Sir

& Orwell by Ian Ross Robertson

Sir Andrew Macphail (1864- quoting is Sir Andrew Macphail, one of be construed as such. He treated 1938), a native of Orwell, was those 153. This evening I am going to the crude boys as if they were grave McGill University's first profes- try to explain who Macphail was, to young gentlemen determined to be- sor of the history of medicine. indicate the broad range of his come scholars and win by their He was also a distinguished es- achievements, and to suggest how scholarship any highest place in the sayist, editor, social critic, sol- important this district was to him. world . . . . This teacher had the dier, and applied scientist. The Macphail was bom in 1864, the year curious idea that boys came to following lecture was delivered of the Charlortetown conference. He school to learn; not to waste their by Ian Ross Robertson on 29 was the son of William Macphail, a time, or their parents' money; and July 1975 at the historic Uigg Scottish schoolmaster who taught in certainly not to play games. If they grammar school, which Mac- Uigg in the 1860s and who bought the required work or exercise, the farm phail attended in the 1870s. It farm on which the old schoolhouse was the better place. It was well was sponsored by the Orwell (1849-78) was situated. That farm understood that the intention in Corner project, and co- today constitutes Sir Andrew Macphail coming to school was to escape ordinator Malcolm MacPherson Provincial Park. Andrew was one of ten from work by sitting in a professor's presided. There were in the au- children. Seven of them attained at least chair or on a judge's bench, by dience several persons who had one university degree, and most of standing in the pulpit or before the known Sir Andrew Macphail. those attended McGill University in altar, or moving at leisure in profes- The address is reproduced as . Andrew himself, at the age of sional or political office. delivered. 15, won an entrance scholarship to Prince of Wales College. Some of you I am sure that many of you here will recall Prince of Wales College, tonight are familiar with this idea about which perished six years ago, at the age the purpose of education. I went back of 109. In 1880 it was run by Alexander to the Latin root of the word, namely I am very conscious this evening of Anderson, a Scot from Aberdeen who exducare, to draw out. The educa- speaking in a schoolhouse and in a had been a gold medallist at the tional process was to draw out the best district which have played distinguished University of Edinburgh. More than that there was in a man, and it was roles in Island education. University half a century later Macphail recalled also to draw the best men out of the degrees are quite common today, and, that: common herd of humanity. If one was by all accounts, quite easy to come by. educated, he would never again have But until this generation they were not. Of the many teachers I have since to get his hands dirty through "work- In 1937 a man wrote that in his lifetime known he was the best. His author- ing." Education was "the escape." 153 students had gone forth from this ity was absolute; therefore he was This attitude was reflected in the Uigg school to take one or more never known to exercise it . . . . He comment made by Macphail's Scottish university degrees. Fifty-three of the had two hundred scholars under his grandmother after he had won the 153 went on to become lawyers, control, and in two years he never entrance scholarship to Prince of doctors, clergymen, or engineers. At administered to any one so much as Wales College: " 'Well, what else any one time, the school serviced, at the a rebuke, unless a whimsical banter- would you expect?' She remembered, maximum, 40 families. The man I am ing reference to youthful folly might part in sorrow, part in pride 'that none of your father's name ever worked.' was a small and intimate institution. The Macphails had been teachers or The total enrolment was around 400. clergymen for some 400 years. In He later recalled that: Andrew's words, "not one had been compelled to work with his hands." On the way into the mysterious Prince of Wales College was run on world to a great University, oppres- this old elitist principle of excellence. sed by a sense of inexperience and Lest you think that this was simply a ignorance, I was striving even at that matter of shirking farmwork, or of desperate moment to repair this snobbery, the attitude towards educa- unworthiness by reading Greek tion which I have described had prose composition. A senior student another set of roots among Scottish also on his way discovered me at Islanders. As many of you „ know, in the task. "Put that book away," he 18th- and 19th-century Scotland, men said, "and tell them you come from were being turned out of their humble the Prince of Wales College." I told crofts in order to make way for large- them so, and they admitted me into Public Archives of scale sheep-raising. In order just to the second year. Sir Andrew survive without having to go to the slums of Glasgow or London, or the