Doctor Allison was born at Newport, Hants County, Nova Scotia, on the 3rd of July, 1836. By both lines of descent he belongs to that thrifty Scoto-Irish stock to which the central counties of Nova Scotia are largely indebted for their progress. On the paternal side he belongs to a family which has displayed much aptitude for public affairs, his grandfather and father both having occupied seats in the Provincial Legislature. His brother, Mr. W. Henry Allison, after occupying a seat in the same Body for several terms, at present represents the county of Hants in the House of Commons. His preliminary education was received at the Provincial Academy at Halifax--since re-organized and developed into Dalhousie College--and at the Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, N.B. His school-boy days at Halifax were contemporaneous with a period of great political excitement, and a race of orators rarely surpassed in any colonial legislature--Howe, Johnston, Young, Uniacke--enlivened the Assembly room of the Province with their eloquence. Frequent attendance on the discussions waged by these masters of debate gave to the young student's mind a strong and permanent leaning towards political and constitutional studies. At Sackville, where he studied four consecutive years, the basis of a broad and liberal training was firmly laid. Twenty-five years ago, institutions of learning really doing educational work of a high order were not so numerous in the Maritime Provinces as they now are, and the Academy at Sackville, distinguished for its high standard and energetic methods, attracted patronage, not only from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but from Newfoundland and "the vexed Bermoothes." During his connection with this school, he was thus brought into contact with many young men who have since won distinction in Provincial life. His academic career ended, he was determined (we suppose) by denominational proclivities to seek University training and honours at the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., U.S., where his career was in a high degree successful and brilliant. For some years after graduation, in 1859, he filled the post of classical instructor at Sackville, first in the Academy, and from 1862 to 1869 in the Mount Allison College, an institution organized in that year under charter obtained from the Legislature of New Brunswick. The resignation of the Presidency of the College by the Rev. Dr. Pickard, in 1869, gave its Board of Governors an opportunity of showing their appreciation of his scholarship and character. He was unanimously elected President, and thenceforward for nine years devoted himself with assiduity and success to the duties of that position.