The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

allegiance owes much to him. Nearly all the cabinet ministers in the last quarter of a century were his personal friends, and he was as well known and as highly appreciated by those in lofty station as by those in the humbler walks of life. He was a warm personal friend of the late Sir John A. Macdonald during the life-time of that illustrious statesman, and had he been so disposed he might have cast a sidelight upon certain important crises which have attended the history of Canadian political parties, and of which as matters stand the general public have only a vague and imperfect knowledge. With those who made up the Liberal party while in opposition he was also on the best of terms. While ever loyal to his own political convictions, his was not a blind adhesion to party; he was as liberal minded as he was wholehearted. Career of the Deceased Mr. Isbester was one of the most prominent contractors in Canada. Born in the Orkney Islands, 59 years ago, his parents came to this country when he was still very young, settling near Woodstock. His father was a retired sea captain. While still a young man he acted as mechanical engineer on the Great Western Railway. In 1869 he commenced his contracting experience by building a portion of the Rimouski bridge under Alexander Macdonald. Following this, he executed a number of sub-contracts on the Intercolonial Railway. Perhaps the greatest achievement of his whole career, however, was the building of section B of the C. P. R., in partnership with Manning and Macdonald. This section of the transcontinental line lies along the north shore of Lake Superior, and at many points presents some most difficult feats in engineering. Not a little of it is built on trestles overhanging the rocky shores of the great inland sea. Mr. Isbester finished that contract with a profit of $300,000. Some of this money he subsequently lost on a contract which he undertook about ten years ago on the Cape Breton extension of the Intercolonial Railway in partnership with Mr. R. G. Reid, the Newfoundland railway magnate. Only last spring Mr. Isbester completed a contract on the Crow's Nest Pass. About twenty-three years ago Mr. Isbester married Miss Fraser at Quebec. To them was born a family of four sons and one daughter. Miss Minota is at home with her brother Alexander; Colin is in Winnipeg, James has been spending the summer with Mr. Alex. Simpson, of the Ontario Bank at Aylmer, and Malcolm is visiting Mr. Rufus Pope at Sherbrooke, Que. Dr. Herridge's Tribute Mr. Isbester was a life-long Presbyterian, and he and his