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A Short Account of the Emigration from the Highlands of Scotland to North America and the Establishment of the Catholic Diocese of Upper Canada with Appendix (1839)


It was in the year 1772, that the first Emigration from the Highlands of Scotland to North America took place, from the estates of Lord Macdonell, in the lsleof Skey, and of Lord Seaforth; from Kintail and Loch Broom. These Emigrants went to South Carolina—they were all Protestants. In the year 1773, Macdonald, of Clanranald, began to display some hostile feeling against Catholics. His factor, John Macdonald, of Glen Aladale, who was a Catholic himself, wishing to relieve the Tenants of Clanranald from the hard usage they experienced from their Landlord, sold his property in order to assist them to emigrate, and took a ship load of them to Prince Edward’s Island, then called St. John’s Island. But not meeting with proper encouragement, many of these Emigrants removed to Acadia, on the main land of Nova Scotia, where they remained, until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War in 1774. The whole of them, that is to say all capable of bearing arms, then joined the Royal Standard, some under Captain Macdonald himself, and others under Major Somali, and were called the 84th Regiment. This corps was formed with the addition of another body of Highlanders, under General McLean.

In the year 1773 another large party of Highlanders emigrated from Glengarry and Knoidart, at the invitation of the celebrated Sir William Johnston, to the then British province of New York, and settled in the bush of Sir William, on the borders of the Mohawk River. When the Revolutionary War broke out die Americans tried every means to detain them in the country. When they found that entreaties, persuasions, threats and coaxing were of no avail, they arrested several of the influential men. and confined them in prison; but they contrived to effect their own release, and under the guidance and command of Sir John Johnston, son to Sir William, fought their way to the banks of the St. Lawrence. During this expedition they suffered incredible hardships, both by hunger and fatigue; living chiefly upon the flesh of their horses and dogs, and when that failed them upon the roots of the Forest. On their arrival in Canada they were formed into a corps under Sir John Johnston, and called “The Royal Emigrants,” and their services in the field contributed in a great degree to the preservation of the Canadas. At the conclusion of the War, as a reward for their services, and in compensation for their losses, lands were granted them in Upper Canada, and they located themselves, some on the Niagara frontier; some on the Bay of Quinte; some on the shores of the St. Lawrence, in what is now called the Johnstown District; and others in the Eastern District, in those counties now known by the names of Glengarry and Stormont, the former of which was so called, in compliment to the Emigrants from Glengarry, in Scotland.

Many of the friends and connexions in Scotland of these Emigrants, especially of those settled in Glengarry, hearing cheerful tidings from Canada, and suffering from the same causes that induced the former to quit their homes, began to join them in numbers. To such an extent did the emigration proceed, that the Highland Lairds began to be alarmed at the idea of the Highlands being depopulated; so much so indeed, that they procured an Act of Parliament to be passed, restricting emigration by oppressive and vexatious regulations, and obtained ships of War to guard the harbors and lochs of the Highlands, to board Emigrant vessels, and to press into the Naval Service every able bodied man found on board. By the regulations of this Act, no man could emigrate to North America with a wife and three children, even below the age of five years, unless at an expense of nearly fifty pounds, and the cost of transportation of the rest of his family in like proportion* As American ships carrying out Emigrants Were not subjected to any of these severe regulations, the natural consequence was, that intended Emigrants to Canada and other British Provinces made choice of those vessels, and emigrated to the United States instead, so that the tide of emigration set in towards that country, to which more or lea* it has always since flowed. Another consequence resulting out of the first, was, that in the war of 1812, between Great Britain and the United States, the ranks of the enemy were filled with Highlanders and their children, who left home under the irritation of mind, arising from the oppression of their landlords in racking their rents, and from the illiberally of the Government, in throwing unjust impediments in the way of obtaining relief, by joining their friends in Canada.

A few years previous to the year 1790 a system was introduced into the Highlands of Scotland, converting small agricultural farms 7ito large Sheep Walks, thereby dispossessing small tenants. The landlords found that south country shepherds with large capital were able to give much larger rents than small tenants. The consequence \vas, that a large proportion of the tenants throughout the Highlands were ejected from their farms, and they and their families reduced to the greatest distress, as the restrictions of the Emigration Act prevented them from emigrating to the Colonies. In May 1792, the Right Reverend Alexander Macdonell, Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada, then a Missionary Priest in the Braes of Badenoch, lnvernesshire, understanding that a great many labourers were wanting in the manufactories of Glasgow and the neighbouring Counties, travelled down to Glasgow, and waited upon the Manufacturers of that city, to procure employment for the dispossessed Highlanders; and on informing the Manufacturers, that the greater portion of these people were Catholics, those gentlemen promised every protection and encouragement to such as would come down to their works. But as the excitement caused in the year 1780 by Lord George Gordon and his enthusiasts, when the Catholic Chapel and the Priest’s House in Glasgow were burnt by a riotous mob, had not ye! subsided, the Manufacturers were apprehensive that some annoyance might be offered to the Catholic labourers. When Mr. Macdonell stated the necessity of a Clergyman’s accompanying these men, to afford them the exercises and consolations of their religion, they assured him that every countenance in their power would be given to such Clergyman; but as the Penal Laws against the Catholic Priests, were yet in existence, they could not insure or guarantee protection to him. Mr. Macdoneli, however, declared his willingness to accompany the Highlanders, and take his chance of the Laws. The Catholic Labourers to the number of between 700 and 800 souls, accordingly came down from the Highlands and gave every possible satisfaction to their employers, during the following two years they remained in their service.

It was about this time, that French Revolutionary principles began to make very rapid progress among the men of all denominations employed in the Manufactories; and the troubles in France, Holland and other parts of the Continent having caused a stagnation in the exports of British Manufactories of all kinds, a general failure among the Cotton Manufacturers of Glasgow was the consequence, who were thus compelled to dismiss the greater part of their hands. Catholics as well others. The men thus thrown out of employment were obliged by necessity to enlist in the several New Corps then raising for the defence of the country.

Mr. Macdonell, finding the Catholics under his charge obliged to enlist into these Corps, and compelled, according to the then universal practice, to declare themselves Protestants, conceived the idea of embodying them into one corps as a Catholic regiment; and with this view, was instrumental in procuring a meeting of the Catholic gentlemen of the Highlands, who drew up a Loyal Address to His Majesty, with an offer to raise a Catholic Regiment, under the Command of Young Macdoneli of Glengarry. Mr. Macdonell, together with John Fletcher, Esq. of Dunans, were sent to London with the Address and the offer to raise the regiment. Several of the Fencible Corps which had been raised in Scotland, having refused to march out of that country, even to England, Messrs. Macdoneli and Fletcher offered on the part of the proposed regiment, to serve in any part of His Majesty’s dominions, where their services might be required.— The Rt. Hon. Henry Dundas, then Secretary at War, approving of the idea of thus extending the services of Fencible Corps, procured a Letter of Service for the First Glengarry Regiment, to be under the command of Alexander Macdoneli, Esq. of Glengarry, to serve in any part of Great Britain & Ireland, and in the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, &c. and Mr. Macdoneli was appointed Chaplain to the Regiment, being the first Catholic Corps raised in the British Dominions since the Reformation. The recruiting for the regiment was finished in a few months, including ail the unemployed Catholic Highland labourers of Glasgow and its vicinity, and was forthwith placed upon the regular establishment.

In the summer of 1795, the First Glengarry Regiment was ordered to the Island of Guernsey, then threatened to be invaded by the French ; and there it continued until the breaking out of the. Irish Rebellion in 1798. This Corps was then ordered to Ireland, and served in that country during the whole of the Irish troubles. The good conduct of the men, together with the activity, derived from their mountanious habits, induced the Government to employ the Glengarry Regiment in the most disturbed parts of the country, in the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow, and in the Hills and Morasses of Connemara, where during the rebellion, and for some time after it was put down, a number of deserters took refuge, accompanied by the most desperate of the rebels, yet at large. Issuing from their fastnesses during the night, they harrassed the peaceable inhabitants, plundering their habitations, and burning their houses and out-tenements. Mr. Macdonell, accompanying the men in the field, by the character of his Office, prevented those excesses so generally committed by the soldiers of other regiments, especially bv those of the native Yeomanry Corps, which rendered them alike the terror and detestation of the insurgent inhabitants. Mr. Macdonell found many of the Catholic Chapels in the counties of Wicklow, Carlow, and Wexford, turned into stables for the horses of the Yeomanry. These lie caused to be cleansed and restored to their original sacred use, performing Divine Service in them himself, and inviting the Clergy and Congregations to attend, who had mostly been driven into the mountains and bogs, to escape the cruelties of the Yeomanry, and such of the Regular Troops as were under the command of prejudiced or merciless officers. The poor, deluded and terrified inhabitants returned with joy and thankfulness to their Chapels and homes, as soon as assurance of protection was afforded them from quarters and by persons who had no interest to deceive them. The above mentioned district, which by its peculiar fastnesses had become the resort of the desperate characters alluded to, was by the promptness and activity of Col. Macdonell and his Highlanders, quickly cleared of its troublesome tenants; and aided by the humane endeavours of Mr. Macdonell, to allay the fears and soothe the feelings of the public, it soon became as peaceable and quiet as it had been turbulent and rebellious.

During the short peace of Amiens in 1802, forty four of the Scotch Fencible Regiments were disbanded, and amongst the number was the Glengarry Regiment. Thus again were the Catholic Highlanders of Glengarry reduced to want and penury. Mr. Macdonell, finding that the trade of the Scottish Cotton Manufacturers had become so much circumscribed and reduced by the bloody war juct ended, as to afford no longer an asylum to his destitute countrymen, in whose welfare he had taken so warm an interest, and in whose dangers and fatigues he had so largely participated during eight years, thought that he might establish for them a claim upon Government, so far as the obtaining for them grants of land in Upper Canada, where so many of their friends were settled, on lands given as rewards for their services and attachment to the Government during the American Revolutionary War.

