J 130 OUR ISLAND STORY and the constancy of his friendships/' He was ever, so it is stated, ready to listen to all who sought his counsel or assistance, and many were the recipients of both. Time seemed to have laid his hand gently upon him. He was never known to the world as an ailing man. His erect figure, firm step, and good spirits were maintained until very shortly before he passed away on the 18th June, 1867, in the seventy-second year of his age. No. IV—Hon. George Coles The Honourable George Coles was born at Charlottetown on the 20th of September 1810. He was the eldest son of James and Sarah Coles. Means of education when he was young were scant, but he profited by those within his reach. In the year 1829, when nineteen years of age, he visited Great Britain. There he received impressions that were strong and deep. While in En- land, he married Miss Mercy Haine , of Somerset. In 1833, he returned to Charlottetown . There he began business as a brewer and distiller. Soon he was drawn into public life, and he was not long in public life before his ability as a leader of men was recogniz¬ ed. He entered the Legislature of Prince Edward Island in the year 1842. The Island was then dominated by officials of the Imperial Government and their relatives and friends; and its public business and affairs were influenced by "The Family Com¬ pact" and the landed proprietors, resident and non-resident. From the first, Mr. Coles was a strong advocate of Respon¬ sible Government. Prominent men in the Island, who were dis¬ satisfied with its political conditions, rallied to his support; and he became Leader of the Liberal Party. Realizing the need of a man of literary ability to give form to the party's proposals and to advocate the Party's policy by means of the Press, he com¬ municated with the Hon. Joseph Howe ; and, fortunately for him¬ self and the Island, he succeeded in obtaining the good offices of Edward Whelan . Of the two men it was said that their names "are inseparably associated with the liberal and progressive measures of the past. Coles could never have done what he did, nor could he have been what he was, without the counsel and assist¬ ance of Whelan; and Whelan could not have achieved the fame