But one part of life in Montreal contract in New York with a number forests of British North America, it was staggered him: the cost of living. He of newspapers, to sail around the wise to hedge against the future by immediately looked for outside world and report on the places he getting an education, for there was employment. It was fortunate for Mac- saw. He visited Britain, France, Japan, little security of tenure on one's land. phail that he had gone to McGill Egypt, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He In Prince Edward Island, through well-prepared and was not obliged to was away for four months. Prince of Wales College, with its Scot- spend excessive time on study. He This was the Andrew Macphail who tish professors, this frame of mind took worked as a private tutor and as a began to practice medicine in on a new life. Each year a small newspaper reporter. He was very suc- Montreal. At the age of 29 he married number of boys went forth from the cessful at both activities. As a tutor he Georgina Burland of that city. They college and won academic honours received more per hour than he had had two children both of whom would whether they went to McGill, Queen's, received per day as a full-time teacher be known to many of you present: Dalhousie, Edinburgh, or Princeton. In at Malpeque. Within a few years he Jeffrey, who died in the late 1940s, 1888 McGill University gave Anderson was earning 2,000 dollars per annum and Dorothy, Mrs. Lionel Lindsay, the recognition of an honorary degree. as a reporter for the , who lives in Montreal and visits Orwell Andrew Macphail remained at Montreal Star, Globe, various most summers. Prince of Wales College two years. wire services, and a number of Ameri- Over the years Macphail became a Then he taught at Melville, some 15 can papers, including the New York man of distinction in many fields, and miles from here. However, at Christ- Times. This was a very handsome this evening all I can do is sketch some mas his school was closed because of income for the era; in Malpeque his of his achievements, activities, and an outbreak of diphtheria. Andrew annual salary as a teacher had been honours. then moved on to Malpeque grammar 380 dollars. In other words, he held In the first place of course there was school, where he taught for two and down a full-time job, and was highly his medical career. He successfully one-half years. There he became a successful at it, in addition to his practiced medicine on a full-time basis central figure in the community. He university studies. But there was even for about ten years. On the death of helped to establish a local literary more to it than that: by taking extra his wife Georgie in 1902 he was left institute. And he gained access to the courses he did in six years at McGill alone, at age 37, with two small library of a doctor, and proceeded to what was normally done in eight. children. He ceased to practice read all the books therein. He also Futhermore, he was active in extra- medicine and for several years largely began to develop his journalistic curricular affairs and edited a student withdrew from the normal round of abilities by contributing reports to the magazine on the arts. His secret was social life. But he was not the sort of Island press on Malpeque events. But simple: in his words, "I learned to man to become an inactive hermit. In in his last year at Malpeque he was sleep without appearing to be asleep, 1903 he was named editor of the troubled about his future. In the best and by that gift was spared many a Montreal Medical Journal and four Victorian manner, he gave the most useless lecture." When he finished his years later he was appointed McGill's earnest consideration to the choice of career as a student at McGill he had first professor of the history of a profession. Only two callings were two degrees: a BA and an MD. About medicine. He held this position for 30 seriously considered: medicine and the the time of his graduation he won an years. He took the job seriously. In ministry. After much self-analysis he essay contest open to the English- addition to regular classes, one night a made his decision: it would be speaking world, and the prize helped week he would discuss style in medical medicine. Compared with which pro- him to graduate at the age of 27 with writing with a small group. Informally, fession to enter, his choice of a univer- 1,200 dollars and no debts. He used he invited students to his home near sity was easy. He quickly settled upon much of the money he earned in these the university for tea, where he gave McGill University in Montreal. years to assist other members of his them advice on the writing and pas- family in their education. Three days sing of examinations. As a medical Macphail adapted to Montreal and after receiving his MD he signed a editor he was a resounding success. McGill very rapidly. At that time McGill 5 The first decade of this century was for him was a living thing." Many of Europe in the spring of 1915, and the era in which medicine in Montreal Macphail's essays appeared