The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)Dent, John Charles
History
The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)
Dent, John Charles
Canada -- Biography
He at once began to go on circuit, and he had not been many months at
the Bar before he was in the very front rank. When it is borne in mind
that his competitors were such men as Henry Eccles, John Hillyard
Cameron, Philip Vankoughnet, and the present Mr. Justice Hagarty, it
will be admitted that a young man who could hold his own against such
rivals must have possessed exceptional abilities. Mr. Cameron's most
salient qualifications consisted of a competent knowledge of his
profession, a subtle power of analyzing evidence, a ready command of
language, an impressive utterance and delivery, and--more than all--a
manner which was open and confidential without being familiar, and which
to most jurymen was suggestive of honest conviction. Though of somewhat
contracted physique, he contrived to get through an amount of work which
few men endowed with greater robustness of frame could have
accomplished. His popularity grew apace, and erelong his practice was
second to that of no man at the Bar of this Province. His popularity and
practice were not confined to any particular neighbourhood, but extended
throughout the whole of western Canada; and the only two counties in
which he has not held briefs are the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. His
briefs embraced every variety of pleading, civil and criminal. In all
sorts of cases, and with all classes of jurors, he was thoroughly at
home, and his efforts were generally crowned with that best proof of
ability--success.
At the outset of his career at the Bar he was perhaps more assiduous in
his attendance at assizes in the Gore District than elsewhere, as his
brother John practised his profession in Hamilton--and afterwards in
Brantford--and was able to throw a good many briefs in his way. As the
years passed by, the question became, not how to obtain briefs, but how
to get through the labour they imposed. Mr. Cameron, however, is not
only endowed with great capacity for hard work, but has a genuine liking
for it. His exceeding quickness of perception and apprehension was very
often displayed during his career at the Bar, and it was said of him
that he could acquire a more accurate knowledge of his case after it had
been opened than most of his competitors could obtain by a week's
preparation.
Soon after completing his legal studies Mr. Cameron formed a partnership
with his former principal, the late Mr. William Henry Boulton. Several
years later he entered into partnership with the Hon. William Cayley,
who held the portfolio of Minister of Finance in the Government formed
under the auspices of Sir Allan Macnab in 1854. Mr.--now Dr.--Daniel
McMichael was subsequently admitted, and the firm of Messrs. Cayley,
Cameron & McMichael long had a business second to that of no firm in the
Province. The partnership subsequently underwent various modifications,
but its members have always maintained its position as one of the
leading legal firms in Toronto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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