JUDGE ADAM MABANE (1). 

 1734-92. 



It is our task, a pleasant one, to introduce to the 

 notice of our readers, under the above heading, an 

 important personage of Quebec in days gone-by, in fact, 

 a man who filled a very high position under early 

 English rule in Canada. Judge Adam Mabane, bora at 

 Edinburgh, in Scotland, about 1734, after enjoying the 

 advantages of a University course, had successfully 

 passed an examination as a physician. History exhibits 

 him as advantageously known to the garrison of Quebec, 

 as a successful medical practitioner from the date of 

 his arrival, shortly after the Conquest. In those days, 

 legal training and commanding talents did not crop up 

 every day, among the heterogenous entourage of Brigdr. 

 General James Murray, the Governor ; when in 1764, 

 it was judged expedient to substitute to the military 

 regime, which had existed for four years, regular judicial 

 tribunals, the sagacity, uprightness, extensive legal and 

 general information of Dr. Mabane, readily pointed 

 him out to the representative of Britain as a most 

 likely Judge to preside over the new Courts under 

 consideration. This preferment, however, was neither 

 sought for, nor desired, but rather shunned by the 

 learned but retiring Esculapius, whose whole time was 

 absorbed by professional duties. It fact, the lucrative 

 and then lofty position of Judge, was thrust on Dr. 

 Mabane ; of this, there seems no room for doubt, despite 

 all he could do to the contrary. In order to under- 



(1) Le juge Adam Mabane Etude Historique. — A. Cote" & 



Cie., 1881. 



