 find on his favourite subject; his home during the 
 day was in the grim battlemented Tower, but his 
 heart was with his retorts and test tubes beneath 
 the old kitchen stairway. Under these circum- 
 stances it is not to be wondered at that his busy 
 but monotonous life as a Civil Service clerk became 
 almost intolerable; he chafed under its restraints, 
 and longed for the golden opportunity, which soon 
 offered, when he could give his undivided attention 
 to those scientific pursuits which, the keen observa-
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 117 
 
 tion of his father saw, were the settled purpose of 
 his life. 
 
 Michael Faraday and His Influence 
 
 Although desirous of promoting his son's wishes, 
 as far as possible, William Croft resolved to seek 
 advice before making a final decision. The man 
 to whom he gave his confidence was Michael Fara- 
 day, one of the famous men of the time. A better 
 adviser could not have been found, and his advice, 
 as will be seen, had an important influence on the 
 future career of William Croft's youngest son. 
 
 Professor Tyndall and Dr. Bence Jones have told 
 all about Faraday in their several biographies of 
 that remarkable man. He was one of the most dis- 
 tinguished chemists and natural philosophers of 
 the last century; a splendid instance of success 
 achieved by patience, perseverance, and genius, over 
 obstacles of birth, education, and fortune. Com- 
 mencing life in a humble way, he devoted his leis- 
 ure hours to science, and, amongst other things, 
 made experiments with an electrical machine of his 
 own construction. Having chanced to get admis- 
 sion to the chemical lectures of Sir Humphry 
 Davy, then in the zenith of his fame, he ventured 
 to send Davy the notes he had taken, with a modest 
 expression of his desire to be employed in some in- 
 tellectual pursuit. Davy at first discouraged him, 
 but, finding that he was in earnest, engaged him as
 
 ii8 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 his assistant at the Royal Institution. Faraday 
 went abroad with Davy and, on his return to Lon- 
 don, Davy entrusted him with certain experiments 
 which led, in his hands, to the condensation of gases 
 into liquids by pressure. It was at this time that 
 he first displayed some of that marvellous power 
 and fertility which made his name familiar to every 
 one, even to those very slightly acquainted with 
 physics. Not long afterwards he was appointed 
 Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, 
 in succession to Davy. Faraday's discoveries and 
 published works, especially his great life work, 
 "Experimental Researches in Electricity," were a 
 magnificent contribution to science and scientific 
 knowledge. His discoveries and publications in 
 chemistry and chemical science, in physical science, 
 and concerning the practical applications of sci- 
 ence were equally great. He was no less distin- 
 guished as a lecturer; his manner, his unvarying 
 success in illustration, and his felicitous choice of 
 expression, though the subjects were often of the 
 most abstruse nature, were such as to attract and 
 charm all classes of the people. 
 
 At the time Mr. Croft went to consult Faraday, 
 the latter was the lecturer on chemistry at the 
 Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Faraday 
 drew his salary through William Croft, the elder, 
 at the Ordnance Office, and the business acquaint- 
 ance thus formed ripened into a long and lasting
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 119 
 
 friendship, which, on Faraday's part in after years, 
 was shared with his friend's youngest son. Mr. 
 Croft told the Academy lecturer about the wayward 
 youth who was determined to throw up a good sal- 
 ary "under Government" in order to carry out 
 "some peculiar notions of his own." The infatua- 
 tion for the home-made laboratory, the noisome ex- 
 periments, the ingenious apparatus of the lad's own 
 invention, the poring over books on chemical sci- 
 ence all this and much more was fully recounted. 
 The great lecturer listened with all the delight of 
 an enthusiastic teacher to the father's story, and 
 one can easily fancy the serious interview closing 
 with the well-remembered words of Faraday : "Mr. 
 Croft, your son has certainly a wonderful aptitude 
 for chemistry. Send him to Germany by all means, 
 and send him there at once." 
 
 Student Years in Germany 
 
 This was joyful news for the "persistent pot- 
 terer in acids and stinks." The lessons in German 
 at Tavistock House, especially those of a conversa- 
 tional kind, were at once resumed with avidity and 
 success. The youthful chemist proved himself a 
 proficient linguist. He had previously gained a 
 smattering of French under old Debac, and had 
 greatly improved on it under the Modern Lan- 
 guages Master at Walker's school. His acquire- 
 ments in the Teutonic tongue were just as note-
 
 120 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 worthy. By the month of April, 1838, when he 
 sailed from England for the continent, he had so 
 far mastered the language of his future Alma Ma- 
 ter as to be able to "talk his way" fairly well to the 
 welcome doors of the famous University of Berlin. 
 
 Croft carried with him from Faraday letters of 
 introduction to the celebrated Eilard Mitscherlich 
 and other professors of the highest reputation in 
 the Prussian capital. By them he was very kindly 
 received, and he speedily ingratiated himself into 
 their notice and favour by the industry and enthu- 
 siasm with which he applied himself to his scien- 
 tific studies. 
 
 Germany was then, as it is now, far-famed for 
 its gymnasia of learning; in the cultivation of the 
 natural and physical sciences, it was, if it is not 
 still, the foremost country in the world. The Uni- 
 versity of Berlin was highly distinguished. It had 
 been founded in 1810, and was munificently en- 
 dowed; the liberality of its endowment attracted 
 the most illustrious scholars of the time; it was 
 probably the most complete University in existence. 
 When the young English student entered it, in 
 1838, its professorial chairs were filled by men 
 whose splendid reputation drew students from the 
 British Isles and from all parts of the Continent. 
 Its laboratories were thoroughly furnished; in sci- 
 entific apparatus and appliances its equipment was 
 perfect; as a training school it was unsurpassed.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 121 
 
 Mitscherlich and His Influence 
 
 Mitscherlich held one of the professorships of 
 chemistry, to which he had been appointed in 1822. 
 Educated at the old Universities of Heidelberg, 
 Paris, and Gottingen, a student for a time under 
 Berzelius at Stockholm, a prominent member of the 
 Royal Society of London and of the French Insti- 
 tute, he was then in the zenith of his usefulness 
 and the height of his fame. He was celebrated no 
 less as an author than as a scholar and professor, 
 but will be best remembered as the discoverer of the 
 beautiful chemical law of isomorphism. 1 By the 
 advice of Mitscherlich, who was his "guide, philoso- 
 pher and friend" in those halcyon years of student 
 life at Berlin, Croft altered materially the plans of 
 study which he had formed on leaving England. 
 It was then his intention to devote himself exclu- 
 sively to chemistry. Mitscherlich dissuaded him 
 from this, and the prescient wisdom of the advice 
 was more than justified by the fortunate results 
 
 1 Isomorphism (from the Greek isos like and morphe form), 
 relates to a similarity of crystalline forms, as (a) between sub- 
 stances of like composition or atomic proportions, as between 
 arsenic acid and phosphorous acid, each containing five equiva- 
 lents of oxygen; or (&) between compounds of unlike composi- 
 tion or atomic proportions, as between the metal arsenic and 
 oxide of iron, the rhombohedral angle of the former being 85 
 41', of the latter 86 4'. The first of these is sometimes dis- 
 tinguished as isomerous or isonomic isomorphism; the second 
 as heteromerous or heteronomic isomorphism.
 
 122 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 which followed. Under the shrewd German's di- 
 rections, he entered upon a curriculum which em- 
 braced all the cognate sciences. He studied miner- 
 alogy and geology under Professors Weisse and G. 
 Rose; botany under Link and Meyen; zoology un- 
 der Lichtenstein ; physics under Magnus and Dove ; 
 anatomy and physiology under Muller; and ento- 
 mology, which was in after years a favourite sub- 
 ject, under Erichson. A dose of "German meta- 
 physics" was, of course, part of the mental regimen, 
 and a professor with an unpronounceable name ad- 
 ministered it unsparingly. In chemistry he was 
 under Mitscherlich, Rammelsbizz, H. Rose, Mar- 
 chand and others, the staff being a very able and 
 complete one. These various branches of knowl- 
 edge, mental philosophy alone excepted, were pur- 
 sued with all the admirable and elaborate aids which 
 the almost unlimited resources of the University 
 could supply, and, it need scarcely be said, with 
 remarkable success. Most of the subjects seemed 
 at the time to be useless ; they did not prove to be 
 so in thirty-eight years' experience in the laboratory 
 and lecture-room. The conditions of excellence and 
 of continuous and enduring results, in collegiate 
 service, are the same everywhere; whoever would 
 be a national teacher must lay wide and deep the 
 foundations of his high vocation. The Science 
 course at Berlin was a very comprehensive one; in 
 Croft's case it might have given King's College, in
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 123 
 
 1843, a professor of Natural History as well as of 
 Chemistry. As it was, it fitted Croft in an eminent 
 degree for that future sphere of useful activity in 
 a new and young country, where he was destined 
 in turn to have many disciples, and to found a 
 school of his own, which, after all, is one of the 
 best tests of the value of professional worth. 
 
 Vacation Rambles in Germany 
 
 During the long academic vacations of his three 
 and a half years' residence in Berlin, Croft utilized 
 his time in a very pleasant and profitable manner. 
 He was a close student in term time, and carried 
 his zest for knowledge into all his summer holiday 
 seeking. Furnished with the best of credentials 
 from their kindly professors, and with knapsacks 
 on their backs, he and a few college friends made 
 pedestrian excursions into different parts of Ger- 
 many, visiting on their route places of scientific in- 
 terest, carefully investigating and noting whatever 
 came within the scope of their collegiate work, and 
 garnering up for future use a rare store of prac- 
 tical information which could be acquired in no 
 other way, and which must have been of immense 
 service and incalculable value. One of the most 
 enjoyable of these excursions was across the Harz 
 Mountains. A number of other excursions were 
 made in company with Dr. Edward Schunck, ein 
 deutscher Kamerad, who was his great chum and
 
 124 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 intimate friend at Berlin, and who was afterwards 
 the distinguished President of the Manchester 
 Philosophical Society. Croft and Herr Schunck 
 rambled in this primitive way over a large portion 
 of Germany. They traversed the valley of Bo- 
 hemia, passed over the Saxon Switzerland, and 
 penetrated the principal mining and manufacturing 
 districts of the Lower Rhine and the country ex- 
 tending between the Harz and Erz Mountains. No 
 place of scientific interest was left unvisited. 
 Prague, Karlsbad, the mines and smelting works 
 at Zinnwald, Klausthal, Freiburg, Ruchenberg and 
 Andriasburg, and the salt works at Schoneback 
 were all in turn explored. At Freiburg in Saxony 
 they descended the Himmelfahrt, 1500 feet below 
 the earth's surface, while at Klausthal and the 
 silver mines of Goslar in the Harz, they lived below 
 ground with the brawny miners, studying all the 
 processes of metallurgic mining. Altogether it was 
 a wildly free and joyous life; every attention was 
 shown the young tourists and great kindness ex- 
 tended wherever they went. 
 
 Close of University Career Contemporaries 
 
 Croft closed his university career with every dis- 
 tinction that any student could desire. Some of his 
 contemporaries in the classrooms were the most 
 promising alumni of their time. Hermann Kopp, 
 Valentine Rose, and Redtenbacher were all men
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 125 
 
 of mark in their day. Varrentrop and Will are 
 famous as the inventors of the method of organic 
 analysis. There were others who afterwards 
 gained celebrity in the domain of science Dr. Lyon 
 Playfair, subsequently a prominent member of the 
 British Parliament; Stenhouse, of Edinburgh; Dr. 
 Bence Jones, one of the biographers of Faraday; 
 and George Henry Lewes, whose relations with 
 the gifted "George Eliot" were so kindly arraigned 
 in the many notices of her lamented death and the 
 tender tributes to her memory. Amongst collegians 
 like these, who would have taken a high place at 
 any University, Croft more than held his own, and 
 lived to enjoy the lasting respect and regard which 
 all students feel for foemen worthy of them in the 
 keen rivalries and contests of scholastic compe- 
 titions. 
 
 There was one distinction which, with his in- 
 herent hatred of shams in any form, Croft could 
 never be induced to seek, and that was the degree 
 of Ph.D. as obtainable at that time. He was not 
 at all singular in this respect. The examinations 
 for the degree in the ordinary course at Berlin 
 were unusually searching and severe; he passed 
 them all with the highest honours, but, like several 
 of the best men of his time, he would never accept 
 a distinction which could be had for sixty shillings 
 and a written thesis at any other German Univer- 
 sity. The trumpery difference in academic stand-
 
 126 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ing between those whose scholarship really merited 
 the honour and those whose money purchased it 
 without any, made it, in his opinion, of very dubious 
 value. The honorary degree of D.C.L., however, 
 was in 1853 conferred on him by the University 
 of Toronto. There was a notion at that time that 
 such degrees could not be granted to non-graduates, 
 and the recipient bowed to the necessity which 
 enabled the University to honour itself by such a 
 worthy bestowal of the distinction. 
 
 Appointed Professor in King's College 
 
 Croft returned to England in the early autumn 
 of 1841. His reputation as a student had pre- 
 ceded him, and he was soon singled out for pro- 
 fessional preferment by reason of certain events 
 which were then taking place in the distant Province 
 of Upper Canada. On September 19, 1841, the 
 life of Lord Sydenham, who was then adminis- 
 tering the government of Canada, was brought to 
 a sudden and untimely close. He was succeeded 
 by Sir Charles Bagot, a graduate of Christ Church, 
 Oxford, and a man of highly cultured literary 
 tastes, who at once took a warm interest in the for- 
 tunes of the projected University of King's College. 
 On April 2, 1842, he paid his first visit to Toron- 
 to, the seat of government being then at King- 
 ston, and on the 23rd of the month, St. George's
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 127 
 
 Day, the cornerstone of King's was laid in the 
 present Queen's Park by His Excellency in person, 
 under a cloudless sky and amidst imposing cere- 
 monies. Professors for the new institution were 
 at once in requisition, and the Governor-General, 
 under an Order in Council, was empowered to 
 select the "coming men." He wrote, making in- 
 quiries, to Croft's godfather, William Holmes, be- 
 tween whom and himself a friendship had sprung 
 up during the years in which Mr. Holmes had been 
 Government whip in the House of Commons, under 
 the Wellington administration. Mr. Holmes con- 
 sulted a number of eminent scientific men in Eng- 
 land, including Faraday, and they one and all, in 
 most complimentary terms, recommended Croft, 
 who was thereupon appointed to the chair of Chem- 
 istry and Experimental Philosophy. Several other 
 appointments to the staff were made at the same 
 time, namely, the Rev. Dr. Beaven, of Oxford, to 
 the chair of Divinity and Metaphysics and Ethics; 
 Richard Potter, M.A., of Cambridge, to the chair 
 of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; William 
 Charles Gwynne, M.D., to the chair of Anatomy 
 and Physiology; John King, M.D., Professor of 
 Medicine; William Hume Blake, 1 Professor of 
 Law; and William R. Beaumont, F.R.C.S., Profes- 
 
 *An able lawyer and parliamentarian, father of the Hon. 
 Edward Blake and the Hon. S. H. Blake, and the first Chan- 
 cellor of the Court of Chancery of Upper Canada.
 
 128 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 sor of Surgery. 1 These appointments were ga- 
 zetted in November, 1842, and, on December 4 
 following, the youthful Professor of Chemistry 
 he was then in his twenty-third year set sail in 
 the old Britannia for the distant scene of his future 
 labours. 
 
 University Commencement Inaugural Lecture 
 
 On his arrival in Canada, Croft remained for a 
 time with his friend, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis 
 
 1 Professor Croft's other colleagues, above named, who were 
 on the staff of King's College when it was opened in 1843, were 
 all men of high qualifications. Dr. McCaul's career has been 
 already described. Dr. Beaven, born in 1801, took his B.A. at 
 Oxford in 1824, and his D.D. in 1842. Apart from his attain- 
 ments in the subjects of his professorship, he was a fine classical 
 scholar. He sometimes dictated his lectures, giving analyses of 
 some of the text-books (e. g., Locke's Essay on the Human 
 Understanding'), which were models of conciseness. In his 
 methods and manner he was a representative of the idiosyncra- 
 sies as well as the scholarship of an Oxford man of the old 
 school. He continued as Professor after the abolition of the 
 Divinity chair, but resigned in 1872, when he removed to 
 Whitby, where he had charge of the Episcopal church and 
 where he died in 1875. 
 
 Professor Potter had been sixth wrangler at Cambridge in 
 1838, and Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in 
 University College, London, 1841-43. He resigned his chair in 
 King's College at the end of the first session, and resumed his 
 professorship in London, which he held until 1865. He wrote 
 treatises on Mechanics, Optics, and other scientific subjects, and 
 died in 1886. 
 
 Dr. King, Dr. Gwynne, and Dr. Beaumont, above mentioned, 
 were all in the front rank of the medical profession of Canada.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 129 
 
 Hincks, 1 at Kingston, until the roads were passable 
 by stage to Toronto. The adventurous journey to 
 the present capital of the Province, in that memo- 
 rable Canadian winter, was often humorously de- 
 scribed by the Professor. He reached his destina- 
 tion in January, 1843, an d at once entered upon his 
 duties in the old Parliament Buildings on Front 
 
 1 Francis Hincks was the fifth or youngest son of Dr. Hincks, 
 a Presbyterian minister and a descendant of the Hincks family 
 in Breckenbrough, Yorkshire, who settled in Cork in 1791. Dr. 
 Hincks was a man of broad scholarship and the head of a 
 clever family. He founded the Cork Institution, and was after- 
 wards Classical Master and Professor of Hebrew in the Royal 
 Institution at Belfast, where his son Francis was educated. 
 Francis Hincks was first engaged in business in Belfast, but in 
 1832 came to Toronto, where he soon gained a high reputation 
 for his business ability and capacity. He was employed to in- 
 vestigate the accounts of the Welland canal, which were a sub- 
 ject of Parliamentary inquiry, became editor of the Examiner 
 (Liberal) newspaper in Toronto, a member for Oxford in the 
 first Parliament of Canada after the Union of 1840, Inspector- 
 General in the Government, and, after a defeat in the general 
 elections of 1844, Inspector-General again in the Baldwin Min- 
 istry. On Mr. Baldwin's retirement, Mr. Hincks became 
 Premier, and so continued till 1854. He was returned for Ox- 
 ford five times, and was instrumental in securing the passage 
 of municipal, railway, and other valuable legislation. He was a 
 warm friend of the University and supported the measures for 
 its reform. In 1855 he was appointed Governor of the Wind- 
 ward Islands, and later of British Guiana. Upon retiring from 
 this office he settled in Canada and resided in Montreal, where 
 he died many years ago. He had a distinguished career, and 
 was knighted by Queen Victoria for his public services. His 
 brother, the Rev. William Hincks, was Professor of Natural 
 History in University College (1853-1871).
 
 130 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Street, which were made the temporary abode of 
 the College. 
 
 On June 8 "University Commencement" the 
 University was publicly opened. On the fol- 
 lowing day inaugural lectures were delivered by 
 four of the professors Dr. McCaul being one of 
 the staff. The ability displayed by the lecturers is 
 said to have been of a "very high order in every 
 respect" ; Professor Croft was paid the compliment, 
 in more than one quarter, of having "added fresh 
 lustre to the scientific character of his German 
 Alma Mater." In the course of his lecture an inci- 
 dent occurred which, in the light of later events, 
 might be taken as ominous. Dr. Strachan, Bishop 
 of Toronto and President of the College, was sit- 
 ting immediately in front of the lecturer, who was 
 demonstrating the ignition of potassium with water, 
 when suddenly a fragment of the burning metal 
 was discharged into the astonished prelate's lawn 
 sleeve and set it afire. It was not long after this 
 that the President and the Professor were strenu- 
 ous antagonists in the acrimonious controversy 
 over the constitution of King's College. 
 
 The Struggle for Equal Rights Croft's Position 
 
 The period intervening between the opening of 
 King's College and the year 1849, when it was 
 placed upon a strictly non-sectarian foundation, 
 was a critical one for higher education in the Prov-
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 131 
 
 ince. Although the system inaugurated was, as the 
 plate enclosed in the foundation stone of the new 
 building finely expressed it, prczstantissimum ad 
 exemplar Britannicarum Universitatum, the ex- 
 emplar was not found to be adapted to the genius 
 of the Canadian people. The original charter had 
 imposed a thoroughly Episcopal character upon the 
 institution. This provoked hostility, and some of its 
 most objectionable features were afterwards elim- 
 inated by the Legislature; but, although the Col- 
 lege was opened under the amended charter, which 
 was intended to divest the Church of England of a 
 predominant influence within its walls, that influ- 
 ence was still supreme. The Divinity chair, which 
 had been established, was retained, in violation of 
 the spirit of the amended Act; and this and other 
 marked characteristics strongly impressed the pub- 
 lic mind with the idea that the new institution was 
 being moulded to suit the predilections of a fa- 
 voured Church, and that the liberal intentions of the 
 Legislature were being in effect defeated. 
 
 In the long and arduous struggle which ensued 
 for equal rights and privileges in the University, 
 and which is fully detailed in the biographical sketch 
 of Dr. McCaul, Professor Croft was no mere idle 
 spectator. Churchman as he was, he warmly es- 
 poused the cause of the anti-church party, and, by 
 his voice and his pen, did yeoman service for those 
 who, battling for just and equal participation in the
 
 132 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 benefits of the University as a provincial seminary 
 of learning, were opposed to the undue pretensions 
 and ascendancy of the church to which he belonged. 
 The College Council, of which he was a member, 
 was divided on the question ; he was one of a small 
 minority, and his position, which was for a long 
 time very embarrassing, was more than once seri- 
 ously jeopardized. In the course of the controversy 
 Professor Potter resigned his chair, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the Rev. Robert Murray, M.A., formerly 
 a minister of the Church of Scotland, who had 
 been acting as Superintendent of Education. The 
 council chamber of the Ministers and the lobbies of 
 the House of Assembly were, for a time, continu- 
 ously besieged by deputations; the table of the 
 House was littered with petitions and counter peti- 
 tions on the great issue of the day. It was at this 
 juncture that Professors Croft and Gwynne, 1 both 
 of whom had all along been active in the movement, 
 addressed to the Legislature a strong and able re- 
 monstrance, bristling with facts and figures in sup- 
 port of a cogent argument against the amended 
 charter, and in support of further amendments. 
 The step was a bold one: it was taken by the re- 
 monstrants at imminent risk of forfeiting their 
 places on the College staff; but it contributed ma- 
 terially to the beneficent result which is now uni- 
 
 1 A brother of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Gwynne of the 
 Supreme Court of Canada.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 133 
 
 versally accepted as the happiest and best solution 
 of the whole question. 
 
 V ice-Chancellor and Member of Senate 
 
 Almost simultaneously with the passage of the 
 Act of 1849, secularizing the University and abol- 
 ishing the Divinity chair, Professor Croft was 
 elected Vice-Chancellor. He exercised the func- 
 tions of that important office during the succeeding 
 four years, under the Chancellorship of the Hon. 
 P. B. DeBlaquiere. As an ex- Vice-Chancellor, 
 Professor Croft was afterwards an ex-officio mem- 
 ber of the University Senate, in the deliberations 
 of which he constantly manifested an active and 
 zealous interest. Regular in his attendance at its 
 meetings, his thorough knowledge of all matters 
 which came within its jurisdiction, and his long 
 and varied experience as a professor, member of 
 the College Council, and examiner, deservedly gave 
 him an authoritative voice in the governing body 
 of the University. 
 
