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
the rules were adopted with very little, if any, material amendment. The
committee reported a grant of five hundred dollars to the speaker for
his work—which had, of course, been prepared without charge. Mr.
Wedderburn ranked high as a parliamentary authority, and is thought not
to have been excelled in the chair. At the close of the term of the
Assembly, the leader of the opposition, in a very complimentary speech,
moved the thanks of the House to Mr. Speaker for his ability, etc., in
the government of the house. The premier (now Judge King) seconded the
motion, and highly eulogized the Speaker, and concluded by saying that
“if he (Mr. Wedderburn) had not been so good a Speaker, he (Mr. King)
would have been a better parliamentarian.” Immediately after this, Hon.
Mr. Wedderburn was appointed to the office of provincial secretary, and
this office he held until he accepted the position of judge of the
County Courts of Kings and Albert. He twice refused a seat in the
government of 1870, and the appointment of commissioner to consolidate
the provincial statutes. He has been prominently identified with the
temperance movement, and has filled various important positions in this
army of moral reform, among others that of grand worthy patriarch of the
Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of New Brunswick. He was
president of the Mechanics’ Institute of St. John for three years
consecutively, 1869-72, as well as holding other offices in the
institute. He was first president of the Provincial Board of
Agriculture, created by a law passed by the government of which he was a
member, and the address delivered by him at the inauguration of the
board was greatly complimented, and published or largely quoted in
English and French throughout Canada and in the United states. And it
was largely through his means that the stock farm was undertaken by the
government. Hon. Mr. Wedderburn has been speaker, orator, and lecturer
on many important public and private occasions, commanding the close
attention of his auditors at all times by his eloquent, powerful and
ornate deliverances. Among his efforts in this direction may be
mentioned his address at the memorial services held in the city of St.
John for President Lincoln; his oration as provincial secretary at the
memorial services of President Garfield; at the laying the corner stone
of the Masonic Temple in St. John; at the ceremonial in celebration of
the Centennial of the introduction of Freemasonry into New Brunswick;
his great lecture on “Colin Campbell,” in the Mechanics’ Institute, on
behalf of the volunteers during the Fenian troubles; and his brilliant
oration, delivered by request of the city corporation of St. John, upon
the Centennial celebration of the landing of the loyalists in New
Brunswick. Many others might be mentioned. Judge Wedderburn has always
been prominently identified with the fraternity of Free and Accepted
Masons. He was initiated in St. John’s lodge, of St. John, June 19,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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