With this intention he went to London and represented the destitute situation ol his charge, arid also their claims upon Government, to the Rt. Hon. Henry Addington, then Premier, after the resignation of Mr. Pitt. Mr. Addington received Mr. Macdonell with great condescension, communed with him on the bravery and loyalty of his countrymen, the Scotch Highlanders, and assured him that nothing could give him greater pleasure, than to afford substantial proofs of the approbation and good will of His Majesty’s Government towards them; and was moreover pleased to say, that of all His Majesty’s subjects, the Highlanders were always the readiest to come forward at their country’s call, and the only class from whom a complaint or murmur had never been heard. Mr. Addington further assured Mr Macdonell, that since his appointment to his present situation, nothing had given him deeper cause of regret, than to see those brave and loyal subjects, the Glengarry Highlanders, reduced, not by their own faults, but by adverse circumstances to the necessity of quitting their native land, to seek in a far distant country a subsistence for themselves, their wives and little ones. At the same time Mr. Addington admitted, that the proprietors of the Highland Estates had every right to dispose of their property to the best advantage, and that Government could not interfere in the matter. To shew the interest Mr. Addington took in this subject, he proposed to Mr. Macdonell a plan, by which his followers might easily enrich themselves, and render themselves able in time to return to their native mountains with wealth and distinction.

The Island of Trinidad had just been ceded by Spain to the British Crown, and a Board of Commissioners was appointed to establish a Government agreeably to the Constitution of Great Britain, of which Board Colonel Fulletton was a principal. Mr. Addington offered the strongest inducements to Mr. Macdonell, to lead a Colony of his countrymen to that island; promising to grant eighty acres of land in the healthiest situations to every head of a family, together with as much money as would suffice to place four slaves upon every farm; to send a Physician and Schoolmaster to the new Colony, and to provide the Colonists, for a period of three years, with as much Wine as Mr. Macdonell and the Doctor should consider necessary for the preservation of their health. And further to bestow upon Mr. Macdonell, and also upon a few of his friends, such salaries as would make them independent in their circumstances. All these advantages Mr. Macdonell declined; assuring Mr. Addington, that having devoted his whole life to the good of his fellow creatures, he could not think of inducing them to emigrate to an unhealthy tropical climate; and renewed his solicitation to the Premier, to bestow grants of lands upon his adherents in Upper Canada. The only objection which Mr. Addington opposed to Mr. Macdonell’s request was, that the British Government had so slender a hold of the Province of Upper Canada, that he could not think himself justed in giving encouragement to the King’s loyal subjects to emigrate to that Colony. To this Mr. Macdoneli replied by assuring Mr. Addington, that the Emigration to Upper Canada by Highlanders would form the strongest tie and connection between that Colony and the Parent State.-— He suggested to Mr. Addington the advantages that must accrue to Great Britain by organizing the disbanded fencibles into a Military Emigration to the British Provinces in North America, and after a limited period of service to grant them lands in those Colonies; always keeping embodied a certain force, by fresh emigration from the mother country and the children of former Emigrants. This suggestion of peopling the American Colonies with a loyal and hardy population, and maintaining therein an armed body of men, had it been attended to, might possibly have prevented the last American War, and probably the late rebellion in both provinces of Canada; and thereby have saved to Great Britain the many millions it has expended in protecting her American Colonies. Sir Archibald Campbell, the late Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, then on the staff of Sir William Pulteney, Colonel Stewart, 42nd regiment, and several other officers of distinction offered to take command in this Military Emigration, should the plan be approved of by Government.

On Mr. Addington’s resignation, the plan of this Military Emigration was disapproved of by his successor; but in March 1503, Mr. Macdonell obtained the Sign Manual for a grant of land for every Officer and Soldier belonging to the late Glengarry Regiment, whom he should introduce into Upper Canada. No sooner was this gracious act of Majesty generally known, than the Highland Proprietors took the alarm, and endeavoured by various means to prevent the Highlanders from Emigrating. The regulations of the Emigration Act were rigidly enforced, and many of the poor Highlanders, after selling their effects, and repairing with their families to the ports of embarkation were prevented from emigration. The Highland Lairds induced their friends who were connected with the Highlands, to represent to Mr. Macdonell the imprudence and eyen folly of his undertaking; to wit, the Earl of Moira, Sir John McPherson, late Governor of India, Sir Archibald Macdonell, Baron of the Exchequer, and uncle to Lord Macdonell, and Mr. Charles Grant, father of the present Lord Glenelg, then Chairman of the East India Company. Application was even made to Sir Thomas Twhirwhit, agent for the Prince of Wales, to offer to the intended Emigrants, lands in the Duchy of Cornwall, to be under the care and control of His Royal Highness, with a pension to Mr. Macdonell. So far did the fears or reproaches of the Highland Lairds act upon the then Ministry, that even Lord Hobart, the Colonial Secretary of State, endeavoured to prevail upon Mr. Macdonell to conduct his Emigrants to Upper Canada through the United States, in order that the odium of directly assisting the emigration from the Highlands might be removed; there existing at that time, a Provincial Law in Upper Canada, which granted two hundred acres of land to every loyal subject who entered that province from the United States, with the intention to settle. This proposal Mr. Macdonell peremptorily declined, and for two reasons. 1st. Because the circuitous route to Upper Canada through the State of New York {'there being no Erie Canal in those days] was much more expensive. And 2ndly. Because he was well convinced, that the intercourse of his followers with the people through the United States would innoculate them with radical principles, and ever afterwards affect their loyalty; and this would be done the more readily? as the minds of the Emigrants were irritated against their late landlords, and soured against the Government by the severe restrictions of the Emigration Act. Consequently, and in the midst of all this opposition, Mr. Macdonell and his followers found their way to Upper Canada in the best way they could, in the years 1803 and 1804; nay, he may be said, almost literally, to have smuggled his friends away, so many and so vexatious were the restrictions against their going.

Upon Mr. Macdonell’s arrival in Upper Canada, he presented his Credentials to Lt. General Hunter, at that time Lt. Governor of the province, and obtained the stipulated lands for his friends, agreeably to the order of the Sign Manual; and took up his residence in the county of Glengarry, where he had not long resided, before he found that very few of the Emigrants who had previously arrived in the country and had located themselves on lands allotted them, had obtained legal tenures for their present possessions; so that he was obliged to repair to the seat of Government, where after a great deal of trouble, he obtained Patent Deeds for 160,000 acres of lands for his new clients, and after some further delay, likewise obtained the Patents for the lands of his own immediate followers.

Mr. Macdonell's next object was to get Churches built and Schools established. On his arrival, he found only two Catholic Clergymen in Upper Canada, one of them a Frenchman, who could not speak a word of English, and the other an Irishman, who left the province a short time afterwards; so that Mr. Macdonell had to travel from one end of the province to the other, at that period without roads or bridges, oft times carrying his vestments on his back, sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot, or in the rough waggons of the people, and sometimes in Indian bark canoes, traversing the great iuland lakes and descending the rapids of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence. Mr. Macdoneli succeeded partially in the object of his ambition, but the apprehended and threatened hostilities between the province and the neighboring republic militated against his endeavours.

When the United States of America in the year 1811 declared War against Great Britain, and invaded Canada, Mr. Macdoneli prevailed upon his countrymen to form the second Glengarry Fencible Regiment, which with two Militia Regiments, raised also in the Eastern District, contributed not a little to the preservation of the province; and by their activity and bravery, the enemy’s frontier posts of Ogdensburgh, St. Regis and French Mills, were taken with their Artillery, Ammunition and other Military Stores.

After the conclusion of this War, in the year 1816 Mi\ Macdonell returned to England and waited upon Mr. Addington, President of the Privy Council, (by this time raised to the Peerage, by the title of Viscount Sidmouth,) who received him most kindly, and congratulated him on the good conduct and success of his countrymen in Canada, during the recent War. Viscount Sidmouth introduced him to Earl Bathurst, then Colonial Secretary, who presented him to the Prince Regent, and by way of favor and encouragement to the Catholics of Upper Canada, authorized him to appoint three Clergymen and four schoolmasters to his flock, with a promise of a salary of one hundred pounds a year for each. Upon Mr. Macdonell’s return to the province next year, these Clergymen and schoolmasters were appointed, but the Provincial Government declined to pay the salaries; and Mr. Macdonell, after spending seven years in memorializing the Provincial, as well as the Home Government, and after being obliged to borrow money to pay these Clergymen and schoolmasters, was compelled at last to repair to England in the year 1825, where after an infinity of delay and trouble, he obtained, through the intercession of the present Lord Glenelg, the arrears of these salaries, which however were not continued.

On Mr. Macdonell’s return to Canada in 1S26, he was made the first Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada, and the Government settled upon him a salary of £400 per annum, which was afterwards increased to £600. Bishop Macdonell then succeeded in obtaining1 an increase to the number of his Clergymen; some he educated at his own expense, and ethers he received from Europe; and the Government allowed him the sum of £750 to be distributed among his Clergymen and Ecclesiastics. In the year 1830 this sum was increased to £1000. In the year 1832 the Provincial Government granted £550 towards the building and repairing of Catholic Churches, and in the following year the grant was increased to £900; but shortly afterwards, William Lyon McKenzie and his radical associates prevailed upon the Home Government to issue no more money for religious purposes; and inconsequence several Churches which were then in progress could not be finished.

Bishop Macdonell who had exerted himself to the utmost in building Churches and Schoolhouses, and in procuring clergymen and teachers, found himself by this withdrawal of the Government money, inadequate to supply the increasing wants of the growing population of his Diocese, and the multiplied demands for Clergymen and Churches. In fact, by undertaking upon his own responsibility the erection of Churches in various parts of the Province, over and above tile small grants of money given by the Government, he greatly involved himself in debt. This he necessarily did, as his flock, with the exception of the Highland settlements and the French Canadians of the Western District, consisted of the poorer class of Irish Emigrants, who wore little able to assist him.

