A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time. Various

of George Stone, of Chiselhurst, Kent, head of the oldest private banking house in London, now Martin & Co., 68 Lombard street. The subject of our sketch, Rev. Dr. Norman, was educated at King’s College, London, and afterwards at Exeter College, Oxford; and was, in 1852, ordained deacon, and priest in 1853. He was curate of St. Thomas, Oxford, in 1852; fellow of Radley College, 1853; fellow and head master of St. Michael’s College, Tenbury, 1857; and warden of Radley College, 1861 to 1866. In consequence of hard work his health became impaired, and he left England in 1866, in the hope that a short sojourn in Canada would do him good. He had not been long on this side the Atlantic when his health began to improve, and family circumstances prompted him to make Canada his future home. Previous to his coming here he had but slight experience in strictly ministerial work, his principal labours in England having been connected with higher education; but since then he has heartily thrown himself into pastoral work, without having entirely abandoned education. In 1868 he was appointed assistant at St. John the Evangelist’s Church, Montreal; assistant at St. James the Apostle’s Church, 1872; rector of St. Matthias Church, 1883; and is now (1887) canon assistant of Christ Church Cathedral. Rev. Dr. Norman was, in 1878, a member of the council and vice-chancellor of the University of Bishop’s College; a member of the Protestant School Board in 1879, and chairman of the same in 1880; vice-president of the Montreal Art Association in 1882, and president in 1887; vice-president of the Montreal Philharmonic Society in 1879; member of the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction in 1883; hon. clerical secretary of the Anglican Provincial Synod in 1880; and in 1882 was elected a fellow of McGill College, Montreal. Rev. Dr. Norman belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and occupied the position of worshipful master of Apollo University lodge, Oxford, in 1861–1863, and the same office in Abingdon lodge in 1864. He was also eminent commander of encampment Cœur-de-Lion, Oxford, 1858. Rev. Dr. Norman has published several volumes of sermons, and various pamphlets, which have been well received by the public. He is still in the prime of life, and we hope has many years of usefulness still before him. He has always been a member of the Anglican communion, and is unmarried.

Rice, Charles, Registrar of the High Court of Justice, etc., Perth, Ontario, was born on the 7th of November, 1822, in the township of Drummond, in the county of Lanark, about two miles from the town of Perth, which then contained but a few log buildings used chiefly for government stores, the settlement being composed of discharged soldiers and their families located by the government at the close of the American war of 1812. His father, John Rice, was born in the county Down, Ireland, at or near Newry, and was descended from a collateral branch of the Monteagle family. Returning home from school one afternoon when about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by the press-gang and forced on board a British man-of-war bound on a cruise for the coast of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He continued on board ship doing duty as a sailor, until the American war broke out, when he left the vessel and enlisted as a private soldier in the Newfoundland Fencibles and took part in the battles of Chrysler’s Farm, Stoney Creek, Burlington Heights, and other engagements. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant, was wounded at Burlington Heights, and at the close of the war got his discharge with a pension and a grant of land. He had married Hannah Van Boeler, then the widow of John Woodlands, who had been killed in battle. She was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, of Dutch parents who had emigrated from the Netherlands and settled at Annapolis. They were descended from those sturdy and brave Dutchmen who had battled for their liberty for forty years against the colossal power of Spain under Phillip II. John Rice, through hard work, had effected a considerable clearance on his lot, and was prospering apace, when one summer, at the latter end of August, the barn in which all the produce of the farm had been stored, took fire and was burned down with all its contents, and he had to run in debt to the late Hon. R. Matheson for supplies to support the family for an entire year. This debt accumulated in Matheson’s books at compound interest at ten per cent., and in a few years Matheson got a deed of the farm, with a verbal understanding to re-convey when the debt should be paid off, which was never done in the lifetime of John Rice. Born and brought up in a log shanty, in what was then the backwoods, the subject of this sketch, Charles Rice, had but a poor chance of getting any education. There were no public schools, no free schools, in