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Raising of the Glengarry
Fencible or British Highland Regiment in Scotland.—-Incidents Previous
Thereto.—Mr. Alexander (Afterwards Bishop) Macdonell Accompanies a number of
the Highlanders to Glasgow, where they are Employed by the
Manufacturers.—Closing of the Manufactories on Proclamation or War Between
Britain and France.—Proposal to Raise a Regiment to be Under Command of the
Young Chief of Glengarry.— First Catholic Corps since the
Reformation.—Stationed in Guernsey.—Offer to Garrison St. Marcou.—Services
in Ireland in Suppression of Rebellion of '98.—Disbanded with other
Fencibles in 1802.—Services of the Chaplain on behalf of the Men.—He
Procures a Grant of 200 Acres for each man in Glengarry in Canada.—Lord
Hobart's Letter to Lieut.-Gov. U. C.
The last emigration on a
large scale of Glengarry Highlanders took place in 1802 under the
circumstances mentioned in Thomson's "Memoirs of the Jacobites," page 322 et
seq., but as they are so interesting and of such historic value to the
County, I prefer to quote from the words of the person best qualified to
speak authoritatively on the subject, and who brought the immigrants to
Canada, the former Chaplain of the Glengarry Fencible Infantry or British
Highland Regiment, afterwards the Honourable and Right Reverend Alexander
Macdonell, first Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada and a member of the
Legislative Council of the Province. I take them from the Canadian Literary
Magazine of April, 1833, vol. 1, page 3 et seq.
Alter explaining how,
consequent upon the abolition of the feudal system of clanship which had
obtained from time immemorial, and had been based upon the mutual interest
of chieftain and clans men, by the influence and consequence in proportion
to the number of his followers it afforded the former— and the protection
and support it gave to the latter—-the "bleak and barren mountains of the
north," which had previously raised men, had been converted into sheep
walks, and the suffering thus necessarily entailked upon the people —their
utter misery in fact—he proceeds:
It was in this conjecture
that the writer of these pages, then a Missionary on the borders of the
Counties of Inverness and Perth, in the highest inhabited parts of the
Highlands of Scotland, affected by the distressed state of his Countrymen,
and heating that an emigrant vessel which had sailed from the Island of
Barra, one of the Hebrides, had been wrecked and had put into Greenock,
where she-landed her passengers in the most helpless and destitute
situation, repaired in the spring of 1792 to Glasgow. Having secured an
introduction to several of the professors of the University and to the
principal manufacturers of that city, he proposed to the latter that he
should induce the Highlanders who had been turned out of their farms, and
those lately escaped from the shipwreck, to enter into the works if they
(the manufacturers) would but encourage them, and this they really promised
to do upon very liberal terms. There were two serious obstacles, however, to
the usefulness of the Highlanders: the one that they did not understand the
English language, the other that a large portion of them were Roman
Catholics. The excitement raised by Lord George Gordon about Catholics
twelve years before, when the Catholic chapels of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and
the clergymen's houses, were burned, had not yet subsided, and a strong and
rancorous feeling against the professors of the Catholic religion still
remained amongst the lower orders of the people of Glasgow; so much so,
indeed, that no Catholic clergyman could with safety reside there from the
time of the burning of the chapels to the period we are now speaking of the
manufacturers represented to the Missionary that although perfectly willing
themselves to afford the Catholics all the countenance and protection in
their power, yet, as the Penal Laws still remained in full force against
them, they could not be answerable for the consequences in the event of evil
deigned persons assailing or annoying them ; and they represented that the
danger was still greater to a Catholic Clergyman, who was subject not only
to the insult and abuse of the rabble, but to be arraigned before a court of
justice. To this the Missionary replied 1hat although the latter of the law
militated against Catholics, the spirit of it was greatly mitigated, and
that if they would but assure the Highlanders of their protection, he
himself would take his chance of the severity of the law and the fanaticism
of the people, and accompany the Highlanders to the manufactories, in order
to serve them in the double capacity of Interpreter and Clergyman; for the
Missionary saw that it was a notorious fact that Catholics following the
dictates of their religion, and restrained by its morality, made faithful
and industrious servants; but, discarding those ties and obligations, they
became vicious and unprincipled.
The manufacturers, appearing
much pleased with this proposal, offered every protection and encouragement
in their power to himself and followers. Accordingly, with the approbation
of his Bishop, he took up his residence in Glasgow in June, 1792, and in the
course of a few months procured employment for upwards of 500 Highlanders.