 Broad Practical Sympathies 
 
 Of Professor Croft's eminent qualifications and 
 widely diffused influence as a teacher of chemistry 
 mention will be made hereafter. Extended as these 
 were over a period which witnessed some notable 
 revolutions, and many silent progressive changes, 
 in the domain of science, they were sustained and
 
 134 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 strengthened by attributes of character and con- 
 duct which greatly popularized, during a long term 
 of years, both the College and the University. Al- 
 though an omnivorous reader of the current scien- 
 tific literature of the day, he was no mere book- 
 worm. His laboratory always had fascinations for 
 him, and he laboured for many successive classes of 
 students with a devotion and single-minded pur- 
 pose worthy of the highest praise. But withal he 
 was far from being a scientific recluse. Through- 
 out his whole career he manifested the public spirit, 
 the active usefulness, and the broad and keenly 
 intelligent sympathies of a practical man of the 
 world. He was a leading member of the early 
 agricultural and horticultural societies in the met- 
 ropolitan district of York, and was always promi- 
 nently identified with associations like these, 
 whether of a local or provincial character. He was 
 also in the front rank, and an energetic co-worker 
 in his own particular field, with those who had 
 striven, with some degree of success, to develop 
 scientific husbandry in Canada. He proved how 
 intimate, in many respects, was the relation which 
 subsisted between agriculture and horticulture and 
 his own special department of knowledge, and how 
 more or less dependent upon it these are for their 
 artistic advancement. He also directed public at- 
 tention repeatedly to the great importance and value 
 which an acquaintance with chemical science may
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT, D. C. L., F. C. S. 
 
 First Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Philosophy in 
 
 the University of King's College and University 
 
 College, Toronto, 1842-1880 
 
 (From an oil painting by A. Dickson Patterson, A.R.C.A., in 
 the Senate Chamber of the University)
 
 ! attribi 1 nd con- 
 
 ing a long .term 
 
 , both the < c Univc Al- 
 
 gb an omnivo current Scien- 
 
 tific literature mere book- 
 
 worm. Hi* nations for 
 
 him, and he > s of 
 
 student ;ur _ 
 
 pose \v ; h e 
 
 was 
 
 out his whole < ablic spirit, 
 
 the active usefulness, and the broad and keenly 
 
 >r -Hi^cnt sympathies of a practical man of the 
 
 He was a ] member of the early 
 
 cieties in the met- 
 
 vas always promi- 
 
 is like these, 
 
 Me was 
 
 vorker 
 
 with those who had 
 
 of success, to develop 
 
 '!a. He proved how 
 
 intima^ l.^. was the relation which 
 
 subsists id>^n^ifei< 
 
 his awn knowledge, a 
 
 one YiJa/m^rD TO 
 
 totta 
 
 more 
 
 artistic adv.- flinT' 1 flffi <3lr%cled public at- 
 
 which an acq? ^JF^W^mfi^^sftfincc may
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 135 
 
 possess to the large class of our population engaged 
 in those pursuits. Agricultural chemistry in Can- 
 ada owes much to Professor Croft; he, more than 
 any other man of eminence in the Province, im- 
 pressed its great practical utility upon our people. 
 He was no less forward in his advocacy of a Pro- 
 vincial School of Agriculture, and considerable 
 credit must be given him for the establishment of 
 the excellent institution which was endowed, and 
 has ever since been sustained, by the Government 
 for the training of farmers and farmers* sons. 
 
 A Founder of the Entomological Society 
 
 Professor Croft was also very honourably iden- 
 tified with a Society which was brought into exist- 
 ence chiefly through his instrumentality, and whose 
 laudable objects are closely associated with the 
 progress of skilled husbandry everywhere, namely, 
 the Entomological Society of Ontario. He was the 
 founder, or at least one of the founders, of this 
 Society; the first meeting of its originators was 
 held at his residence, and its present standing and 
 widely acknowledged usefulness are largely due to 
 his fostering care, warm advocacy, and powerful 
 support. In disseminating information in regard 
 to the insect pests of the agriculturist and horti- 
 culturist, as well as to insects friendly to their 
 products, the Society has performed a work of vital 
 service. Its admirable collections at the Centen-
 
 1 36 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 nial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, comprising 
 eighty-six cases filled with thousands of specimens 
 carefully classified and named, attracted universal 
 attention, and were far in advance of any other 
 exhibit of the kind in the whole Exhibition. The 
 economic worth of such collections can be estimated 
 only by those who have given some attention to the 
 subject; they form a groundwork upon which may 
 be built up observations of great value, and must 
 have the effect of stimulating intelligent research 
 in this important department of natural science. 
 
 Within comparatively recent years the bounty of 
 the Government has greatly assisted the operations 
 of this Society. Its periodical publications, rang- 
 ing over many years, contain a vast amount of 
 original matter, recording valuable observations of 
 a most instructive character on insects in all parts 
 of Canada. These publications have been much 
 sought after, both in Europe and America; some 
 of the early numbers have been reprinted in order 
 to meet the demand, and complete sets of the So- 
 ciety's works are now found in many prominent 
 scientific libraries on both continents. 
 
 A Founder of the Canadian Institute 
 
 The Royal Canadian Institute, 1 in Toronto, has, 
 ever since its establishment, been a rallying point 
 
 1 The consent of His Majesty the King to the addition of the 
 title Royal to the name of the Institute was announced by His
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 137 
 
 for men of literature and science in western On- 
 tario. The Journal, published under its auspices, 
 has been one of the few in this country which aims, 
 with any success, at being a record of philosophical 
 transactions. Professor Croft was one of the 
 founders of the Institute; from its inception he 
 was one of its staunchest friends and supporters, 
 and was twice elected its President; scattered 
 through the pages of its Journal will be found a 
 number of contributions from his pen of permanent 
 interest and worth. 
 
 One of these, on the double salts of cadmium, 
 was a continuation of a thesis which he had read 
 before the Chemical Society in London (of which 
 he was a Fellow), before coming to Canada. The 
 writer's study of the subject was resumed with 
 his usual earnestness after he entered upon his pro- 
 fessorial duties, and with results very satisfactory 
 to himself and to the votaries of chemical science 
 here and elsewhere. He also published a work on 
 Analytical Chemistry, adapted primarily to the re- 
 quirements of his students in Arts and Medicine. 
 The University and the Canadian public would 
 have welcomed a supplemental volume, elaborated 
 and completed from the rich resources of his knowl- 
 edge and experience as an analytical chemist, but 
 
 Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John M. Gibson, at a 
 public meeting of the Institute held in the University Convoca- 
 tion Hall on the evening of April 2, 1914.
 
 138 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the desire expressed for such a publication was 
 never gratified. 
 
 Having regard to the acknowledged merits and 
 value of his educational and research work in the 
 treatises referred to, and in the papers which ap- 
 peared in the Journal of the Royal Canadian Insti- 
 tute, it is a matter for regret that Professor Croft, 
 with his wide knowledge of the natural and physical 
 sciences, did not devote himself in a larger meas- 
 ure to authorship. In the subject of toxicology 
 especially he could have been a lamp to the feet 
 and a guide to the path in after years. In the 
 ingenuity of his analyses, the original methods of 
 his investigation, and his powers of terse exposi- 
 tion, he stood alone in his day in Canada, and it is 
 to be feared that much which should have been 
 known and might have been tried, in toxicological 
 experiment, died with him. 
 
 Musical Accomplishments 
 
 The circle of the sciences which the Professor 
 traversed would be incomplete without that of vo- 
 cal and instrumental music, for which he acquired 
 a taste as a college student, and which, like Dr. 
 McCaul, he cultivated in his leisure hours as a col- 
 lege don. He claimed no kinship with the com- 
 poser of the same name, whose works are familiar 
 to the lovers of old musical compositions. He was, 
 however, one of the originators, and always a wel-
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 139 
 
 come member, of a Quintette Club of some celeb- 
 rity, which lived and flourished for a decade or two 
 in Toronto, while in later years he joined the ranks 
 of the Philharmonic Society, with which, during 
 its existence, he retained an active connection. Like 
 that of most skilful musicians, Professor Croft's 
 musical education appears to have commenced at 
 an early age. His accomplishments on the piano 
 were no secret amongst his student friends in Ger- 
 many, and it is a fact not generally known that he 
 was offered the position of court pianist by the 
 blind King of Hanover. 
 
 The Trent Affair Rise of the Volunteer Movement 
 
 The history of the volunteer movement in Can- 
 ada has yet to be fully written, and it is referred 
 to here only in order to indicate the public- 
 spirited and highly meritorious share which was 
 taken in the movement by the subject of this sketch. 
 There had been a Canadian volunteer militia be- 
 fore the great Civil War in the United States, but 
 it was a militia on paper, pigeon-holed away among 
 the dusty archives of a governmental department. 
 The cruel conflict between the North and the South, 
 and the strained international relations of Great 
 Britain and the United States to which it gave rise, 
 revived the question of national defence. It was 
 not, however, till the memorable winter of 1861-62 
 that anything like vis viva was given to the move-
 
 140 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ment. The stirring events of that Christmas-tide 
 will be long remembered by our citizen soldiery in 
 Canada. They add a bright and honourable page 
 to the military annals of the country: for they 
 proved by deeds the loyalty and patriotism of our 
 people, the universal brotherhood of the British 
 name, and the real significance and strength of the 
 tie which knits the over-seas Dominions of the Em- 
 pire to the Motherland. 
 
 The "Trent Affair" is historic. When it became 
 known in December, 1861, that a British steamer, 
 the Trent, while on a peaceful passage to the West 
 Indies, had been forcibly stopped on the high seas 
 under the guns of an American warship, and that 
 four of her passengers, Messrs. Mason, Slidell, Mc- 
 Farland, and Eustis, commissioners of the South- 
 ern Confederacy, who were on an accredited mis- 
 sion for their Government, had been taken from 
 the steamer's deck and conveyed as prisoners into 
 Boston harbour, the popular feeling of indignation 
 and resentment in Canada was universal. The 
 commissioners, at the time of their capture, were 
 legally on British territory and under the protec- 
 tion of the British flag, and their seizure, under 
 the circumstances, was a plain violation of inter- 
 national law. An immediate demand was made by 
 the Imperial Government for their release, and, 
 until the demand was acceded to, the two great 
 English speaking nations of the world were brought
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 141 
 
 very close to the verge of war. For a time, at least, 
 it was uncertain whether the Canadian people 
 should have to face, along the whole line of their 
 defenceless frontier, an enemy overwhelming in 
 numbers and flushed with military successes. The 
 response to the sudden call by the Government for 
 volunteers was worthy of the nation, and, in large 
 centres of population like Toronto, the greatest en- 
 thusiasm was aroused. 
 
 The University Rifle Corps 
 
 In concerting measures adapted to meet the gen- 
 eral emergency, Professor Croft was very active; 
 amongst prominent civilians he was one of the first 
 to inspire public confidence by undertaking to raise 
 forthwith for active service an efficient company 
 of riflemen. This self-imposed patriotic duty was 
 promptly discharged. During the Michaelmas va- 
 cation of 1 86 1 he called a public meeting of stu- 
 dents and ex-students of the University in Con- 
 vocation Hall; the meeting was largely attended; 
 the Professor animated all present by a charac- 
 teristic speech which was cheered to the echo; he 
 himself was elected Captain, Professor Cherriman, 
 Lieutenant, and Adam Crooks, Q.C., subsequently 
 Minister of Education in the Mowat Government, 
 Ensign of the new company. Before the meeting 
 closed the ranks were well nigh fully recruited, and 
 the University Rifle Corps was practically in exist-
 
 I 4 2 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ence. An officers' drill was at once organized 
 amongst the different volunteer corps of the city, 
 and, along with his brother officers, the Professor, 
 who, if his father had accepted a kind offer of the 
 Duke of Wellington, might have had a commission 
 in the British service, very soon perfected himself 
 in military tactics. Captain Goodwin, the gymnas- 
 tic teacher at Upper Canada College and a deft 
 swordsman who had fought at Waterloo, was Cap- 
 tain Croft's drill instructor. His first lessons, 
 strange to say, had been learned years before in 
 England from another Waterloo veteran a life 
 guardsman who had ridden over the French troops 
 in a series of charges across the valley facing the 
 walled gardens of Chateau Hougoumont. 
 
 The reminiscences of the University Rifle Corps, 
 of which Captain Croft was for many years the 
 popular commanding officer, would fill an interest- 
 ing chapter in College history. With the exception 
 of the College Literary and Scientific Society, it 
 was the most potent element in the University for 
 promoting sociability and esprit de corps amongst 
 all classes of University men. Academic distinc- 
 tions found no place in its ranks; in its earlier 
 years the messenger elbowed the graduate, the 
 freshman the sophomore, and the professor freely 
 reproved both for treading too heavily on his heels ; 
 its pleasant comradeship was a bond between the 
 faculties and the student body.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 
 
 Captain of No. 9 (University) Company, Queen's Own Rifles, 
 Toronto 
 
 (From a photograph, taken in 1867. now in the possession of 
 R. E. Kingsford. M.A., LL.B., Toronto)
 
 RI 
 
 s' drill was at once zed 
 
 i the different volunteer corps of the city, 
 along with his brother officers, the >or, 
 
 . if his father had accepted a kind offer of the 
 Duke of Wellington, mii/hi Inv had a commission 
 in the British service, vtr . *xm perfected himself 
 in military tactics. Captain (.***!* m the gymnas- 
 tic teacher at Upper C; 
 swordsman who h& 
 tain Croft's drill si.- 
 
 strange to say, had been learned years before in 
 England from another Waterloo veteran a life 
 guardsman who had ridden over the French troops 
 in a scries of charges across the valley facing the 
 
 ttK?s liversity Rifle Corps, 
 
 *;is for many years the 
 r'.r, would fill an inter 
 
 . With the exception 
 
 iic: Scientific Society, it 
 
 i! in the University for 
 
 m^ .u sprit de corps amongst 
 
 all classes 01 '^ien. Academic distinc- 
 
 tion.- found - ir> its ranks; in its earlier 
 
 years : xiwed the graduate, the 
 
 freshman ->e and the professor f reely 
 
 reproved 1 Tw&^&VJ&if^y < 
 
 its pleasam . ;is a bo^ en the 
 
 .ijfliM, v/< . i - iKpoD. (.vJiapvi 
 
 vU 
 
 , v/< . i - iKpoD. (.vJiapvinU) Q . 
 
 ^f 
 
 n 
 
 (oln U ..t-M .Vto\ivtMi"A .a .V\
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 143 
 
 Under Captain Croft the company attained a 
 high state of efficiency. Colonel Mountain, of the 
 Royal Artillery, an accomplished and experienced 
 British officer, who was appointed to inspect the 
 different volunteer corps of the Province and ad- 
 judge prizes for military proficiency in a general 
 competition at the time, pronounced the company 
 "the most perfectly drilled and disciplined volun- 
 teer company he had ever seen." At the time re- 
 ferred to he had passed in review every volunteer 
 corps of any standing in the country, and it was 
 on his impartial judgment that the University Rifle 
 Corps carried off the first prize from all comers. 
 The company was in fact a sort of military school ; 
 its graduates were the graduates of their common 
 Alma Mater who went forth, from year to year, 
 into every quarter of the Dominion, imbued with a 
 love of its stern lessons of duty, animated by mar- 
 tial zeal, and ready to instruct and command as 
 well as to obey in the ranks of the volunteer force 
 of the country. The Lieutenant-Governor of On- 
 tario, the Hon. Sir John M. Gibson, was a member 
 of the corps, and was subsequently Lieutenant- 
 Colonel of the 1 3th Battalion of Hamilton. He 
 repeatedly distinguished himself at Wimbledon, 
 winning, on one occasion, the next highest honour 
 of the meeting in what was admittedly a keen com- 
 petition. There were other privates in the corps 
 who were afterwards commissioned officers in vol-
 
 144 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 unteer corps in different parts of the Dominion. 
 Sir Hugh John Macdonald, K.C., the present 
 police magistrate of Winnipeg, 1 Colonel J. E. Fare- 
 well, K.C., of the 34th Regiment of Ontario, at 
 present County Attorney of Ontario, Colonel An- 
 drew T. Thompson, ex-M.P., of the Haldimand 
 Regiment, and Colonel George S. Goodwillie of 
 the Holton Regiment, were all privates in the Uni- 
 versity company. But it is unnecessary to extend 
 the list. The company was a nursery of commis- 
 sioned officers of various grades in the service, and 
 particularly of staff officers. 
 
 Between the University company and that of 
 Trinity College (Nos. 9 and 10, respectively, of 
 the Queen's Own Rifles) there was a natural fra- 
 ternity, and when Captain Croft was not permitted 
 to go to the front in June, 1866, as he desired to 
 do, and was assigned duties at headquarters in To- 
 ronto, it was Ensign Whitney of the Trinity com- 
 pany who, at their request, commanded the Uni- 
 versity men and led them in the engagement on the 
 Niagara frontier. 
 
 1 Sir Hugh John Macdonald joined the University company 
 as a private, was afterwards sergeant of the "Residence Squad," 
 and later an ensign in another company of the Queen's Own 
 Rifles. In 1870 he was with the first Red River Expedition 
 under Colonel (afterwards Field Marshal) Wolseley, as Ensign 
 of No. 6 company of the First Ontario Rifles. When the Re- 
 bellion broke out in the North- West in 1885 he joined the QOth 
 Battalion as Captain of No. I company, and was in action with 
 his men at Fish Creek and at Batoche.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 145 
 
 An Episode of 1866 
 
 In the years which elapsed after the company's 
 formation memories very sad and tender, as well 
 as some very pleasing that we love to recall, were 
 interwoven with its history. The events of the 
 early summer of 1866, in which the company fig- 
 ured, are memorable. They bred one of the great 
 sorrows of Croft's life. In the engagement on 
 June 2 with the Fenian invaders at Ridgeway, the 
 company, which was far from its full strength, 
 suffered somewhat severely. 1 Three of its mem- 
 bers, J. H. Mewburn, Malcolm Mackenzie, and 
 W. F. Tempest, promising undergraduates, were 
 killed, and several others were wounded. 2 The re- 
 mains of young Mewburn were taken to his home 
 at St. Catharines. Those of Mackenzie of Zorra 
 in Oxford, and of Tempest of Toronto, were 
 
 a The diminished strength of the company, when called out 
 for active service, was due to the fact that those of its members 
 who were not residents of the city, had, with very few excep- 
 tions, finished their examinations and returned to their homes 
 in different parts of the Province. There is reason to believe 
 that the emergency call to the front was answered by every 
 member in the city. Within a few days afterwards the com- 
 pany was up to its normal strength. 
 
 1 The wounded men were W. H. VanderSmissen, afterwards 
 Professor of German in University College; R. E. Kings ford, 
 afterwards a commissioned officer in the University company, 
 Toronto, and now one of the Police Magistrates of Toronto; 
 E. G. Patterson, K.C., now of Winnipeg, a prominent member 
 of the Manitoba Bar; and E. T. Paul, at present a resident 
 of Chicago.
 
 146 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 brought over on the steamer to the city, and were 
 borne to the University building, where they were 
 reverently laid in the Residence reading-room, the 
 students' usual meeting place. 
 
 No one who witnessed it can ever forget the 
 spectacle which Toronto presented on the evening 
 of that day the dense crowds awaiting the vessel 
 as with flags at half-mast she approached the city, 
 the thousands of sympathetic spectators lining the 
 streets through which the solemn procession moved, 
 the saddened faces of the military escorts, the hush 
 that fell upon the multitude standing with uncov- 
 ered heads as each hearse with its nodding plumes 
 passed by. The scene in the temporary mortuary 
 chamber of the College was even more touching. 
 The bodies of our fallen comrades, still in their 
 soiled uniforms as they were taken from the field, 
 were exposed in the ijough pine coffins in which for 
 the time they were laid. The room was crowded to 
 the doors with University men, young and old, 
 who made no concealment of the emotion which 
 welled up in the breast of every one present. Cap- 
 tain Croft was a pathetic figure as he stood beside 
 the open coffins, the tears coursing down his cheeks 
 as he looked upon the placid faces of the brave 
 young fellows who had given their lives for their 
 country. Who would have wished it otherwise? 
 "There are occasions," said Disraeli in the British 
 House of Commons, "which exalt the family above
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 147 
 
 the nation and appeal to the domestic sentiment of 
 mankind, when grief may well be open and undis- 
 guised, and when the deaths of those we love and 
 honour move, with a manifestation more eloquent 
 than any words, the deepest and tenderest feelings 
 of the human heart." And this truly was such an 
 occasion. The beautiful memorial windows, 1 past 
 and present, have told the story, and so has the his- 
 toric monument across the ravine on the hill hard 
 by. 
 
 Amidst its varying fortunes there will always 
 rest in the minds of the old members of the com- 
 pany a vivid remembrance of the unfailing, gener- 
 ous kindness of its commanding officer. Whether 
 at home, in the College, or in camp, the wants and 
 comforts of his men were his first consideration. 
 Throughout the harrowing scenes above described 
 when the death angel hovered over many a sick-bed, 
 and cast its dark shadow within many a home cir- 
 cle, no heart was more deeply touched or more ten- 
 derly sympathetic. 
 
 1 The first memorial window, in the old Convocation Hall, 
 was destroyed in the fire of 1890; a new memorial window was 
 unveiled in the large eastern hall a few years ago. The follow- 
 ing inscription, which appeared on the first window, appears 
 also on the second window : 
 
 Qui, pro patria pugnantis, occubuerunt. 
 Malcolm Mackenzie, 
 J. H. Mewburn, 
 William F. Tempest. 
 Apud Limeridge, IV. non. Jun. MDCCCLXVI.
 
 148 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Captain Croft's connection with the University 
 Rifles terminated some years before he resigned his 
 professorship. While still a member of the corps 
 he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Vol- 
 unteer Militia, and retired retaining his rank. 1 
 
 Marriage Members of Family Death 
 
 In 1844 Professor Croft was married to Miss 
 Mary Shaw, a daughter of Captain Alexander 
 Shaw, 2 of the 69th and 35th Regiments. It was on 
 this gentleman's farm beyond the north-westerly 
 limits of the city that the University company was 
 accustomed to meet for target practice, before the 
 establishment of the Rosedale rifle range. 
 
 Of Professor Croft's family of seven children, 
 four, namely, Emily Rose, Harrietta Christina, 
 
 1 Mr. J. B. Cherriman, Professor of Natural Philosophy, suc- 
 ceeded Professor Croft as Captain of the University company. 
 Subsequently the corps became so large that it was divided into 
 two companies, composed of students and ex-students, each offi- 
 cered by University men. Professor W. Hodgson Ellis, men- 
 tioned elsewhere, Professor Alfred Baker, the present head of 
 the Department of Mathematics and Dean of the Faculty of 
 Arts, and the late T. D. Delamere, K.C., were, respectively, in 
 command of one or other of the companies. These in course of 
 time lost their distinctive collegiate character, and ceased to 
 have connection with the University on account of the students 
 being unable to give the necessary time to the battalion drills 
 which, during the busy college terms, were held in the evenings. 
 
 * Captain Shaw was a son of Major-General the Honourable 
 ^Eneas Shaw, Adjutant-General of Canadian Militia during the 
 War of 1812, whose portrait by Forster hangs in the gallery of 
 paintings in the Legislative Buildings.
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 149 
 
 Henry Langton and Stephen, predeceased him ; the 
 survivors are Annie L,., of Montreal, and William 
 Baldwin and Mary A. C., of San Diego in Texas. 
 