first in the arrived in France in September. He attained an international reputation, University Magazine, a quarterly which spent 20 months at the Front, first as a and Macphail was at the very centre of he edited from 1907 to 1920, with the lieutenant and later as a captain. Four- this explosion of talent. He and some exception of the war years. That was teen of those months were spent with other doctors were so encouraged by the period of his greatest recognition a field ambulance; he was probably the journal's success that they estab- and influence — especially just before the only senior physician to serve so lished a national medical journal, the World War I. He built the magazine long with a field ambulance. His son voice of the national professional as- into the most successful periodical of Jeffrey and his younger brother Alex- sociation. This was the Canadian Med- its type ever published in Canada. It ander, who was in his mid-40s, were ical Association Journal, which is still had a larger subscription list around stationed sufficiently nearby that fre- being published. And Macphail was its 1912, when the Canadian population quent visits were possible. By early first editor. Thus although he let his was about one-third its current size, 1917 he had had enough, and after private practice dwindle away after than any comparable journal had ever service on such fields as Ypres, the Georgie's death, he continued to play had before or since. The total circula- Somme, and Vimy, he accepted a a prominent role in medical affairs in tion was about 6,000, and it reached transfer to headquarters in London. Canada. When he died in 1938 the far beyond the university community, That summer he and his daughter Dean of Medicine at McGill wrote that since Canadian academics at that time Dorothy, who was also doing war he was "an inspiration to McGill stu- could be counted in the hundreds. work in the United Kingdom, paid dents — not alone through his know- The contributors to the University their first visit to the ancestral home at ledge — vast and comprehensive as it Magazine included the most distin- Inverairnie, Scotland. In December of was — but even more through the guished Canadian intellectuals of the 1917 he came home to Canada wondrous spell of his teaching and day. One of the most frequent was briefly, and some of you may recall personality . . . none could be quite Macphail's close friend Stephen attending recruiting meetings which he compared to him. His was a unique Leacock, the economist and addressed at such places as Valleyfield personality. humourist, who also taught at McGill. Church. He left the army in 1919 as a major. But the greatest honour was But his wife's death does mark the Leacock had been on the first editorial committee of the University Magazine, being knighted by the king on New end of the predominantly-medical Year's Day 1918. This was in recogni- phase of his life. After that he began to and later recalled that "the magazine was to be conducted by some sort of tion of both his military and literary take a more serious interest in litera- contributions to the life of the empire. ture. Beginning in 1905 he published board. . . . But it didn't matter, for the more than ten books. These included 'board' was virtually swept aside by Andrew Macphail had come a long a novel, a collection of poetry on the Andrew, as you brush away the chess way from this schoolhouse. Yet he theme of sorrow (which he edited), a pieces of a finished game . . . . After a never forgot where he was from. After study of the Bible in Scotland, the meeting or two, the magazine became his wife's death he started sending his official history of the Canadian Army and remained Andrew Macphail. Like children to Orwell to pass their sum- Medical Services in World War I, his all competent men who can do a job mers with the Macphail grandparents. own semi-autobiography (of which I and who know it, he had no use for Beginning in 1905, when his father shall be saying more later), the first co-operation." died, he himself began to spend his translation of the classic novel Maria Macphail's editorial career was inter- entire summers here. Unlike some Chapdelaine from French to English, a rupted in 1914 by the outbreak of jaded urbanites, who go to the country collection of John McCrae's verse enti- World War I. He immediately volun- for a few summer weeks and exist in tled and Other teered to go to the Front. Some of isolation from the life around them, he Poems, a lengthy drama, and four you are probably doing mental arith- and his brother Alexander, a professor collections of essays. The essays in metic - by 1914, he was in his 50th of engineering at Queen's University in those four books covered an amazing year. True, he was almost 50; and he Kingston, , took an active part variety of subjects: literary criticism, also had gravely impaired eyesight. In in community affairs. When, around theology, feminism, modem education, June of 1911, just when he had been 1910, fire destroyed the home of a military and diplomatic history, rela- getting