The library has recently acquired an excellent copy of the 1881 issue of the Canadian Parliamentary Companion and Annual Registry. This particular copy was originally given as a gift from Senator Adam Hope to Aemilius Irving on April 29th, 1882.
The inscription from Senator Hope is located on the front endpaper and is reproduced below:
Adam Hope was born January 8th, 1813, in Scotland and journeyed to Upper Canada in 1834 where he became “an important figure in the business communities of London and Hamilton.” [1]. Largely in recognition of his active commitment to the Liberal party Hope was appointed to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie on January 3rd, 1877 where he served until his death on August 7th, 1882 at the age of 69.
Aemilius Irving was ten years younger than Hope and also arrived in Canada in 1834 emigrating with his family from England. As a law student in his early twenties Irving began working in the Toronto law office of Joseph Clarke Gamble and was called to the bar in 1849. He moved from Toronto to Galt in 1851 to set up his own practice and in 1853 was appointed clerk of the peace for Waterloo County.
In the mid-1850s Irving moved his large family to Hamilton where he acted as legal counsel for the Great Western Railway, a position he held until 1872. This was where he acquired his “unconventional legal experience.” [2] Irving first ran for public office as a Liberal in 1872 but was defeated. He was elected in 1874 and again in a by-election in 1875 where a “New Election Law” was being tested that “secures vote by ballot, and has abolished the property qualification candidates.” [3]
“Irving’s most notable intervention as a back-bencher in the government of Alexander Mackenzie was an amendment to the Supreme Court Bill which, as clause 47, made the proposed tribunal the final court of appeal for Canada and ended appeals to the United Kingdom. This clause, however, was rendered inoperative in 1876 by British law officers.” [2]
Irving had been appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1863 and was elected as a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1875. He was defeated in both the 1878 and 1882 federal elections and relocated to Toronto where “for almost three more decades, he would devote his considerable energies to public service and to his profession.” [2] During this period, from 1877 until his death in 1892, he also acted as a crown prosecutor.
As Jamie Benidickson notes in his biographical entry on Irving,
“More influential contributions were made by Irving in constitutional litigation and intergovernmental negotiations. Looking back in 1913 on Ontario’s struggle with Ottawa over the structure of the Canadian federation, the Globe described Irving’s role: ‘He was in an important sense a professional partner of Sir Oliver Mowat, who was Attorney-General as well as Premier. For very important cases, where the law of the constitution or the history of easements or franchises was involved, he did much laborious but unostentatious work. Only those on the inside of the Provincial Administration knew how much Ontario owes to him for extensive research that no other available member of the profession had the ability and the lore to carry as he did.’” [2]
Irving came to be one of the longest serving Treasurer’s of the Law Society of Upper Canada a position he held for 20 years from 1893 until his death in 1913 at the age of 90. When he died “his remains lay in state in Osgoode Hall before the funeral procession made its way to St. James’ Cemetery in Toronto. At the time of his death he was the oldest lawyer in Canada.” [4]
[1] McCalla, Douglas. “Adam Hope”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online <http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5589>.
[2] Benidickson, Jamie. “Sir Aemilius Irving”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online <http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7467>.
[3] Irving, Aemilius. Address to the electors of Hamilton, Canadian Parliamentary Companion for 1876, p. 680 <http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.32950/696>.
[4] “The Law Society’s Longest-Serving Treasurer – Sir Æmilius Irving” <http://www.lsuc.on.ca/with.aspx?id=1950> .