When Bishop Macdonell first arrived in Canada in the year 1804 lie found but two wooden Catholic Churches and one stone Church in the whole province. It now contains 481 Churches, many of them handsome and capacious stone buildings, and these 48 Churches are served by 35 Clergymen. So large, and at the same time so scattered is the Catholic population, that as many more Churches are wanted, and three limes the number of Clergymen required, to afford the necessary instruction, and to administer to them the rites of their religion. The great difficulty which Bishop Macdonell had experienced in obtaining properly educated men to officiate as Clergymen, has been a great means of retarding the religious instruction and moral improvement of the Catholic population. Although a comparatively large number of Priests are now distributed over the various parts qf the province, yet the increasing wants of the people render the disparity between the Priests and their flocks quite as great as ever. This evil can only be remedied by the building and endowment of a Seminary in Upper Canada, for the education chiefly of young men intended for the Catholic Priesthood. Such an establishment bas long been a favorite project of Bishop Macdonell, who has succeeded in obtaining from the Legislature of Upper Canada, an Act of Incorporation, establishing such Seminary; and he has in consequence bestowed upon certain Trustees a valuable piece of land, being a most eligible site for the intended College in the Town of Kingston, the Catholic Episcopal See of the Province, where the foundations are already dug, but the want of means has hitherto retarded its progress. To further this undertaking Bishop Macdonell purposes once more to visit Europe. As he is now very far advanced in years, and in every human probability, cannot be expected to have his useful life much prolonged, it is considered necessary, both for the interest of Government, and for the support of religion, that effectual means should be adopted for the comfort and satisfaction of the Catholics of Upper Canada, who have ever formed a strong link in the chain of connection between that Colony and the Mother Country’.

The Scotch Catholics have this strong claim upon the Government, for when the Scotch Protestant Emigrants made choice of the United States for the place of their residence, the Catholics, without a solitary exception, went to the British Provinces. This preference is by no means confined to Upper Canada, for a large portion of Catholic Emigrants from the western coasts and Islands of Scotland emigrated at various times to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and other of the Lower Provinces, where they and their descendants to this day, are loyal and attached to the British Crown.— Scarce as are Catholic Priests in the Highlands of Scotland, yet na fewer than nine Clergymen accompanied the Emigrants, and by their influence may be said, to have mainly directed their steps towards the British Provinces.

The claims of the Irish Catholics upon Government are also powerful and irresistible; for they have almost alj of them, to a man, spent the prime of their lives in the service of their King and Country, and a great many brought with them to Canada the wrecks of a constitution worn out in the various climates of the British Empire, with bodies cicatrized with scars, the honorable testimonials of their lengthened service, and now in their old age, inabled to support their helpless families in the forests of Upper Canada. The unjust commutation of the Pensions of these men has been in a great measure the cause of their present distress. A just and generous Government will not surely after such services and true loyalty, deprive them of the comforts of religion, and the means of educating their children, in the same principles of loyalty and attachment to their King and Country, which they themselves have so invariably practised.

During the recent disturbances, arising out of the Rebellion in the province of Lower Canada, and the repeated invasions of Upper Canada from the neighbouring Republic, the Canadian Highlanders of the present day have displayed the spirit of their forefathers; no less than four Regiments of Glengarry Militia having been raised in the Eastern District alone, independent of other corps, whose services were mainly instrumental in suppressing the insurrection in Beauliarnois, and in protecting the loyal and peaceable in various other parts of the two provinces. In this well merited eulogy the Catholic Irish Emigrants must be joined, than whom a more loyal body of subjects, Her Majesty does not possess.

EXTRACT FROM GRAHAM’S HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA.

“During the whole period of her controversy with Britain, America was deriving a continual increase of strength from domestic growth and from the flow of European emigration. Her territories presented varieties of human condition, and diversified attractions, adapted to almost every imaginable peculiarity of human taste—from scenes of peace and repose, to circumstances of romantic adventure and interesting danger—from the rudeness and solitude of the forest, to the refinements of cultivated life, and the busy bum of men in flourishing, populous, and improved communities—from the lawless liberty of the back settlements, to the dominion of the most severely moral legislation that ever prevailed among mankind. No complete memorial has been transmitted of the particulars of the Emigrations that took place from Europe to America at this period ; but (from the few illustrative facts that are actually preserved) they appear to have been amazingly copinus. Within the first fortnight of August, 1773, thirty-five thousand Emigrants arrived at Philadelphia, from Ireland; and from the same document which recorded this circumstance, it appears that vessels were arriving every month, freighted with Emigrants from Holland, Germany, and especially from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. About 700 Irish settlers repaired to the Carolinas in the Autumn of 1773: and in the course of the same season, no fewer than 10 vessels sailed from Britain with Scottish Highlanders emigrating to the American States. As most of the Emigrants, and particularly those from Ireland and Scotland, were persons discontented with their condition or treatment in Europe, their accession to the Colonial population, it might reasonably be supposed, had no tendency to diminish or counteract the hostile sentiments towards Britain which were daily gathering force in America. And yet these persons, especially the Scotch, were in general extremely averse loan entire and abrupt rejection of British authority. Their patriotic attachments, enhanced as usual by distance, always resisted and sometimes prevailed over their more rational and prudent convictions, and more than once in the final struggle, were the interests of British prerogative espoused and aided by men who had been originally driven by hardship and ill-usage from Britain to America.”

*From 1763 to 1776, Connecticut increased 50,000, a province receiving but few Emigrants, and from which many left for other parts of the States.

The Appendix

(No. 1.)

Letter from Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to Lieut. General Huntert Lieut, Governor of Upper Canada.

Downing Street, 1st March, 1803.

Sir,

A body of Highlanders, mostly Macdonells, and partly disbanded soldiers of the late Glengarry Fencible Regiment, with their families and immediate connexions, are upon the point of quitting their present place of abode, with the design of following into Upper Canada some of their relatives who have already established themselves in the Province,

The merit and services of the Regiment in which a proportion of these people have served, give them strong claims to any mark of favor and consideration, which can consistently be extended to them; and with the encouragement usually afforded in the Province, they would no doubt prove as valuable settlers as their connexions now residing in the District of Glengarry, of whose industry and general good conduct very favourable Representations have been received here.

Government has been apprized of the situation and disposition of the Families before described, by Mr. Macdonell, one of the Ministers of their Church, and formerly Chaplain to the Glengarry Regiment, who possesses considerable influence with the whole body.

He has undertaken, in the event of their absolute determination to carry into execution their plan of departure to embark with them, and direct their course to Canada.

In case of their arrival within your Government, I am commanded by His Majesty to authorize you to grant, in the usual manner, a Tract of the unappropriated Crown Lands in any part of the Province where they may wish to fix, in the proportion of twelve hundred acres to Mr. Macdonell, and two hundred acres to every family he may introduce into the Colony.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient,

Humble Servant,

(Signed) HOBART

Lieut General Hunter,
&c. &c. &c.

(No. 2.)

The Address of Bishop Macdonell to the Catholic and Protestant Free holders of the Counties of Stormont and Glengarry.

My Dear Friends and Fellow Countrymen,

At my advanced period of life already tottering on the brink Of the grave, you will believe me when I declare to you, that I can have no selfish, or interested motive but solely your welfare at heart in addressing you on the present occasion, I address my Protestant as well as my Catholic Friends, because I feel assured that during tile long period of four and forty years that my intercourse with some of you, and two and thirty years with Others, have subsisted, no man will say that in promoting your temporal interest I ever made any difference between Catholic and Protestant, and indeed it would be both unjust and ungrateful in me if I did, for I found Protestants upon all occasions as ready to meet my wishes, and second my efforts to promote the public good as the Catholics themselves, and it is with no small gratification that I here acknowledge having received from Orangemen unequivocal and substantial proof of disinterested friendship and generosity of heart.

In order, however, to establish my claim to your confidence, I think it not foreign to the present purpose to refresh your memories with the recollection of circumstances now long gone by and which some of you, I dare say, may remember better than I do.

As far back as the year 1782, when the system of turning whole districts of the Highlands of Scotland into large sheep farms, and ejecting small tenants to make room for South Country Shepherds,—many hundreds of the poor people with their families being thrown adrift, and ignorant of the ways of the world, and of any other language but the Gaelic their native tongue: their miserable situations may be more easily conceived than expressed, more especially why it is stated that the Government at that time was so very hostile to emigration that armed vessels were stationed at the different parts of the coast of Scotland from whence the Highlanders were accustomed to sail for America, with positive order to press every able bodied man found on board the emigrant ships into the Naval Service.

It was at this juncture that; I travelled from Invernesshire to the City of Glasgow, where in the course of a few weeks I obtained employment in the manufactories of that town for not fewer than seven hundred Highlanders whom I accompanied myself & attended for the period of two years as their introduction, their friend, and their interpreter; although exposed every time 1 appeared in the street to the insults and fury of the very same fanatical Rabble, who a few years' before, at the instigation of Lord George Gordon burned the Catholic establishment in that city.

In the year 1794, when a general depression in public credit, and extensive failures among the manufacturers occasioned a dismissal of labourers, those Highlanders were again thrown destitute upon the world, and it was principally on their account that I planned and organized the first Glengarry Regiment, to serve their country as a Catholic Corps, in which so many of you to whom I now address myself, served for the period of eight years between the Island of Guernsey and Ireland with credit to yourselves, and benefit to your country.

Those of you still living in the Counties of Glengarry and Stormont will bear me testimony that 1 shared your hardships and fatigues during the Irish Rebellion, through the mountains of Wicklow and Connamara; that the Chapels of Burrows, Greagnamanah, Hacketstown, and several others, which had been converted into stables for the horses of the Yeomanry corps, were with your assistance cleaned out and purified by me, and restored to their original and sacred use, and that by affording them protection and security, the frightened and ill-used Inhabitants were induced to quit their lurking holes and bogs, and return with joy to the bosom of their families, in submission to the laws, and the exercise of their Holy Religion.

Need I bring to your recollection how many of the disarmed Rebels I saved from the bayonets of the Yeomanry, and afforded them the chance of being tried by regular authority.

During the short peace of Amiens, when the Glengarry Regiment, in common with all the other Scotch Fencibles were disbanded, I went to London, and on representing to the present Viscount Sidmouth, then Prime Minister, their destitute situation, I obtained Lands for them in this Province, the order for which is now lying in the Government Office at Toronto.

Or. that occasion the most flattering prospects of wealth and honour were held out to me if I would lead them to the Island of Trinidad, just then come into the possession of Great Britain; but as their welfare and not my own interest, was the object I had at heart, I rejected a proposal that would have exposed them to an unhealthy tropical climate, and preferred leading them to Canada, where so many of their friends were already settled.

It is by virtue of those Patents that you now enjoy the benefit, of your Franchise, and are entitled to send your Representatives to the Provincial Parliament.