ready to leave Montreal for the neighbour in Lyndale, a community tions between Canada and Great Bri- summer in Prince Edward Island, a meeting was held and a committee tain, the evils of American civilization, pop bottle exploded in his face as he appointed with Alexander as chairman and Lawrence of Arabia. Indeed the opened it. Glass entered both eyes, and Andrew as a member. Within six essay was Macphail's favourite and as a result he was almost totally weeks the family had moved into a medium, for it displayed to good blinded in the left. Despite his age, his bigger and better house. The local advantage his dry humour, economy eyesight, and the fact that he had press reported that the "Macphail of style, and vivid perceptions. He never worn a uniform, Macphail re- brothers furnished the stone and always had a strong and distinctive fused to take "no" for an answer finished the cellar, ordered the building point of view, and expressed it with when his offer to enlist was rejected. material, engaged workmen, superin- striking clarity and simplicity. A profes- He appealed directly to the prime tended the building of the house. The sor of English literature at the Univer- minister, and he also appears to have public responded generously." That sity of Toronto wrote that "I have used the influence of the principal of house is still standing, although it is never met a man with a greater McGill University. These pressures now vacant. At the end of the summer reverence for language. . . . A word were effective. Macphail left Halifax for of 1909 Andrew donated a bell to the new church in Valleyfield, the com- not reversed until the years of the crops. But they also knew their audi- munity where his grandfather was Great Depression. Despite the largest ence and realized that the Island buried. As many of you may know, average family size in Canada, in the farmer had not only to be told but also neither that church nor that bell is in 1890s the Island's population declined to be shown. Once he had seen with Valleyfield today. The church is now in by 5.3 percent, and in the 1900s by his own eyes he might believe—but Montague and is known as "Hillcrest another 9.3 percent. This trend would not before. Thus, beginning about United"; as for the bell, despite a have been particularly noticeable to 1908, Andrew and Alexander de- five-year guarantee, it cracked after Macphail, because over a 40-year veloped new strains of potatoes, five weeks of use and was replaced by span (1881-1921) the number of Scot- founded the local seed potato industry, the company. The orginal, cracked bell tish Islanders fell by 31.7 percent, and demonstrated how scientific is in the yard of the Macphail house in whereas the percentage decline in the methods could drastically increase the yield. Encouraged by their success, Orwell. population as a whole was 18.4. The Macphail brothers believed that the they went on to expand their acreage But the Macphail brothers had in potatoes, and, around 1910, to other, more continuous activities on only way this decline would be stop- ped was through revitalizing agricul- pioneer the cultivation of tobacco on the Island in those summers before the Island. This latter experiment was World War I. This was a period when ture. If Islanders could once again make a decent living on their farms, fruitful, and within a few years the population on the Island was declining. brothers marketed a crop of 500 The population had levelled off in the they would not leave. The brothers acclaimed the benefits of scientific ag- pounds. Their agricultural operations 1880s, and by the 1890s had begun were sufficiently extensive that at times to decrease — a tendency which was riculture and development of new

Department of Tourism, Parks and Conservation The Macphail homestead at Orwell, now a provincial park. between five and ten men, as well as either in success or in failure. For boughs of trees from either side would the brothers and children, would be at the finest minds it affords an outlet almost touch. His own house took no work. These activities attracted the for activity; for the poorest it affords telephone, and indeed made no con- attention of the local press, and by a living without the sordid accom- cession to modem life. The candles, 1912 the president of the annual paniment of poverty. lamps, and well remained in use. Exibition was writing to Andrew to And Prince Edward Island pre- Everything was to stay as it had been solicit articles on tobacco and potatoes sents a field the freest for all who and nothing was to be unduly dis- for the yearly report. The two brothers would live this life. turbed. When he did have occasion to became widely known in their native have a tree felled, it was always with province. Alexander was elected to the On another occasion he wrote that: the warning to "look out for my pet Legislative Assembly, and Andrew crow" or "watch out for my pet continued to be mentioned as a possi- it is important to have clear ideas snake." And it was this environment ble independent candidate for the about farming . . . . Pictures of wav- which he recalled in his semi- House of Commons in Ottawa. ing wheatfields with sixteen "bin- autobiography, The Master's Wife. The There can be no doubt that Andrew ders" operating en echelon are not Master was his father, William Mac- Macphail had a very deep affection for enough. phail; the wife was his mother. Things Prince Edward Island. In fact, the Farming is a way of life. It is that had changed a lot since their day. But Island, and especially this district, and nothing else. It is not a business. was man any happier? Was he as made him the sort of intellectual he If a man does not find his life's creative as he had been? Were was. In my opinion, Macphail made pleasure in his daily work, in the factory-made clothes and furniture bet- his greatest contribution to Canada in contact of his fields and the compan- ter than those made by mother and his role as a social critic. He believed ionship of his animals; if he does not father? Macphail was sure that the that it was the duty of university men enjoy his labour in woods, by stream answer to each of these questions was to "tell the truth," as he said, about all and sea; if he thinks less of his daily "no." has recalled current topics. In an address to the bread, of the provision for a serene that his friend Andrew's celebration of University Club of Montreal, he stated and contented old age, and more of the virtues and amenities of the way of that: the profit he draws, he would be well life of his boyhood went almost to the advised to seek some other vocation. point of affectation. Leacock confessed that he too felt such sentiments. But We are a class set apart. We have Andrew elevated ourselves into the exploit- Farmers "take what they can get, be it ing, the parasite class. . . . But we much or little. The more they get the can justify our existence by telling less they work." His ideal was mixed could push reality hard, much har- the truth even about ourselves . . . . farming, based on a fine network of der than I ever could. He could It will not do any longer to stand by interdependence among crops and speak of buttermilk (over a glass of and declare that we are holy men animals. Both would be chosen with whiskey and soda) with a wistful who would be defiled by coming in an eye to the soil, since, in his words, relish, and talk of long drinks of contact with the world, preferring to "Farming is an art . . . . The soil must maple sap out of its wooden trough, sit in a well and gazing at the stars. be learned as a artist learns his mate- —a beverage little better in reality rials." than a solution of sawdust and dead In his own writings he steadfastly This ideal of Macphail's was drawn flies. It became with Andrew a sort opposed the industrialization and ur- from the rural Prince Edward Island he of whimsical make-believe that ev- banization of Canada. He was at- had known in his youth. Farming was erything in the country was right, tached to another, more traditional mixed, and farmers were men of wide and everything in the city wrong. and stable way of life. In his ideal talents. They were not commercial, The only real boots were made by society most people were farmers, and "one-crop" farmers. It was this local country cobblers: homespun clothes a particular sort of farmer at that. The environment which provided the inspi- fitted better than the tailored pro- kind of farming Macphail had in mind ration for Macphail's social criticism. It duct of the city: and so forth, till the was linked to a certain set of values. In was also this environment which he thing verged on burlesque and An- 1912 he wrote that: wanted to preserve. Orwell or, more drew himself would start to laugh at broadly, Prince Edward Island, its }t. In all this, as in so much else, I The man who farms only for the people, and its way of life were a part am certain that he never quite knew money there is in it is a fool, of him, and he could not bear to see what he believed and what he because one who can make money industrial society encroaching upon didn't: but underneath it was a out of farming can make a great them and destroying their distinctive deep-seated feeling that the real deal more out of something else. character. When telephones came to virtue of a nation is bred in the But for the man who would live a Orwell, rather than having his road country, that the city is an unnatural quiet, interesting, reasonable and widened and trees cut down, Macphail product. useful life there is no other occupa- paid extra expense to have the poles tion which affords so favorable an placed on the parallel Kinross Road, Andrew Macphail never forgot Orwell. opportunity. It demands the exercise and the lines run across from Orwell to Orwell should see to it that Prince of every faculty. Every moment of it. In my own memory, which begins Edward Island does not forget him— the day is full of surprise, and every about ten years after Macphail's death, who he was and what he stood for. effort has its immediate reward the road was so narrow that the higher His message is still timely today.