 The Professor loved his home and his family 
 ardently, and was never happier than at his own 
 fireside. He took infinite pleasure in the cultivation 
 of his garden and in storing it with such shrubs and 
 flowers as caught his fancy or tastes as a natural- 
 ist. A distinguished graduate of the University 
 who knew him well, and who is now the able head 
 of the Chemistry department of the University, has 
 given us a pleasant glimpse of his old teacher at 
 home in his garden on a warm Sunday afternoon, 
 smoking his great meerschaum, and entertaining 
 his friends with quaint fancy and genial anecdote. 
 "He was," says Professor Ellis, "a most delight- 
 ful companion, steeped with the love of nature, full 
 of dry humour, thinking strongly and speaking 
 fearlessly, but brimming over with kindness. * * * 
 He inspired in those students who were privileged 
 to work with him, not only respect for the master 
 and enthusiasm for the work, but also and chiefly 
 love for the man." * 
 
 But, although he lived a healthy outdoor life and 
 was fond of rambles in the woods specimen-hunting 
 with his children or other congenial companions, the 
 
 1 See appreciative article by W. Hodgson Ellis, M.A., M.B., 
 Professor of Applied Chemistry, in University Monthly, Vol. 
 2, p. 29.
 
 150 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 domestic bereavements which he sustained at brief 
 intervals were more than he could bear with the 
 strain of his professional work. His health gave 
 way completely, and in 1879 ne felt obliged to re- 
 sign. He and his family removed soon afterwards 
 to Texas, where at Las Hermanitas, near San 
 Diego, he died on March I, 1883. Seven years 
 later a Protestant Episcopal Church was erected 
 in San Diego by his children to his memory and 
 that of their mother. 
 
 "Croft's Laboratory'' "The Croft Chapter House " 
 
 To a person approaching the University from 
 the south, there appears, at the extreme westerly 
 end of the building a circular annex with a high 
 conical roof, and flanked on the easterly side by a 
 lower structure connected with the main edifice. 
 The lower structure, fronted by a pillared corridor 
 of stone, was Professor Croft's private room, 
 which adjoined his lecture room. For many years 
 the inside of the annex was one great room, show- 
 ing a lofty vaulted ceiling with oaken beams. These 
 are no longer seen from the ground floor on ac- 
 count of a division of the interior to form a second 
 story. 
 
 The circular annex has some traditions. It was 
 long known as "Croft's Laboratory," as in fact it 
 was from the time of its erection until its first
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 151 
 
 tenant finished his life work and passed out for 
 the last time. The building then became the Physi- 
 cal laboratory for a term of years. It was within 
 the ample area of this "round room," lighted by 
 the narrow windows high up in the walls, that the 
 apostle of Chemistry in the University did most 
 of his best work. It was there that his brightest 
 disciples wrought diligently beside him. And it 
 was there also that his comrades in the Rifle Com- 
 pany were entertained now and then by the Cap- 
 tain, as they stacked their arms and smoked their 
 pipes and talked of the day's shooting at the tar- 
 gets. 
 
 Time has brought changes, but the art chimique, 
 as Croft sometimes called it, has kept pace with the 
 strides of advancing science. There is now a great 
 Chemistry Building and also a great Chemistry and 
 Mining Building, separate and distinct from each 
 other, and fully equipped with the latest apparatus 
 and appliances; they have each their chemical 
 laboratories for students of all the Science depart- 
 ments ; there are able and experienced staffs of pro- 
 fessors and lecturers; and there is an admirable 
 division and distribution of the work and service, 
 all which has made this department and its allies, 
 on the science side of the University, a powerful 
 factor in the educational strength of the Province. 
 
 "Croft's Laboratory" has passed into history. 
 Its old habitat is now hung with portraits of their
 
 152 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Majesties, King George V and Queen Mary (pre- 
 sented by the King), of the Duke and Duchess of 
 Connaught (presented by His Royal Highness), 
 and with paintings in oil of University worthies, 
 past and present; the transformation is complete. 
 It has become the University Senate Chamber, 
 where important legislation affecting the institu- 
 tion is from time to time enacted, where the cur- 
 ricula of six faculties and six departments are 
 prescribed, examiners appointed, honours, scholar- 
 ships and degrees awarded, and where annually 
 judgment is passed on the acquirements and stand- 
 ing of over four thousand students who constitute 
 the microcosm of University life and activity. 
 
 It is a fact, not generally known, that Pro- 
 fessor Croft was consulted by the architects and 
 made suggestions as to the plans of his future 
 laboratory. Nor is it generally known that the 
 laboratory was built after the style of the Abbots' 
 Kitchen of the famous Glastonbury Abbey in Som- 
 ersetshire, England. The Abbey, which with its 
 appurtenances and grounds originally covered 
 sixty acres, is said to have been the earliest seat 
 of Christianity in Britain. It has long since 
 crumbled into ruins, save the chapels of St. Joseph 
 and St. Mary and the Abbots' Kitchen. These 
 were built in the reigns of Henry II and Richard 
 I, and are fine specimens, especially the chapels, of 
 the transition from Norman into Early English
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 153 
 
 architecture. 1 Professor Croft was no stranger to 
 the remains of the Abbey, and as an Englishman 
 who loved his country and these memorials of her 
 past history, there is good reason to believe that 
 he suggested the style of the building in which he 
 was destined to spend so many of the busy hours 
 of his life. 
 
 With the approval of the governing bodies of 
 the University, this building, in which the Senate 
 now meets, will henceforth be called and known as 
 "The Croft Chapter House," "in recognition of 
 Professor Croft's services to the University and 
 the Province." This fitting association of his name 
 with the building, and with the work which he did 
 and inspired within its walls, gives significance to 
 what was said of those like him in the old Latin 
 line, Qui sui memores olios fecere merendo, that 
 they are men who by their merits have caused 
 others to cherish their memory. 
 
 Influence as Professor, Worker, and Teacher 
 
 It would be difficult to estimate, as they deserve, 
 Professor Croft's distinguished public services 
 
 of the legends connected with this ancient sanctuary 
 relates that the "miraculous thorn," which grew in the Abbey 
 garden and flowered on Christmas Day, was the veritable staff 
 with which Joseph of Arimathaea, the traditional founder of 
 the place, aided his steps from the Holy Land, and that it was 
 the progenitor of the thorn trees which still bloom in the neigh- 
 bourhood.
 
 154 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 throughout his long and active career. He was not, 
 as already mentioned, ambitious to excel in the 
 purely literary work of his profession, and was no 
 aspirant for literary fame. If, however, he was 
 not a famous author, he was a brilliant experimen- 
 ter and an eminently successful teacher, giving his 
 time and energies unsparingly to his professorial 
 duties, and technical and toxicological studies, 
 which, in this country, seemed to him infinitely 
 more important than pure scientific treatises. In 
 this devotion to his professorship Professor Croft 
 was a good example of a class of men, specialists 
 in scientific work, who are in the work for the love 
 of it, and are loyal to its service, despite strong 
 temptations for more lucrative employment. Twice 
 at least during his term of office he had offers 
 made to him which, if accepted, would have enabled 
 him to amass a fortune. Both offers came from 
 personal friends and were attractive and alluring, 
 but they were gratefully declined. 
 
 In the lecture room he was an admirable exposi- 
 tor, and a happy and dexterous demonstrator. Like 
 all good teachers of a rapidly-advancing science, he 
 unavoidably made his pupils eager for more than 
 he gave them. In a far wider sphere than his lec- 
 ture room he, more than any other teacher of his 
 time in Canada, simplified and legitimately popular- 
 ized chemistry without vulgarizing it; and he may 
 be said to have laid the foundation of our educa-
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 155 
 
 tional system of practical chemistry, and the ad- 
 mirable methods of illustration in chemical re- 
 search and analysis. 
 
 Professor Croft also held intimate and important 
 relations with two of the learned professions, and 
 these were long and honourably sustained. In the 
 administration of justice, he, for many years, sup- 
 plied an essential link in what was then a compara- 
 tively new branch of science, and one which has 
 united the sister professions of law and medicine 
 as its alternative titles, forensic medicine and medi- 
 cal jurisprudence, imply. In a special manner he 
 brought his extensive knowledge of chemistry, and 
 his experienced skill in chemical analysis, to bear 
 upon the vitally important subject of toxicology, 
 and simplified and improved the methods for detect- 
 ing poisons by clever devices of his own, as well as 
 by the judicious adoption of tests employed by the 
 ablest toxicologists of the age. There was a time 
 in Canada when the most astute lawyers and the 
 most experienced physicians equally shrank from 
 poisoning cases as exceedingly perplexing and un- 
 satisfactory cases to deal with in a court of jus- 
 tice. Professor Croft made toxicology, in so far 
 at least as the administration and effects of poisons 
 are concerned, the most certain and unerring in 
 their results of any department of medical juris- 
 prudence. His skill and accomplishments as a 
 toxicologist were widely known, and he was in-
 
 156 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 variably appealed to from the farthest ends of the 
 Dominion in doubtful cases of death from poison. 
 He, in his time, saved some innocent men from the 
 gallows, and it is just as certain that he was instru- 
 mental in bringing to justice others of whom society 
 was well rid. 
 
 The acknowledged eminence attained by Profes- 
 sor Croft was due to something more than his being, 
 as he often was, a solitary worker. In nothing was 
 his career more marked than in the power which 
 he possessed of interesting others in his own field 
 of labour. He felt and showed an appreciative in- 
 terest in the progress of every department of phys- 
 ical and natural science; his philosophic spirit en- 
 abled him to set a just estimate on their researches, 
 and in turn he drew the sympathy of their teachers 
 and students with him into his own domain and en- 
 listed their active co-operation in the common cause. 
 And this he did, not more by the weight of his au- 
 thority than by the influence of his manly, true- 
 hearted nature. His ability and his learning, in 
 those branches of science which he made his own 
 special study, were unquestioned, but it was a kindly 
 heart that knew no selfishness, and was wide and 
 generous in its sympathies, that gained for him the 
 affection and respect of students and fellow-work- 
 ers in all branches of science. The small vanities and 
 heart-burnings, which are sometimes the besetting 
 sins of men of science and letters, had no hold upon
 
 HENRY HOLMES CROFT 157 
 
 him; a thorough spirit of charity, a toleration for 
 everything but empiricism and pettiness, seemed to 
 hide from him all but the good and worthy points in 
 his fellow men. His time and his knowledge were 
 always at the disposal of needy comers, while his 
 integrity and thoroughness in all subjects of inves- 
 tigation, the least as well as the most important, 
 gave him the authority and weight of a court of 
 last resort in his own department. He saved many 
 a man's money oftentimes at the expense of his own, 
 and performed many a similar service for the pub- 
 lic, so easily imposed upon, in some things, by vaga- 
 bond quacks and charlatans. The motto on the 
 crest of the Croft family, Esse quam videri (to be 
 rather than to seem), was tersely expressive of his 
 sterling honesty and uprightness and transparent 
 love of truth, and his abhorrence of shams and im- 
 postures either intellectual or material. 
 
 As a teacher of chemistry, Professor Croft's in- 
 fluence was as the grain of mustard seed in the 
 parable expansive and fruitful in the highest de- 
 gree. When he quit the scene where for nearly 
 thirty-eight years he was seldom absent from the 
 post of duty, there were hundreds of students who 
 gratefully recalled, as they do still, the hours spent 
 in his classroom or laboratory. For it was there 
 that they were initiated by him into the mysteries 
 of his favourite science, and learned those lessons of 
 patient enquiry a.nd minute observation which are
 
 158 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 invaluable in the lifework of every man. Those 
 who, in times past, were his pupils, and found de- 
 light in his scientific investigations, will not soon 
 forget his enthusiastic zeal, his enlarged acquaint- 
 ance with the literature of his department, his 
 kindly interest in all amongst his friends and fol- 
 lowers who manifested a regard for his favourite 
 studies. As, in after years, their fates led them far 
 and wide in the world, some settling down to active 
 practice in rural communities, some ambitiously 
 striving for fresh honours in the Universities of 
 other countries, some plunging into the midst of 
 metropolitan activities, no one who remained con- 
 stant to the fascinating studies of his pupilhood 
 was ever forgotten by the kind-hearted professor, 
 whose quick and cheering perception of early merit 
 had perpetuated tastes that might have speedily 
 perished if unobserved and unencouraged. 
 
 O strong soul, by what shore 
 Tarriest thou now? For that force, 
 Surely, has not been left vain! 
 Somewhere, surely, afar, 
 In the sounding labour-house vast 
 Of being, is practiced that strength, 
 Zealous, beneficent, firm!
 
 JAMES FORNERI, LL.D. 
 
 FIRST PROFESSOR OF MODERN LANGUAGES IN UNIVERSITY 
 COLLEGE, TORONTO
 
 JAMES FORNERI 
 
 UNDERGRADUATES of the University, who at- 
 tended lectures prior to the year 1867, will recall 
 pleasantly to mind a small, erect, and fresh-com- 
 plexioned old gentleman, who, as the bell in the 
 great Norman tower tolled the close of the College 
 working day, emerged from the main entrance of 
 the building and pursued his way with short, nerv- 
 ous steps towards the Yonge Street avenue, and 
 thence to the easterly precincts of the city. The old 
 gentleman on his homeward route was a familiar 
 figure to the then residents of Toronto. He wore 
 gold spectacles and carried a walking stick with the 
 easy confidence sometimes noticeable in military 
 men. Every student greeted him with a kindly salu- 
 tation ; his courtesy to all whom he recognized was 
 that of a well-bred foreigner. As he politely 
 raised his hat to some passing lady acquaintance, 
 he disclosed a high, intellectual-looking forehead 
 sparsely mantled with hair of snowy whiteness. 
 There was something in the appearance and bear- 
 ing of the venerable "professor of languages," as 
 he was popularly called, which arrested attention 
 and challenged remark. With the infirmities of age 
 
 161
 
 1 62 ! McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 plainly upon him, his features still wore the ruddy 
 health of youth; his keen, deeply set eyes had in 
 them an almost piercing brightness; force and de- 
 cision of character marked every lineament of his 
 face. Those who knew him well felt these to be dis- 
 tinguishing qualities of the man at once discernible 
 in the snatches which he gave them of his strange 
 life history. There was a tinge of the romantic 
 running through it all ; he had been a right gallant 
 gentleman in his time, and his career altogether 
 was a remarkable one. 
 
 Ancestry The Forneri Family 
 
 James Forneri was of noble or, at least, of semi- 
 noble birth. The founders of his family were 
 Frenchmen who took part in the Crusades. 1 The 
 family name was originally Desfourniery, and one 
 of his ancestors was, at the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, a lawyer of not a little repute at 
 the Paris Bar. The principal ancestral records 
 were confiscated by the Italian Government in the 
 year 1821, in consequence of the late Professor 
 being compromised in the political events of 
 that year; but those which were preserved enable 
 us to glean the main facts of an exceedingly inter- 
 esting family history. They show a long line of 
 scholarly and clever men, litterateurs and members 
 
 1 See vignette of Forneri armorial bearings and comments 
 thereon at the end of this volume.
 
 JAMES FOR NEW, LL.D. 
 
 First Professor of Modern Languages in University College, 
 Toronto. 1853-1865 
 
 (From a photograph taken in Belleville, Ont.. after his retirement)
 
 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 nly upon him, his features still wore the ruddy 
 1th of youth; his keen, deeply set eyes 
 them an almost piercing brightness ; force and de- 
 cision of character marked every lineament 01 
 face. Those who knew him well felt these to be dis- 
 tinguishing qualities of the man at once discernible 
 in the snatches which he gave them of his strange 
 life history. Then was ; r the i 
 
 running throu. 
 gentleman tn 
 was a remarkabk one. 
 
 Ancestry The Forneri Family 
 
 James Forneri was of noble or, at least, of semi- 
 noble birth. The founders of his family were 
 Frenchmen who took part io the Crusades. 1 The 
 
 ily name was origin illy [)esfourniery, and 
 of his ancestors wa, M rbr beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, a <a*i*r c*l not a little repute at 
 the Paris Bar >al ancestral records 
 
 were confiscated i m Government in the 
 
 year 1821, in coKsojmsice of the late Professor 
 being compromised in the political events of 
 that year; but thosr ,>. fitch were preserved enable 
 us to gl main facts of an exceedingly inter- 
 
 esting ,CiJJ .uf^ngw^ifg^A^ ] on pr } m o f 
 
 *-* 4 O 
 
 'See vigne:
 
 JAMES FORNERI 163 
 
 of the learned professions, divided in both their po- 
 litical and religious opinions Roman Catholics be- 
 fore the Reformation, Huguenots afterwards, and 
 Catholics again when, passing from France to Italy, 
 they settled in the once imperial city of Rome a few 
 years before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 Their change of creed, as well as of citizenship, does 
 not seem to have been due altogether to conviction, 
 the transfer of allegiance having been made to en- 
 able the then head of the house to take possession 
 of a large Italian estate which a cousin of his, one 
 of the twelve Prelets or Judges of the sacra rota 
 Romana, had bequeathed to him. From this time 
 forward the name of the family underwent a series 
 of changes, becoming in turn DeFornery and 
 DeForneri until the year 1821, when the subject of 
 this sketch, who was then, like most Italian young 
 men, strongly imbued with democratic ideas, 
 dropped the ancient aristocratic "De" and adopted 
 the simpler name which he bore with pride ever 
 afterwards. 
 
 Childhood and Early Education 
 
 Although his ancestry were all Roman ab antique, 
 and although his immediate progenitors settled in 
 the seven-hilled city, the Professor was, by the acci- 
 dent of birth, a Piedmontese. His father, David 
 Emmanuel DeForneri, who was a lawyer, and what 
 was known as a collegiate school pleader, married
 
 164 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Margaret Gorresio, the daughter and heiress of a 
 wealthy physician living in the city of Ceva in Pied- 
 mont. This marriage brought him a large property, 
 including a valuable estate at Racconigi, a city a 
 few miles distant from Turin, the capital of Pied- 
 mont. The estate was called II Macagno, and as it 
 was, everything considered, a delightful summer 
 retreat, his parents were accustomed to spend there 
 a great portion of the year. At II Macagno James 
 Forneri was born, as nearly as can be ascertained, 
 in the latter part of the month of June, or early in 
 July, in the year 1789, when the great French Revo- 
 lution was fairly in the ascendant. The terrible in- 
 fluences and effects of the Revolution were by no 
 means confined to France. They extended, with a 
 lesser degree of virulence, to Italy, where they in- 
 flicted great and irreparable losses and severe pri- 
 vations upon many of the ruling families of the 
 country. The DeForneris did not escape, either in 
 person or estate, from this whirlwind of passion and 
 violence which swept Italian soil. David Em- 
 manuel DeForneri and his father held influential 
 positions in the service of the Government. The 
 family was naturally identified with the noblesse 
 royalists, and it paid the penalty which was merci- 
 lessly exacted from all others similarly situated. 
 The Jacobin revolutionists had no sooner crossed 
 the Alps than they swooped down, like rapacious 
 vultures, upon the peaceful fields and smiling vine-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 165 
 
 yards of Italy, carrying devastation and ruin 
 wheresoever they went. James Forneri's father 
 and grandfather were driven from their homes, and 
 hunted like wild beasts through the country. His 
 mother, who remained the sole protectress of her 
 young family, was repeatedly compelled to pay 
 heavy contributions to save her house from the 
 spoiling hand of the plunderer or the torch of the 
 incendiary, and occasionally even her children and 
 herself from murder. Her husband and his father 
 succumbed ere long to the hardships which they 
 were forced to endure; both died of fatigue and ex- 
 haustion, and James Forneri was thus left father- 
 less in helpless infancy, and his mother a widow, 
 while still in her youth, with the care of five chil- 
 dren, two sons and three daughters, James being 
 the younger of the brothers. 
 
 Under these trying circumstances Signora De- 
 Forneri, whose near relatives belonged to the north 
 of Italy, determined to give up her establishment in 
 Rome. She settled for life in Piedmont, making her 
 residence alternately at Turin and Racconigi, where 
 she devoted herself with affectionate solicitude to 
 the educational training of her children. We may 
 well believe that their tender years of infancy were 
 full of many anxieties for the young mother, and 
 that she had a fair share of the trials and misfor- 
 tunes of the widowed head of a household. Not 
 long before her departure from Rome, James, who
 
 166 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 was then a mere child, met with an accident which 
 almost cost him his life. One day as an infantry 
 regiment was marching past beneath the upper win- 
 dows of the house, his nurse, attracted by the music 
 of the regimental band, hurried to the front balcony 
 and rested the child upon the balustrade. While 
 in this position the little fellow slipped from her 
 grasp and fell into the street below, a distance 
 of over thirty feet. The regiment was instantly 
 halted, and everybody supposed that he was killed. 
 Fortunately he had fallen upon the shoulders of one 
 of the officers of the regiment, who was walking 
 alongside his company, and the force of the fall 
 being thus broken, the child providentially escaped 
 with a few bruises. Some four years afterwards he 
 sustained a serious accident whilst being driven by 
 the coachman in the narrow streets of Ceva; in try- 
 ing to avoid a passing vehicle, the driver ran the 
 wheel of his own upon a doorstep and overturned 
 the carriage. James Forneri, who was one of the 
 occupants, had his arm dislocated and several bones 
 broken, and it was only by the skilful attention of 
 the surgeon of a French regiment, who happened 
 to be billeted at his mother's house, that the young 
 lad was preserved from a permanent physical de- 
 formity. But, as will be seen in the course of this 
 narrative, these were not the only occasions upon 
 which the "protecting fairy" of credulous childhood 
 charmed away imminent danger and saved his life.
 
 JAMES FORNERI 167 
 
 He was destined to pass unharmed through many 
 perils, and to close a long and eventful career with 
 the serene tranquillity of a peaceful end. 
 
 Signora DeForneri's desire to educate her chil- 
 dren was very happily promoted by her father's 
 affluent circumstances. Dr. Gorresio, who had left 
 no male issue surviving him and only two daugh- 
 ters, had at his death bequeathed to them a large 
 property under certain conditions which were now 
 to take effect in favour of his youngest grandson. 
 By his will he had directed that his estate should go 
 to his elder daughter, and afterwards in succession 
 to her sister, in case either had a son who should 
 study for the church, take holy orders, and per- 
 form testamentary obligations of celebrating every 
 morning a mass in the private family chapel, and 
 affording hospitality for three nights to all pilgrims 
 who might claim it on their way to visit the Holy 
 Places. His will further provided that his property, 
 which had an annual value of several hundred 
 pounds, should ultimately pass to the convent of 
 the Orfanelli at Mondovi in the event of his two 
 daughters, or their offspring in a direct line, having 
 no male children who would assume the sacred of- 
 fice of the priesthood. Testamentary bequests like 
 these were not uncommon at the time. In the last 
 century in England, as well as in Italy and other 
 continental countries, it was, if not an article of 
 faith, at least a hallowed and time-honoured cus-
 
 168 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 torn in families of respectability, and especially in 
 those of noble descent in which there was more 
 than one son, to bring up the second son either to 
 the church or the army. Signora DeForneri was a 
 devout Catholic, and there is no reason to doubt 
 that it was from no desire of retaining the family 
 inheritance or from any other interested motive, 
 but solely from a pious conscientiousness, quickened 
 and directed by her spiritual advisers, that she had, 
 from his earliest infancy, dedicated her youngest 
 son to the priestly service of the Roman Church. 
 