On the few occasions previous
to this, that a priest had officiated in Glasgow, he was obliged to have his
meetings up two or three pairs of stairs, and to station at the door a
sturdy Irishman or Highlander armed with a bludgeon to overawe the intruders
who might attempt to disturb the service. But the missionary, by the advice
of one of the most influential Presbyterian of the city, opened his chapel
to the street and did not close the door during the service. Two respectable
members of the congregation attended to show any decent persons, attracted
thither by curiosity, into a seat; and several who thus came were repeatedly
heard to say that this was not Popery at all, although the principal tenets
of the Catholic Religion were taught and explained both in English and
Gaelic: and because they saw neither pictures nor images, and the mass was
said early in the morning, before those who might be disposed to give
annoyance were up, and who, being of the lower class of labourers and
tradesman, generally spent the Saturday evenings in a tavern and Sunday
morning in bed.
For two years the
manufactories went on with astonishing prosperity and success, but in the
year 1794 the principles of the French Revolt, spreading rapidly over Great
Britain, and meeting with the warmest abettors in the manufacturing
districts, the English Government found it necessary to adopt measures to
check its progress and to prevent intercourse between the two countries.
War was at length proclaimed
between England and France. The export of British manufactures to the
Continent was stopped; the credit or the manufacturers was checked; their
works were almost at a stand, frequent bankruptcies ensued, a general
dismissal of labouring hands took place, and misery and distress overtook
those thus suddenly thrown out of employ.
Among the sufferers were the
poor Highlanders above mentioned. Unaccustomed to hard labour and totally
ignorant of the English language, they became more helpless and destitute
than any other class of the whole community.
At this crisis the Missionary
conceived the idea of getting these unfortunate Highlanders embodied as a
Catholic Corps in His Majesty's service, with his young Chief, Macdonell of
Glengarry, for their Colonel. Having procured a meeting of the Catholics at
Fort Augustus, in February, 1794, a loyal address was drawn up to the King,
offering to raise a Catholic corps, under the command of the young
Chieftain, who, together with John Fletcher, Esq., of Dunans, proceeded as a
deputation to London with the address, which was most graciously received by
the King. The manufacturers of Glasgow furnished them with the most ample
and honourable testimonials of the good conduct of the Highlanders during
the time they had been in their works, and strongly recommended that they
should be employed in the service of their country. A Letter of Service was
accordingly issued to raise the first Glengarry Fencible Regiment as a
Catholic corps, being the first that was raised as such since the
Reformation.
The missionary, although
contrary to the then existing law, was gazetted as Chaplain of the Regiment-
Four or five Regiments which had been raised in Scotland, having refused to
extend their services to England, and having mutinied when they were ordered
to march, the Glengarry Fencibles, by the persuasion of their Chaplain,
offered to extend their services to any part of Great Britain or Scotland,
or even to the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. This offer was very
acceptable to the Government, since it formed a precedent to all Fencible
corps that were raised after this period. The Regiment, having been embodied
in June, 1795, soon afterwards embarked for Guernsey, and remained there
until the summer of 1798.
Sir Sidney Smith having taken
possession of the small island of St. Marcou, in the mouth of Cherbourg
Harbor, the Glengarries offered to garrison that post, but the capture of
that gallant officer and of the much lamented Captain Wright, who was first
tortured and then put to death in a French prison because he would riot take
a commission in the French navy, prevented the enterprise from taking place.
In the summer of 1798 the
rebellion broke out in Ireland, and the Glengarry Regiment was ordered to
that country. Landing at Ballenack, they marched from thence to Waterford,
and from Waterford to New Ross the same day. At the former place a trilling
circumstance occurred which afforded no small surprise to some and no slight
ridicule to others, while at the same it showed the simplicity of the
Highlanders and their ignorance of the ways of the World. The soldiers who
received billet money on the entrance in the town returned it on their being
ordered to march the same evening to New Ross for the purpose of reinforcing
General Johnson, who was surrounded, and, in a manner, besieged by the
rebels.
The next day General Johnson
attacked and dislodged the rebels from Laggan Hill, who, after a very faint
resistance, retreated to Vinegar Hill. The Chaplain, upon this and all other
occasions, accompanied the Regiment to the field, with the view of
preventing the men from plundering or committing any act of cruelty upon the
country people. The command of the Town of New Ross devolved on Colonel
Macdonell, and the Chaplain found the Jail and Court House crowded with
wounded rebels, whose lives had been spared, but who had been totally
neglected. Their wounds had never been dressed, nor any sustenance been
given to them since the day of the battle. Colonel Macdonell, on being
informed of their miserable condition, ordered the Surgeon of his Regiment
to attend them, and every possible relief was offered to the wretched
sufferers. From New Ross the Regiment was ordered to Kilkenny, and from
thence to Hackett's Town, in the County of Wicklow, to reduce a body of
rebels and deserters, who had taken possession of the neighboring mountains,
under the command of the rebel chiefs, Holt and Dwyer.