My strenuous and unremitted exertions to promote education and morality among you, and indeed your welfare in every way I possibly could, will be I believe acknowledged by all of you, but I cannot pass over in silence one opportunity I gave you of acquiring property, which would have put a large proportion of you at ease for many years. I mean the transport of war-like stores from Lower Canada to the forts and military posts of this Province, which the, Governor-in Chief, Sir George Prevost, and the Quarter Master General, Sir Sidney Beckwith, offered you at my request. After you refused that offer it was given to two gentlemen, who cleared, from thirty to forty thousand pounds by their bargain.

Having thus taken a transitory view of the tenor of my conduct towards you during the course of a long life which has been devoted entirely to your service, you may suppose that I cannot feel indifferent to your welfare and interest now when so near the close of life.

And if you believe that I have still your interest at heart, and that I know better than yourselves the most effectual means of promoting it, you will elect men to represent you in the ensuing Parliament of sound and loyal principles, who have the real good of the country at heart, who will not allow themselves to be duped or misled by wicked hypocritical radicals, who are endeavouring to drive the Province into rebellion, and to cut off every connection between Canada and Great Britain, your Mother Country, and to subject you to. the domination of Yankee rulers and Lynch Law.

Your gracious and benevolent Sovereign sent you out as his representative, a personage distinguished for abilities, knowledge and Integrity, to redress all the grievances and abuses that had crept into the Government of this Province, since its first establishments but in place of meeting him with cordiality, and offering their co-operation in the important work of Reform, what do the Radicals do? Why, they assail him like hell-hounds, with every possible abuse, indignity and insult; and your late Representatives are joined in politics and friendship with these Radical worthies, and would feign make you believe that they are your friends, and the friends of the Country.

Although implacable enemies of yourselves, your Religion and your Country; and this they proved by stopping the money which the Government had been giving for some years past towards building and repairing Catholic Churches, supporting Catholic Schools, and maintaining Catholic Clergy.

It has been with Government money that the Catholics of Glengarry have been enabled to proceed with the Parish Church of St. Raphael, after allowing it to remain in a state of decay for the space of sixteen or seventeen years, from the inability of the parishioners to finish it; and it has been by the aid of Government money that almost every other Catholic Church in the Province has been brought to the state it is now in,—and farther advances were ready to be made towards completing them, when, by the false representations of the Radicals, orders came from home to stop the issuing of the money, and the consequence is that the greater part of those Churches are left in an unfinished and insecure state.

At the same time that those Radicals who aim at the destruction pf our holy Religion, are loud in their complaints against Government for affording me assistance towards establishing it on a permanent foundation in this Province—they are cutting and carving lucrative situations for themselves, and filling their own pockets, and those of their Champion, O’Grady, with your money and that of your fellow-subjects. It was for this purpose that they stopped the supplies last session, and thereby prevented the issue of the money which was to be laid out on public roads, canals, and other improvements of the Province: and in all those mischiefs your Radical Representatives, joined heart and hand with the enemies of their country.

In hope of having the pleasure of being amongst you in a few days, I remain, with fervent unceasing prayers for your temporal and paternal welfare, my dear friends and fellow countrymen,

Your faithful and devoted servant,

ALEXANDER MACDONELL, Kingston, June 15th, 1836.

(No. 3.)

The Address of the Catholics of the Parish of St. Andrews, in the Township of Cornwall, to the Right Rev. Alexander Macdonell, Bishop of Kingston, on the occasion of his going down to the Eastern District, to celebrate the Jubilee of his fiftieth year of the Priesthood.

May it Please Your Lordship;

We, the Catholic Inhabitants of the Parish of St. Andrews, in the Township of Cornwall, respectfully beg leave to approach your Lordship with the expression of our cordial congratulations, on an occasion so gratifying to all your Countrymen, in this part of the Province, and particularly to us who have been for upwards of thirty years under Your Lordship’s Pastoral care and fostering protection.

We offer up our grateful thanks to the Father of Mercies, for preserving your Lordship’s life through all the perils and labors you have endured in the ministry, during the long period of half a century, and making Your Lordship the happy instrument, in his own hand, for establishing the Church of Christ throughout this Province, which is our consolation for being for some years past deprived of your Lordship’s residence among us.

We earnestly pray that the Almighty may prolong your Lordship’s useful life to complete the good work which you have hitherto so successfully carried on. Although we cannot expect to enjoy the happiness which your spending the evening of your life among us would afford us, still we assure your Lordship, that our hearts will he always united to you, and that our warmest wishes and ardent prayers for your health and happiness here and hereafter, will never cease to be offered up to the Throne of Mercy, on your behalf.

St. Andrews, Cornwall,

Tuesday, 21st Feb’y, 1837.

The Address is signed by a great variety of the clans, consisting of Macdonells, MacMillans, MacLellans, MacGillis, MacAulays, McPhails, McIntoshs, McLeans, Frasers and Camerons.

HIS LORDSHIP’S ANSWER.

Gentlemen:

I thank you most sincerely for your kind and affectionate Address. I have been too long and too well acquainted with the Catholics of the Parish of St. Andrews to render this gratifying testimonial of their regard and attachment to me necessary. I do you but bare justice when I declare that your congregation is among the most respectable, the most exemplary, and the most punctual in the whole of this Diocese, and of all others the one among whom I would find the greatest satisfaction to spend the few remaining days of my life, did the necessary discharge of important duties which is paramount to every other consideration, allow me to do so.

Let me, however, assure you, that although separated from you personally, I am, and ever shall remain united with you in spirit and affection, and that my humble supplications to our Heavenly Father, your temporal and eternal welfare shall always be a principal Petition.

I am, with warm regard and sincere esteem, Gentlemen, your humble and devoted servant, In our Lord Jesus Christ,

ALEXANDER MACDONELL

and—in repelling the invasion of the Americans on these Provinces, and in checking the progress of Canadian rebellion last winter, leave no doubt on my mind that you will turn out to a man, on the present occasion, and join with your loyal fellow subjects in defence of your wives and children, and valuable properties, against the attacks of a heartless gang of pirates and rebels.

When a Prime Minister of England in 1802, expressed to me his reluctance, to permit Scots Highlanders to emigrate to the Canadas, from his apprehension that the hold the Parent State had of the Canadas, was too slender to be permanent, I took the liberty of assuring him that the most effectual way to render that hold strong and permanent, was to encourage and facilitate the emigration of Scots Highlanders and Irish Catholics into these Colonies.

Your brave and loyal conduct during the last War with the United States of America, verified my prediction, and so highly appreciated were your services, as you obtain the approbation and thanks of His late Majesty George IV.

On review of my long intercourse with you, it is to me a most consoling reflection, that I have been so fortunate as to possess the confidence of you all, Protestants as well as Catholics, because on all occasions when my humble exertions could forward your interests I never made any distinction between Protestant and Catholic: and I have no hesitation to declare, that among my warmest, my most sincere, and most attached friends, are persons of a different persuasion from my own.

To the credit and honor of Scots Highlanders be it told, that the difference of religion was never known to weaken the bonds of friendship; and Catholic and Protestant have always stood, shoulder to shoulder, nobly supporting one another during the fiercest tug of battle.

It is not a little to your credit, Glengarrymen, Protestants and Catholics, that you have hitherto carefully abstained from entering into the existing overheated (and certainly in the present critical state of the Province) unseasonable discussion of your claims, upon Government, reposing with a generous confidence on the impartial justice of a noble minded and magnanimous Sovereign, whose pleasure and true happiness is to see all her loyal subjects satisfied and contented, and their faithful services rewarded as they deserve.

Fear not, my friends, that you whose fathers have been so much distinguished in the conquest of the Canadas, and who have yourselves contributed so powerfully to the defence of them from foreign and domestic enemies, shall be forgotten, by a grateful and generous Sovereign in the distribution of rewards.

The loyal and martial character of Highlanders is proverbial.— The splendid achievements of your ancestors under a Montrose and a Dundee in support of a fallen family, proved their unshaken adherence to honor and principle, acquired for them the admiration of their opponents, and secured for you, their posterity, the confidence of a liberal and discerning Government.

You have indeed reason to be proud of such ancestors—and your friends have reason to be proud of your conduct since the first of you crossed the Atlantic.

When the American Colonies broke their allegiance and rebeled against Britain, your fathers, and such of you as are yet alive of those Royal Emigrants, rallied around the standard of your Sovereign, fought your way through the wilderness to the banks of the St. Lawrence, and gallantly supported the British authorities in Canada. How gratifying it is to think that the martial character transmitted to you by your forefathers has not been tarnished nor disgraced.— Queenston heights, Lundy’s Lane, Chrysler’s Farm and Ogdensburgh will be standing monuments of your bravery and loyalty,' while the history of the Canadas shall continue to be read.

The renowned veteran, Sir John Colborne, Commander of the forces, acknowledged and admired the promptitude and alacrity with which you flew to arms last winter, and volunteered your services to Lower Canada, where your presence effectually checked the spirit of revolt for the time; and would in all probability have extinguished it in that part of the country, had your corps been kept on foot.

Your countryman and friend, General McDonell, whose brows are encircled with unfading laurels of many a hard fought battle, travelled hundreds of miles last summer to Glengarry, for the pleasure of inspecting your Militia Regiments on their respective parades.— Think With what satisfaction he will view them in the field of honor this winter, and by your valor and bravery see you contribute so much to the preservation of the Canadas.

That nothing may be wanting to cheer and encourage you in the glorious contest in which you are now engaged, the brave and gallant Col. Carmichael, whose confidence in your loyalty and courage can only be equalled by his regard and attachment to you all, will direct your operations against the enemy, and will, I feel confident, have the honor and satisfaction of making the most favorable report of your gallantry in the field.

That the God of Battles may be your protector, and grant sue* ces9 to the righteousness of your cause, is the ardent prayer and sincere wish of your obedient and humble servant,

ALEXANDER MACDONELL.

Kingston, 1st November, 1838.

host of the enemies of the revered constitution of your country, and of your Holy Religion, to alienate your minds from the Government, and make you Rebels, have been completely frustrated. How more prudent your conduct has been than that of your countrymen, who in the years 1797 and 1798, allowed themselves to be deluded by cunning and designing men, who vainly thought to overturn the British Government in Ireland, and to climb up to power and distinction by the sacrifice of the blood and lives of their brave but simple-hearted countrymen: tio sooner did those wicked men find their chimerical plans impracticable, than they deserted the cause, and left their deluded followers to the mercy of a mercenary soldiery, and a vindictive yeomanry.

