Editing John A. Macdonald (section)

===Legal training and early career, 1830–1837 ===
Macdonald's parents decided he should become a lawyer after leaving school.{{sfn|Swainson|1989|p=19}} As [[Donald Creighton]] (who penned a two-volume biography of Macdonald in the 1950s) wrote, "law was a broad, well-trodden path to comfort, influence, even to power".{{sfn|Creighton|1952|p=19}} It was also "the obvious choice for a boy who seemed as attracted to study as he was uninterested in trade."{{sfn|Creighton|1952|p=19}} Macdonald needed to start earning money immediately to support his family because his father's businesses were failing. "I had no boyhood," he complained many years later. "From the age of 15, I began to earn my own living."{{sfn|Pope|1894|p=6}}

[[File:Rideau-Street-house01.gif|thumb|alt=A photograph of a two-story building|A few months after he opened his first law office in 1835, Macdonald moved with his parents and sisters to this {{frac|2|1|2}}-storey stone house on Kingston's Rideau Street.]]

Macdonald travelled by steamboat to Toronto (known until 1834 as [[York, Upper Canada|York]]), where he passed an examination set by [[The Law Society of Upper Canada]]. British North America had no law schools in 1830; students were examined when beginning and ending their tutelage. Between the two examinations, they were apprenticed, or articled to established lawyers.{{sfn|Creighton|1952|pp=19–20}} Macdonald began his apprenticeship with George Mackenzie, a prominent young lawyer who was a well-regarded member of Kingston's rising Scottish community. Mackenzie practised corporate law, a lucrative speciality that Macdonald himself would later pursue.{{sfn|Gwyn|2007|pp=46–47}} Macdonald was a promising student, and in the summer of 1833, managed the Mackenzie office when his employer went on a business trip to Montreal and Quebec in [[Lower Canada]] (today the southern portion of the [[province of Quebec]]). Later that year, Macdonald was sent to manage the law office of a Mackenzie cousin who had fallen ill.{{sfn|Creighton|1952|pp=29–30}}

In August 1834, George Mackenzie died of [[cholera]]. With his supervising lawyer dead, Macdonald remained at the cousin's law office in Hallowell (today [[Picton, Ontario]]). In 1835, Macdonald returned to Kingston, and even though not yet of age nor qualified, began his practice as a lawyer, hoping to gain his former employer's clients.{{sfn|Creighton|1952|pp=32–34}} Macdonald's parents and sisters also returned to Kingston.{{sfn|Phenix|2006|p=38}}

Soon after Macdonald was [[called to the Bar]] in February 1836, he arranged to take in two students; both became, like Macdonald, [[Fathers of Confederation]]. [[Oliver Mowat]] became premier of Ontario, and [[Alexander Campbell (Canadian senator)|Alexander Campbell]] a federal cabinet minister and [[Lieutenant Governor of Ontario]].{{sfn|Swainson|1989|p=19}} One early client was Eliza Grimason, an Irish immigrant then aged sixteen, who sought advice concerning a shop she and her husband wanted to buy. Grimason would become one of Macdonald's richest and most loyal supporters, and may have also become his lover.{{sfn|Phenix|2006|p=41}} Macdonald joined many local organisations, seeking to become well known in the town. He also sought out high-profile cases, representing accused child rapist William Brass. Brass was hanged for his crime, but Macdonald attracted positive press comments for the quality of his defence.{{sfn|Phenix|2006|pp=41–42}} According to one of his biographers, [[Richard Gwyn (Canadian writer)|Richard Gwyn]]:

<blockquote>
As a criminal lawyer who took on dramatic cases, Macdonald got himself noticed well beyond the narrow confines of the Kingston business community. He was operating now in the arena where he would spend by far the greatest part of his life&nbsp;– the court of public opinion. And, while there, he was learning the arts of argument and of persuasion that would serve him all his political life.{{sfn|Gwyn|2007|p=49}}
</blockquote>