66 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



both fame :in.l fortune. " AH lionour to the Nova Scotian who has car- 

 ried forward tliis irreat work with such sii^nal success. But those gentle- 

 men ' ouglit uot to l.e forgotten who, at this early period, tirst turned the 

 attention of liritish statesmen to a subject of so much importance." 



>rr. Lawrence Doyle was born in Nova Scotia of Irish parents and 

 educated at Stoneyhurst, where he acquired a very thorough knowledge 

 of the classics for which he showed a special aptitude. His legal learning 

 —undoubtedly considerable— his natural eloquence— never surpassed by 

 any of his compeers- his thorough insight into any subject which he 



HON. L. O'CONNOR DOYLK. 



studied, well fitted him to win a high place at the bar as well as in the 

 legislature of the province, but his tendency to wit, his geniality of 

 manner, his love of society, led him to form habits which gradually lost 

 him the confidence of his countrymen. Many people still remember the 

 stories their grandfathers and fathers have told them of his ready 

 humour and repartee, and do not know that he was in the early part of 



' The moHt «MithHsifistic of these was MjO'T Robert Cannichael Smith, who did 

 much in his life-tiiiie in directing jmblic attention to the importance of railroad 

 communication between old Canada an<l tlie eastern provinces. The late Judge Fair- 

 banks, long an importJint figure in Nova Scotia, was also one of the passengers, and 

 an earnest advocate of the necessity of the steam navigation of the Atlantic. <See 

 note, p. ISO, to Howe's " Speeche.s and Letters.") The name of l''airbanks, I may add, 

 is that of a family also long connected with the commercial interests of the colony. 