Your loyalty and general good conduct, my friends, have obtained for you the approbation and confidence of Government, notwithstanding the attempt that was made to create a general prejudice, and raise an alarm in the Province, on the arrival of the first batch of Irish Catholic Emigrants, in the settlement of Perth. They were reported as riotous, mutinous, and what not. An application was made for a military force to put them down, and this report was sent to the Home Government.

Being at the time on the Continent, the Colonial Minister, Earl Bathurst, wrote to me to hasten my return to Canada, as the Irish Catholic Emigrants were getting quite unruly. On coming to London, and calling at the Colonial Office, I assured Lord Bathurst, that if fair play were given to the Irish Catholics, and justice done to them, I would pledge my life, their conduct would be as loyal and as orderly, as that of any of His Majesty’s subjects. Mr. Wilmot Horton, the Under Secretary, who happened to be in the office at the time, requested that I would give him that assurance in writing, in order to take it to the Council, which was just going to sit.

Yes, my friends, I pledged my life for your good conduct—and during the period of fifteen years, which have elapsed, since that pledge was given, I have had no cause to regret the confidence I placed in your honor and your loyalty.

At the last general election, you rallied round the Government, and contributed in a great degree, to turn out the avowed enemies of the British Constitution, the major part of whom have become since rebels, and are now proscribed traitors by the laws of their country.

It is alleged that the loyalty and attachment to the British Constitution, of some of your fellow-colonists are but conditional; that is to say, they are loyal and submissive to the Government, so long as the Government will befriend them, and support their Institutions; and it cannot be disguised, that the protracted struggle for the Clergy Reserves, has damped the ardor of many a loyal subject in the Province:—be that as it may, I am sure that your loyalty is uncompromising, and based on the principles of honor, and the sacred obligations inculcated by your Holy Religion.

I am aware that the enemies of Catholicity will urge, in contradiction to this assertion, the Irish rebellion of 1793, and the Canadian rebellions of last Winter and this Fall; but if we consider, who were the promoters of the Irish Rebellion, we will be convinced, that it was rather a Protestant than a Catholic rebellion, because it was devised, planned and concocted by Protestants. Napper Tandy was a protestant, Hamilton Rowan was a Protestant, the Sheares, the Harveys, the Grogans, the Orrs, the Tones, and the Emmets who formed the secret committees, and framed the machinery of the rebellion, were protestants, and Lord Ed. Fitzgerald, who was selected as the main spring of action, was a protestant.

Those designing men knew well the enterprising, brave, but credulous character of their countrymen; they buoyed them up with the hopes of a speedy relief from the galling yoke of tythes and taxes, and other obnoxious burthens, under which the Catholics of Ireland groaned at the time; while the floggings, pickettings, pitch caps, and other cruelties exercised on them, by the Beresfords, the Browns, the Trenches, the Clares, the Carharmtons, and others, who expected a general confiscation of Catholic property, determine them at once to throw themselves into the arms of those who promised to deliver them from such inhuman treatment; and certainly had not the clemency of the just and humane Cornwallis interfered, such of the

Irish Catholics as would not have been exterminated, would undoubtedly have been stripped of all their property and reduced to beggary. How different has heen the conduct of the leaders of the Irish rebellion of 179S, from that of the present champion of Irish liberty, Observe with what care, although backed by seven millions of the stoutest hearts the world ever produced, he has prevented an appeal to arms, because in his eyes, the life of an Irishman is of incalculable value. Fortunate would it be for his fame, in the estimation of future ages, had he exhibited the same friendly feelings towards the liberty and religion of Catholic Spain.

In exculpation of the Canadian rebellion, little can be said—the Canadians had no real grievances to complain of; they paid no tythes but to their own Clergy; no taxes, or any other burden, but what was imposed upon them by laws of their own making: their religion was not only free, and uncontrolled, but encouraged and protected by the Government, when threatened to be shackled by their own Catholic Assembly; parishes were multiplied by the consent of the Government, and subscriptions were raised by Protestants, and even by the representatives of His Britannic Majesty to build their churches; itv a word the French Canadians lived freer, more comfortably, and more independently, than any othei class cf subjects, perhaps on the whole surface of the globe; and they were perfectly contented, and seemed: quite sensible of the blessings they enjoyed under the British Government, until the folly and madness of Irreligious Papineaat Atheistical Giraud, and Camelion O’Callaghan, (whose religion is as changeable as the colors of that animal,) of the Protestant Nelsons, Browns, Scots, and others of that kidney, who, taking advantage of the ignorance, and simplicity of the unfortunate hahitans, made them believe that they were groaning under a galling yoke, which they did not feel but in imagination, and succumbing under unsupportable burdens, which had nevpr been laid upon them ; that they were to found a glorious Canadian Republic, which was to surpass those of Greece and Rome, and even the overgrown Mammoth of our own days.

An unfledged gang of briefless Lawyers, Notaries, and other pettifoggers, and a numberless horde of Doctors and Apothecaries, like the locusts of Egypt, spread themselves through the land ; and by working upon their prejudices against the British, and flattering their vanity with the hopes of the distinguished situations, which they were to occupy in the new republic, they unfortunately succeeded in seducing but too many of the credulous Canadians.

Had these infatuated people reflected for a moment, that their intended republic, (had they even succeeded in establishing it,) could not be supported without an army, without fortifications and garrisons; that armies and fortifications could not be maintained without great expenses; that to defray those expenses and other appendages of Government, money mustbe raised or extorted from them, they would pause before allowing themselves to be thus led astray by their seducers, who miserably poor themselves, for the most part, expected, to become rich and great at their cost. They never took into their calculation the power and strength of Great Britain, to keep in subjection a rebellious province, and they never penetrated the treacherous designs of an all-grasping and unprincipled people, who like the Tiger, or a monstrous Boa Constrictor, crouch and hide themselves until their unsuspecting prey approach near enough to spring upon it. The most inexcusable part, however, of the conduct of the Canadians was, not to listen to the advice of their Clergy, who knew well the intention of Papineau and his associates was to destroy their influence, and extinguish the catholic religion, which he publicly declared to be absolutely necessary, before liberty could he established in Lower Canada,

Two causes contributed greatly to work into the hands of the leaders of the Canadian rebellion: the first was the abuse and reviling, poured upon the Canadians by the ultra loyalists, and the utter contempt in which they were held, by persons of different extraction.— Jean Baptiste was hardly allowed to belong to the human species, and no animal was so vile and so contemptible as he ; but Jean Baptiste had his pride and his vanity like other mortals, and when smarting under the irritation of wounded feelings, he listened with pleasure to the harangues of the preachers of sedition and rebellion, and was delighted with those parts of their speeches, which promised to expel all foreigners from the soil of Canada, and confine the entire possession of it, to the children of the soil. (Bnfans du sol!)

The second cause of the rebellion, in both the Canadas, was the system of economy, which had been adopted. Had two or three provincial corps been kept on permanent duty, in the disturbed parts of the country, they would have prevented most effectually the last out-brealc that took place, and a few corps raised in Lower Canada, under loyal commanders, and employed in this province, would with our own Militia, have saved us from all the alarms, trouble and expense we have been at. Thus did the late Sir George Prevost, of much injured memory, secure the attachment of the Lower Canadians, during the last war, by raising the Yoltigeurs and two other Canadian Corps, whose loyalty and bravery were found and acknowledged to be of essential benefit.

I have said that your loyalty is based on the sacred obligations of your Holy Religion. The apostle commands us to obey and be submissive to the powers that be. That is to say, under the government of a King, we must honor and obey the King, and give to Cresar, the things that are CsesaPs; and under a Republican Government, obey, and be submissive to the laws and existing authorities of that Government.

In searching however, the records of antiquity, we find, that rn the most powerful and flourishing republics that ever existed in the world, the duration of peace, happiness and tranquility has been short indeed, in comparison to that of turbulence, storms and hurricanes, in which they have been at last overwhelmed, and finally swallowed up. And if we look at those which have sprung up in our own days, we find the picture duly disheartening and melancholy. Behold the fruit of the much boasted liberty given to South America. Travel through Mexico, Columbia, Guatamala, Buenos Ayres, Chili and Peru, and see. if you can meet with the happiness and tranquility which the treacherous phantom of liberty had promised to the deluded inhabitants. On the contrary, you will meet with nothing but Revolution succeeding Revolution, one ambitious Chief rebelling against and upsetting another, and he in his turn overcome and destroyed by his more daring and enterprising rival; and thus, those ill-fated regions have become the scene of bloodshed, slaughter and desolation; even the grand paragon of perfect and uncontrolled liberty, in our own neighborhood, observe how fairly it verges towards confusion and anarchy, and what security does it hold out to life and property.

But let us, my friends, behold spectacles sufficiently wretched and pitiable, nearer home. What heart-rending objects do the victims of delusion present to our eyes, in a neighboring Province! Men who had every comfort around them, and did not know what want of any kind was, in search of the promised liberty and independence have met with imprisonment, banishment, or the death of rebels; while their unfortunate wives and children have seen their houses reduced to ashes, their property plundered and destroyed, and themselves helpless, and exposed to the severity of a Canadian winter, without shelter, food or raiment, perishing with cold, and starving with hunger.

It is by viewing and reflecting on the misfortunes and miseries that generally follow in the train of disloyalty and rebellion, that we can best appreciate the happy effects and blessings of a peaceable and loyal conduct. It is no small cause of exultation to you and to your friends, that hardly a Catholic has been found among the agitators to rebellion, or in the tanks of the rebels in Upper Canada.

I am aware that those who are not acquainted with the Irish character, or are prejudiced against it, indulge in representing it as riotous and rebellious; but in order to refute this unjust and vile charge, I shall produce the testimonies of Protestant Gentlemen, who had the best opportunities of knowing the Irish character, and whose varacity is beyond suspicion.

Sir John Davis, who had been Attorney Geneaal in Ireland, and afterwards Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in England, says, “The Irish are more fearful to offend the laws, than the English, or any other nation whatsoever; in the condition of subjects, they will gladly continue as long as they may be protected, and justly governed without oppression.”

