THE CANADIAN BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 109 Decembee 10, 1827, Alice Maria, only daughter of Richard Lowe, Esq., of Adolphustown, County of Lennox, became the wife of Mr, Benson, and they had twelve children. The eldest daughter is the wife of Thomas R. Merritt, of Rodman Hall, St. Catharines; the eldest son, James Binley Benson, died in 1876 at Hamilton, Bermuda, whither he had gone to recruit his health; and three other daughters and three sons are still living. One daughter is unmarried ; she is the wife of Calvin Brown, of St. Catharines, and the other is the wife of Thomas Richard Fuller, of Toronto, son of the Lord Bishop of Niagara. The eldest surviving son is Thomas Moore Benson, Barrister-at-law, Port Hope, a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and one of the leading men in his profession in the County of Durham, His first -wife was Mary Edith, eldest daughter of Rev. John McCaul, LL.D., President of University College, Toronto, and his present wife is Laura A., daughter of the Lord Bishop of Niagara, The othe.r surviving sons are Richard Lowe Benson, LL.B., Deputy Sheriff of Northumberland and Durham ; and Lieut.-Col. Frederic Albert Benson, of the 46th Battalion Volunteer Militia, Port Hope. HOIS". LIEUT-COL. MACKENZIE BOWELL, BELLEVILLE. IjlEW men in the Province of Ontario are more thoroughly self-educated and self-made than -*the Hon. Mackenzie Bowell, Minister of Customs, to which position he was appointed on the 18th of October, 1878, after the defeat of the Mackenzie Government in the previous month, He entered a printing office at eleven years of age as " devil," and grew up and educated himself in the same office, being connected with it in various relations--apprentice, journeyman foreman, joint-proprietor and sole proprietor--from 1834 to 1875. Whatever lie is lie owes largely to his own industry and economy of time. Thrown upon his own resources early in life, by perseverance, self-reliance and an honorable course in everything he did, he soon obtained the respect and confidence of his employer and those by -whom he was surrounded. From boyhood he took an active part in politics, and at an early age his aid was always sought by the party to which he allied himself, whenever it became involved in any contest, until he was looked upon as one of the leaders of the Conservatives in his county. Mr. Bowell is a son of John Bowell, and Elizabeth Marshall, and was born at Rickinghall, Suffolk, England, December 27, 1823. The family came to Belleville, Canada, when he was ten years old, and that pleasant town has been his home ever since. A small-boned, loose-jointed lad, in his eleventh year lie entered the office of the Belleville Intelligencer ; .had charge of it before he was out of his apprenticeship, and was its sole proprietor from 1853 until he disposed of the office and paper in 1875, at which time it was pub-'