 So soon, therefore, as they were old enough to 
 receive such instruction, Jesuit teachers were pro- 
 vided to prepare the elder son for the University of 
 Turin, he being destined for the Bar, and the 
 younger for the Seminario Romano, a college in 
 Rome in which young men were trained for the 
 church. In that seminary James Forneri remained 
 until he had completed his third year in divinity, 
 when his brother having died, he, with the consent 
 of his mother and after a grave family consulta- 
 tion, gave up the study of theology for that of juris- 
 prudence and canon law. The young student de- 
 voted himself with great diligence and success to 
 his newly adopted profession, and in the course of 
 time took his degree of LL.D. at the University 
 Delia Sapienza in Rome. He had no thought, how- 
 ever, of remaining there. Whatever was the rea- 
 son he was wont to say jocularly that it was be-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 169 
 
 cause he had "cheated St. Peter" he was not re- 
 garded in Rome with a favouring eye by those 
 whose influence and good-will were indispensable to 
 a young man commencing the practice of the legal 
 profession. His mother, however, lived in the north 
 of Italy; she stood in need of his filial comfort and 
 protection, if not of his assistance, and her friends 
 and relatives there were highly connected and in- 
 fluential. Under these circumstances he left Rome 
 forever ; and having completed his three years' term 
 of preparatory service as a law student in Turin, 
 and passed with distinction the examinations pre- 
 scribed by the Lex, he was in the year 1809 ad- 
 mitted to the Bar of that city. For two or three 
 years thereafter his life seems to have been that of 
 the majority of advocates entering the legal pro- 
 fession. It was the watching and waiting period of 
 professional existence when young barristers are 
 popularly supposed to be briefless. 
 
 This monotony was, however, broken by one 
 noteworthy adventure in which his life was again 
 placed in jeopardy. In company with a small party 
 of friends, all of whom were travelling in carriages, 
 he was returning home one beautiful moonlight 
 night in September, 1810, from the festival of the 
 Madonna at Viso, a small Piedmontese village upon 
 the mountain near Mondovi, when the party were 
 attacked by a band of disguised brigands. The first 
 carriage, in which James Forneri was seated fast
 
 170 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 asleep, was fired into by the ruffians, and as he 
 jumped from the vehicle into the road he found 
 the bridle of the horse in the grasp of the leader of 
 the band. He at once raised the alarm, and, his 
 friends coming up, a determined resistance was 
 made with such missiles as could be laid hold of, 
 there being not a single firearm or weapon among 
 the party. The robbers used their pistols freely, 
 but no shot took effect, and they were finally put 
 to flight and pursued as far as a forest about a 
 quarter of a mile distant from the main road. The 
 young advocate had outstripped his companions in 
 the chase, and, in seeking to rejoin them by a 
 shorter route, he was mistaken for one of the 
 assailants bent upon another attack, and barely 
 escaped with his life. 
 
 Military Experiences Cavalry Officer under Napoleon 
 
 However fortune may have favoured James For- 
 neri at the dawn of his active professional career, 
 there can be no doubt that he entered upon it earn- 
 estly, and with a determination to win his way to 
 eminence. He was clever, ambitious, possessed 
 great capacity for hard work, and he had many in- 
 centives to spur him forward. But the future had 
 a very different career in store for him, and his 
 manly young heart, brave as it was, might well have 
 beaten with a strange tremor could he have fore- 
 seen, however dimly, the exciting vicissitudes and
 
 JAMES FORNERI 171 
 
 thrilling adventures which were to be crowded into 
 those coming years. 
 
 The year 1812 will be remembered as that in 
 which Europe was the arena of the maddest of all 
 the sanguinary schemes of the first Napoleon. The 
 French Emperor, flushed with a series of victories, 
 had resolved upon the invasion of Russia, and was 
 then moving his vast army of nearly half a million 
 men towards the Russian frontier. As a guar- 
 antee for the tranquillity of his empire at least 
 this was the plea offered at that time he deter- 
 mined to raise, amongst others, four choice cavalry 
 regiments called a Guard of Honour (Gardes d'hon- 
 neur), consisting of the young men of the most dis- 
 tinguished families in all the states of his dominion. 
 Being essentially a stroke of statecraft, it was not 
 deemed advisable, in carrying it into effect, to per- 
 mit those who were "drawn" for the Guards to pro- 
 vide substitutes. The military "policy" of the con- 
 queror required that every conscript guardsman 
 who was to be uniformed a la Hussarde should 
 enter the service armed and equipped at his own ex- 
 pense. Young Forneri was one of those enlisted in 
 this general conscription. He was enrolled in the 
 4th Regiment of the Guards as a sub-lieutenant 
 the highest rank which a foreigner could hold in it. 
 
 Albeit a widow's only son, which would have ex- 
 cused him in any other case, he was sent forth with 
 his regiment on active service with the uncertain
 
 172 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 pay of an English cornet, and the prospect of being 
 entitled to the rank of full-lieutenant in any corps 
 he might select should he escape the fatalities of a 
 campaign. The 4th Regiment of the Guards, whose 
 depot was at Lyons, was under orders to join the 
 expeditionary force against Russia. It had pro- 
 ceeded as far as Mayence when the order was coun- 
 termanded, and it was sent to Cassel to assist in 
 reinstating Jerome Buonaparte, the eldest brother 
 of the Emperor, in the kingdom of Westphalia, 
 from which he had been expelled a short time before 
 by the Russian General, Czerintzeky, at the head of 
 a flying column of Cossacks. The young subaltern 
 was thus spared any share in the horrible miseries 
 of the disastrous Russian campaign. His regiment 
 executed its Westphalia commission, but was unable 
 to maintain its position for more than two months. 
 The Grand Army of France had then commenced 
 that fatal retreat, in which the Guards were forced 
 to join. They retired as far as Haguenau, where 
 they halted to await further orders. Meanwhile, 
 the battle of Leipsic had been fought and lost 
 by Napoleon, who, being anxious to cross the Rhine, 
 retired upon Hanau with seventy or eighty thousand 
 men, the wreck of the splendid veteran army of 
 nearly half a million which had proudly followed 
 him to Moscow. The Guards were ordered to join 
 him at Hanau, where he arrived to find the Russian 
 General, Wridi, with a force inferior in numbers,
 
 JAMES FORNERI 173 
 
 determined to oppose his passage. For three whole 
 days in the month of October, 1813, a bloody com- 
 bat, in which the Guards were repeatedly engaged, 
 was carried on between the hostile forces before 
 and within the town of Hanau. Wridi's object was 
 to detain his adversary until the army of the Allies 
 could reach the scene of conflict. Napoleon knew 
 this, and that the success of Wridi's plan meant his 
 own certain destruction. As a last resource he or- 
 dered General Curial to lead the Guards in a des- 
 perate attempt to force a passage onward. The at- 
 tempt was successful. The Guards cut their way 
 through the enemy with great loss, Lieutenant For- 
 neri being fortunate enough to escape with a slight 
 wound in his right hand caused by the grazing of a 
 pistol ball. 
 
 Captured by Cossack Irregulars 
 
 It was on November 2 that the banks of 
 the Rhine were thus gained, Napoleon crossing the 
 river on the bridge of Mentz, followed in hot haste 
 by his wearied columns. These were disposed in 
 various positions along the river banks, whilst the 
 allied forces took up their cantonments at no great 
 distance, Frankfort being their headquarters. The 
 4th Regiment of the Guards was now detached 
 from the corps d'armee, and stationed in Rhenish 
 Prussia, between Borin and Coblentz, to watch the 
 movements of the enemy on the other side of the
 
 174 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Rhine, but with orders to retire upon Strasbourg 
 in case he should cross over. Nothing particular 
 occurred until January, 1814, when the allied forces 
 crossed the Rhine at several points, and invaded 
 France. The Guards were then at Coblentz, at the 
 confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle. 
 
 On the night of January 3, 1814, Lieuten- 
 ant Forneri was ordered off on a reconnaissance 
 with twenty troopers under his command. The 
 night was very dark and foggy, and all were obliged 
 to trust rather to their horses' sagacity than to their 
 own. They had proceeded about ten miles, and had 
 arrived at a turn in a thickly wooded part of the 
 road, when the horses showed signs of restiveness 
 and alarm; the riders had no time to grasp their 
 pistols before they were surprised and surrounded 
 by a large body of Cossacks and instantly made 
 prisoners. The captors, as it afterwards appeared, 
 were not Cossacks of the Don or the Volga, who 
 were regular troops, but formed part of an irregu- 
 lar force of Cossack military adventurers, who re- 
 ceived no pay and subsisted on plunder. They 
 were the advance guard of the Russian army under 
 Prince Wittgenstein, the Russian Commander-in- 
 Chief, and had, an hour or two before, favoured by 
 the obscurity of the night, crossed the river on 
 rafted bridges at a place entirely concealed from 
 the road. 
 
 The officer in command was a mere youth of me-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 175 
 
 dium height, slight in figure, with piercing black 
 eyes, and bold and determined features, but with 
 rather an effeminate voice. In the course of a con- 
 versation in French, in which Lieutenant Forneri 
 was interrogated on various points, and was as- 
 sured that he and his men would be well treated, 
 saving the rights of war (hors les droits de la 
 guerre), he at once suspected that the young officer 
 before him was a woman. His suspicions were aft- 
 erwards fully confirmed. During his stay at the 
 Cossack outpost he learned that, in the regular force 
 to which they were attached, there were many 
 Italian and French deserters, who had joined 
 them solely for the sake of plunder, and that the 
 Cossack officer was really a French woman named 
 Madame Renard. She had been the wife of a ma- 
 jor in the French army, who was killed at the battle 
 of Borodino, and having fallen into the hands of a 
 Cossack colonel, who was then with the Russian ad- 
 vance guard, the latter had fallen in love with her 
 and made her his wife. Being a woman of mascu- 
 line spirit and great personal courage, she had 
 asked and obtained the command of a company, and 
 was known as Captain Renard, a splendid officer 
 who feared nothing, and whom her men would fol- 
 low anywhere, so perfect was the control she pos- 
 sessed over them, and the confidence they reposed 
 in her. 
 
 Captain Renard was as good as her word in so
 
 176 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 far as the rough creature comforts of their rude 
 bivouac were concerned. The cold was very se- 
 vere, but her prisoners had always reserved for 
 them the best places at their firesides, and received 
 a generous share of their daily rations. But "the 
 rights of war," as Lieutenant Forneri and his men 
 soon discovered, were very liberally interpreted in 
 favour of the captain and her banditti followers. 
 The maxim of "to the victors belong the spoils" was 
 acted on with the most exacting unscrupulousness, 
 but with an urbanity and politeness that would have 
 been amusingly droll if it had not left every guards- 
 man with scarce a stitch to his back. They stripped 
 their victims almost to the skin, with no end of smil- 
 ing bows and flattering gesticulations, the troopers 
 first, and in due time their commanding officer, who 
 was reserved as the special prize of the gallant cap- 
 tain, or, rather, of her husband, who was her su- 
 perior in command. The result of this general loot- 
 ing of the party was not unsatisfactory to these ac- 
 complished Cossack thieves ; in the lieutenant's case 
 the perquisites of war comprised 120 louis d'or, 
 which he carried in the pocket of his waist belt, the 
 balance of a draft from his indulgent mother upon 
 a banker at Lyons. 
 
 The little camp broke up on the morning of the 
 fourth day, and, as the sun was sinking in the even- 
 ing, they arrived at Coblentz, the old headquarters 
 of the Guards, who, two days previous, had retired
 
 JAMES FORNERI 177 
 
 upon Strasbourg. Marshal Bliicher was then at 
 Coblentz, lodged in one of the principal hotels of the 
 town, and the lieutenant and his fellow prisoners 
 were assigned rooms at the same hotel, where they 
 were treated with every consideration. In return 
 perhaps for the rich booty obtained with such 
 suavity from his principal prisoner, the Cossack 
 colonel now furnished Lieutenant Forneri with a 
 pass in the Russian language, which directed that 
 the bearer should be allowed to proceed unmolested. 
 He was, of course, still a prisoner of war, and so 
 remained for some time afterwards, but the pass 
 was intended to prevent his undergoing a second 
 process of thievish overhauling, and was found to 
 be invaluable in this respect in passing through the 
 Russian lines. 
 
 On the following morning they resumed their 
 march, which was continued for several days, the 
 same uniform kindness being shown them through 
 the day and at the nightly bivouacs, until at last 
 they were handed over to the regular Russian 
 troops with orders to proceed to Rastadt in the 
 Duchy of Baden, the headquarters of Prince Witt- 
 genstein, General-in-Chief of the Russian army. 
 So long as they were with the Cossacks they trav- 
 elled along as merry-hearted as could be on horse- 
 back, but they were now forced to journey on foot 
 as silent and lugubrious as a procession of friars 
 leading a lot of heretics to the stake. They were
 
 178 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 much less kindly treated, and their unfortunate 
 position was constantly aggravated by the coarse 
 selfishness of the Russian soldiery. 
 
 Escapes Exile to Siberia 
 
 After a toilsome march of four days they ar- 
 rived at Rastadt, and were at once taken to the 
 Governor's house. They were shown into a large 
 room where they found the Governor and his secre- 
 tary seated at a table. The officer in charge of the 
 prisoners handed the Governor a paper, probably 
 the prisoners' muster roll, which he glanced at and 
 passed to his secretary. At this moment a young 
 staff officer entered the room, and, approaching 
 Lieutenant Forneri, addressed to him a number of 
 questions in Italian as to his family and place of 
 birth ; he then spoke a few words in Russian to the 
 Governor and retired. In less than an hour the 
 same officer, who was an aide-de-camp of the Rus- 
 sian Commander-in-chief, returned, gave a paper 
 to the Governor, who read it, and, turning to the 
 lieutenant, told him that he was set at liberty by 
 order of Prince Wittgenstein. This seemingly un- 
 important occurrence was one of vital moment to 
 the young guardsman, for it saved him from being 
 sent into dismal captivity in Siberia, where, even at 
 that time, all French prisoners were summarily 
 transported. 
 
 Lieutenant Forneri was at once liberated ; he left
 
 JAMES FORNERI 179 
 
 the room in company with the staff officer, who con- 
 ducted him to his own lodgings, where he was pro- 
 vided with a comfortable room and an attendant, 
 and where he was entertained, during his brief stay, 
 with the greatest possible kindness. In the course 
 of a conversation at breakfast next morning the 
 lieutenant learned that his generous host was a 
 Savoyard nobleman named Count De Medster, who 
 had formerly lived at Chambery, the capital of 
 Savoy, which was then attached to the crown of 
 Sardinia. Upon the invasion of Piedmont by 
 Buonaparte in 1796 the Count's family had retired 
 to St. Petersburg, where he had joined the Russian 
 army, in which he now held the rank of colonel. 
 During his residence in Italy he had made the ac- 
 quaintance of Lieutenant Forneri's grandfather, 
 who was a Senator of Turin, and the relatore or 
 registrar of the Senate, which was, it seems, clothed 
 with judicial functions, and before which the 
 Count's father had once appeared as a successful 
 suitor. 
 
 It was to this trifling circumstance that Lieuten- 
 ant Forneri owed his recent happy turn of good 
 fortune. The Russian General-in-Chief had ex- 
 pressed a desire to meet Count De Medster's guest, 
 and accordingly on the following morning Lieu- 
 tenant Forneri accompanied his host, the general's 
 aide-de-camp, to the spacious building which was 
 then the Prince's headquarters. The general was
 
 i8o McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 at breakfast, but the young officers were at once 
 ushered into the breakfast room, where the lieuten- 
 ant was presented to the Prince, a venerable, placid- 
 looking old gentleman of medium height, pleasing 
 manners, and charming address, who received him 
 in a very kindly manner. Without rising the Prince 
 bowed slightly, and at once put the young lieutenant 
 at his ease by complacently pointing to two seats 
 at the breakfast table. This invitation was politely 
 declined by the lieutenant, who said he had already 
 breakfasted. But his host would accept no excuses, 
 and replied with the witty repartee: "N'importe, 
 on se vient toujours plus severe sur deux pieds, que 
 sur un seul!" 
 
 Forneri's interview with the Prince was a lengthy 
 and very agreeable one, in the course of which mili- 
 tary topics were naturally uppermost. The old 
 gentleman, who spoke excellent French, was in- 
 tensely amused with the French officer's descrip- 
 tion of the polite thieveries of the Cossacks ; but on 
 being told that these thoroughbred freebooters were 
 led by a French woman, he turned smilingly to his 
 aide-de-camp, and said: "Colonel, as we are now 
 entering France, you must take care of the lady's 
 ambassador, or you are lost!" Before the inter- 
 view closed, the Prince pressed him to enter the 
 Russian service with the rank of captain, an offer 
 which the French officer firmly but politely declined. 
 He then offered to supply him with anything he
 
 JAMES FORNERI 181 
 
 might require should he feel disposed to accompany 
 the Russian forces into French territory. Lieuten- 
 ant Forneri, however, begged to be permitted to 
 return to his home in Piedmont, where he was sure 
 his widowed mother, with whom he had had no 
 communication for a long time, was anxiously 
 awaiting tidings of his safety. The Prince said 
 that he sympathised with him in this very natural 
 feeling, and that he would see that his wishes were 
 carried out; he then kindly dismissed him. 
 
 Count De Medster subsequently informed his 
 friend that the Russian Commander-in-Chief had 
 signed an order, which he was to take with him, 
 giving directions to the Governor of the place for 
 his immediate conveyance through the lines of the 
 allied forces, with all the rights and privileges as 
 to travelling indemnity, etc., of a captain in the Rus- 
 sian service his sub-lieutenancy in the French 
 Guards being considered equivalent to a captaincy 
 in the Russian army. He was also provided with a 
 complete and very comfortable outfit, which Cos- 
 sack cupidity had rendered indispensable. Three 
 days afterwards he bade adieu to his generous bene- 
 factor, who crowned all his kindness by thrusting 
 into his hands at the last moment a purse of gold; 
 and when Lieutenant Forneri begged him to say 
 into what bank in Europe his mother, who was rich, 
 might gratefully deposit the timely loan, his host 
 merely replied : "We shall see each other in Turin,"
 
 182 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 wished him a safe and speedy return home, and dis- 
 appeared. The lieutenant never saw his friends 
 again ; but long years after, when he was narrating 
 these tales of military life, his eye would fill and his 
 lip quiver as he recounted the story of Russian hos- 
 pitality in the old fortress town of Rastadt on the 
 Murg. 
 
 It was on the morning of February 6, 1814, 
 that Lieutenant Forneri left Rastadt on his jour- 
 ney homewards to Piedmont. The weather was 
 delightful, although very cold; he travelled post- 
 haste in an uncovered carriage drawn by two 
 horses, and late at night reached Tubingen, a small 
 university city in Wiirtemberg on the banks of the 
 Neckar. Instead of presenting his passport 
 which would have entitled him to civic hospitality 
 to the Burgomaster of the place, he put up at his 
 own expense at the first hotel he came to, one of 
 those old-fashioned, thatch-covered inns which are 
 still common in some parts of Germany. 
 
 Escapes Death by Fire 
 
 Changeful experiences had made Forneri a pru- 
 dent traveller ; he was wont to take his bearings in 
 a strange place and, when turning in for the night, 
 to place his worldly effects where he could readily 
 secure them in case of an emergency. It was a for- 
 tunate thing for him that he did so in the quaint old 
 hostelry at Tubingen, as, an hour or two after he
 
 JAMES FORNERI 183 
 
 had retired, he was awakened from a sound slumber, 
 half suffocated with smoke, to find that the hotel 
 was in flames and burning fiercely. Hurrying on a 
 few articles of clothing, he rushed to the stairway 
 only to discover that egress in that direction was 
 effectually cut off. His only remaining mode of es- 
 cape was through his bedroom window. With 
 great difficulty he forced it open, and pitching out 
 his effects in a hastily made bundle, he leaped out 
 after them through the blinding glare and smoke 
 into the crowded street below. It was really "a leap 
 in the dark," as it was very uncertain how or where 
 he would land, but he fortunately made the descent 
 without serious injury. The people of the house 
 informed him that his escape was providential. A 
 stranger and a late arrival, known only to the 
 sleepy night watchman, his presence in the house 
 was forgotten in the confusion of the affair. More- 
 over the flames had spread with such bewildering 
 rapidity, owing to the utter want of means to cope 
 with them, that a rescue from below would have 
 been impossible. The building and nearly the whole 
 of its contents were utterly destroyed, and several 
 of the inmates besides himself barely escaped with 
 their lives. 
 
 Forneri had managed to save his own goods, and 
 was enabled the same day to continue his journey 
 as far as Trent, a city in the southern Tyrol, and 
 the seat of the famous (Ecumenical Council to
 
 1 84 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 which it has given its name. Here he met with a 
 keen disappointment, for on presenting his passport 
 to the Governor of the city, which he was bound 
 to do in every case, he was informed by that func- 
 tionary that his progress homewards would be 
 greatly retarded on account of all the principal 
 places on the line of route being in the hands of the 
 French troops. Being determined, however, to 
 press forward, and anxious, if he were delayed at 
 all, that it should be on Italian soil, he got a visa to 
 Treviso, a large and populous town in Austrian 
 Italy under the government of Venice. 
 
 At Treviso was the depot of a regiment composed 
 of the dregs of the regular army. On reporting 
 himself to the Governor, and producing his travel- 
 ling permit and other papers, Lieutenant Forneri 
 was strongly urged to join this regiment, the Gov- 
 ernor informing him that all Italian prisoners who 
 had been paroled had patriotically entered its ranks 
 without hesitation ; and that, if he joined, he would 
 be entitled to his full rank of captain. Forneri, who 
 under any circumstances would have felt repelled by 
 such a villainous-looking lot of renegades, was, of 
 course, not disposed to entertain this very flattering 
 offer. He explained that, having been originally a 
 conscript in the French Guard, he was not a soldier 
 by profession; that he had already declined a simi- 
 lar proposal to enter the Russian service; that he 
 was the only son of a widowed mother who was
 
 JAMES FORNERI 185 
 
 anxiously awaiting his return; but that, in any 
 event, he must respect his parole as a French offi- 
 cer. The Governor's ideas of military honour were, 
 however, very different. He straightway flew into 
 a violent passion, insisted that his request should 
 be complied with, and said that, if it were not, he 
 would retain Lieutenant Forneri's passport, and 
 send him to prison. The young officer replied that 
 no doubt he had the power and authority to do that, 
 but he would please notice that his passport was 
 marked alia posta, and he would take good care 
 that the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army 
 should be duly informed how his commands had 
 been obeyed. He then left the room, and coolly 
 sauntered back to his hotel. The young officer's 
 quiet reference to Prince Wittgenstein had the de- 
 sired effect. About half an hour afterwards a 
 messenger arrived from the irate governor, and 
 wished to know where the lieutenant desired to go. 
 He was told, and soon afterwards he returned with 
 all the impounded papers, visa "good for Trieste." 
 
 Other Adventures by the Way 
 
 As speedy travelling now availed him little, Lieu- 
 tenant Forneri remained over at his various stop- 
 ping places and there were several of which no 
 mention is made here as long as it suited him. 
 His stay at Trieste, which was an interesting city, 
 full of the life and movement of a busy commercial
 
 1 86 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 port, was prolonged for over two months. One 
 bright spring afternoon, as Forneri was rambling 
 about in the suburbs of the city, he innocently wan- 
 dered into the grounds of the military reserve in 
 which were the powder magazine and other govern- 
 ment stores. A sentry, who was on duty nearby, 
 challenged the intruder in the usual way, but the 
 latter, absorbed in his own thoughts, walked on un- 
 consciously, until he was aroused by a powerful 
 blow from the indignant sentry, which for the mo- 
 ment paralyzed his left arm. Turning round with 
 an angry French exclamation, he dealt his assailant 
 an equally heavy blow on the shoulder with his 
 walking stick. The sentry at once charged him with 
 his bayonet, which he parried ; but, without waiting 
 for a second thrust, the French officer put himself 
 out of harm's way by leaping across a moat near 
 which the encounter took place, leaving the baf- 
 fled Austrian on the farther side. 
 
