THOMPSON
704
THOMPSON
better health and to overcome the opium habit. A
doctor's care, and some months at Storrington, Sus-
sex, where he hved as a boarder at the Premonstra-
tensian monastery, gave him a new hold upon life.
It was there, entirely free temporarily from opium,
that he began in earnest to write poetry. "Daisy"
and the magnificent "Ode to the Setting Sun" were
the first fruits. Mr. Meynell, finding him in better
health but suffering from the loneliness of his life,
brought him to London and established him near him-
self. Thenceforward with some changes to country
air, he was either an inmate or a constant visitor until
his death nineteen years later.
In the years from 1889 to 1896 Thompson wrote the poems contained in the three volumes, "Poems", "Sister Songs", and "New Poems". In "Sister Songs" he celebrated his affection for the two elder of the little daughters of his host and more than brother ; "Love in Dian's Lap" was written in honour of Mrs. Meynell, and expressed the great attachment of his life; and in the same book " The Making of Viola" was composed for a younger child. At Mr. Meynell's house Thompson met Mr. Garvin and Coventry Pat- more, who soon became his friends, and whose great poetic and spiritual influence was thenceforth pre- eminent in all his writings, and Mrs. Meynell intro- duced him at Box Hill to George Meredith. Besides these his friendships were few. In the last weeks of his Ufe he received great kindness from Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, in Sussex. During all these years Mr. Mey- nell encouraged him to practise journalism and to write essays, chiefly as a remedy for occasional melan- choly. The essay on Shelley, published twenty years later and immediately famous, was amongst the ear- liest of these writings; "The Life of St. Ignatius" and "Health and Holiness" were produced subse- quently.
Did Francis Thompson, unanimously hailed on the morrow of his death as a great poet, receive no full re- cognition during life? It was not altogether absent. Patmore, Traill, Mr. Garvin, and Mr. William Archer wrote, in the leading reviews, profoundly admiring studies of his poems. Public attention was not yet aroused. But that his greatness received no stinted praise, then and since, may be seen in a few citations following. Mr. Meynell, who perceived the quaUty of his genius when no other was aware of it, has writ- ten of him as "a poet of high thinking, of 'celestial vision', and of imaginings that fcmiid literary images of answering splendour"; Mr. Chesterton acclaimed him as "a great poet", Mr. Fraill as "a poet of the first order"; Mr. Wilham Archer wrote, "It is no minor Caroline simper that he recalls, but the Jaco- bean Shakespeare"; Mr. Garvin, "the Hound of Heaven seems to us the most wonderful lyric in our language"; Burne-Jones, "Since Gabriel's [Rossetti's] ' Blessed Daraozel ' no mystical words have so touched me"; George Meredith, "A true poet, one of a small band"; Coventry Patmore, "the 'Hound of Heaven' is one of the very few great odes of which the language can boast". Of the essay on Shelley (Dub- lin Review) a journalist wrote truly, "London is ringing with it". Francis Thompson died, after re- ceiving all the sacraments, in the excellent care of the Sisters of St. John and St. EUzabeth, aged forty-eight.
Carroll B. Chilton.
Thompson, RitiHT Honourable Sir John Spar- row David, jurist and first Catholic Premier of Canada, b. at tlalifax. Nova Scotia, 10 Nov., 1844; d. at Windsor Casll(>, England, 12 Dec, 1894. He was the son of ,John S))arri)\v Thomjjson, queen's printer in Nova Scotia, suijcrinli'iidciit of the money order system, and native of W:ilcrf(>rd, and of (^atlierine Pottingor, who was of Srollisli descent. The parents on both sides were rigid Protestants. Young I'liomi)-
Bon made a short course in the common schools and in
the Free Church Academy in his native city. At the
age of fifteen he began the study of law and at the
same time of stenography. He was admitted to the
bar in 1865 and for a short period he assisted in re-
porting the debates in the Nova Scotia Legislature.
In 1870 he married Miss Annie E. Affleck and shortly
afterwards became a Cathohc. His progress in pub-
lic life was rapid and brilliant. Beginning as an alder-
man in Halifax in 1871, he became a member of the
House of Assembly in 1877, attorney-general in 1878,
Premier of Nova Scotia in 1S82, and a judge of the
Supreme Court in the same year. In 1885 he became
Minister of Justice of Canada, and from the time of
his first great speech on the Riel question in 1886, his
position as one of the greatest of Canadian parlia-
mentarians was never disputed. In the federal arena
his successes were brilliant and unbroken. In 1887
he went to Washington as legal adviser of the British
Government in connexion with the Fisheries Commis-
sion, and for this service was knighted by Queen Vic-
toria. In 1892 he became Premier of Canada, and a
year later he sat as one of the British arbitrators on
the Behring Sea Commission at Paris. In recogni-
tion of this service he was appointed a member of the
Privy Council of Great Britain. He died suddenly at
Windsor Castle whither he was summoned by the
queen, and his remains were conveyed to Hahfax on
H.M.S. Blenheim. A state funeral attended by
state and church dignitaries from all parts of Canada,
took place on 1 Jan., 1895. His remains were buried
in Holy Cross cemetery. "All things considered",
says Mr. J. S. Willison, a distinguished Canadian
writer, "his is the most remarkable career which
Canadian politics have developed."
HopElNS. The Life and Work of the Right Hon. Sir John Thomp- son (Toronto, 1895); House of Commons Debates (Ottawa, 1886- 94): Morris, An Elegy (London, 1894): O'Brien, Funeral Ser- mon on Sir John Thompson (Halifax, 1906): BouRlNOT, Builders of Nova Scotia (Toronto, 1900).
Joseph A. Chisholm.
Thompson River Indians (Thompson Indians), an impi>rt;iut Irilie of British Columbia of Salishan linguistic stock, also knowni as Knife Indians, occu- pying the country about the junction of Thompson and Eraser Rivers, Yale district, from about Y'ale up nearly to Lillooet on the Eraser, and as far as Ash- croft on the Thompson. They surrounded the cog- nate Lillooet, and Shuswap on the north; the Sechelt, Squamish, Cowichan, and Songish on the west and south-west; and the Okanagan on the south-east. They are now gathered upon a nimiber of small reser- vations under jurisdiction of the Kamloops-Okanagan agency, of which the principal are Lytton (470), Lower Nicola (355), Cooks Eerrs- (183), Boothroyd (15S), Spuzzum (157), Coldwater (107). Their orig- inal population may have been near to 4000 souls, but is now reduced (1910) by smallpox and other causes, consequent upon the advent of the whites, to 1782. The proper name of the tribe is Ntlakyapamuk or Nhlakapmuh, and they recognize five subtrihes among themselves. In their primitive condition they sub- sisted chiefly by hunting and fishing, together with the gathering of wild roots and berries. In arts, or- ganization, religious belief and ceremonial, and gen- eral custom they resembled in all essentials their neighbouring kindred, particularly the Lillooet, Shuswap, Sechelt, and Squamish (q. v.), with whose history also their own is closely interwoven. In 1808 Simon Eraser in descending the river which bears his name passed through their territory, and shortly afterward the Hudson's Bay Company established posts throughout the region. In 1845 the Jesuit mis- sionary Father Jolm Nobili visited tin- 'i'hompson River, Okanagan, Shuswap, and other tribes of the Enuser River country-, preaching and baptizing in temporary chapels built l)y the Indians.
