2 



•disposition led him to be somewhat subser- 

 vient to prevailing ideas and customs. In 

 method he was radical ; in fact, he was con- 

 servative. It will be necessary to bear in 

 mind this somewhat striking inharmonious- 

 ness to understand some of the episodes of his 

 life. Affairs in Montreal at this time were 

 in a strained condition. It was shortly be- 

 fore the rebellion of 1837. The British colony 

 in Lower Canada held the reins of 

 power; the French Canadians were in a highly 

 dissatisfied state. Louis Papineau was stir- 

 ring up nis French conipatriots. In his sedi- 

 tious career he came out boldly for Republi- 

 can principles. "The time has gone by," said 



these was one dividing the settlement into four 

 districts, and establishing a quarterly court of 

 summary juiisdiction m each of these compe- 

 tent to deal with small amounts. Each of these 

 courts was empowered to refer any case of 

 doubt or difficulty to the Court of Governor 

 and Council of Assiniboine, as the Red River 

 Legislature and judicial body was called. The 

 establishment of a court of appeal such as had 

 been decided on, and the fact th it theGovernor 

 of the colony was sometimes a trader and 

 at other times a military officer led the com- 

 pany to consider the necessity of appointing a 

 trained lawyer to adjudicate in such cases as 

 might arise, and to gi.e legal advice to the 



Papineau, "when Europe could give monarchs company in its complicated business. Alex- 



to America. The epoch is approaching when 

 America will give republics to Europe." Now 

 Adam Thom, though, no doubt, sympathizing 

 with the just claim of the French Canadians 

 for self government, was intensely British in 

 feeling, and therefore entered with great 

 ardour into the discussions then going on. 

 Well educated, fond of society, which in Mon- 

 treal was entirely under the control of the rul- 

 ing powers,' and with his career to 

 make, the young lawyer threw himself 

 into the wordy warfare, and wro*;e 

 the letters signed "Camillus. " remembered for 

 many a day for their anti French fervor and' 

 power. It is even said that for a time he 

 occupied the position of editor of the leading 

 English journal of Lower Canada, the "Mon- 

 treal Herald." His prominence as a publicist 

 naturally drew to him the attention of Lord 

 Durham who arrived in Canada on his mission 

 of pacification on May 29th, 183S The bril- 

 liant Earl of Durham, who did more for Can 

 ada in the short six months of his stay in the 

 New World than any other Governor-General 

 in his full term, had the faculty of associating 

 with himself men of the grea^.est ability. As 

 to the great report, Justin McCarthy says of 

 him in his "History of OurOwnTimes," "His 

 policy for the Canadas was a great success. 

 It established the principles of colonial 

 government." With him on his staff Lord 

 Durham had brought over as secretaries and 

 assistants three men of exceptional ability — 

 Charles BuUei-, who had been a member of 

 the British House of Commons, the brilliant, 

 though somewhat wayward Edward Wake- 

 field, and Thomas Turton, a very clever bar- 

 rister. To this group of able assistants the 

 young lawyer Adam Thorn was added, and in 

 the train of the' great Liberal statesman he 

 seems to have returned to Great Britain in the 

 autumn of 1838, where he spent the winter in 

 London. 



EECOBDER AT BED KIVBK. 



In 1835 the Hudson's Bay company received 

 back from Lord Selkirk's heirs the transfer 

 of the district of As.siniboine, which had 

 been sold to the Earl in 1811 As the popu- 

 lation of the settlement had grown by this 

 time to about 5,000 souls, it was deemed wise 

 to have established some simple form of legal 

 institutions. A council of fifteen members 

 appointed by the Hudson Bay company met 

 at Fort Garry on the 12th of February of that 

 year and passed certain ordinances. Among 



ander Ross argues at some length against the 

 need of this, but his reasons show he had 

 little comprehension of the princii^les on 

 which alone communities can advance. Sir 

 George Simpson had met the youner lawyer 

 and political writer in Montreal, and on the 

 completion of his e)it;- ,j;ement with Lord 

 Durham offered Mr. Tuum the new judge- 

 ship then decided on, and the first recorder of 

 Rupert's Land, or he is also called the 

 President of the Red River Court, k-ft Eng- 

 land, came by way of New York and reach- 

 ed Fort Garry in the spring of 1839. Sir 

 George Simpson was credited with great 

 shrewdness in making the appointments for 

 the Hudson Bay company, it is evident from 

 the very considerable salary — £700 sterling a 

 year — paid the new judge at a time when 

 incomes were ridiculously low on Red River, 

 as well as trom the unanimous opinion of 

 Ross, Dr. Mountain, Rev. John Ryerson, and 

 James Hargrave, the historian of the Hudson 

 Bay company, that Adam Thorn was 

 a man of decided ability, upright 

 character, and very extensive reading. It 

 would seem to one now that a lawyer who 

 had practiced longer at the bar, and who had 

 not been so pronounced as a publicist in Mon- 

 treal, would have made a more impartial 

 judge, but the fact that for ten years he ad- 

 ministered lawin the courts without complaint 

 would seem to show that the troubles which 

 arose in the later years of his judgeship arose 

 rather from the inevitable conflict between the 

 company and the people than from any fault 

 of his. 



HIS "altek ego." 

 We turn aside for a little to look at the 

 career of Mr. Thorn's college friend, John Mc' 

 Galium, who, as we have seen, in 1833 came to 

 Red River to establish what to-day has become 

 St. John college with its affihated schools, 

 and it may be premised that in him 

 we have one of the truest and most 

 practical men of the old Red River settle- 

 ment. With the aid of his superior. Rev. 

 Mr. Jones, buildings were erected between 

 the southwest corner of the present St. John's 

 churchyard and the river bank. In the year 

 1836 Mr McCallum married the daughter of 

 Chief Factor Charles, of the H. B. Co. The 

 school steadily grew, and five years after its 

 founding Rev. Mr. Jones returned to Eng- 

 land and Mr. McCallum became head of the 

 institution, so that when the old friends 

 from Aberdeen met at Red River, the one. 