 Forneri hurried as quickly as possible to his lodg- 
 ings, changed his clothes, and remained indoors the 
 whole of the next day. But his French speech had 
 betrayed him. The day following he was peremp- 
 torily summoned before the Governor of the city to 
 answer for the offence. He appeared, as did also 
 the insulted guardian of the reserve; but in his 
 changed dress, which considerably altered his ap- 
 pearance, it was difficult for the prosecutor to iden- 
 tify him, and the accused was discharged from cus-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 187 
 
 tody. The Governor, who happened to be an Italian 
 in the Austrian service, afterwards told him that he 
 was pretty well satisfied of his guilt, particularly on 
 account of the French expression he had used 
 there being no Frenchmen then in the city but that 
 he did not wish to press an investigation against a 
 fellow countryman who had produced such excellent 
 credentials. Insulting a sentry on duty was, he 
 said, a very serious offence, and if he had pursued 
 the enquiry and the defendant had been found 
 guilty, the mildest punishment he could have 
 awarded would have been that of the disgraceful 
 bastinado. Lieutenant Forneri might well have 
 felt thankful for being spared this brutal humilia- 
 tion, which was not uncommon under the semi- 
 barbarous military law of the time. 
 
 The bastinado, or beating with a stick, was at 
 one time a potent governing instrument all over 
 the East, and, under the penal code of the 
 Ottoman Empire, was a punishment inflicted only 
 on the lowest classes of the people. In China 
 it took the form of the lithe bamboo, and in Russia 
 of the dreaded knout. It was the Turkish and Per- 
 sian method of beating with sticks the soles of the 
 feet, and sometimes the back, that prevailed at the 
 time referred to under the cruel martial law of 
 Austrian Italy. The bare feet of the culprit were 
 thrust through two running knots or nooses sus- 
 pended from a horizontal pole that was sup-
 
 i88 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ported by the myrmidons of the law. The 
 sufferer was then thrown on his back, or left to 
 rest on his neck and shoulders with his feet in- 
 verted, and these were lustily beaten with a good 
 stout stick. The degree of punishment was in the 
 discretion of the presiding magistrate, who alone 
 directed when the poor maimed feet should be cast 
 loose from the cords and pole, and the victim left to 
 crawl away and heal his wounds as best he could. 
 It is difficult to conceive of a refined and sensitive 
 nature being subjected to such cruel torture. There 
 is no doubt, however, that it was only avoided, as 
 we have seen, by the merest accident in the case of 
 the young French officer, who afterwards became a 
 respected Canadian professor. 
 
 Lieutenant Forneri was fully aware of this when 
 he quitted the presence of the lenient Governor of 
 Trieste, and he accordingly lost no time in giving 
 its keen-eyed Austrian sentinels a wide berth. He 
 left Trieste the same day, and in due course arrived 
 at Padua. But classic old Padua which under 
 other circumstances would have been replete with 
 fascinating interest, which was the birthplace of 
 Livy, the seat of a University that at one time num- 
 bered its students by thousands, a city of beautiful 
 edifices, rich and splendid in their interior decora- 
 tions and works of art, and that presented number- 
 less attractions to a cultured mind had then no 
 charms for one who, weary of wandering, pined for
 
 JAMES FORNERI 189 
 
 the simple delights of home. He pushed on 
 through Austrian Italy to Vicenza, where he ar- 
 rived in time to witness the demonstrations with 
 which the Austrian Government were pleased to 
 celebrate the capitulation of Paris, and the tri- 
 umphant entry within its walls of the victorious 
 army of the Allies. A few weeks later all the places 
 on the line of route, which were in the hands of the 
 French, surrendered, and the passes to the north 
 were reopened. His course was now clear, and it 
 was with a joyous heart that he continued his jour- 
 ney uninterruptedly to his Piedmont home, where he 
 arrived in July, and once more embraced his discon- 
 solate mother and sisters after an absence of more 
 than two years, which to them had been years of the 
 most painful anxiety and suspense. 
 
 Settled down, as he now thought, permanently 
 amongst old friends and comrades, and surrounded 
 by the bright and tender associations of domestic 
 life, the future appeared to him unclouded and full 
 of hope and promise. He resumed the active prac- 
 tice of his profession, and in course of time formed 
 a lucrative partnership with the Advocate Grecchi, 
 a distinguished lawyer and one of the best special 
 pleaders at the Bar of Turin. Their business pros- 
 pered, and was rapidly attaining large proportions, 
 when a series of startling events occurred which 
 gave a new and sudden turn to their affairs, and de- 
 termined, once for all, that fate had in store for the
 
 190 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 young lawyer another and very different career 
 than that of the Bar. 
 
 Beginnings of Struggle for Italian Unity 
 
 The events referred to were more or less the re- 
 sult of the great French convulsion of 1789, whose 
 malign influence seemed to overshadow James For- 
 neri's early life, and control his destiny. The Revo- 
 lution was without doubt an embodiment of all the 
 worst passions of the time, but, great and far-reach- 
 ing as were the evils, they were not unmixed with 
 good. In Italy, especially, they stimulated patriotic 
 feeling and inspired the minds of the Italian youth 
 with ideas of liberty and independence. Under the 
 Napoleonic regime the impatient impulsive spirits 
 of the peninsula had been either restrained by force 
 or beguiled by flattering promises. The restoration 
 of the Bourbons, and the re-establishment of that 
 dynasty in Naples, had revived the hope that, taught 
 by the sad experience of the past, the rulers of their 
 country would satisfy, in some measure, the long- 
 ings of the nation for constitutional government. 
 The hope proved delusive, and its disappointed 
 votaries betook themselves to those resources which 
 are the natural refuge of the weak against the 
 strong, of the oppressed against oppression. The 
 beautiful peninsula became a perfect hotbed of trea- 
 son and conspiracy, fomented in all directions by the 
 Carbonari and other secret revolutionary societies,
 
 JAMES FORNERI 191 
 
 which, for many years thereafter, in the Italy of 
 "Lothair" and Garibaldi, as well as of Pepe, exer- 
 cised so important an influence upon its destinies. 
 The objects of these societies were well known, and 
 were in no respect disguised. Their ultimate aim 
 was the unity of Italy under one constitutional sov- 
 ereign, elected by the people, with Rome as the capi- 
 tal of the kingdom, and, to this end, they sought the 
 expulsion of the Austrians, the abolition of the 
 temporal power of the Pope, and the overthrow of 
 absolutism everywhere. So perfect was their or- 
 ganization, and so complete their ramifications 
 throughout the country, that, despite the repressive 
 measures of the Government and the activity and 
 vigilance of its myrmidons, no important discov- 
 eries were made until the year 1820, when, through 
 the imprudence or treachery of a Neapolitan con- 
 federate, the dread secret was traced to a southern 
 regiment. The result was that the revolution burst 
 forth in the South six months before the North was 
 prepared for it, thereby causing the ultimate mis- 
 carriage of the whole design. 
 
 James Forneri was a Liberal at heart, and, believ- 
 ing the objects of the movement to be eminently just 
 and patriotic, he did not hesitate to cast in his lot 
 with the Liberal or Constitutional party. He was 
 confirmed in his resolution by the fact that the rec- 
 ognized leader of the Constitutionalists was Charles 
 Albert, better known as the Prince of Carignan,
 
 192 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the great-grandfather of the present King of Italy 
 and in the line of succession to the crown of Sar- 
 dinia, and that they comprised in their ranks the 
 flower of the Italian youth, and a large and influen- 
 tial section of the nobility and gentry of the country. 
 The inhabitants of Piedmont, whose martial spirit 
 had been stimulated by the long service of its troops 
 with the armies of France, were quick to share in 
 the universal feeling, and sturdy in maintaining it. 
 The officers of the army, the ardent and enthusias- 
 tic, the educated and cultured classes of the people, 
 as well as the intelligence and patriotism of the lit- 
 tle State, were all alike enlisted on the side of free, 
 representative institutions. Piedmont was a unit in 
 the cause. The example of Spain, whose govern- 
 ment had been revolutionized almost without blood- 
 shed, added fuel to the flames. It was, in fact, a 
 period of deep and far-reaching change amidst 
 European thrones and sceptres, a time when "Eu- 
 rope was slipping from beneath the monarchies," 
 and when, as it has been eloquently said, "all the 
 ancient institutions were being sapped in all the 
 south of the continent by new ideas and influences ; 
 when they felt themselves penetrated in their in- 
 most veins by that passion for a renewal of things, 
 that pouring of youthful blood into them, that par- 
 ticipation of the people in the government, which is 
 the soul of modern times. Entire peoples, who had 
 slept for centuries in their fetters, gave symptoms
 
 JAMES FORNERI 193 
 
 of returning life, and, even on the confines of Asia, 
 hoisted the signal of the resurrection of nations. 
 Revolutionary Italy blushed for its timidity in pres- 
 ence of a nation which, like the Spanish, had 
 achieved at the first step the realization of all the 
 visions of the philosophy of 1789, which had estab- 
 lished freedom of worship in the realm of the In- 
 quisition, vindicated the land from the priesthood 
 in a state of monastic supremacy, and dethroned 
 kings in a nation where absolute royalty was a 
 dogma and kings a faith." We can scarce wonder 
 that a youth possessed of the ardent temperament, 
 and quick, impulsive, and passionate nature of 
 James Forneri, was completely carried away with 
 such a movement. He was carried away with it. In 
 an evil hour for himself he became a member of the 
 central society of the Carbonari, who held their 
 vendita or meetings in Turin and its environs, and, 
 as long as he remained in the city, took an active 
 and prominent part in all their revolutionary pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Shares in Misfortunes of Movement 
 
 We need scarce do more than indicate the causes 
 of the complete collapse of this ill-starred move- 
 ment. Its object was a worthy and a practicable 
 one. It had filled the Italian mind, had been the 
 dream of its poets, the aspiration of its patriots, and 
 had sought to terminate a servitude which clung to
 
 194 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Italy conquering or conquered (vincitrice o vinta 
 sempre asserva). But it was a premature move- 
 ment, and was ruined by the faithlessness of its own 
 friends. History has long since pronounced upon 
 the treachery of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, 
 and that of his son and the Prince of Carignan, all 
 of whom betrayed and deserted the cause which 
 they had publicly and solemnly sworn to maintain. 
 Its verdict has been no less severe upon the pol- 
 troonery of the Neapolitan National Guard of 200,- 
 ooo men, well armed and disciplined, who permitted 
 a few thousand Austrian soldiers to enter their 
 capital without firing a single shot in defence of 
 their country. It was on the morning of April 9, 
 1821, that news reached Turin that Prince Carig- 
 nan had gone over to the enemy; that the Aus- 
 trian forces had crossed the Ticino, defeated the 
 Constitutionalists at Novara, and were rapidly 
 marching upon the capital of Piedmont; that the 
 fortress of Alessandria had surrendered; and that, 
 in a word, all was lost. This intelligence came like 
 a bolt from an unclouded sky; it struck consterna- 
 tion and dismay into the hearts of the patriotic 
 Turinese ; sauve qui pent was the predominant feel- 
 ing of all who were compromised in these unfortu- 
 nate events. 
 
 The young advocate heard the dread news on his 
 return from the Senate, and took in at a glance the 
 imminent perils of his position. He was an officer
 
 JAMES FORNERI 195 
 
 in the Veliti Italiani, a students' volunteer corps un- 
 der the command of Captain Ferrero, which, on 
 March 13 previous, at the little church of San 
 Salvano, near Turin, were the first to hoist the 
 Italian tri-colour with cries of "Viva la Constitusi- 
 onel" He had subsequently taken part in an insur- 
 gent attack on the citadel of that city, and had made 
 and published a series of speeches and addresses 
 against the ruling despotism and in favour of legis- 
 lative and constitutional reforms ; above all, he was 
 a leading member of the Carbonari, the principal in- 
 stigators of revolt, and the declared enemies of the 
 now victorious party. The evidence of his guilt was 
 overwhelming, and, if he were arrested, nothing 
 was more certain than that he would be marked out 
 for despotic vengeance, and be made to suffer the 
 extreme penalty of the law. Immediate flight from 
 Turin was plainly the only course open to him. 
 Having consulted with Captain Ferrero, and some 
 others equally compromised, it was resolved to as- 
 semble the students, frankly lay before them the 
 dangers of the situation, and induce them to set out 
 for the fortress town of Genoa, where, perhaps, a 
 stand could yet be made, if they were supported by 
 the garrison and the people, and, failing that, to 
 embark for Spain, which was then a land of liberty. 
 The Veliti Italiani at once accepted the proposals of 
 their leaders. The young lawyer hastened home, 
 and bade farewell a long and last farewell as we
 
 ig6 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 shall see to his mother and sisters, who, ignorant 
 of the part he had been taking in the revolution, 
 were not informed of the real cause of his sudden 
 departure. Before three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 he and his companions in exile were marching away 
 with heavy hearts from their Turinese homes, 
 which many of them were destined never to see 
 again. They followed the main road for a consid- 
 erable distance, but fearing pursuit by the Austrian 
 cavalry took to the mountain paths, and finally ar- 
 rived at Genoa after a ten days' toilsome and 
 harassing march. 
 
 Their reception by the Genoese was anything but 
 reassuring. The Liberals, both civil and military, 
 disheartened at the treachery of Prince Carignan 
 and the defeat at Novara, dared not make any dem- 
 onstration in their favour, while admittance into the 
 city was refused them by the Governor, who had 
 just received an order to that effect from Charles 
 Felix, the new King of Sardinia, in whose favour 
 his brother Victor Emanuel had abdicated. The 
 Governor had, however, been instructed to give pass- 
 ports to all student volunteers who might wish to 
 quit Italy for any foreign country, but their officers 
 were expressly excepted. This piece of intelligence 
 was sufficiently alarming to the four young officers 
 of the Veliti, placed, as they were, with a price upon 
 their heads, between their vengeful pursuers and 
 the deep sea. In the midst of their perplexity, a
 
 JAMES FORNERI 197 
 
 deputation from the National Guard arrived to in- 
 form them that, although the Governor could not 
 give them passports, yet, in the absence of more 
 stringent orders, he would not oppose their depar- 
 ture on shipboard. The truth was that the inhabi- 
 tants of Genoa had compelled this concession. Long 
 accustomed as they had been to civil and religious 
 freedom, they had from the outset strongly sympa- 
 thized with the Constitutional party, and, upon 
 hearing of its recent reverses, had fitted out and 
 provisioned several merchant ships for the purpose 
 of assisting Liberal fugitives to leave the country. 
 The arrival of Captain Ferrero's command had 
 given them an opportunity of apprising the Gover- 
 nor of this design, and the latter had been forced 
 to accede to it under the threat of a general rising. 
 
 Exiled from Italy Sails for Spain 
 
 With such a lucky means of escape open to them, 
 Forneri and his brother officers were not long in 
 deciding upon their plans of action. Their com- 
 patriots were called together, and one and all re- 
 solved to embark for Spain. On April 21 they 
 set sail for Barcelona; their passage over the 
 Mediterranean was retarded by head winds and 
 rough seas, and it was not until the 25th of the fol- 
 lowing month that they anchored in the roadstead 
 of that ancient Spanish city. Barcelona has been 
 felicitously described as a "city of commerce, con-
 
 198 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 quest and courtiers, of taste, learning and luxury 
 the Athens of the troubadour." At the time re- 
 ferred to the inhabitants were enthusiastic over 
 their recent political enfranchisement. The cause 
 of the exiled band, the stormy petrels of Italian 
 revolution, was hailed as their own, and they re- 
 ceived them with much cordiality and kindness. On 
 the free soil of Spain the movements of the fugi- 
 tives were no longer restrained. Quite a number 
 proceeded to America, others sought refuge in Eng- 
 land, but by far the greatest number remained 
 where they were, anxiously awaiting developments 
 at home, and ready to assist, if chance offered, in 
 any favourable turn of affairs, either in Piedmont 
 or elsewhere in the peninsula. They wearily 
 watched in vain, for, although another rising of 
 the Carbonari was attempted in 1831, it added 
 nothing to Italian liberty except the lives and for- 
 tunes of its victims. Meanwhile the number of 
 refugees in Spain was largely augmented from 
 every quarter of Europe, and in 1822 those with 
 whom our narrative deals found themselves 
 grouped together in Catalonia more than 2,,ooo 
 strong, the representatives of every State in Italy, 
 and comprising in their ranks General Pepe and 
 many other distinguished officers who had been 
 forced to leave their native land on account of 
 their share in her revolutionary struggles.
 
 JAMES FORNERI 199 
 
 An Officer in the Spanish Service 
 
 But the cause of liberty is one and the same 
 everywhere, and, if the Piedmontese students and 
 their brothers in exile could not uphold it where it 
 was most dear to them, there was nothing to pre- 
 vent them defending it on behalf of a once gallant 
 people who had offered them an asylum against 
 oppression. Ferdinand VII, of execrable memory, 
 father of the late Queen Isabella II, was then upon 
 the throne of Spain, and, although solemnly pledged 
 to protect and maintain the constitution of the 
 Cortes of Cadiz of 1812, he was secretly in league 
 with its enemies, and plotting with them to over- 
 turn and destroy it. Spain was on the verge of 
 anarchy, and bands of guerrillas were rising up 
 everywhere crying "Viva el Rey!" "Abajo la Con- 
 stitution!" "Long live the King!" "Down with the 
 Constitution!" The Italian exiles were naturally 
 in sympathy with the upholders of the free consti- 
 tution, and they evinced their feelings in a very 
 practical way. They promptly offered their ser- 
 vices to the Government, were accepted, and, form- 
 ing themselves into a rifle corps called Cacciotori 
 Italiani, took the field on the side of the Constitu- 
 tional party. 
 
 Forneri held the rank of captain in this corps, 
 which was composed of picked men, all of whom 
 had at one time or another seen active service. But
 
 200 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the irregular service for which they had now vol- 
 unteered was very different from anything they 
 had yet experienced. It was embittered by religious 
 passions, and had infused into it by the reactionary 
 party all the relentless cruelties of both a civil and a 
 religious war. One of the first acts of the Govern- 
 ment had been to abolish the infamous Inquisition 
 and suppress the Jesuits. This was followed up by 
 a measure to replenish an exhausted exchequer by 
 decreeing the confiscation and sale of the immense 
 possessions of the monastic and religious orders. 
 The immediate consequences of such an act of 
 wholesale spoliation may be easily imagined. The 
 standard of St. Peter was instantly unfurled; the 
 private interests of the powerful priest party in the 
 State were at once identified with the interest of the 
 Church, and the cry of "religion in danger" was 
 raised everywhere. Amongst the Spanish peas- 
 antry the "fiery cross" was sent round with elec- 
 trical effect, and it was with these hardy mountain- 
 eers the fanatical peasants of Catalonia and Cas- 
 tile, well armed, thoroughly acquainted with the 
 country, and led by bold, intelligent, and fearless 
 guerrilla chiefs that the Italian volunteers were 
 forthwith confronted. They met them daily in their 
 mountain fastnesses; much blood was spilt and 
 many lives were lost, and although the Cacciatori 
 Italiani fought bravely, and were seldom if ever 
 worsted, they suffered extreme hardship and priva-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 201 
 
 tion, were never masters except of their daily battle 
 ground, and achieved little in the way of suppress- 
 ing the general rebellion. Thus the conflict went on 
 in different parts of the country during several long 
 dreary months, till, in the early part of 1823, Spain, 
 from one end to the other, was distracted with a 
 murderous civil war which the Government was 
 utterly powerless to quell. 
 
 Under these circumstances, with the reactionary 
 party striving to revive absolutism and the ultra 
 Liberals to introduce a republic, a congress of sov- 
 ereigns at Verona determined to reinstate the King 
 in the position which he held before the Revolution 
 of 1820. The execution of their design was en- 
 trusted to Louis XVIII of France, and on April 
 6, 1823, 100,000 French troops, under the com- 
 mand of the Due d'Angouleme, who took the title 
 of Pacificator, entered Spain, marched through the 
 country to Cadiz, whither the Cortes had forcibly 
 conveyed the King, overturned the existing con- 
 stitution, and re-established absolutism. Mean- 
 while, as the name Cacciatori Italiani (Italian 
 sharpshooters) was changed by the government 
 into that of Legione Straniere (Foreign Legion), 
 in which volunteers of all nations were enrolled, 
 many Italians left the Spanish service altogether, 
 while others attached themselves to regular Span- 
 ish regiments.
 
 202 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Campaign in the Peninsula 
 
 Forneri had by this time evidently acquired a 
 taste for military life; at all events he decided to 
 risk a soldier's fortunes, such as they were in those 
 perilous times in the peninsula. He entered, with 
 the rank of captain, the 8th Regiment of Light 
 Cavalry, called De la Constitution, on account of 
 its having been the first to raise the standard of re- 
 volt with General Riego in January, 1820, in the 
 Isle of Leon. It was the favourite regiment of 
 Riego, who was himself the idol of the Spanish 
 Liberal party. The 8th Regiment was at that time 
 divided and quartered in two different places, part 
 being with Riego near Madrid, and the remainder 
 at Lerida, an old fortified town in Catalonia. Cap- 
 tain Forneri joined it there in September, 1823. 
 
 It so happened that Lerida was at the time greatly 
 in need of supplies, and a few days after the young 
 officer's arrival the governor ordered 500 troopers, 
 including the squadron of the 8th Light Cavalry to 
 which he was attached, to go on an expedition to 
 Fraga, a town in Saragossa near the frontier of 
 Aragon, and seize a quantity of army stores which 
 had been collected there by the enemy. The place 
 was believed to be seven hours distant from Lerida 
 in the saddle. The enterprise was a very important 
 one, and depended for its success on secrecy, daring, 
 and speed, in order that the garrison of Fraga
 
 JAMES FORNERI 203 
 
 might be taken unawares, and have no time to pro- 
 cure assistance or relief from the army of Baron 
 d'Erroles, which, under the name of "Soldiers of 
 the Faith," was then hovering near the frontier 
 line. The dragoons set out at ten o'clock at night, 
 fully expecting to surprise the enemy at five next 
 morning, and, after carrying off the much-coveted 
 booty, to be met on their return by a large body 
 of infantry, which was to follow up and reinforce 
 them. Unfortunately, heavy rains fell during the 
 night, and a great deal of time was lost in looking 
 for safe fording places across streams, which had 
 they not been swollen into torrents would have 
 been easily passed. Instead of arriving at 
 Fraga at the hour expected (5 a. m.), they did 
 not reach there till the afternoon. The garrison 
 had abandoned the town, and no resistance was 
 offered ; but, as they very soon discovered, this was 
 only a device to entrap them. They speedily col- 
 lected all the provisions and other supplies which 
 they could carry with them, and were fairly on 
 their return march when they perceived that their 
 movements had been watched and effectually cir- 
 cumvented. All the passes by which they could re- 
 enter Catalonia had been occupied by the troops of 
 Baron d'Erroles and the Marquis of Mettaflorida, 
 supported by a motley force of several hundred 
 monks, peasants, smugglers, and others, irregularly 
 armed and disciplined, which had been gathered un-
 
 204 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 der his semi-crusading flag by Antonio Marafion, 
 the famous Trappist chieftain. 
 
