diaries Fitzpatrick. arose in 1890, when the Provincial Govern ment of Manitoba introduced and passed two bills through the Legislature, the prac tical effect o! which was to c'.ose the Roman Catholic separate schools in the Province. The validity of this legislation was at tacked by the Roman Catholics on the Around, chiefly, that it infringed the Constitutional Act of Manitoba, 33 Viet. (Can.) c. 3, sec. 22, inasmuch as it "prejudicially affected a right or privilege with respect to denominational schools," which the Roman Catholics enjoyed at the time Manitoba became part of Canada. A case testing the validity of the School Act of 1890 went to the Courts, and found its way ultimately to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council where the Act was de clared intra fires of the Manitoba Legisla ture. Thereupon the parties aggrieved pe titioned the Governor-General-in-Council (the Dominion Executive), for relief under sub-sec. 2 of sec. 2 of the Manitoba Consti tutional Act, which provides for an appeal to such body from any Act of the Provincial Legislature affecting any right or privilege of any religious minority in the Province in relation to education. After being advised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council that they had power to make an order looking to the relief of the parties aggrieved, Sir McKenzie Bowell's Administration, in March, 1895, passed what is known in political history as the "Reme dial Order," granting the Roman Catholic minority in Manitoba, (a) the right to main tain separate schools as they did before the passage of the Acts of 1890, (b) the right to share proportionately in any grant made out of the public funds for the purpose of educa tion, and (c) the right of exemption of such Roman Catholics as contributed to Roman Catholic schools from all payment or contri bution to other schools. In these facts in hered the Manitoba School question. In June, 1898, Mr. Fitzpatrick visited
England as the representative of Canada in a proposed arbitration between the Govern ments of the United Kingdom and Russia in relation to the matter of compensation to the owners of Canadian sealing schooners seized in Behring sea. Of Irish extraction, Mr. Fitzpatrick is an ardent advocate of the interests of his race in the o'.d country, as well as at home. He was for some time president of the Quebec Branch of the Irish National League, and was one of the delegates to the Irish Na tional Convention at Dublin in 1896. He has the enthusiastic support of the Irish ving of the Liberal party in Canada, and by his compatriots on both sides of politics is looked upon as a thoroughly representative man. Before leaving the more active practice of his profession, Mr. Fitzpatrick enjoyed the honor of being twice elected to the position of bâtonnier, or president, of the Bar of the Province of Quebec. In these various positions of prominence held at the Bar, Mr. Fitzpatrick has sought to maintain the best ethics, as well as the ma terial welfare of the profession. Anyone coming to him with a suggestion for reform and betterment is sure of a ready hearing. Both by the native trend of his mind and his academical training he has been led to look upon the law as a science, and something more than a mere business or means of money-getting—seemingly espousing the view of Bolingbroke that his chosen profes sion is in its "nature, the noblest and most beneficial to mankind, in its abuse and de basement the most pernicious." As to his personal qualities, the following observations, by one who knew him inti mately, appeared in the Canadian press the while Mr. Fitzpatrick held the office of Solicitor-General for Canada: "Although able to give and take severe blows in party warfare, when debate is ended all hard words are forgotten. Animosity there never was.
