X ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
was fond of telling how, on one occasion, he won some important college 
prize over the head of Farrar, but was unaware of his success till Farrar 
himself called to give him, with the news, his warm and generous con- 
gratulätions. 
It was in the year 1859 that Murray, who had meantime been doing 
a little private tuition in England, came to Canada. His bent seems to 
have been towards educational work, and for over three years he taught 
in public schools in Upper Canada, the present Province of Ontario. 
Coming to Montreal in 1862 he secured the position of classical master 
in the High School which he retained for thirty years. To quote again 
from the article in the Montreal Gazette already referred to, which may, 
without indiscretion, be attributed to the pen of our highly esteemed 
colleague Dr. John Reade, ‘“‘ How many men and women are there to-day 
in the Dominion and beyond its borders who learned from him to distin- 
guish the true from the false, the decorous from the meretricious in 
literature!” Murray’s methods were exact and thorough; he under- 
stood things himself and laboured to make others understand them. 
It was understanding he aimed at and, with understanding, apprecia- 
tion. That was his idea of education. Jt was in no perfunctory spirit 
that he taught the classics; but as one who had the firmest belief in their 
efficacy in awakening the mind and forming the character. 
Mr. Murray’s first journalistic connection in Montreal was with The 
Gazette, for which he wrote book reviews. He also contributed to a 
number of literary journals which sprang up successively in that city, 
and having had their day, ceased to be. A more permanent connection, 
was that which he formed with the Montreal Star in the year 1882, when 
he took charge of the literary department of that paper including the 
“Notes and Queries,”” a department which he made famous. Here he 
had found an occupation which lasted the rest of his life; for up almost 
to the day of his death he was writing for the Star—his last work appeared 
in the issue of the 26th February—and also for the Standard, a literary 
journal which had its birth in the Star establishment and which, in a 
manner, was brought out under his literary auspices, the company which 
controlled it, and of which Murray was made President, being called 
“The George Murray Publishing Company.” His page in the Star at 
once won popular favour. His book reviews were fair, moderate, judi- 
cious and often very telling; while, in the management of his “ Notes 
and Queries,” he exhibited a wealth of knowledge, and a patience and 
kindliness in imparting it which were wholly admirable. He was made 
the arbiter of countless disputes as to modes of speech, rules of grammar, 
and historical and literary questions of all kinds. Even in matters of 
which he was not specially master he would generally contrive to obtain 
for his correspondents the information they required. The classical 