 This horde of religious enthusiasts, which Mar- 
 anon was wont to lead into action waving a crucifix 
 in his hand, hovered around the little cavalry force 
 like a cloud of evil demons, intent on their vic- 
 tims' destruction. The horsemen were pretty much 
 at their mercy; the Trappist leader seized every 
 available point to harass them, but was wily enough 
 not to risk a conflict in the open plain; and if the 
 guerrillas had been as good marksmen as they were 
 daring and agile, not a trooper would have been left 
 to tell the tale. The dangers of the situation were in- 
 creased by the fact that the city of Pampeluna, 
 which was held by the Constitutionalists, had sur- 
 rendered, and the 12,000 French troops who had 
 been investing it were left free to complete the 
 hostile circle. The cavalrymen were in fact hemmed 
 in on all sides. In this desperate plight they wan- 
 dered about for a period of eight days, vainly en- 
 deavouring to find an opening into Catalonia, or to 
 effect a junction with Riego, or the Liberal forces 
 of New Castile. Tired at last of marching and 
 countermarching, worn out with fatigue and pri- 
 vation, and tortured with sleepless watchfulness 
 against ever present danger, they sullenly resolved 
 to cut their way through the enemy or perish in the 
 attempt. Well knowing the barbarous cruelties of 
 the "Soldiers of the Faith/' they determined to en-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 205 
 
 gage the French, although their chances of success 
 in the latter case were infinitely worse, owing to 
 the much greater disparity in numbers. They 
 selected their own ground, a great plain surrounded 
 at a considerable distance by mountains, and inter- 
 sected by ravines, which afforded a fair field for 
 cavalry manoeuvres. There, secure from the guer- 
 rillas, who did not dare to advance into the open 
 ground, the badgered squadrons drew rein, and 
 calmly awaited the approach of the enemy. 
 
 Wounded and a Prisoner 
 
 They had not to wait long. About seven o'clock 
 in the morning of October 8, 1823, a large body of 
 lancers, well flanked by infantry supports, were 
 seen advancing across the plain, their pennons fly- 
 ing, and their bright weapons glittering in the rays 
 of the early sunlight. The horsemen of Lerida, 
 with their sabres drawn, trotted forward to meet 
 them. When a sufficient distance had been thus 
 covered, the trumpet sounded the charge; the next 
 minute the gallant little band were engaged in a 
 hand-to-hand struggle for life and liberty. The 
 impetuous onset of the Leridise had, however, been 
 irresistible. The Frenchmen for a time fought des- 
 perately, but soon wavered, and finally fell back in 
 confusion behind their infantry supports. 
 
 In the pursuit which followed this repulse, the 
 infantry opened fire. Captain Forneri, who was
 
 206 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 riding his charger in the second rank somewhat 
 ahead of his men, was slightly wounded with a 
 musket ball ; his horse, "Moschito," which was very 
 badly wounded, managed to clear the first ravine 
 he came to, but, on trying to leap the second, 
 stumbled and fell into it with his hapless rider par- 
 tially under him. From that moment the young 
 officer was a stranger to the hot engagement which 
 followed. Wounded and pinned to the ground by 
 the weight of a disabled charger, his position was 
 rendered doubly perilous by a number of the roar 
 rank horses falling over his own and plunging 
 about in helpless agony. How long he lay there 
 he could not tell; minutes seemed hours at such a 
 time. He saw nothing save the dark wreaths of 
 musketry smoke which hung like a pall over the 
 plain where his gallant comrades were fast falling; 
 but he heard all the thrilling sounds of a battle- 
 field, the heavy trampling of the contending squad- 
 rons, the clashing of sabres, the pistol shots of the 
 troopers, the curses of infuriated combatants, the 
 roll of the musketry, the sharp cries of the wounded, 
 the moans of the dying. All at once there was a 
 momentary stillness which was broken by the shrill 
 notes of a bugle, and the beating of drums at a 
 distance. These announced that the fight was over 
 and the combat at an end. 
 
 Not long after Captain Forneri found himself 
 dragged out from amongst the fallen troop horses,
 
 JAMES FORNERI 207 
 
 and a prisoner in the hands of the French advance 
 guard. The engagement, as he soon discovered, had 
 been a disastrous one on both sides. The French, 
 although far outnumbering their antagonists, had 
 suffered severely; the Spaniards had been almost 
 cut to pieces. Out of the five hundred troopers 
 who had left Lerida some ten days before, not one 
 re-entered that place; three hundred brave fellows 
 lay dead upon the field; one hundred more, nearly 
 every man of whom was wounded, were prisoners 
 of war, while the remainder, who had succeeded in 
 cutting their way through the French lines, had 
 fallen into the merciless clutches of the "Soldiers 
 of the Faith," and were all butchered in cold blood. 
 Among the prisoners were nine officers, four 
 Spaniards and five Italians, including the command- 
 ing officer of the little force, Colonel San Miguel, 
 who was very seriously wounded, having received 
 four sabre cuts upon his head and seven lance 
 thrusts in his body. Strange to say, he survived 
 them all, and was afterwards enabled to proceed 
 to France with his brother officers. This engage- 
 ment took place at a small village adjacent to Sara- 
 gossa, the capital of Aragon, where the prisoners 
 were conveyed on the following day. In that city 
 and neighbourhood the fanaticism of the people 
 had been roused to the highest pitch against the 
 Liberals and their military supporters. General 
 Reno, of the second army corps, who was in com-
 
 208 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 mand there, was well aware of this, and, to guard 
 against any outburst of popular vengeance, he had 
 most of the prisoners, Captain Forneri being of the 
 number, lodged in the castle of the city. Don 
 Miguel and the rest of the badly wounded were 
 taken to the French military hospital, where they 
 were well cared for. This was on October n, and 
 on December 18 following, when the army quar- 
 tered in that district was ordered to re-enter France, 
 the non-commissioned officers and soldiers amongst 
 the prisoners were paroled and set at liberty, while 
 the officers, who had all along been kept securely 
 in the castle of Saragossa, were conveyed into 
 French territory along with the regular troops. 
 
 During their march the Liberal officers were ex- 
 tremely well treated by the Frenchmen. They dined 
 every day with General Reno and his staff, were 
 well lodged on their journey, and protected from 
 insult and injury; indeed, if more than ordinary 
 precautions had not been taken for this purpose, 
 they would time and again have fallen victims to 
 the fanatical rage of the peasants and the diaboli- 
 cal plots of the infuriated monks. On February 
 3, 1824, the army arrived at Bayonne, where, 
 after a few days' rest, the prisoners were sent 
 in charge of a French guard to Agen, the chief 
 town in the department Lot-et-Garonne, and the 
 place which had been assigned them for their resi- 
 dence as prisoners of war until further orders. At
 
 JAMES FORNERI 209 
 
 Agen there was no need for the strict surveillance 
 under which they had previously been kept, and 
 their personal liberty was much less restrained. 
 They had the freedom of the town, but were obliged 
 every day at noon to enter their names in a pris- 
 oners' registry-book at the prefecture. They were 
 forbidden to attend the theatres or other public 
 places of amusement without permission, but were 
 otherwise treated with all the consideration which 
 could be expected under the circumstances. 
 
 Reaches England as a Political Refugee 
 
 Captain Forneri's enforced stay in the little 
 French town on the banks of the Garonne was pro- 
 longed for over two months. But at last, about the 
 end of April, a conditional order was issued from 
 the French headquarters for a general dissolution 
 of the depots of prisoners. The condition was that 
 none of those released should take up their resi- 
 dence either in France or Switzerland. The pris- 
 oners at Agen, who had been recruited from time 
 to time, were soon dispersed. Some asked and ob- 
 tained passports to America ; others, who were less 
 compromised by the events in the peninsula, re- 
 turned to Spain, whilst a few, Captain Forneri 
 amongst the rest, determined to seek the protection 
 which the British flag then, as now, afforded po- 
 litical refugees from every quarter of the globe. 
 There were several reasons which induced the ex-
 
 2io McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 officer of dragoons to select England as an asylum 
 at that particular time. His military career was at 
 an end, and the Continent was in such a disturbed 
 state that, except beyond the broad Atlantic, he felt 
 that on English ground alone he could be safe. But 
 he was still cherishing the hope that there would be 
 a reaction in favour of the cause for which he had 
 perilled his life and fortune; and, should such a 
 reaction set in, he wished to be near at hand. He 
 was, too, very anxious to hear from those who were 
 dear to him in his old Italian home, and of whom 
 he had received no tidings since the bright spring 
 day in April, 1821, when he bade them a sorrowful 
 adieu. He had in the interval written his mother 
 and sisters repeatedly, and had studiously refrained 
 from giving any political information, but, as he 
 afterwards learned, his letters had been intercepted 
 by the orders of the Government, and not the small- 
 est scrap of intelligence had been received about 
 him at Racconigi. If he placed the wide Atlantic 
 between them, the difficulties of communication 
 with his relatives would be immeasurably increased. 
 On April 28, 1824, therefore, Captain Forneri 
 asked for a passport to London, intending on 
 his way there to pass through Paris, where he 
 hoped to find some means of corresponding with 
 his family, and at the same time of recruiting his 
 finances, which were all but exhausted. Instead 
 of a passport, the Governor of Agen handed him a
 
 JAMES FORNERI 211 
 
 permitte de route, in which were indicated all the 
 places through which he must pass, and from which 
 he could not depart on pain of arrest and impris- 
 onment. Making a virtue of necessity, and sub- 
 sisting, for the time being, as well as he could on 
 the Government's allowance to him as a paroled 
 prisoner of war, journeying partly on foot and 
 partly by the old-fashioned French diligences of the 
 time, he made his way safely to Calais, where he 
 arrived on May 26, 1824. 
 
 His journey inland to the sea was not devoid of 
 interest and pleasure. In almost every town and 
 village on his line of route he met with sympathizers 
 in the cause in which he had suffered, who enter- 
 tained him at their hospitable homes, and showed 
 him great kindness. The simple-minded peasants 
 and freedom-loving burghers of France could not 
 understand how a constitutional king like Louis 
 XVIII had been induced to send an invading army 
 into Spain to destroy its free institutions, and how 
 French soldiers, who had fought the battles of the 
 Republic and were the remains of the battalions of 
 Austerlitz and Marengo, had volunteered to reim- 
 pose upon a heroic nation the yoke of a despotic 
 king and a government of monkish fanaticism. 
 They forgot that after all the constitution of Cadiz 
 left only the shadow of royalty that it was in 
 reality only a Republic masked by a throne. 
 
 The revolutions, which had been restrained else-
 
 212 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 where, and were triumphant and exasperated in 
 Spain, had reacted with terrible effect on the press, 
 the tribune, the youth, and the army of France. 
 Spain was rapidly becoming republicanized, and a 
 republic proclaimed on the other side of the Pyre- 
 nees would have been a death-blow to the Bourbons 
 in France. Louis XVIII, with the plausible plea 
 of pacification, was forced to "conquer or die" on 
 Spanish soil, and, as the Liberal Lamartine has 
 truly said: "Who can blame him for not having 
 consented to die?" 
 
 Having reached Calais amidst so many manifes- 
 tations of French sympathy and regard, Forneri 
 fain hoped that no further ill luck would attend 
 him. But he was mistaken. Before leaving Agen, 
 and afterwards in Orleans and other places through 
 which he was obliged to pass, he had received from 
 Liberal friends a number of valuable letters of 
 introduction to persons of high standing and influ- 
 ence in England. These letters recommended him 
 in the warmest terms as worthy of their good of- 
 fices. They contained nothing political, and nothing 
 that could cast the slightest suspicion on the charac- 
 ter or intentions of their grateful custodian; but, 
 notwithstanding this, he was compelled to deliver 
 them up to the Commissioner of Peace at Calais 
 soon after his arrival. That official informed him 
 that he had special orders to impound all such docu- 
 ments and forward them to the Government, but
 
 JAMES FORNERI 213 
 
 that they would be returned to him on his calling 
 for them at the French Embassy in London. He 
 never saw them again. To make matters worse, he 
 had not been permitted by the police agent to take 
 the names and addresses of the writers, or of the 
 persons to whom the letters were directed, and, 
 never having anticipated such a mishap, he had 
 never thought of providing against it. Thus it hap- 
 pened that, on May 27, 1824, he arrived in London 
 at night, with five shillings in his pocket, a stranger 
 and refugee, driven from home and country, with- 
 out a single line to ensure a favour, and without a 
 friend. 
 
 Penniless in London Dr. Bowring a Friend in Need 
 
 On the following morning, as he was on his way 
 to the British Foreign Office, where every foreigner 
 on arrival was required to register his name, 
 he was accosted by a gentleman who, apparently 
 struck by his appearance, politely asked him 
 whether he was a Spaniard. The question was a 
 very natural one, and, impressed with his inter- 
 rogator's kindly tone and manner, Mr. Forneri at 
 once replied that he had just come from Spain, 
 although he was not a Spaniard, but an Italian, and 
 inquired, in return, whether the gentleman could 
 direct him where he would be likely to find any of 
 his expatriated fellow countrymen. The gentleman
 
 214 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 told him he could, and, after accompanying him 
 to the Foreign Office, he brought him to a coffee 
 house near Leicester Square, which was a rendez- 
 vous for Italians then in London, and where they 
 were accustomed to meet every evening to discuss 
 foreign politics, a burning question at that time, 
 especially amongst exiles from the Continent. Here 
 Mr. Forneri was cheered beyond measure to receive 
 a warm welcome from many of his old military 
 friends, including several who had held commands 
 in Italy, and who had passed thence to England 
 without visiting Spain. These gentlemen had ac- 
 quired a fair knowledge of the English language, 
 had formed quite a circle of English acquaintances 
 and friends, and were therefore in a position to 
 render their unfortunate fellow-countryman imme- 
 diate and very material service. Having generously 
 supplied all his present wants he had literally not 
 a farthing in the world and having ascertained 
 that he would accept employment as a teacher if he 
 could get it, they introduced him to John Bowring, 
 LL.D., afterwards Sir John Bowring, a celebrated 
 politician, linguist, and author, who was a staunch 
 friend of the little band of Italian exiles who were 
 then residing in London. 
 
 As Dr. Bowring' s kind influence on behalf of the 
 destitute scholar was of timely service, both then 
 and thereafter, a few facts regarding him may not
 
 JAMES FORNERI 215 
 
 be out of place here. He was a descendant of 
 old Puritans, and was born at Exeter in 1792. He 
 devoted himself at an early age to the study of 
 languages, and displayed an unusual degree of tal- 
 ent in their acquisition, rendering great service to 
 literature by collecting and translating the more 
 ancient and more modern popular poems of almost 
 all the countries in Europe. He was an intimate 
 associate of Jeremy Bentham, and edited his col- 
 lected works; he was also one of the first editors 
 of the Westminster Review, subsequently travelled 
 over a great part of Europe, and visited Asia and 
 Africa, on a commission from the British Govern- 
 ment, to inquire into the commercial relations of 
 certain States, and published a number of valuable 
 reports on the subject of his mission. His letters 
 from Holland, which were afterwards translated 
 into the Dutch language, procured for him his de- 
 gree of LL.D. from the University of Groningen. 
 He was a member of the House of Commons for 
 several years, and was afterwards knighted and ap- 
 pointed governor of Hong Kong. In this capacity 
 he precipitated a ministerial crisis in England by 
 ordering, of his own accord, an attack on some 
 Chinese forts, on account of an insult offered a 
 Chinese vessel said to have been under the protec- 
 tion of the British flag. He lived to render valuable 
 public service thereafter, and died in 1872.
 
 216 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Teacher of Italian in a Private School 
 
 It was this talented and influential gentleman, 
 who was at the time conducting the old Westmin- 
 ster, that Dr. Forneri for so he was thencefor- 
 ward called was fortunate enough to meet in his 
 adversity, and interest in his fortunes. The kind- 
 hearted Englishman secured him immediate em- 
 ployment. He gave Dr. Forneri an excellent letter 
 of introduction to an Episcopal clergyman who was 
 the Principal of a large private school about four 
 miles from London. On presenting this letter, the 
 happy bearer was at once engaged at a fair salary 
 as a teacher of Italian. And thus he found him- 
 self, at the age of thirty-five, launched, by stress of 
 circumstances, on a career to which he had never 
 aspired, for which he had no special training, but 
 which proved to be the sheet anchor of his stormy 
 life, and the profession to which his energies and 
 his talents were to be devoted with remarkable suc- 
 cess for nearly half a century thereafter. 
 
 The first and great difficulty which beset the fu- 
 ture teacher in his necessitous vocation was its very 
 novelty, and the stern demands which this imposed. 
 He had long since ceased to be a student except of 
 the human nature that is to be found in the rough 
 world of action and its strange vicissitudes. He 
 had tried with books and varied reading to kill 
 weary time, and drown painful memories, in the
 
 JAMES FORNERI 217 
 
 prison houses of France and Spain; but the schools 
 of politics, of revolutionary intrigue and struggle, 
 of the camp, the bivouac and battlefield, are, except 
 as schools of adversity in which all men learn some- 
 thing, not the training schools out of which to turn 
 the patient, plodding teacher and the studious and 
 laborious professor. His acquaintance, moreover, 
 with the language of his new charges was very 
 limited. All this he felt as he faced, not without 
 many misgivings, the first pupils that were to pass 
 under his hand. But he was a man of great ap- 
 plication and wonderful perseverance, and he 
 straightway set about his. self-imposed task with 
 cheerful confidence. Having secured comfortable 
 lodgings in the quiet suburb of Paddington, he be- 
 came a student again, applying himself with sys- 
 tematic energy to the mastery, as far as possible, 
 of the language of his adopted country. He pro- 
 cured a copy of Cobbett's "Grammar," designed to 
 teach Frenchmen English, Roget's "French and 
 English Dictionary and Exercises," and Voltaire's 
 "History of Charles XII of Sweden" for the pur- 
 pose of translation ; and, thus equipped for the time 
 being, he retired to his study and never left it, ex- 
 cept for his necessary duties, until he had acquired 
 a passable knowledge of our English mother tongue. 
 This self-mastery and devotion to the task that op- 
 portunity had provided developed into habits of 
 study and work which became permanent.
 
 218 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Clandestine Correspondence Property Confiscated 
 
 Meanwhile anxious thoughts of the home from 
 which Forneri was banished were ever in his mind, 
 and the conflicting reports of what had passed in 
 Piedmont during his absence had only increased 
 his anxiety. What would the unhappy exile not 
 have given for a free, unrestrained ramble in the 
 chestnut woods of Racconigi? He resolved to com- 
 municate with Turin at all hazards, and having 
 been introduced by a military friend to a Mr. Obi- 
 coni, an Italian merchant in London, that gentle- 
 man kindly offered to assist him in his object. Mr. 
 Obiconi had a confidential correspondent in Genoa, 
 and, by the latter's intervention, a letter from For- 
 neri was smuggled into the hands of his mother at 
 Turin. After many months of anxious expectancy 
 he received, with joyful emotions, the long wished 
 for missive, a letter with the address in his mother's 
 handwriting, which at once told him that she was 
 still living, and, in all probability, well. Upon break- 
 ing the seal, he found enclosed a draft for 200. 
 Gold would have gladdened his heart many a time 
 before, but it was now felt to be of small value 
 compared with the welcome news accompanying it 
 of the home and country from which the courage of 
 his political convictions had apparently ostracized 
 him forever. 
 
 His mother's letter informed him that she had
 
 JAMES FORNERI 219 
 
 received none of his letters except the last one 
 from England, and this had been conveyed to her 
 three months after its date in a mysterious manner, 
 accompanied by an anonymous note telling her to 
 have her answer ready within three weeks, when 
 a stranger would call for it, but that, owing to the 
 strict surveillance of the secret police and their 
 agents, she must on no account communicate her 
 receipt of it to any person about her, as her per- 
 sonal safety might be jeopardized. She had never 
 written him because she had no idea where he was, 
 and had only gleaned from the newspapers that a 
 large body of Italian students had taken refuge in 
 Spain, and that she supposed he must be of the 
 number. She also told him that the day after he 
 left Turin the police had visited and searched her 
 residence and his office, and had seized, sealed, and 
 carried away all his letters, papers, and account 
 books; that, by the orders of the Government, she 
 had been obliged to send to the office of the Minister 
 of Justice a copy of her father's last will and testa- 
 ment, and of her own marriage settlement, and to 
 furnish full particulars in regard to her surviving 
 children; that his (F.'s) property, present and ex- 
 pectant, had been confiscated, that his name was on 
 the list of those who were to be tried for high trea- 
 son, but that the trials had been temporarily sus- 
 pended by order of the King. His elder sister, he 
 was informed, had died about a year after he left
 
 220 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Italy; his second sister had married a well-known 
 barrister of Mondovi, while the youngest was in- 
 clined to a monastic life, but had resolved to remain 
 with her mother as long as she lived. After giving 
 him some further news about other relatives and 
 old friends, and entreating him to write to her 
 often, as she had no means of communicating with 
 him, the letter concluded with many home blessings 
 and a prayer that he would never forsake the holy 
 Church in whose communion he was born and 
 reared. 
 
 Much as he loved his mother and circumstances 
 had made the tie of affection between them a pecu- 
 liarly tender one this last maternal injunction had, 
 we fear, but a temporary effect upon the mind and 
 heart of one whose life had been spent remote from 
 home and its encircling religious influences. What 
 would have been his religious creed had these influ- 
 ences been constantly thrown around him, we shall 
 not attempt to conjecture. At no time had he been 
 strongly attached to the church of his fathers, and, 
 as he grew up in manhood, its early power over his 
 mind and feelings drooped and faded. Forneri 
 lived many years after the receipt of the message 
 referred to ; he lived a useful, benevolent, and Chris- 
 tian life, but he lived a Protestant from conviction, 
 and died, in mature old age, a member of the com- 
 munion of the Anglican Church. 
 
 The clandestine, and therefore difficult, means of
 
 JAMES FORNERI 221 
 
 communicating with Italy which he was now forced 
 to adopt could not be expected to continue ; in fact, 
 he received only two more letters from his mother, 
 and then their correspondence ceased forever. The 
 storm of the Carbonari Revolution of 182021 had 
 not subsided in 1826, and the system of espionage 
 was still vigilant and in active operation in every 
 part of Italy. Mr. Parodi, the Genoese correspond- 
 ent of Messrs. Obiconi & Co., began to be suspected 
 by the lynx-eyed minions of the law of being a 
 medium of intelligence between Forneri and his 
 relatives, and the members of the English house 
 were warned by the British Government, on the 
 complaint of the Austrian Ambassador in London, 
 that they must cease to meddle in the affairs of the 
 Italian refugees on pain of a criminal prosecution. 
 In consequence of this significant threat, Forneri 
 and several of his countrymen were deprived of the 
 generous services of their London allies. They were 
 thenceforward entirely cut off from all intercourse 
 with their friends and relatives in Italy, and knew 
 nothing of what was passing in their fatherland 
 beyond the little they could glean from the news- 
 papers of the day. 
 
 Death of His Mother A Fortune Forfeited 
 
 One other letter, however, was received by For- 
 neri from Italy during this period of uncertainty 
 and suspense, It was written by a cousin of his,
 
 222 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 Madame Casbetti, the wife of the Director-General 
 of the Royal Archives of Sardinia, who, we pre- 
 sume, by virtue of his influential position under the 
 Sardinian Government, must have been able to 
 transmit the message without difficulty to its re- 
 cipient. This letter, which was dated at Turin on 
 August 23, 1829, was posted in London; it con- 
 tained very melancholy intelligence: Forneri's 
 mother, after a lingering illness, had died of a 
 dropsical complaint on June 13 previous. Her last 
 moments were cheered by the solacing presence of 
 all who were dear to her except that of the long 
 absent son, to whom her heart, as she drew near 
 her end, seemed to go out with even a stronger 
 yearning. She spoke of him very often with tender 
 endearment, and the expression of his name was the 
 last which passed from her dying lips. 
 
