Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the most brilliant orators known to Canadian Parliamentary history, was born at Carlingford, in the county of Louth, Ireland, on the 13th of April, 1825. He was the fifth child and second son of Mr. James McGee, an official in the Coast Guard Service, by his wife, Dorcas Catharine Morgan. The latter was the daughter of a bookseller in Dublin, who had been connected with the troubles of '98, and who had been brought to ruin and imprisonment as a member of that body known, by a strange misnomer, as "United Irishmen." The real or fancied wrongs of the patriotic bookseller had made a profound impression upon the susceptible mind of his daughter; an impression which was never effaced, and which descended, by hereditary transmission, to her children. The subject of this sketch, like his little brothers and sisters, was taught at a very early age to hate the name of the Saxon, and to long for the emancipation of Ireland from the thraldom of her hereditary foe. His paternal grandfather had also been a participant in the ill-advised attempt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; and when James McGee accepted employment in the Coast Guard Service we may be sure that he was not actuated by any profound enthusiasm for the duties of his position. He seems, however, to have discharged those duties acceptably to his superior officers, and to have attained to a position which enabled him to provide a comfortable home for his family. The wrongs of his country were nevertheless a fruitful theme of comment in James McGee's domestic circle, and the family traditions on both sides of the house were constantly retailed for the benefit of the younger members. Reared among such influences, it is not to be wondered at if young Thomas D'Arcy grew up to manhood without any very fervid sentiments of loyalty to the British crown. The mischief wrought by his early training was great, and was destined to exercise a baneful influence upon his future life. It was only after many years of severe discipline, and after he had reached an age to think and reflect for himself that he was able to unlearn the pernicious teachings of his childhood. He never ceased to regard the land of his birth with the affection of a large-hearted patriot, but he grew, in course of time, to rate at their true value the wild revolutionary projects which for many years impeded his intellectual advancement, and engrossed so large a share of his energies. He outgrew the follies of his early youth, and learned wisdom in the school of experience. He conceived nobler and more practical schemes for the advancement of the race from which he sprang; and there is abundant reason for believing that, had his life been spared, he would have developed into a broad and enlightened statesman. His untimely death was a loss to the "New Nationality" which he had helped to call into existence, and a grievous, almost irreparable loss to the Irish race in Canada. The assassin who sent him