[Illustration: JAMES ROBERT GOWAN, signed as JAS. ROBT GOWAN]
His skill as a legal draughtsman was such that Mr. Baldwin, who, at the time of Judge Gowan's appointment, was Attorney-General for Upper Canada, availed himself of his services in preparing various important measures which were afterwards submitted to Parliament. This was a remarkably high compliment for a young man of twenty-five to receive, but there is no doubt that the compliment was well merited, for the measures so prepared were models of compact statutory legislation, and gained no inconsiderable _eclat_ for the Administration. The example set by Mr. Baldwin has since been followed by other Attorneys-General, and Judge Gowan has thus made a decided mark upon our Canadian legislation and jurisprudence. It is said, and we believe truly, that it was he who suggested the introduction of the Common Law Procedure Act of 1856, and that the adaptation of the English Act to our local requirements was largely the work of his hand.
At the time of his appointment the judicial system of the inferior courts was in a very primitive condition. He set himself diligently to work in his own district, and, in the face of many difficulties, succeeded in organizing the system which he has ever since administered with such benefit and satisfaction to the community in which he resides. The position of a judge in a rural district was attended in those days with a good many inconveniences which have disappeared with advancing civilization. The roads were in such a condition that he was generally compelled to make his circuits on horseback. Judge Gowan's district was the largest in the Province, and extended over a wide tract of country, the greater part of which was but sparsely settled. He was frequently compelled to ride from sixty to seventy miles a day, and to dispose of five or six hundred cases at a single session. One of the newspapers published in the county of Simcoe gave an account, several years ago, of some of his early exploits; from which account it appears that he was often literally compelled to take his life in his hand in the course of his official peregrinations. It describes how, on one occasion, he was compelled to ride from Barrie to Collingwood when the forest was on fire. The heat and smoke were sufficiently trying, but he also had to encounter serious peril from the blazing trees which were falling all around him. On another occasion, while attempting to cross a river during high water, his horse was caught by the flood, and carried down stream at such a rate that he might well have given himself up for lost. He saved himself by grasping his horse's tail, and thereby keeping his head above water until he came to a spot where he could find foothold, and so made the best of his way, more than half drowned, to the shore. He was also frequently compelled to encounter dangers from which travellers in the rural districts of Canada are not altogether free, even at the present day--such dangers, for instance, as damp beds, unwholesome and ill-cooked food, and badly ventilated rooms. Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, he was able to say, after he had been a judge for more than a quarter of a century: "I have never been absent from the Superior Courts over which I preside;"--by which he meant the County Courts and Quarter Sessions--"and as to the Division Courts, except when on other duties at the instance of the Government, fifty days would cover all the occasions when a deputy acted for me."