 Signora Forneri had met with heavy pecuniary 
 losses in the early years of "her widowhood, but a 
 great deal of her property had afterwards turned 
 out productive. She lived a quiet and retired life, 
 and died possessed of considerable wealth. This 
 is manifest from the fact that to her two daughters 
 she bequeathed 5,000 each, to her two old domestic 
 servants a liberal provision for life, to friends and 
 distant relatives legacies of more or less value, and 
 to her son, James Forneri, the residue of her estate, 
 which amounted to a very large sum. This residue, 
 so far as the effectuation of the intentions of the
 
 JAMES FORNERI 223 
 
 testatrix was concerned, might as well have been 
 weighted with a millstone and cast into the depths 
 of the Adriatic. Had the object of her maternal 
 bounty ever been able to possess it, he would have 
 enjoyed a handsome competence for life, but it was 
 confiscated by the Government, and, for reasons 
 already indicated, became escheated to the Crown. 
 The executors of his mother's last will and testa- 
 ment were, as Forneri learned, George Graccone, 
 an Italian barrister and Chief Justice of Monca- 
 lieri, a large town on the Po, five miles above Turin, 
 and a Dr. Cugna, who was a cousin of Forneri and 
 a physician then practising in Mondovi. The for- 
 mer was an uncle of Forneri by marriage, being 
 the husband of his mother's only sister, and was 
 the father, by that union, of Luigi Graccone, who 
 was for many years private secretary to the Gov- 
 ernor of Piedmont. Some time after Forneri came 
 to Toronto and entered upon his duties of Profes- 
 sor in the College, he opened a correspondence with 
 Luigi Graccone with the view, as far as we can 
 learn, of obtaining from the Italian Government 
 some compensation for the forfeiture of his for- 
 tune. Italy was then verging on a state of national 
 transition; the long night of tyranny was passing 
 away, and the streaks of a bright dawn were just 
 appearing. But the ravages of time and change, 
 throughout the Italian peninsula, were all adverse 
 to the faintest trace of the possessory ownership
 
 224 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 of estates that had been swallowed up in the mael- 
 strom of revolution. The decrees of despotism had 
 long since dethroned Justice; her voice was smoth- 
 ered in the dust. Italy's national Parliament of the 
 future would have greater wrongs to redress, and 
 a grander mission to fulfill, than the restoration of 
 individual fortunes; this was but the fine dust of 
 the balance. The old Professor's correspondence 
 came to naught, except to add deeper bitterness to 
 the conviction that what might have been a com- 
 fortable competence for himself in his declining 
 years, and for his family after him, had been 
 wasted on the enemies of his country. 
 
 Residence in Kingston-Upon-Hull Personal Friend- 
 ships Poems and Essays 
 
 The letter last referred to reached Forneri at 
 Kingston-upon-Hull in Yorkshire, whither he had 
 removed a short time previous, and where he was 
 then living. His residence in London and its en- 
 virons had thus extended over a period of two 
 years. During that time, short as it was, he had 
 gained quite a reputation for his abilities and suc- 
 cess as a teacher of Italian, French, and German, as 
 well as for his high classical and general literary 
 attainments. Besides filling the engagement in the 
 private seminary already referred to, his spare 
 lies of the nobility and gentry and the intellectual 
 hours were devoted to private tuition in the fami-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 225 
 
 and cultured classes who formed his professional 
 clientage. Amongst these his amiable disposition, 
 unassuming manners and honourable character had, 
 along with his decided literary acquirements and 
 cosmopolitan sympathies, enabled him to form a 
 large circle of admiring friends who parted from 
 him with regret, and whose good wishes accom- 
 panied him to his new home. 
 
 His removal to Kingston-upon-Hull was the re- 
 sult of a friendship which he had accidentally 
 formed with Daniel Sykes, M.P., of Willaby, Hull, 
 one of the ten members for Yorkshire in the British 
 Parliament, and a gentleman whose constant kind- 
 ness and warm interest in his welfare Forneri re- 
 membered with feelings of heartfelt gratitude as 
 long as he lived. Mr. Sykes had conceived a strong 
 attachment for the exiled scholar, and, not long 
 before his death, recommended him to the favour 
 and regard of his nephew, Major Richard Sykes, 
 of West Ella, in Yorkshire, who equally esteemed 
 his uncle's friend, and carried out the injunctions 
 given him with religious fidelity. The Sykes fami- 
 lies had a large place in Forneri's affections. Both 
 uncle and nephew were noble-hearted, generous 
 Englishmen, and Forneri, who never forgot a kind- 
 ness and was a firm and true friend, never ceased 
 to extol their many virtues. He preserved the 
 name in his own family, and called his eldest son, 
 who is now in holy orders, after the gallant officer
 
 226 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 whose pleasant country seat in Yorkshire was al- 
 ways open with a hospitable welcome for one for 
 whom the owner had a sincere admiration and re- 
 gard. 
 
 Another of his most valued friends at Hull was 
 M. Chalmers, M.D., a clever physician in large 
 practice there, whose relations with Forneri were 
 of the most fraternal character. The friendship 
 and influence of the Sykes family, and of Dr. Chal- 
 mers, secured for their protege a large number of 
 pupils in Hull and its neighbourhood, where he re- 
 sided for a period of about ten years actively en- 
 gaged in his professional duties, and where he ex- 
 perienced much kindness and established for him- 
 self a high reputation for ability and scholarship. 
 Indeed, in after years he was wont to speak of that 
 as the "golden age" of his life. 
 
 During his residence in Hull Forneri wrote and 
 published a number of poems in Italian, and also 
 several bulky political pamphlets, entitled respect- 
 ively, "Remarques sur 1'Italie," "Strenna e capo 
 d'anno al Popolo Italiano," "Dialogo Politico sur 
 Tltalia tra Pasquino e Marfario," and "Le lente e 
 la Calatta." These attracted considerable attention 
 in England at the time, and were highly compli- 
 mented by Mr. Charles Forest, F.S.A., President of 
 the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society, and 
 by other competent critics, for their historic re- 
 search and intrinsic literary merits. He was also
 
 JAMES FORNERI 227 
 
 the author of a number of educational treatises, in- 
 cluding a grammar of the German language. 
 
 His Marriage Academic Appointment Life in Belfast 
 
 But, cherished as were the friendships which he 
 formed at Hull, Forneri resolved, very much 
 against the persuasions of Major Sykes and Dr. 
 Chalmers, to return to London, where very liberal 
 inducements were held out to him by a number of 
 his old patrons and pupils. This return to the Eng- 
 lish metropolis marked a most important event in 
 his career. Amongst his London friends was the 
 family of Mr. William Wells, a prosperous English 
 merchant. To Elizabeth $., one of the daughters 
 of this gentleman, just turned sixteen, Forneri 
 was married, after a brief courtship, on March 
 13, 1836, in St. Mary's Church, Islington. This 
 union proved to be an extremely happy one, 
 and, during its long continuance, was marked by 
 the strongest mutual affection and by every attri- 
 bute that could make married life bright and loving 
 and joyous. Forneri has left on record a most 
 tender and affectionate tribute to one who, in her 
 girlish trustfulness, confided to him the future hap- 
 piness of her life, with a hope and confidence which 
 were justified in the highest degree. 
 
 It was just previous to this marriage, which was 
 probably hastened thereby, that the expectant 
 bridegroom was informed by a friend living in Bel-
 
 228 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 fast, Ireland, that a mastership of modern lan- 
 guages was likely to become vacant there within a 
 short time. His professional prospects in London 
 were, as we have said, very promising, but they 
 opened up a career only in a private capacity, 
 whilst that to which his attention was now called 
 embraced as well a position of prominent public 
 usefulness that could scarcely fail to present at- 
 tractions to an ambitious scholar and teacher. Hav- 
 ing been advised that his interests in Ireland would 
 be promoted by his presence on the spot, he de- 
 termined to leave England for the sister isle with- 
 out delay. Immediately upon his marriage, there- 
 fore, he and his young bride set out for Belfast, 
 calling on their way at Birmingham to bid adieu 
 to some of her relatives and friends resident there. 
 In the early part of the following month of May 
 they arrived at Belfast, where their numerous let- 
 ters of introduction secured for them a kindly wel- 
 come from the hospitable inhabitants of that great 
 seaport, the Manchester of northern Ireland. For- 
 neri had scarcely become settled on Irish soil when 
 the vacancy which he had been anticipating oc- 
 curred, through the resignation, by its occupant, 
 of the chair of Modern Languages in the Belfast 
 Royal Academical Institution. The beautiful struc- 
 ture in the Tudor style, known to all visitors to 
 Belfast as Queen's College, had not then been 
 opened. The wants of higher education were sup-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 229 
 
 plied, as in the case of Upper Canada College be- 
 fore the establishment of the University of King's 
 College, Toronto, by the Royal Academical Insti- 
 tution, which, incorporated in 1810, comprised an 
 elementary and collegiate department and a school 
 of design, and was the principal educational estab- 
 lishment in the north of Ireland. Although founded 
 by voluntary subscription, it received an annual 
 grant from Parliament, and was subsequently affili- 
 ated with the University of London. The competi- 
 tion for the vacant chair in this academy of learn- 
 ing was very keen, owing to the large number of 
 worthy candidates. On seeing Dr. Forneri's testi- 
 monials the Board of Management found no diffi- 
 culty in making a selection. He was appointed to 
 the mastership, and held it for the long period of 
 sixteen years. Within this time a large family grew 
 up about him, entailing increased responsibilities, 
 and requiring the putting forth of all his available 
 energies. In addition to his collegiate duties he 
 again engaged in private tuition, his celebrity and 
 success attracting pupils from Down, Carrick, Cole- 
 raine, and other places, many of whom travelled 
 long distances to Belfast to receive instruction from 
 him there. 
 
 But we shall not dwell upon Dr. Forneri's pro- 
 fessional career in Ireland. The strongest prac- 
 tical proof of his widely known abilities and qualifi- 
 cations as a scholar and teacher is to be found in
 
 230 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 the well established fact that, although he had many 
 rivals in his own special department of knowledge, 
 and especially in French, which was taught by sev- 
 eral natives of old France, he was universally ac- 
 knowledged to be facile princeps. He was, for many 
 years, a member of the Board of Examiners of the 
 Ulster Teachers' Association, in which he had for 
 his colleagues the late Rev. R. I. Bryce, LL.D., 
 Principal of the Belfast Academy, the late Rev. Dr. 
 Drew, a distinguished graduate of Cambridge and 
 Trinity College, Dublin, the chaplain of the Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland, and many other scholarly 
 men, all of whom have borne the highest possible 
 testimony to his accomplishments and worth as a 
 linguist and teacher, as well as to his great amiabil- 
 ity of disposition and integrity of character. His 
 literary reputation was also enhanced at this time by 
 the publication of a poetical work, in thirteen can- 
 tos, entitled "Le Lente e la Calatta," which was full 
 of beautiful imagery and deep poetic feeling. In- 
 deed, his long residence in Belfast was, in his pro- 
 fessional capacity, an uninterrupted and splendid 
 success, heightened from year to year by the kind- 
 nesses of "troops of friends," whom he delighted 
 to gather round him within the genial circle of his 
 happy home. His house was a house of call to all 
 the scholarly men in the north, and its host was a 
 general favourite. His chequered career, so full 
 of exciting and touching reminiscences, made him
 
 JAMES FORNERI 231 
 
 an object of sympathetic interest in local society; 
 his wide range of reading and extensive acquire- 
 ments enabled him to shine amongst its literati ; he 
 was a bright conversationalist, and, during the long 
 years of his sojourn there, no private party or 
 social entertainment was complete without the 
 cheery presence of the little Italian Signore. His 
 Belfast experience made him conceive a warm at- 
 tachment for the Irish people and their patriotic 
 aspirations. Amongst the last words which he 
 committed to paper was a pious request to his chil- 
 dren nine of whom were born in that old capital 
 of Antrim to love and honour always the unfortu- 
 nate land of their birth. 
 
 Executes Model of City of Rome 
 
 But amidst all the engrossing duties and respon- 
 sibilities of his daily life in Belfast, he found leis- 
 ure for another undertaking which, at the time, 
 excited general wonder and admiration, which af- 
 fords a further insight into his varied tastes and 
 acquirements, and exemplifies very strikingly what 
 manner of man he really was. His active mind and 
 natural restlessness of disposition had been, as we 
 may well believe, stimulated not a little by his mili- 
 tary career. Its influence, in this respect at least, 
 followed him almost to the close of his long life. 
 He felt it prompting him to leave Kingston-upon- 
 Hull and its charmed circle of friendships; he felt
 
 232 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 it, amidst the attractions of metropolitan business 
 and excitement, urging him to newer scenes and 
 other arenas of energetic effort. In Belfast he was 
 buoyed more securely by family responsibilities, but 
 even there his almost incessant round of duties, and 
 the pleasant demands of social intercourse, were not 
 sufficient to satisfy his constant longings for em- 
 ployment of some description. The leisure hours, 
 which most men in his position would have spent 
 in light relaxation or amusement, were there de- 
 voted by him to a work which required the nicest 
 calculations, the greatest possible patience and per- 
 severance, and the most unflagging industry. 
 Rome, with its classic, historic, and religious asso- 
 ciations, had deeply impressed his boyish mind and 
 imagination, and he now conceived the idea of 
 modelling, in alto relievo, Rome as it then was. It 
 was a bold conception, but, with the assistance of 
 his wife, who suddenly revealed surprising knowl- 
 edge and deftness in the plastic art of building up 
 the Eternal City, he executed his task with mar- 
 vellous completeness and success, after ten years of 
 "holiday work." The model was indeed a magnifi- 
 cent monument of untiring labour and indefatigable 
 research. It was composed of stucco, from which 
 the ancient ruins, as well as the modern streets and 
 buildings, in miniature, were ingeniously cut and 
 carved by hand with astonishing accuracy and in 
 perfect proportion. In size this miniature city was
 
 JAMES FORNERI 233 
 
 twenty-eight feet by twenty-one, and covered a su- 
 perficial area of 588 square feet, the whole design 
 being beautifully executed, and neat and exact in 
 every particular. 
 
 Charles Dickens long ago, in his "Household 
 Words," entertained his readers with a sprightly 
 narrative of a certain Mr. Booley, who, comfort- 
 ably at home at Cheapside in the mornings, visited 
 in a few successive evenings, without the incon- 
 venience of travel and at nominal expense, the most 
 interesting countries of the world. Within an hour 
 he held a picnic in New Zealand, surveyed the pyra- 
 mids of Egypt, and enjoyed a delightful sail "with 
 the stream" amidst the variegated scenery of the 
 Mississippi. The allegory was of easy explanation. 
 He had spent a few nights and fewer shillings in 
 viewing some popular panoramas of the day. For- 
 neri's exhibition conveyed very different impres- 
 sions from those which lighted up the mind of 
 simple Mr. Booley. Indeed, short of an actual visit 
 to Rome itself, it was conceded by the most com- 
 petent judges that there was nothing which could 
 convey a better idea of her modern features, or the 
 memorial remains of her ancient glories. The 
 Eternal City lay before the spectator, giving point 
 and interest to all he had read and thought about 
 it. It was not a partial or imperfect representa- 
 tion, a picture in perspective with the deficiencies 
 to be supplied by the imagination ; it was the very
 
 234 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 place itself, where every existing object might be 
 touched with the finger, "sensible to feeling as to 
 sight," and lingered over in rapt contemplation. 
 The miniature figures of the great public buildings, 
 ancient and modern, were modelled with artistic 
 precision. Nothing was omitted or forgotten; re- 
 cent visitors even recognized with pleasure the very 
 houses in which they had lodged. The spot where 
 brave Horatius kept the bridge and, shouting de- 
 fiance at his foes, "plunged headlong in the tide" 
 of Tiber's "yellow foam" ; the house at the foot of 
 the Palatine Hill, where lived Bulwer's hero, Ri- 
 enzi, the last of the Tribunes ; the rude sailing craft 
 of the modern mariner floating lazily seaward on 
 the city's ancient highway to the Adriatic, all 
 alike were pointed out in this singular work of art 
 which claimed the sympathetic interest of the 
 scholar and the student, the politician and the anti- 
 quarian. 
 
 This model of Rome was finished in 1851, too 
 late, unfortunately, for the World's Exhibition in 
 London, where Dr. Forneri had intended placing it 
 amongst the art treasures of all nations. He ex- 
 hibited it publicly, however, to thousands of admir- 
 ing visitors in Belfast, Liverpool, and Manchester 
 during the same year, appearing in person in the 
 exhibition hall of each of these places with his 
 wand in hand, and "pouring out," as we are told, 
 "in good English, but with a strong Italian accent,
 
 JAMES FORNERI 235 
 
 a flood of descriptive topography replete with the 
 most interesting facts." It was Dr. Forneri's in- 
 tention, had circumstances given him the opportu- 
 nity, to have visited London with his model, and 
 have placed it on exhibition there in the closing 
 days of the great spectacle which had drawn thou- 
 sands of sightseers from every quarter of Christen- 
 dom. But this was not to be. Just as he was pre- 
 paring to leave Manchester for the capital, he re- 
 ceived a letter from Windsor, Nova Scotia, offer- 
 ing him a situation as teacher of modern languages 
 in the Windsor Collegiate Academy. In addition 
 to a high salary, the offer embraced a free passage 
 across the Atlantic for himself and family and 
 other advantageous terms. 
 
 Disposes of Model Efforts to Secure it for Canada 
 
 Although Dr. Forneri was well satisfied with his 
 prospects in Belfast, this unexpected and very lib- 
 eral proposal from the Board of Governors of an 
 institute of acknowledged standing and reputation, 
 gave a 'new current to his thoughts, and unsettled 
 his mind even as to his future in Ireland. He had 
 never before entertained any idea of leaving Brit- 
 ain, much less of leaving the old world for the new, 
 but he had a large family, principally of boys, and, 
 seeing many difficulties in the way of giving them a 
 start in life at home, he was led to believe that a 
 colony would present more and better openings for
 
 236 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 all of them. Family reasons, as in many another 
 case, eventually determined him in the course which 
 he should pursue. He consulted his friends, and, 
 Mrs. Forneri being agreeable to the change, he 
 accepted the appointment, and got all things in 
 readiness for his long transatlantic voyage. 
 
 All at once the question occurred to him what 
 was he to do with his monster model of Rome? 
 The work was too huge and unwieldy, to say noth- 
 ing of its weight and the expense of carriage, to 
 think of transporting it beyond the Atlantic. For 
 any ordinary journey it required forty strong 
 boxes, each six feet long, four feet high and four 
 feet broad, in which to pack it up, and even then 
 it had to be handled like a delicate fabric of glass, 
 in order to prevent a catastrophe which might ruin 
 the patient labour of years. Such a work was mani- 
 festly intended for a permanent, not a peregrinat- 
 ing, exhibition. He had constructed it to amuse 
 his leisure hours, and with the view ultimately of 
 disposing of it at a remunerative price to some 
 museum, university, or school of design. But how- 
 ever laudable might be the objects of such an ex- 
 hibition, however useful an aid to the classical or 
 historical student or to the antiquary, he had never 
 for a moment thought of giving up his chosen pro- 
 fession to go and travel about the world like an- 
 other Barnum, in the equivocal character of a gar- 
 rulous showman. For once in his life he felt he
 
 JAMES FORNERI 237 
 
 had a veritable white elephant on his hands. How- 
 ever, he advertised the little stuccoed city for sale, 
 and was fortunate enough to procure a purchaser 
 in the Mechanics' Institute of his old-time place of 
 residence, Kingston-upon-Hull. This sale proved 
 fatal to the perpetuity of the fame of this precious 
 work of art, the only one of its kind in the world. 
 Whatever was the reason the want of suitable ac- 
 commodation was probably the true cause the 
 model was never set up in the rooms of its fortunate 
 purchasers and custodians. The Colosseum and a 
 portion of the Forum Romanum were shown in the 
 Crystal Palace of the Dublin International Exhi- 
 bition of 1853, k ut beyond that it would seem that 
 the entire work was consigned to a most infelici- 
 tous obscurity. 
 
 Some years afterwards, when Dr. Forneri was 
 permanently settled in Toronto, the unhappy fate 
 of his beautiful piece of handiwork caused him to 
 make an effort to have it brought to this country. 
 He wrote to his old friend, Major Sykes, with the 
 view of ascertaining on what terms it could be se- 
 cured. In June, 1854, he received a letter from the 
 Secretary of the Hull Mechanics' Institute, offer- 
 ing, on behalf of that body, to dispose of it to Dr. 
 Forneri for the sum of 40, which was, of 
 course, much less than it cost them. It is clear, 
 from the secretary's accompanying letter, that the 
 Institute was quite willing to part with the model,
 
 238 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 especially to the accomplished modellist himself; 
 and that having no means of exhibiting it properly 
 at Hull, the members were "anxious that such a 
 perfect work of art should not remain in oblivion." 
 
 It would appear, from the correspondence which 
 passed at that time, that a number of persons in 
 Toronto had seen and greatly admired the model 
 when it was exhibited in Liverpool. Amongst these 
 was the Rev. Dr. Irvine, a Presbyterian divine, to 
 whom reference will be made hereafter, and who 
 kindly interested himself in Dr. Forneri's public- 
 spirited plans. Dr. Irvine, who was an able theolo- 
 gian and eloquent preacher, proposed, with the con- 
 sent of the large congregation over which he was 
 placed, to purchase the model, and have it exhibited 
 in Canada and the United States, in aid of the 
 building fund of a new church which his people 
 were then intending to erect for him. It so hap- 
 pened, however, that, before the receipt of the Hull 
 letter, Dr. Irvine accepted a pastoral call to the city 
 of Hamilton. His old Toronto congregation lost 
 heart in the model movement, and, although he 
 pressed the matter upon the attention of his new 
 charge, they were, it seems, not enamoured with the 
 exhibition business, and the movement was, on his 
 part, reluctantly abandoned. 
 
 Dr. Forneri's fertile brain evolved other schemes 
 for the same meritorious purpose, but none of them 
 succeeded. There were then no Royal Canadian
 
 JAMES FORNERI 239 
 
 Academies, and no vice-regal or princely patrons 
 of rising genius in the sister arts of painting and 
 artistic design. When we consider how easily Dr. 
 Forneri's beautiful and instructive creation might 
 have been permanently secured for Canada, it 
 seems a thousand pities that the opportunity was 
 ever allowed to pass away. A model so unique and 
 invaluable would have adorned any exposition of 
 art in the world. Within the walls of our Univer- 
 sity, could a place have there been found for it, it 
 would long have served as a cynosure for every 
 cultivated mind, and have been a surviving monu- 
 ment to the modest, unassuming artist, of whose 
 undoubted genius it was an illustrious production. 
 
 Leaves Ireland for Nova Scotia 
 
 Having thus disposed of his model, and made all 
 the necessary arrangements for his departure, Dr. 
 Forneri and his family bade farewell to Ireland 
 and its many fond associations, and sailed for their 
 distant destination in Nova Scotia. They arrived 
 about the end of November in the same year, 1851, 
 and, at the close of the following Christmas vaca- 
 tion, the new master entered upon his duties in the 
 Collegiate School of Windsor. But the evil star of 
 his destiny had not yet gone down. It glared upon 
 him many a time and oft in the Old World, and 
 now, when he supposed that it had disappeared
 
 240 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 forever, its baneful influence again crossed his 
 path. 
 
