Canadian, Lawyers & Judges, Canada, Robert A Harrison, 1856-1878, Autobiography, Canadian autobiography, Canadian Biographies, Biography, Ontario, Judges 

Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History 

"Robert A. Harrison (1833-1878) was one of the eminent jurists of his generation. An outstanding common law lawyer, he went on to become Chief Justice of Ontario in 1875. His diary, which he kept between 1856 and 1878, is one of the most remarkable documents bequeathed to us by the nineteenth century. In it, Harrison provides detailed and intimate accounts of life and love among Toronto's privileged classes, accounts that resound with ambition, passion, jealousy, and rage as his life proceeds through courtships, marriages, deaths, and all the challenges of routine existence. Not least important is Harrison's commentary on scores of courtroom battles fought before judges sometimes described as ignorant and thick-headed, and juries who frequently succumbed to Victorian prejudices in regard to race, gender, and religion." "Although unusual in his driving ambition and his consuming need to accumulate a fortune, Harrison remained in most respects thoroughly conventional and Victorian, and his diary offers rare insights into the mind of the mid-nineteenth-century upper-class Toronto male. Opinionated and forthright, Harrison expresses strongly held views not only on law but also on such matters as love, marriage, sexuality, medical practice, drinking habits, class, servants, technology, opera, and theatre. In an extended biographical introduction, Peter Oliver provides an explanation and a critical assessment of Harrison's life and career, which further illuminate one man's extraordinary record of an era."--BOOK JACKET. 

Content:
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
DIARIES, 1856-1878
Appendix: Biographical Sketches 

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