His Excellency Sir John Harvey, the present Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, whose achievements at Stony Creek, Lundy’s Lane, Chrysler’s Farm, and other places in this Province, have erected monuments to his fame, which will last as long as the British power will be acknowledged in the Canadas, and remain engraved on the hearts of Canadians, to the end of time, in answer to the address of the Society of St. Patrick, says, “Gentlemen, your address is truly Irish, it goes direct to the heart, from whence it evidently proceeds: though not an Irishman myself, I passed many happy years in Ireland, and the circumstances in which I was placed, in that country, gave me peculiar facilities for correctly appreciating the worth of the Irish character. I publicly said upon a former occasion, treat an Irishman with strict justice and a little kindness, and you will attach him to you with all the ardor of his warm hearted nature. Justice, he in common with all classes of Her Majesty’s subjects, feels a well-founded confidence of receiving under the protection of our unrivalled Constitution, in every part of the British Dominions; and kindness, when needed, he feels equally assured of experiencing from the Throne. Hence his ardent loyalty to the one, and his devoted attachment to the other.” I will also mention to you the substance of a conversation which took place between a Texan General who visited Kingston last summer, and two gentlemen of this town.— One of these gentlemen, who had been formerly acquainted with the General on the Mississippi, among other questions, enquired of him what had become of the Catholic Irish Colony, which had been settled in Texas for several years, and had possessed a fine tract of land in that country. The answer was, that they had been almost annihilated: for they had been the most formidable enemies, the invaders had to encounter, and fought most desperately for the Mexican Government; and this tallies pretty much with the declaration of an American citizen who asserted, not many weeks ago, in the Court House of this town, when questioned by one of our Magistrates, “that the sympathisers had many friends, of different denominations in this Province, who would readily join them in the cause of liberty, but as to the Catholics, they had no dependence on them.”

Thus have Catholics established their character of loyalty and fidelity, to every government under which they live; not by declarations of loyalty, and loyal addresses which we see crowding the columns of the public prints of the day, but by their actions, and the general tenor of their conduct. In testimony of this truth, we see that the catholic Canadians of the Western District free from the pestilentious delusions af seducers, and listening to the admonitions of their pastors, exhibit lull as much loyalty and bravery in encountering the Brigands and invaders of their country, as any portion of their fellow colonists.

It will be no small satisfaction to you, my friends, to be assured that in no class of Her Majesty’s in Upper Canada, does his Excellency, our present just and impartial Lieutenant Governor, Sir George Arthur, repose more trust and confidence than in Catholics; as is evidently shown by the fact, that at this moment no fewer than nine Regiments of Militia and Volunteers are under the command of Catholics, besides the great number of Catholics who are appointed to Companies in other Regiments, and to other situations of high trust and honor.

That you may always deserve and possess the confidence and favor of your Country and your Sovereign, and receive the reward of your loyalty and fidelity, with the blessing of Heaven is the never ceasing prayer of your Spiritual Father, your affectionate Friend, and devoted humble Servant in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

ALEXANDER MACDONELL,

Bishop of Kingston.

Kingston, 1st December, 1836

(No. 6.)

TO THE HONORABLE, THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, AND THE HONORABLE, THE COMMONS HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF UPPER CANADA, IN PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED,

2he humble Memorial of the Eight Rev. Alexander Macdonell, Bishop of Kingston; of his Coadjutor, the Right Rev. Remegius Goulin; of the Very Rev. William P. Macdonald, of the Very Rev. Angus Macdoneli, Vicars General; of the Hon. Alexander Macdoneli, and the Hon. John Elmsley; of Thirty-two Catholic Priests, and Eighty-six Thousand Five Hundred Catholics, of the Province of Upper Canada.

Respectfully Sheweth,

That while their fellow Colonists of other Religious Denominations are urging with vigour and perseverance their respective Claims to a share of the Clergy Reserves, Your Memorialists beg leave to lay before your Honorable House their own Claims to a provision from Government for the support of their Religion, upon grounds equally just and constitutional with any others of their fellow Colonists.

1st. Because on the cession of the Province of Quebec to the British Crown, the Catholics were secured in the full possession of all the rights and privileges of their Religion, as is clearly expressed in the twenty-seventh article of the Capitulation, which says, “The people shall be obliged by the British Government to pay to the Priests the Tithes and all the Taxes they were used to pay under His Most Christian Majesty, (not indeed, however, the tenth part of their produce, as in England and Ireland, but the sixth and twentieth part of their grain.)

2nd. Because on the division of the Province of Quebec into the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, the right to tithes and other privileges was preserved entire and undiminished to the Catholic Clergy of Upper Canada, which right still exists, although the poverty of the Inhabitants generally, and the utter abhorrence of the Irish Emigrants to the obnoxious and oppressive tribute of Tithes, induced the Catholic Clergy of Upper Canada to refrain from exacting them.

3rd. Because this forbearance cf their Clergy from exacting what is their just and lawful due, for fear of exciting discontent and disaffection in the Province, ought to be a strong additional motive to your Honorable House to substitute a decent and adequate provision out of the Clergy Reserves, the unconceded lands of the Crown, or some other funds, for the support of their Religion, in lieu of Tithes, which your Memorialists are willing to relinquish forever, provided such adequate provision be secured to them.

4th. Because Members of your Honorable House, of the first legal knowledge and intimate acquaintance with the Constitution, consider the Catholic Religion to be the Established Religion of the Province, which having been endowed and provided for, on the faith of a solemn Treaty; and your Memorialists having never done any thing to forfeit their rights and privileges, and relying on the justice and rectitude of your Honorable House, feel confident that a competent and liberal provision will he granted to them for the support of their Religion.

5th. Because upon the score of steady and unshaken loyalty, and peacable and good conduct, your Memorialists will not yield to any class of Her Majesty’s Subjects in this or any other part of the British Dominions, and they appeal with confidence to several Members of your Honorable House for ample testimony of the readiness with which they upon all occasions stept forward in defence of the Province, and of the bravery with which they contributed to repel the Americans during the last war, and trust that not a few of the Members of your Honorable House will acknowledge that to the uncommon exertions of the Catholics during the last general Election, they ewe their seats in the present Parliament, assisting in a great measure to turn out the Radicals and disaffected who have since become Rebels, and turned their arms against their Country.

They also conceive that it gives them a strong claim, not only on the justice, but also on the liberality of your Honorable House, that during the agitation and outbreak of Rebellion which took place last year in the Province, hardly a Catholic could be found among the agitators, or in the ranks of the rebels.

Your Memorialists beg leave to in conclusion to mention, that four Corps of Glengarry and two Corps of Stormont Militia, the greater portion of whom are Catholics and under Catholic Commanders, have volunteered their services, both this year and last year, to Lower Canada, and contributed very materially to put down the Rebellion, and are all still embodied and doing duty between Cornwall Lancaster, Coteau du Lac and St. Regis.

Having thus stated respectfully to Your Honorable House their claims and pretensions to a competent provision for the support of their Religion, Your Memorialises indulge sanguine hopes that Your Honorable House will grant the prayer of Your Memorialists, and Your Memorialists as in duty bound will ever pray.

Kingston, February, 1839.

(No. 7)

The Report of a Select Committee of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, to whom has referred the Petition of the Rt. Rev. the Bishops of Regiopolis and Trabracca, and others.

To the Honorable the Commons House of Assembly.

The Committee to whom was referred the Petition of the Right Reverend the Bishops of Regiopolis and Trabracca and of the very Reverend W. P. Macdonald and Angus M’Donell, Vicars General, on behalf of themselves and their Clergy, and 86,500 Roman Catholics of this Province, beg leave respectfully to Report:

In the first place they respectfully invite the attention of Your Honorable House to the most prominent parts of the Petition which truly avers that while other religious denominations are urging their claims to a share of the Clergy Reserves, the Petitioners beg leave to prefer their own claim for the support of their Religion.

1st. Because, on the cession of Quebec to Great Britain, the Roman Catholics were secured in the full possession of all the rights and privileges of their Religion (by the 27th Article of Capitulation) and to the enjoyment of one twenty-sixth of grain as Tithes.

2nd. Because, though possessing that right, they have not, owing to the comparative poverty of their people, enforced if.

3rd. Because, their forbearance in this respect ought to be, as they respectfully submit, an additional motive to substitute for them an adequate provision out of the unconceded Lands of the Crown, or some other funds, for the support of their Religion, in lieu of tithes.

And lastly, because, on the score of steady and unshaken loyalty, the Petitioners will not yield to any class of Her Majesty’s Subjects; and to their exertions are owing in some measure the successful defence of this Province against foreign aggression?.

Your Committee have most attentively and seriously considered the Petition and they are most happy to express their concurrence in the statements put forth of the loyalty and good conduct of their fellow subjects of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and to recognize their claims to obtain assistance for the maintenance of public worship.

Considering the purpose for which the Clergy Reserves were originally set apart—the religious scruples felt by many conscientious members of the Protestant Churches—and the practicability of affording assistance from other sources in accordance with the prayer of the Petitioners, your Committee abstain from recommending any appropriation or allotment from the Clergy Reserves for that purpose.

But in furtherance of their anxiety to secure to their Roman Catholic fellow subjects a sufficient provision from other sources for the purpose mentioned in their Petition. Your Committtee strongly recommend to Your Honorable House, that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant the aid prayed for out of the Jesuit Estates in Lower Canada, or from such other sources, or in any other way which to Her Majesty may seem expedient and proper.

All which is most respectfully submitted.

(Signed) OGLE R. GOWAN.

Chairman.

Committee Room, House of Assembly, July 11th, 1839, £

FAREWELL

Given by the. Celtic Society of Upper Canada, at Kingston, to Bishop Macdonell, on the occasion of his quitting the Province for Great Britain.

The Celtic Society of Upper Canada, gave a Dinner to this venerable Prelate, on Wednesday last, May 29th, in this town, previous to his departure for the United Kingdom. At seven o’clock, a very numerous and highly respectable party sat down to a table, groaning beneath every luxury which could be procured, and which was furnished in Carmino’s best style. The truly respected Sheriff of this District presided on the occasion, supported on either side by Bishops Macdonell and Gaulin; and a goodly array of British Officers, dressed in their usual splendid uniforms, with the beautiful addition ot the Gaelic, garb. The vice chair was filled by Colonel Donald McDonell, M. P. P. of Glengarry. The admirable Band of the 83 rd attended, and delighted the company by their exquisite and enlivening strains. After the cloth was removed, the chairman gave,

1 ‘Her Majesty the Queen, God bless her!’ 4 times 4, (loud rapturous plaudits.) Band—‘God save the Queen.’

