=Stephen, Sir George=, Baronet, Montreal, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway of Canada, was born at Dufftown, Banff, Scotland, on the 5th of June, 1829, and received his education in the parish school of his native place. On leaving school at the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to the late Alexander Sinclair, draper and dealer in dry goods in Aberdeen. After serving the usual apprenticeship of four years, he entered the service of the well-known wholesale and shipping house of J. F. Pawson & Co., of St. Paul’s Church Yard, London, where his business education was completed. In 1850 he came to Canada, and entered the service of his cousin, the late William Stephen, of Montreal, with whom, in 1853, he formed a partnership under the style of William Stephen & Co. Mr. Stephen having died in 1862, George purchased his late friend’s interest in the business, and at once entered largely into the manufacture of cloth. This venture having proved highly remunerative, he withdrew from the wholesale trade, and devoted his attention exclusively to this branch of business. He was elected a director of the Bank of Montreal, the largest banking institution in Canada; and in 1876, on the retirement of Mr. King from the presidency, he was chosen vice-president. On the death of the late David Torrance he was elected president. Sir George Stephen’s first connection with railway enterprises, and with which his name will always be connected in the annals of our country, was his joining a syndicate for the purchase of the interests of the Dutch holders of the bonds of the St. Paul and Pacific Railway, which gave them control of this partially constructed line. Realising the importance of this road as a link in the chain of railway communication with the North-West _via_ the Pembina branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway, they carried the work of construction rapidly forward, and soon found themselves in possession of an exceedingly profitable line. They were in a position to control not only the entire traffic of the Canadian North-West, but to render tributary a large part of Minnesota and Dakota. The large profits made from this monopoly they devoted to extending the sphere of their operations by constructing lines in various directions, making St. Paul the focal point of this system, and re-naming their line the St. Paul and Manitoba Railway. This led to Sir George’s connection with our great national line, the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1881 he was elected its president. In 1885, in conjunction with his cousin, Sir Donald A. Smith, he founded the “Montreal Scholarship,” tenable for three years, and open to the residents of Montreal and its neighbourhood, in the Royal College of Music of London; and again in 1887 he joined his cousin in presenting the munificent sum of $1,000,000 ($500,000 each) to build a new hospital, to be called the Victoria Hospital, at the present time (1887) in course of erection. In 1885 the government of Canada presented him with the Confederation medal, and in 1886 Her Majesty the Queen created him a baronet, in recognition of his great services in connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Though married, he has no family of his own to inherit his great wealth and honours. A few years ago his adopted daughter was united in marriage to the son of Sir Stafford Northcote, and resides in England. Sir George is one of the most popular, charitable and kind-hearted men in the dominion.