those days; and at intervals he was sent to a private school kept in Perth by the late Mr. Hudson, and afterwards to another kept by the late Dawson Kerr. On arriving at the age of fourteen Mr. Rice had been at school for about two years in all, and had only acquired some knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic. When about twelve years old, in the month of November, he hired out at six dollars a month to burn coal to earn money to buy himself a pair of boots for the winter. The following year, in the beginning of December, he hired as bookkeeper with Aaron Chambers, who had a lumber shanty, taking out oak timber near Peter McArthur’s, in the township of Beckwith. He started on foot and walked to Franktown, fifteen miles, and arrived there at dark only to find that he had five miles farther to go to reach the shanty, through a section of country and bush roads that he knew nothing about; but by following closely the directions given him, he succeeded in finding the place some two or three hours after dark. This was Saturday night. Chambers had hired him to keep his books, and on Sunday informed him that besides keeping the books he would have to cook for the men and chop the fire-wood. This he refused to do, and on Monday morning left the shanty and footed it home. He continued to work on the farm until about sixteen years old, when he was apprenticed to James Thompson (the present sheriff), to learn the printing business in the old Bathurst Courier office (now the Perth Courier). This was in May, 1839. About two years and a half after this, in the beginning of winter, he left the Courier office, took the stage to Brockville, thence by stage to Kingston (there were no railroads in those days), and arrived there at night penniless but not despairing. The Kingston News had just been started by S. and J. Rowlands, and he got work on this newspaper. The following summer he returned home, his father having died in the meantime, and worked for about two years longer in the Courier office. Ere he had been a year in the Courier, for the first time, he became convinced that if he was to succeed in the printing business, he must acquire a better education than he then had. A young lawyer in town, Henry Sache, who was sometimes hard up through nobody’s fault but his own, offered to sell him a Latin dictionary cheap. He closed the bargain and bought it, and at once determined to study Latin. The reader will no doubt smile when informed that he commenced his studies by committing the Latin dictionary to memory! A few evenings afterwards Mr. Sache, coming in and finding him intent at the dictionary, asked what he was doing. He replied that he had commenced to study Latin, and was learning the dictionary off by heart. His visitor smiled, and informed him that he would never learn the language that way—that he must get a Latin grammar, study that, and then commence to translate. But where was he to get a Latin grammar? Sache had sold his, and there was none for sale in Perth. The nearest place was Brockville; and so he got the stage-driver on his next trip to buy him one and bring it out, and how he exulted over the possession of that book! Every spare moment was thenceforth devoted to study, and with some assistance that he got from Ephraim Patterson, who was then studying for the church, he made pretty rapid progress. This intercourse with Patterson had induced in him a desire to study for the Church of England ministry. He talked the matter over with the late Rev. Michael Harris, and on a confirmation visit to Perth, he had an interview with Bishop Strachan on the subject. They both approved his decision, and while offering words of encouragement, pointed out the great difficulties that would have to be overcome, the subjects that would require to be studied and mastered before he could take a college degree and qualify for holy orders. Nothing daunted, the young man determined to persevere—what others had done he could do—it was only a question of time. He now reduced his course of studies to a system. He had to work ten hours a day in the printing office to support himself; so he rose at four o’clock in the morning, winter and summer, and studied Greek till six, when work commenced at type-setting. Of the breakfast hour and dinner hour he devoted forty minutes of each to the study of Euclid. From seven till ten p.m. was devoted to the study of Latin. Of course, his health occasionally broke down under this severe strain and compelled a short cessation, but only to be resumed again. Kingston was the seat of government when young Rice went there the second time and got work in the News office. Parliament opened in the fall, and Dr. Barker, of the British Whig, secured the contract for the government printing; and as he offered higher wages than the News was paying, young Rice entered the Whig office on the parliamentary work. Lord Metcalfe was governor at the time, and quarrelled with his ministers (Baldwin, Lafontaine, Rolph, etc.),