A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
England and France equal to the best. During the years from 1846 to 1851
inclusive, Mr. La Mothe travelled extensively through England, France,
Switzerland, and Italy; and while in England he joined the expedition
against Ecuador (South America), which, after putting to sea, was
overtaken by a British man-of-war, and brought back to London. He also
took part in the French Revolution of 1848, and at the storming of the
Tuileries he was one of the first to enter the place. After this event
he travelled through Switzerland on foot, then on to Italy, where he
married, and then returned to Canada. For fifteen years of his life, Mr.
La Mothe was actively engaged in politics on the Liberal side. In
religion he is a respected member of the Roman Catholic church. He was
married in Florence, Italy, in 1850, to Marguerite de Savoye, and his
family consists of one son and four daughters, all living. The son,
Henri, is married to Marie, youngest daughter of the late Hon. Judge
Bossé, of Quebec. The eldest daughter, Marguerite, is married to Hon. J.
R. Thibaudeau, senator for division of Rigaud. His second daughter is
married to Henri Hamel, of the firm of J. Hamel & Frère, Quebec. The two
youngest daughters, Juliette and Marie, are unmarried.
* * * * *
=MacColl, Evan=, Kingston, Ontario, was born at Kenmore, Lochfyne-side,
Scotland, on the 21st of September, 1808, where he is well-known as the
“Mountain Minstrel.” He early developed a taste for poetry, and in 1837
contributed to the Glasgow _Gaelic Magazine_. The poet gives a very
striking account of his first attempt at Gaelic verse. He took into his
confidence a young friend, a capital singer, taught him a song without
mentioning that he was the author of it, and got him to sing it the same
evening at a neighbour’s house at Kenmore. It was received with great
applause. From that hour Evan MacColl felt himself a bard and became
supremely happy. Some time after he published a small volume of poems in
Gaelic, and another in English, which were reviewed by Dr. McLeod, Hugh
Miller, the celebrated geologist, and other British critics, in the
highest terms of admiration. In 1831 Mr. MacColl’s father, with the rest
of his family, emigrated to Canada, but Evan remained behind, and eight
years afterwards he accepted a position in the Customs at Liverpool. In
1846 he published a second volume of poems which was even more highly
appreciated than the first. Of this work, Dr. Norman McLeod wrote: “Evan
MacColl’s poetry is the product of a mind impressed with the beauty and
grandeur of the lovely scenes in which his infancy has been nursed. We
have no hesitation in saying that this work is that of a man possessed
of much poetic genius. Wild, indeed, and sometimes rough are his rhymes
and epithets; yet there are thoughts so new and striking—images and
comparisons so beautiful and original—feelings so warm and fresh—that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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