THE CANADIAN BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Ill movement in the House was to attack the Mackenzie Government in 1876, for having in violation of the Independence of Parliament Act, given contracts to a number of members of Parliament including the Speaker of the House, the Hon. Timothy Anglin, The .result of this was the Mr. unseating of seven members, including the Speaker and Minister of Militia ; which resulted in the introductiou and passage of a much more stringent Independence of Parliament Act. Bowell was an active and hard-working member of the most important committees of the House, and when his party returned to power in the autumn of 1878, he was called upon to fill the important position of Minister of Customs. In December, 1847, Mr. Bowell married Harriett Louisa, daughter of Jacob G, Moore of Belleville, and they have five children living and have buried four. HOK. E. M. WELLS. TORONTO. T")UPERT MEARSE WELLS, a prominent member of the Toronto Bar, and well known as -*- ^ Speaker of the Provincial Parliament since January, 1873, is descended on the paternal His side from an English family, members of which emigrated to America, and settled in the old town of Scituate. in the State of Rhode Island, towards the end of the 17th century. great-grandfather, James Wells, came to Canada during the Revolutionary War. James Pendleton Wells, Esq., father of our subject, was born in Montreal in 1803. While still quite a young man he removed to Prescott County, Ontario, where he has resided for the last fifty or sixty years. He has taken an active and prominent part in public and political affairs, and up to the time of his acceptance of the office of Sheriff, which office he still holds, was the recognized leader of the Reform party in that county. There are few gentlemen in His Eastern Canada more widely known or more generally respected than Sheriff Wells. of Scotch-English descent. Rupert Mearse was born in Prescott County, on the 28th of November, 1835 ; received primary education at home and at Brockville, and entered the Toronto University in 1850 ; was winner of the Jameson Gold Medal in History, and was Silver Medalist in Ethics, graduating B,A. in 1854 ; began the study of law with Alexander McDonald, then representing the old and distinguished firm of Blake, Conner, Morrison and McDonald ; was called to the Bar, U. C. Trinity term, 1857, and immediately thereafter removed to L'Orignal, the County Town of the Counties of Prescott and Russell. Mr, Wells remained there about three years, during which time, in addition to his professional duties, he published and edited a * wife, mother of the subject of this memoir, was Emily Hamilton Cleveland, a native Canadian