2 The Queen Dowager, and the rest of the Royal Family, 3 times 3. Band—‘Hail Star of Brunswick !’

The chairman said he requested a full and flowing bumper to the next toast. It was known that their worthy and venerable guest, who was President of this Society, was on the eve of his departure to his native land, and that, as he was endeared to the whole community by his dignified liberality, courteous demeanour, and unostentatious benevolence, they would join him in drinking,

3 Our worthy and venerable guest, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Macdoneli, Bishop of Kingston.

The enthusiastic and rapturous cheering which followed this toasts defies description, it was renewed again and again—the Band played in admirable taste and feeling, ‘Auld Lang Syne.’

After the Band had ceased, Dr. Rolph, of Ancaster, was prevailed upon by the chairman to address the company, which he did in a beautiful and feeling manner, eulogizing the merits of the Venerable Prelate, and affectingly alluded to the sacrifice he was about making, at his advanced period of life, for the temporal and spiritual benefit of the people committed to his charge.—Loud plaudits followed the conclusion of Dr. Rolph’s address.

The venerable Bishop, evidently greatly affected, rose and addressed the Company, as follows:

I most sincerely thank you, gentlemen, for the very high honor you have done me, by assembling here this day, on my account, and drinking my health in the cordial and affectionate manner you have done. This is an honor, gentlemen, I certainly did not expect, nor think myself worthy of, but although I find myself greatly embarrassed, for want of words to express the feelings of my heart on this occasion, nevertheless it would be affectation and hypocrisy in me, to deny how vain and proud I am of the compliment.

I feel my heart swell within my breast, and transported with delight, at seeing this table surrounded with an assemblage of such loyal, brave, and respectable characters. I think I am warranted in saying, that ho part of the British Empire can boast of inhabitants more loyal to their Sovereign, more devotedly attached to the parent country, and to the British Constitution, than the people of Kingston ;,and 'of this they have given the most substantial and unequivocal proofs $ to those virtues, you have added, gentlemen, the more amiable and social qualities of the mind, benevolence, kindness and goodness of heart; that so obscure an individual, as myself, walking in so humble a path of life, should meet with so much contenance and attention, proves this truth to a demonstration. (Loud cheers.J

The only claim, or pretension, I would ever have to the good will bf my countrymen, was the warm interest I took, at au early period of life, in the welfare of a great number of poor Highlanders who were ejected by their landlords out of their possessions, at the close of the last century, and they and their families set adrift on the world.

Those poor people, to the number of several hundreds, I conducted to Glasgow, and procured employment for them in the manufactories* where I remained with them myself, till in consequence of the French Revolution, and the stagnation of trade on the Continent, the manufactories were ruined, and the Highlanders thrown out of employment. It was then, I represented their destitute situation to Government; got them embodied into a Fencible Corps, and accompanied them myself to the Island of Guernsey and to Ireland, and attended them for the period of eight years, till they, with all the other Scotch Fencibles were disbanded in 180*2. Seeing them thus a third time set adrift, without home or habitation, I applied to Government, and obtained lands for them in Canada ; came with them myself, and resided with them in the county of Glengarry for 25 years. In the course of the iast American War, they raised a corps of Fencibles and a Regiment of Militia, and during the late troubles in these Provinces, the Glengarry men armed four Regiments of Militia, and their services are too1 well known to the present company to render it necessary for me to say a word upon the subject. [Great cheers.]

I cannot sit down without observing, with pleasure and delight, that the descendants of our ancestors, the Celts, have never yet tarnished the glory and renown of their forefathers, of which we ought to be proud. Monuments of their power, and of the extent of their Empire still exist in every part of Europe, in the Basque Provinces, in Biscay, Guipuscoa, Asturias, and Navare; in Britanny, Wales, Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland, the Celtic Language is still spoken, and there is not a mountain, a river, strait, or an arm of the sea, between the Mediteranean, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic, but i& Celtic; this, with the certainty, that nineteen out of every twenty words in the Latin Language, are pure Celtic, is sufficient proof that the Celtic Empire extended from the pillars of Hercules to Archangel. ('Loud cheers.)

It being my intention shortly to visit Great Britain, probably for the last time, I must wish farewell, for a while to my friends ; but my hopes and my expectations are to return to Kingston, as soon as I can, and to spend my few remaining days among friends, whom I love and esteem, and in whose society I expect to receive whatever comfort this world can afford me, at my advanced period of life. The Venerable Prelate sat down perfectly overpowered by his feelings, and was greeted with the warmest applause.

After the cheering had subsided, the chairman, with some admirable prefatory remarks, proposed the fourth toast,

4 Lord Mill and the Army, 3 times 3. Bawl—‘British Grenadiers.’

Captain Townsend returned thanks in a very elegant manner, and in the course of his remarks, prayed a very high encomium on the bravery, discipline, and patriotism ot the Militia of Upper Canada.

5 Lord Minto and the Navy, 3 times 3.

Band—‘Rule Britannia.’

Dr. Barker was generally called upon fora Song, and gave in most admirable style, ‘When Vulcan forged the bolts of Jove,’ which drew down vehement applause.

6 His Excellency Sir John Colborne, Governor General of British North America, 3 times 3, and great cheering.

Band—‘See the conquering hero comes.’

7 The chairman called for another bumper, and said that he had to propose another toast; it was an individual who had more difficulties to cope with, than any other in this province, perhaps, in the British Dominions; and who, had by a singular and happy combination of wisdom, prudence, judgment and integrity, surmounted most; and would be the means of restoring order, confidence, and prosperity.— He would give ‘His Excellency, Sir George Arthur, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.’ The toast was received with vociferous cheering. Band—‘When Arthur Ruled this Land.’

8 ‘The Militia of British'North America,? 3 times 3, and great cheering. A general call was made for Col. McDonell of Glengarry. He rose and spoke with great feeling, staling? that being the oldest Militia Officer present, and having been engaged in both province during two successive winters, he could bear willing testimony to the zeal and devotion ot the brave men, who were called out to defend British supremacy in these provinces, and who in that noble, generous struggle were determined to conquer or die. ('Great cheering,)

9 Lady Arthur, and the fair of UppOr Canada, 3 times 3.

Band—‘Here’s a health to all good lasses.’

10 Our patron, Major General Sir James McDonell, the Hero of Houguemont, 3 times 3, and rapturous cheering. Bishop Macdoneli returned thanks, and eulogized the conduct throughout life of hfs esteemed relative.

11 Colonel Dundas, the Commandant, and the Garrison of Kingston, 3 times 3, and great cheering. Captain Townsend returned thanks in a very felicitous manner,

12 Captain Sandom, and the Naval force oh the Lakes of Upper Canada, 3 times 3. Song—‘The Battle of the Nile.’ by Dr. Rolph.

13 Our sister Societies of St. George and St. Patrick, 3 times 3; and great cheering.

Band played admirably, ‘the Roast Beef of England,’ and ‘St. Patrick’.day in the morning.’

Mr. Yarker returned thanks for the St. George’s Society, as Vice President of that institution, ; and Mr. Manahan on behalf of the St Patrick’s Society, both very ably, and producing great applause.

14 Celts all over the world, 3 times 3.

Band—‘The garb of Old Gaul.'

15 The chairman said that he had another toast to propose, particularly as there was a gentleman present, whom he wished to speak to the sentiment and who was accompanying their venerable guest to the United Kingdom, for the purpose of infusing into the breasts of his fellow countrymen and subjects, the same regard for the province, which; on so many occasions, he had proved that he possessed in a mo£ remarkable degree himself. He should therefore give,

“The land we live in,” 3 times 3.

A general call was made for Dr. Rolph to respond to the toast, which he did as follows:

Gentlemen,—I assure you that I feel it a most distinguished honor, to be invited a guest on this occasion, by a Society, established for “rescuing from oblivion the valuable remains of Celtic literature” and for relieving distressed Highlanders at a distance from their native homes and which Society blends the loftiest patriotism with the most exalted philanthropy.

No man, who values the integrity of the Empire, can be insensible to the merits of this virtuous and valiant race. At home and abroad—on the sea and on the field, they have been equally distinguished, They have, amidst every difficulty and allurement, still retained those ancient manners, which are so intimately connected with all their characteristic virtues—and their recent defence of this country evinces that ardent and unsubdued spirit of loyalty, which has in every age been their ennobling distinction. In the early period of the revolutionary war, although smarting under wrongs which drove them from their native land, they would not consent to the extinction of the British authority, but enterprising in danger, of unshaken fidelity, persevering under reverses, prodigal of life, patient of fatigue, of hunger, of cold, and every hardship incident to war, they threaded their way through an untrodden wilderness, to place themselves under the united Banner of St. Andrew, St. Patrick, and St. George. (Cheers.)

Gentlemen, you know well, with what enthusiastic attachment they love their native land, for another our feelings however we may, the love of our own land will not give way so long as memory binds us to it with the thousand ties of sweet associations and early happiness.

“Dear is the shade to which their souls conform,
And dear the hill that lifts them to the storm;
And as a babe whom scaring sounds molest
Clings dose and closer to her mother's breast,
So the loud torrent and the whirlwind’s roar
But bind them to their native country more."

This love for home is still as great as ever, but many circumstances have combined to induce them to avail themselves of any facility of emigration, The letters which reach them daily from their friends on this continent, the progress of knowledge, the horror of destitution at home, and the impossibility of finding employment in their own country—and above all the appalling famine which recently visited them, with its usual horrors—the change of times producing the destruction of that patriarchal tie which bound the poorest Clansman to his Chief, as a member of one family—all these circumstances and many more have combined to reconcile their minis to emigration, and if they must leave their own lovely Isles of the Sea, and the sweet glens of their nativity, over which the Roman Eagle never hovered, they would prefer the woods and BRITISH SETTLEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA, where, by societies like the present, the language, dress, and manners of their forefathers are preferred by thousands of their expatriated Countrymen, to the dusky atmosphere of manufacturing towns; or the still more uncongenial land of republicanism.

