Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-25
BONAR LAW,

1 kncw much about Bonar Law,
the new prime minister OF Great
Britain. Very few Americans
know that he was born in Canada,
the son of a Scotch-Irish Presby-
terian minister, who came to Can
ada from County Antrim, Ireland,
landing at Halifax. N. S., where
his wife had relatives. He finally
settled in New Brunswick where
he ministered to a poor and scat
tered parish, and had to exc out a
living by farming because his sal
ary was so small. On his mothers
death an aunt took him to Scot
land and brought him up. w. nj.
Fraser writing about him and his
youth, tells these interesting de-
tails:
"On the Manawagonish road in
a remote part of the Province OF
New Brunswick, Can, there is still
living an old lady, Mrs. Margaret
Wood, who was the Nurse Of the
present prime minister of Great
Britain. Premier Law would have
known her as Margaret Stymest.
She is now 81 years of age and she
claims the distinction of having
made young Bonar's first pair OF
breeks. The exigencies Of those
pioneering days in New Brunswick,
and the straitened circumstances
of a frontier clergyman's life, re-
ouired that they be cut down from
the good broad-cloth which had al
ready served young Laws father
in a similar capacity. IF Premier
Law recalls the circumstance, he
will probably call them his res
augusta doTni' trousers. When the
news reached Manawagonish road
that the little son of the Presby-
terian nanse on the banks OF the
Richibucto river had become pre-
mier Of Great Britain, Margaret
Styrnest began to r%erninisce, and
she reckons that this bit of tailoring
was the most famous act Of her
long life. She asserts that "Bonar
was always a good boy, and his
father never had to punish him.
The child was father to the man"
1t is a romantic circumstance
that another New Brunswick boy,
also a son of a neighboring clergy
man and a friend of the Law fam
lily went to the old country, gain
ed a peerage and had considerable
to do with making his former
chum prime minister to Great
Britain. Let Mr.. Fraser tell it:
about the same time as the
Rev. James Law came to Canada
there came another Presbyterian
CLERGYMAN, whose circumstances
and experiences were almost a du'
plicate Of those Of the father OF
Bonsr Law. This was the Rev
William Aitken, who settled a lit
tie farther north in the Miramich
district of New Brunswick, but
who was a neighbor as neighbors
went in that country, OF grea'
empty spaces. The two clergymer
were bosom friends. The Rev. Wal
liam Aitken had a large family, one
of whom was William Maxwell
Aitken. now Lord Beaverbrook
When, after a spectacular cares
in Canada in which as a company
promoter and financier he laid thu
foundations Of a large fortune
Max" Aiken went to Great Brit
ain in search of new lands to con
ouer, what more natural than tina
he should look up the son OF hi
fathers old friend with whom ths
family had never wholly los
touch? The subsequent career o.
these two sons of Presbyterian
manses in the New Brunswick
backwoods, which landed one il
the peerage after a spectacular ca
-=cr as the "Bunty" who pulle'
the strings to make the Lloy'
George government, and the othe
in the prime ministership OF Grea
Britain, is current history"
The new prime minister has poo
health. but he is credited wit
great energy and firmness. Wit
his ancestry and life experienc
n would naturally expect
strong man, and surely he coul
never have won his present pos
ton without both intellect and
strong character. We may kno'
more about Bonar Law in the ~
lure. So will the world.
The British government 20 mite