 Dr. Forneri had scarce entered upon his new 
 duties when a difficulty arose between himself and 
 the Board of Governors of the School in regard to 
 the tenure of his office. In so far as he was con- 
 cerned, the difficulty was both embarrassing and 
 mortifying. Reference has already been made to 
 the letter on the presumed authority and good faith 
 of which he had been induced to act in all his subse- 
 quent arrangements. It was a letter from the Prin- 
 cipal of the institution, in which he now expected 
 to be permanently installed, and its language left 
 no room for doubt in the mind of the recipient that 
 the writer was clothed with full power to tender 
 him the post and settle the terms on which it should 
 be held. Dr. Forneri, who was himself a man of 
 unimpeachable honour, and trustful to a fault in all 
 business transactions, relied implicitly upon the 
 bona fides of the proposal, and, in altering his whole 
 plans for the future, never suspected that the per- 
 manency of the proffered appointment would be 
 open to the slightest question. But it seems he had 
 been deceived. Soon after entering upon his work 
 he was very much surprised and chagrined to find, 
 upon asking the Board of Governors to confirm his 
 appointment according to the terms of the letter, 
 that by a resolution of the Board, passed at a subse- 
 quent meeting without his knowledge, the latter had
 
 JAMES FORNERI 241 
 
 left the matter solely in the hands of the Principal, 
 upon whom alone rested the responsibility of the ap- 
 pointment. He had never been apprized of this, 
 and, six months later, he was further astonished at 
 receiving a note from the Principal informing him 
 that, owing to want of funds, his services must be 
 dispensed with at the end of the academic year. 
 
 Dr. Forneri, naturally very much incensed at 
 this flagrant breach of good faith, complained bit- 
 terly of the treatment which he had received, and, 
 after discovering that he could get no redress either 
 from the Principal or the Board, he laid his case be- 
 fore the public through the newspapers, and there- 
 after appealed for relief to the Legislature of the 
 Province. A Select Committee of the Legislative 
 Assembly was appointed to investigate the matter, 
 but as is often the case when the suppliant before 
 such a tribunal, however strong on the merits of his 
 appeal, is himself weak in political influence, the in- 
 jured teacher received no reparation for the wrong 
 done him. He had sustained very serious loss and 
 damage, the liability for which was probably di- 
 vided between the Principal and the Board of Gov- 
 ernors. The only compensation offered him was a 
 letter from the Chairman of the Select Committee 
 stating that, while the House sympathized with him 
 in his misfortune, it deeply regretted that, his case 
 being of a purely private and not of a public nature, 
 it could not interfere in his behalf without creat-
 
 242 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 ing a dangerous precedent. Thus ended the first 
 chapter of his experience in the new and strange 
 land, on whose shores he and his family had landed 
 with such high hopes and encouraging prospects 
 for the coming years. 
 
 Uncertainty as to the Future Thinks of Australia 
 
 The position in which Dr. Forneri now found 
 himself was one full of anxiety and perplexity. His 
 family was large, his means limited, his term of 
 office rapidly nearing its close ; the future was pain- 
 fully dark and uncertain. His thoughts turned at 
 once to Belfast and his old and generous friends in 
 that city. He wrote to inquire whether his place in 
 the Royal Academical Institution had been filled, 
 and was told in reply that it was occupied by a 
 gentleman from Dublin; but, notwithstanding this, 
 he was encouraged to return, and informed that 
 no effort would be wanting to promote his inter- 
 ests. At first he was inclined to act on this advice, 
 but on reflection he decided that, as his leaving 
 Europe had not been of his own seeking, he would 
 follow the course which, he believed, fate had 
 marked out for him. 
 
 We use the word advisedly. Dr. Forneri was all 
 his life a strong believer in what he called fate. 
 He had a deeply reverential mind and firm relig- 
 ious convictions, and he found no difficulty in recon- 
 ciling these with such a belief. His creed was a
 
 JAMES FORNERI 243 
 
 simple one; he was no orthodox hair-splitter, and 
 was not troubled with a fastidious conscience on 
 points which he considered non-essential, but was 
 a sincere believer in the great verities of religion. 
 Upon taking up his residence in England, Dr. For- 
 neri became a member of the Church of England, 
 and so continued till his death. In some lines which 
 he penned not long before his death he expressed 
 the opinion that, "whatever our divines may say 
 about moral or free agency, men cannot defeat the 
 will of the Almighty, which is fate; and I firmly 
 believe that man, though a moral agent, is not an 
 independent agent in the principal incidents of his 
 life." In this he departs little, if any, from the 
 teachings of Cicero's famous essay, which regards 
 Fate or Destiny as the decree of Providence, going 
 hand in hand with free will as one of its conditions. 
 The subject was one which Dr. Forneri was very 
 fond of discussing and discoursing upon. He was 
 a great reader of the early Fathers of the Church, 
 and had studied the admirable explanations by 
 Erasmus and Liebnitz of those old free will doc- 
 trines. But he was far from being a fatalist in any 
 sense; he regarded fatalism as impious, and while 
 he would defend the fate of his own creed as the 
 decree of Deity, he, on the other hand, always de- 
 fended the liberty of man in that qualified sense 
 in which it is largely accepted, and in which fatal- 
 ism has no part or lot whatever.
 
 244 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 A few weeks after the receipt of the notice re- 
 ferred to from the Principal of the Windsor Col- 
 legiate School, Dr. Forneri was told by Dr. Mon- 
 tovani, Professor of Modern Languages in Wind- 
 sor College, that a College or University in Upper 
 Canada he was not told where had advertised 
 for a Modern Languages' professor, and that he 
 (Dr. M.) had offered himself as a candidate and 
 sent in his testimonials. Dr. Forneri paid no par- 
 ticular attention to this at the time, because, not 
 then having heard from Belfast, he had intended 
 either returning to Ireland or sailing in search of 
 employment to Australia. The idea of Australia 
 was suggested to him by the fact that a brother-in- 
 law of his, who was Inspector of Schools in Syd- 
 ney, New South Wales, where he had been living 
 for about twenty years, had frequently written him 
 to Belfast urging him to emigrate to that colony, 
 where many of his old pupils were settled and in 
 prosperous circumstances. Some months, how- 
 ever, after his conversation with Dr. Montovani, 
 the thought of acting on the maxim tentare non 
 nocet occurred to him, and he determined to be- 
 come an applicant for the same place for which 
 the Windsor professor had long before offered his 
 services. 
 
 Not knowing the name of the College, and feel- 
 ing a delicacy in speaking to Dr. Montovani on the 
 subject, Dr. Forneri wrote to the Provincial Sec-
 
 JAMES FORNERI 245 
 
 retary of Upper Canada inquiring whether such an 
 appointment was to be made, and whether there 
 was yet time to forward his testimonials. By re- 
 turn mail he received a letter from the Rev. Dr. 
 McCaul, who was then a stranger to him, that no 
 report or recommendation in regard to the appoint- 
 ment had yet been made, and that, if he sent his 
 testimonials immediately, they might arrive in time 
 to be taken into consideration and dealt with by the 
 Government. He at once forwarded his papers, as 
 he had been instructed, to Dr. McCaul, and thought 
 no more about the matter, for the simple reason 
 that he considered his chances of success were the 
 slimmest possible. He was not sure that the ap- 
 pointment would not be made before the receipt of 
 the testimonials, and, although he did not under- 
 value the merits of these, he knew he was very late 
 in the field, that there were many competitors, that 
 he had no political influence whatever at his back, 
 and was naturally inclined to think that, under such 
 unpropitious circumstances, his application must 
 certainly fail; in fact, he treated its failure as a 
 foregone conclusion, and prepared to leave for Aus- 
 tralia. A vessel was advertised to sail from New 
 York to Sydney at the end of April, 1853, and ac- 
 cordingly, at the beginning of the same month, he 
 and his wife and family left for Boston, purposing 
 to remain there a few days and proceed thence to 
 New York, where he would make the necessary
 
 246 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 arrangements for their passage to the Antipodes. 
 But the fate in which he believed had even then 
 decreed that they should never see the Antipodes. 
 On the passage to Boston, Mrs. Forneri and one of 
 the children fell seriously ill, and they arrived in 
 that city in such a weak condition that he con- 
 sidered their lives would be endangered by such a 
 long sea voyage. The ship in which they were to 
 embark left port without them. 
 
 Comes to Toronto Appointment as Professor 
 in University College 
 
 The predicament in which Dr. Forneri was now 
 placed, in a city in which he was an utter stranger, 
 was not an enviable one. He had left Windsor 
 fully intending to sail for Australia with the least 
 possible delay, and had provided himself with no 
 letters of introduction to any persons in the United 
 States, which he might easily have done under dif- 
 ferent circumstances. Fortunately before leaving 
 Windsor he had given directions that any letters 
 which might arrive there after his departure should 
 be sent to Boston poste restante. Two days after 
 he reached Boston he received a letter from an old 
 Belfast pupil, the Rev. Dr. Irvine, who was then 
 settled in Toronto in charge of a large Presbyterian 
 congregation, to which he had been called from St. 
 John, N. B. Dr. Forneri had, some months before, 
 written Dr. Irvine and had told him of his great
 
 JAMES FORNERI 247 
 
 disappointment in Nova Scotia, and had at the 
 same time acquainted him with the design which 
 he had formed of going to Australia. In the let- 
 ter received at Boston Dr. Irvine to whom his old 
 teacher always felt deeply grateful for the warm 
 interest taken by him in his favour strongly urged 
 Dr. Forneri to abandon his Australian project, 
 which he characterized as foolish and inconsiderate, 
 and to come instead to Toronto, where he (Dr. I.) 
 and his friends would do their utmost to assist him, 
 and where there was no doubt his success as a 
 teacher would be assured. This timely and sugges- 
 tive message appeared to Dr. Forneri to open up a 
 way out of his present difficulties. He ascertained 
 on inquiry that any vessel for Australia would sail 
 either too soon for the recovery of his sick wife 
 and child, or too late to permit of his staying in 
 Boston at his own expense. He therefore decided 
 to act on his friend's advice and go to Toronto, 
 where he believed he could secure temporary em- 
 ployment during the convalescence of the two in- 
 valids, and, when they were fully recovered, sail 
 for Australia, in the event of his not receiving suffi- 
 cient encouragement in Upper Canada. 
 
 As soon as Mrs. Forneri was able to bear the 
 fatigue of the journey, Dr. Forneri proceeded with 
 his family to Toronto, where they all arrived safely 
 in the beginning of May, 1853. He was there most 
 agreeably surprised to learn from Dr. Irvine that
 
 248 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 he had a very fair chance of securing the profes- 
 sorship in University College for which he had 
 become a candidate some time before, and about 
 which he had never thought seriously since for the 
 reasons already stated. He learned that his testi- 
 monials had reached Dr. McCaul in time, that they 
 were so satisfactory that his name had been placed 
 at the head of the list of candidates recommended 
 to the Government, that the Premier (later Sir 
 Francis Hincks) was a Belfast man, the son of the 
 Rev. Thomas D. Hincks, LL.D., of that city, and 
 that a testimonial from Dr. Hincks would greatly 
 strengthen his application. 
 
 Dr. Forneri, who in the hurry of collecting and 
 forwarding his credentials had left out several 
 valuable ones, had in his possession an excellent 
 testimonial from Dr. Hincks, who was Professor 
 of Oriental Languages in the Belfast Royal Aca- 
 demical Institution. This was at once sent in. On 
 May 7, Dr. Forneri received a very encourag- 
 ing letter from the Premier, and another on the 
 1 7th of the same month informing him that His 
 Excellency the Governor-General had approved of 
 his appointment. Dr. Forneri's warrant of appoint- 
 ment to the chair of Modern Languages was dated 
 May 28, 1853; it was signed by Lord Elgin, the 
 then Governor-General of Canada, and counter- 
 signed by the Hon. A. W. Morin, Provincial Sec- 
 retary, Mr. Hincks's principal colleague in the
 
 JAMES FORNERI 249 
 
 Hincks-Morin Administration which was then in 
 office. It was made, as appears by the warrant it- 
 self, under the Act which amended the former Uni- 
 versity Act, and separated the functions of the Uni- 
 versity from those of the College. 
 
 The new incumbent entered upon his duties in the 
 Michaelmas term following. He was then in his 
 sixty-fourth year, but still in the vigour of physical 
 health and strength, and with a mind and faculties 
 strong and matured, and capable of efficient and 
 well-sustained effort. From that time until the 
 close of Michaelmas term, 1866, a period of thirteen 
 years, when the chair of Modern Languages in the 
 college was supplanted by a system of instructors, 
 he discharged the functions of his professorship 
 with an ability, conscientiousness, and fidelity which 
 were universally acknowledged. 
 
 Closing Years Members of His Family 
 
 The death of his beloved wife on August 18, 
 1862, was the most notable event, and the first 
 serious misfortune which befell Dr. Forneri dur- 
 ing his professorship. It was a blow from which 
 he never rallied, and, although he married again, 
 the loss of one who had helped him to bear 
 with equanimity the buffetings of adversity, who 
 was a congenial companion and a real helpmate 
 throughout his long professional career, all but 
 broke his proud spirit which had never quailed be-
 
 250 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 fore. George Macdonald, the Scottish novelist, has 
 truly said that "no man ever sank under the bur- 
 den of to-day. It is when to-morrow's burden is 
 added to the burden of to-day that the weight is 
 more than a man can bear." His retirement, except 
 as Instructor in Italian, and the reaction from the 
 sustained mental strain which his onerous duties 
 imposed to comparative quietude and inactivity, 
 told even more injuriously upon the aged Profes- 
 sor; it brought on a rapid and visible decline of 
 both mental and bodily vigour ; and, on September 
 5, 1869, at the age of fourscore years, when "life's 
 fitful fever" was forever over, his "pained foot- 
 steps crossed the burning marie," and he passed 
 quietly and peacefully away. 
 
 On the Wednesday following his death the mor- 
 tal remains of the departed Professor were fol- 
 lowed by a large concourse of sympathizing friends 
 to their last resting place in St. James' Cemetery. 
 Conspicuous in the funeral procession were many 
 members of the Masonic body, of which ancient and 
 honourable order the deceased had for many years 
 been a respected member. We have before us his 
 credentials, adorned with the old Italian tricolour 
 as a member of a lodge in Turin, where he was 
 admitted to the third degree. In September, 1829, 
 he joined the "Humber" Lodge at Hull, and, dur- 
 ing the same month, the Grand Lodge in London. 
 His name is on the roll of the "St. Andrew's"
 
 JAMES FORNERI 251 
 
 Lodge of Toronto, into which he was received soon 
 after his arrival in the city. 
 
 In the year 1857, Prof. Forneri had lost two of 
 his infant children by death ; he left surviving him 
 four sons and four daughters. Two of these have 
 since died. James Ford Forneri, B.A., a graduate 
 of Trinity University, Toronto, died in New York 
 in the month of June, 1875. His second son, Cos- 
 ford Chalmers Forneri, who will be remembered 
 by not a few old University men for his genial 
 manner and manly traits of character, died of pneu- 
 monia at Rat Portage [Kenora], on August 15, 
 1880. He was a graduate in Agriculture of the 
 University, was also a graduate of the old Toronto 
 Military School, and subsequently passed the Ex- 
 amining Board as a Provincial Land Surveyor. It 
 was while on duty in the latter capacity, in the 
 neighbourhood of Rat Portage, that he was stricken 
 with his fatal illness. His abilities and sterling up- 
 rightness had won for him an honourable position 
 in his profession, and his untimely end in the then 
 wilds of Canada, hundreds of miles distant from 
 home and friends, was a peculiarly sad one. 
 
 Of the two surviving sons, the elder, who is the 
 eldest son of the family, is the Rev. Richard Sykes 
 Forneri, M.A., B.D., a graduate, scholar and prize- 
 man in Arts and Divinity, of the University of 
 Trinity College, Toronto. He was admitted to holy 
 orders the diaconate in 1866, and the priesthood in
 
 252 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 v 
 
 1867 by the Right Reverend John Strachan, first 
 
 Bishop of Toronto. Mr. Forneri has been, for a 
 number of years, Rector of St. Luke's Church, 
 Kingston, Ontario. The other surviving son, 
 Henry D. Forneri, is the city engineer of Eugene, 
 in the State of Oregon. 
 
 Within the home circle, and indeed in all the 
 domestic relations of life, Dr. Forneri was charac- 
 terized by a gentle nature and a lovable disposition. 
 Affectionate, indulgent, and self-denying, these in- 
 timate relationships were the constant and never- 
 failing source of the strongest mutual attachment. 
 
 An Inspiring and Honourable Career 
 
 As the first Professor of Modern Languages in 
 University College, Dr. Forneri' s career is exceed- 
 ingly suggestive. It presents many points admir- 
 able alike in the man himself, in the work which he 
 did, and the part which he played in the stirring 
 arena of his day. He had the virtues of the good 
 stock from which he sprang, and was a worthy scion 
 of those who, if they helped to mar, helped also to 
 make, the hopeful destiny of his country. His long 
 life bridged in its span the reactionary Spain 
 of perfidious Ferdinand, and the semi-republican 
 Spain of the eloquent Castelar. He was a connect- 
 ing link between an interesting epoch in our own 
 history and the past military glories of a people 
 whose chivalrous descendants in Canada vie with
 
 JAMES FORNERI 253 
 
 those of every race and nationality in the paths of 
 progress and the arts of peace. 
 
 His life and times might be elaborated into an 
 instructive volume. We have endeavoured to sketch 
 the salient features, set in varying light and 
 shadow, of the picture in which he stands out a 
 conspicuous and interesting figure a student, a 
 wandering refugee, a soldier, a virtuoso in art, a 
 teacher, and a college professor. In each and all he 
 bore his part well. As a teacher, his record was one 
 of notable excellence. His knowledge and attain- 
 ments were embellished with the graces of scholar- 
 ship, and were always modestly displayed. The 
 Fornerian systems of French, German, and Span- 
 ish were the product of an ingenious mind and an 
 original expositor of languages. He had a happy 
 talent for communicating knowledge, and was be- 
 loved by his pupils and the students of his depart- 
 ment for his patient kindness and untiring interest 
 in the subject-matters of their reading. 
 
 "As we have looked back upon student days," 
 writes one of his old students, "and reviewed them 
 in the light of more mature life, we are struck by 
 Dr. Forneri's great versatility and the accuracy 
 which emphasized it. He was always equally ready 
 in French, German, or Spanish, as in his native 
 tongue, to give us the grammatical rule. In his set 
 lectures in the larger classes he would write out 
 these rules, illustrated by examples, filling one or
 
 254 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 two large blackboards, and, in the senior years, 
 would give them to us in his own handwriting on 
 foolscap paper. When he concluded his remarks 
 on any subject and closed them with his pet expres- 
 sion, 'That it is, you see/ we made up our minds 
 that it was all right, and we have never yet found 
 that we were mistaken. Laborious in our interests, 
 scrupulously punctual, truthful and the soul of 
 honour, kind-hearted, affable and confidingly com- 
 panionable, the veteran soldier and teacher secured 
 a warm place in the hearts of his students, and 
 memory will fondly recall when we could have ad- 
 dressed him in the words of his own favourite 
 poet, uttered when looking back to a much more 
 distant past : Tu duca, tu signori, e tu maestro." 
 
 Dr. Forneri's life was, in many respects, a hard 
 battle with misfortune not altogether unredeemed. 
 Scattered through those long eighty years were un- 
 selfish, self-sacrificing efforts that, like the distant 
 palm trees in the desert, marked green resting places 
 in memory's waste. He was ever the enemy of des- 
 potism, and the firm friend of constitutional lib- 
 erty. In this noble cause he embarked his life and 
 fortune, and made shipwreck of the latter. In Eng- 
 land, he was one of the first to join the society of 
 "The Friends of Poland," inaugurated by Count 
 Plater, with the view of giving both moral and ma- 
 
 1 See article by William Oldright, M.A., M.D., in the Univer- 
 sity Monthly, Vol. 2, p. 201.
 
 COAT OF ARMS OF THE FORNERI FAMILY
 
 254 'JL: CROFf: FOV 
 
 blackboards, and, in the senior years, 
 them to us in his own handwriting on 
 ip paper. When he concluded his reni; 
 ny subject and closed them with his pet expres- 
 , 'That it is, yon e made up our minds 
 
 that it was all right, and we have never yet found 
 that we were is r our interests, 
 
 scrupulous 
 honour. 
 
 paniona red 
 
 a warm pi and 
 
 memory will fondly recall when we could have ad- 
 dressed him in the words of his own favourite 
 poet, uttered when looking back to a much more 
 distant past : Tu duca, tu signori, e tu maestro." 
 
 . Forneri's life was, in many respects, a hard 
 ie with misfortune not altogether unredeemed. 
 
 >ng eighty years were un- 
 it, like the distant 
 irked green resting places 
 
 in r ,-ver the enemy of des- 
 
 potism, d of constitutional lib- 
 
 erty. In tli he embarked his life and 
 
 fortune, and n. ck of the latter. In Eng- 
 
 land, h4MdA^WP- r^teMJoimthEAedciety of 
 
 "The Friends of inaugurated by Count 
 
 Plater, with the view of giving both moral and ma- 
 
 1 See article by Will:-: <ht, M.A., M.D., ii. 
 
 y Monthly, Vol. 2, p.
 
 JAMES FORNERI 255 
 
 terial support to those patriots who were struggling 
 to emancipate their unhappy country. It was there 
 he met the poet Campbell, who presided over its de- 
 liberations, the same lyric bard whose sweet and 
 soul-stirring offerings to the cause of Polish liberty 
 have gone round the world. History has proved 
 how much may be achieved by a "passion for ideas." 
 Dr. Forneri possessed that passion in a high degree, 
 but he was a man of action as well. He was in 
 both ahead of his time, but he saw afar off the tri- 
 umph of his cause, and felt, even far away, the on- 
 ward, irresistible flow of the tide whose ebbing once 
 bore him forth into a stormy sea. Italy, regener- 
 ated and disenthralled, had been the day dream of 
 his youth, the hope and prayer of his riper years. 
 He longed and he lived to see it, to join in the ac- 
 clamations which welcomed his native land into the 
 sisterhood of constitutional nations, and the un- 
 furling of the flag of a united people above the 
 crumbling ramparts of the castle of St. Angelo. 
 
 NOTE 
 
 The armorial bearings of the Forneri family are 
 noteworthy on account of their historic interest. 
 The cornelian from which the accompanying 
 vignette was copied was slightly broken in one of 
 the engagements in which Professor Forneri took
 
 256 
 
 McCAUL: CROFT: FORNERI 
 
 part in the Spanish peninsula, but the cutting in the 
 stone is intact. Every component of the armorials 
 is indicative of their antiquity. The shield, oval in 
 form and undivided, bearing a single device on a 
 
 field of one colour, is 
 characteristic of ancient 
 heraldry. The device it- 
 self, consisting of three 
 stars in the hollow of a 
 crescent on an azure 
 field, is one of those fig- 
 ures which originated in 
 the Holy Land in the 
 days of the Crusaders. The more common emblem, 
 that of a single star within the crescent said to 
 represent the star of Bethlehem was evidently a 
 copy of the Turkish national symbol. The crusading 
 ancestor of Professor Forneri, with more original- 
 ity, emblazoned on his shield three stars in order to 
 proclaim his faith as a Christian in the Triune 
 Deity, in opposition to the One Person God of the 
 Mohammedans which the lone star seemed to repre- 
 sent. The supporters of this unique coat of arms 
 are lions rampant. That Professor Forneri should 
 be able to trace his descent from crusading ances- 
 tors will be readily believed by any one who reads 
 the story of his life. He was a crusader in spirit 
 and proved it in his chivalrous career.
 
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