Nor, Gentlemen, whilst paying this just and willing tribute to this valuable class of settlers, in this province, can I help, on this day, this great, auspicious, memorable day, carrying my mind’s eye over the broad .Atlantic, to the rural villages of my own, my native land, where its hardy, noble peasantry are gambolling together on the village green, to commemorate the restoration of monarchy to a people, who sickened and disgusted at republican tyranny, threw off its heavy and intolerable yoke. We know not until we observe the workings of the monster, on this Continent, of what a burden they were freed. And the monitions of the past should strongly teach us to preserve inviolate that great, inestimable boon, the British Constitution. That matchless form of government is not the child of chance nor the offspring of hasty and crude experiment—it is not the result of a happy conjecture—it owes its birth to the united efforts of the best and wisest amongst the sons of men who have lived laborious days and sleepless nights, in order that they might found and establish it upon principles calculated to secure the greatest aggregate of happiness to the human race: & whilst it claims, & justly claims, the privilege of fencing itself round with those safeguards and immunities which are absolutely necessary to its welfare and continued existence, it affords the most perfect and fullest toleration to all living beneath its protecting shade. ('Cheers.)

Gentlemen, the people have been so long fascinated with the meretricious trappings and blandishments of a masked democracy, that they have almost lost that affection which our forefathers cherished for the monarchy and the peerage ; but we who have seen ruffianism and republicanism almost synonymous; who have witnessed a country groaning under its iron sway, and seen its workings in the distraction of unceasing elections—popular violence—negro slavery—border piunderers—and unchecked agrarianism, must hope that our fellow subjects at home will more and more appreciate that lofty and illustrious body of men who still exist in the parent state, ennobled by hereditary birth, and dignified with personally acquired honors, capable of valuing aright the important interests which they possess, not only in the land, but in the integrity of the empire, and determined, as far as they are able, and at all hazards, to bequeath those interests unimpaired to our latest posterity. I confess that I look to these dignified patricians to assist the hardy, industrious, valuable, ill-requited labourer to this Province, so that by the addition to our numbers of this inestimable description of emigration, the Province may for ever continue a heritage of the British Crown. (Loud cheers.)

We see everywhere around us the descendants ot English, Irish and Scotch; these are the valuable class of Canadians, for although Upper Canada is not the land of birth of many around this table, settled in the Province, it has become, by our own free choice, the land of our adoption. It ought to be our pride, as it assuredly, is our duty, to cherish the most ardent affection both for it and its inhabitants.— They well deserve our regard—they are proud of their connection with the parent state—let us be equally proud of our union with them. This feeling I have cherished, on my departure to my native land with my venerable friend, the Bishop; I again proclaim this sentiment; I still, and ever shall cherish it and adopt unhesitatingly the sentiment of the poet

‘‘For he this still my pride To love the land I live in now, but ever bear in heart and brow, That where my fathers died.

To heal all wounds, appease all angry feelings, unite all hearts, and establish the reign of brotherhood, confidence, and affection should be our object. The bringing to pass such an event should be the quarry of our aim, the scope of our ambition, the grave propositum of our cause. My efforts, like those of this, and sister Societies, shall be directed to make this British Province resemble the picture drawn of its august parent by Dr. Graham, a genuine Celt. "Life and property secured of impartial and effectual laws which shield alike the rich and poor—justice maintaining a firm but lenient sway, hei balance never falsely held, her sword but seldom stained with blood—freedom of speech and action restrained by no other bounds than the peace of society and the protection of individual character require—the useful arts brought to perfection—the whole land one scene of active industry —its fields clothed with the rich products of universal culture—its towns swarming with a busy population, and resounding with the processes of prosperous labour—its ports crowded with vessels, wafting its commerce to distant shores—its hearths hallowed by domestic virtue, and moral worth, and heartfelt piety—education diffusing its benignant influence to dispel the prejudices and soften the rudeness of ignorance—the social habits of the people characterized by countless token5* of cheerful and substantial comfort—multiplied blessings overspreading the Community—AND NO CLASS WITHOUT PARTICIPATION IN THE GENERAL PROSPERITY.” Gentlemen I sincerely thank you, and wish you the utmost prosperity.

Dr. Rolph sat down amidst the most deafening and rapturous plaudits.

Colonel Cubitt and the Artillery, 3 times 3.

Band—‘Stand to your guns.’

Captain Otway returned thanks, in a very feeling and excellent manner, and proposed the health of the chairman, which was received with loud and long continued applause; it having subsided, he rose to return thanks, and begged to give another toast; and after expatiating at great length, and with much fervour, on the merits of Sir Allan McNabb, of whose patriotism, zeal, and benevolence he had witnessed many proofs, he concluded by proposing,

The Honorable Colonel Sir Allan McNabb, 3 times 3. The toast was received with great applause.

Band—‘The Campbells are coming.’

Dr. Chisholm, R. A., received a letter which he purposed reading; from Sir Allan McNabb, expressive of his deep regret, that a sudden and unavoidable detention, prevented him from attending the dinner, in which all his personal and national feelings were warmly engaged.

In the course of the evening the health of Bishop Gaulin, the coadjutor of Bishop Macdonell, was handsomely introduced by the Chairman, it was warmly responded to by the meeting, and elicited an excellent reply from that amiable and exemplary prelate.

A sudden call of duty prevented the Commandant—the Commodore, and that zealous Celt, Colonel Carmichael, Horn being present; and we regret to say that severe indisposition deprived the Company of the attendance of that gallant Soldier, a id fine Highlander, Major Farquharson.

About eleven o’clock, Bishop Macdonell and a large number of his immediate friends quitted the company, but the festivities of the evening were prolonged to a late or rather an early hour, when all parties quitted, highly gratified with the night’s entertainment.

We cannot conclude the account of this meeting, without noticing the zealous exertions of Dr. Chisholm and the other Stewards, feeling confident, that to their excellent arrangements, the harmony of the evening was chiefly indebted.

(No. 8.)

THE ADDRESS

Of Dr. Zolph, of Lancaster, on the occasion of the Foundation Stone of the Catholic College at Kingston, U. C. being laid.

On Tuesday, the 11th of Jure, the Foundation Stone of the Catholic College in Selma Park, Kingston, U. C., was laid, tn the presence of a highly respectable and numerous audience, by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Macdonell,-Bishop of Kingston, accompanied by his Codjutor, Bishop Gaulin, Very Rev. A. Macdonell, Vicar General, and other Clergymen. At the close of the interesting ceremony, Dr. Rolph, of Ancaster, addressed the company as follows:—

By the request of Bishop Macdonell, and on his behalf, I sincerely thank you for your very numerous attendance on this interesting occasion, to witness the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of a College, which he fondly trusts will prove alike an ornament to the town, and an advantage to the community. The number of Catholics in this Province, without the opportunity of acquiring the higher branches of knowledge, renders the erection, and establishment of an institution, of this character, almost indispensable. It is the intention of his Lordship to provide the most learned professors to occupy the post of teachers, and he is desirous that persons of different persuasions, if they feel inclined, shall avail themselves of the solid advantages which this institution will bestow. In every period of British history the most earnest solicitude to found and endow such institutions has been apparent. To the munificence and piety of our ancestors are we indebted for those venerable seats of learning, Oxford and Cambridge: whilst Winchester, Eton, and other Seminaries, will remain imperishable monuments of their wisdom, goodness, and taste. It was within such walls, consecrated to religion and learning, that the venerable Bede, the illustrious Anselm, the dignified Wyckham, the pious Alcuin, and the virtuous More, learnt those lessons, which reflect lasting honor on their memories, and shed a halo of glory around the establishments which produced such, bright and shining ornaments, who adorned and dignified the country to which they belonged, and whose memories will be garnered up in the grateful remembrance of the latest posterity.

It is well known that until of very late years, the education of Catholics had been almost annihilated, and that it was materially promoted and assisted by the liberality of Protestants in various parts of the British Empire. There is no individual who has been more indebted for this generous assistance than Bishop Macdoneli. Indeed it is this practical acquaintance with their munificence, that has cheered him on, and encouraged him amidst many difficulties, to persevere in his exertions to build this college, and lie has particularly desired me to thank most cordially those Protestants in this province, who have so generously countenanced and forwarded his views, and more especially his kind and zealous friends of this town. It has been an object of Bishop Macdonell’s unceasing exertions, to obtain a sufficient number of well educated, zealous, and godly clergymen to minister to the wants of the people committed to his care; but alas ! whilst the harvest is great, he laments that the labourers are few; and he has had reason to deplore that he has not had the means of raising up clergymen for his diocese, under his own surveillance, and has thus been bereft of those advantages, and had to deplore the utter inadequacy of means to accomplish the most beneficent ends. Nor is it a matter of trifling moment or minor consequence to a community, that the ministers of religion should be reared both from them and amongst them. It is the best security for that fondness and attachment to the country and its institutions, which it is eminently desirable should be ardently felt and cherished by a parochial clergy.

“For if any thing under Heaven can approach the human character to the divine, it is the laborious and unremitting dedication of life and talents to the diffusion of truth and virtue among men.” It is the most anxious desire of our venerable Bishop that a Priesthood should be raised in the Country, fearing God—honoring their Sovereign-attached to the Government and Institutions of the Empire—using their assiduous efforts to maintain its integrity—and that they should be reared in all sanctity of life and manner, to minister at our holy altars, exclaiming in all sincerity and truth: “Lavabo inter innoceutes manus mens, et circumdabo altare tuum, Domine" and it must be quite evident that until such an Establishment is founded, that a Bishop cannot be as responsible for his Clergy as he would wish. Nor is it unimportant that they shall be deeply imbued with that genuine charity always fostered and inculcated in these nurseries of religion and learning, so much admired in the founder of this institution, which invariably brings with it all the grace, refinement, and polish of social life, and without which, though they should preach with the longue of men and of angels, it would be like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. I am sure that you will therefore join with me in the fervent hone that as this is the last act of the venerable Bishop, previous to his departure for the United Kingdom, to obtain that cooperation which will enable him to carry his laudable designs into effect, that the edifice now commenced by his munificence and zeal, will not only remain a lasting monument of his affectionate solicitude for the Catholics of Upper Canada, but will also ensure him the countenance and blessing of that Almighty Being to whom he dedicates it, and whose special protection he invokes, and that it will prove of immeasureable benefit to the whole community.

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