The Village of Hackett's Town
had been entirely consumed to ashes, partly by the insurgents and partly by
the military. Deprived of this shelter, the troops were compelled to live
under tents the greater part of the winter, and the Chaplain considered it
his duty to share their privations and sufferings.
Colonel Macdonell, who now
commanded the Brigade, which consisted of the Glengarries, two companies of
the Eighty-Ninth Regiment of Foot, two companies of Lord Darlington's
Fencible Cavalry, and several companies of the Yeomanry, finding that the
rebels made a practice of descending from the mountains in the night time to
the hamlets in the valleys for the purpose of plunder, adopted a plan of
getting the troops under arms about midnight and marching them from the camp
in two divisions without fife or drum. One division was ordered to gain the
summits of the mountains, the other to scour the inhabited parts of the
country; so that the rebels, in attempting to regain their footsteps, found
themselves entrapped between two fires. The Chaplain never failed to
accompany one or the other of these divisions, and was the means of saving
the lives of. and preserving for legal trial, many prisoners, whom the
yeomanry would, but for his interference, have put to immediate death.
The Catholic chapels in many
of those parts had been turned into stables for the yeomanry cavalry, but
the Chaplain, when he came, caused them to be cleaned out and restored to
their proper use. He also invited the terrified inhabitants and clergy to
resume their accustomed worship, and laboured not in vain to restore
tranquility and peace to the people, persuading them that if they behaved
quietly and peacefully the Government would protect Catholics as well as
Protestants, and impressing upon their minds that the Government having
entrusted arms to the hinds of the Glengarry Highlanders, who were Roman
Catholics, was a proof that it was not inimical to them on account of their
religion. These exhortations, together with the restoration of divine
service in the chapels, the strict discipline enforced by Colonel Macdonell,
and the repression of the licentiousness of the yeomanry, served in a great
measure to restore confidence to the people, to allay feelings of
dissatisfaction and to extinguish the embers of rebellion wherever the
Glengarry Regiment served.
The Highlanders, whom the
rebels called "the Devil's Bloodhounds," both on account of their dress and
their habit of climbing and traversing the mountains, had greatly the
advantage of the insurgents in every encounter, so much so that in a few
months their force was reduced from a thousand to a few scores. Holt, seeing
his numbers so fast diminishing, surrendered to Lord Powerscourt, and was
transported to Botany Bay. Dwyer, after almost his whole party had been
killed or taken, was at length surprised in a house with his few remaining
followers by a party of the Glengarries. Here he defended himself and killed
some of his pursuers, till the house being set on fire, he was shot while
endeavoring to make his escape, stark naked, through the flames.
The Marquess Cornwallis,
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Commander of the forces, was so well pleased
with the services of the Glengarry Fencibles that he advised the Government
to have the Regiment augmented. In furtherance of this plan, the Chaplain
was despatched to London with recommendations from every General under whose
command the corps had served in Guernsey or in Ireland, to procure the
proposed augmentation and to settle on the terms. Previous to his departure
from Dublin, the measure of a legislative union between Great Britain and
Ireland had been brought into the Irish Parliament and miscarried. The
Catholic Bishops and Catholic nobles of Ireland having assembled in Dublin
to discuss this subject, came to a determination favourable to the views of
Government, and communicated their sentiments to the Chaplain, authorizing
him to impart them to the Ministry. The Chaplain did :so accordingly in his
first interview with the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, afterwards Lord
Melville, but that statesman considered the Chaplain's information
incorrect, and insinuated that the intention of the Irish Catholic
dignitaries and nobility was quite contrary to what was stated.
He also privately informed
Sir John Cox Hippesley, who accompanied the Chaplain to the Secretary of
State's Office, that by a despatch received through that day's mail from
Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary of State for Ireland, he was informed that
the purpose of the meeting of the Catholics was to counteract the measures
of the Government. This the Chaplain took the liberty to deny, and offered
to prove his assertion to the satisfaction of Mr. Dundas by being allowed
time to refer to the Catholic meeting at Dublin. He accordingly wrote to
Colonel Macdonell, whom he had left in that city, and received by return of
post an answer from Viscount Kenmare, contradicting to the assertions of
Viscount Castlereagh. On this occasion the Government papers indulged in
severe reflections upon the conduct of the Irish Catholics. The Chaplain
requested that they should be contradicted, which was done very reluctantly,
and not until he had threatened to have the truth published is the
Opposition papers. The correspondence on that subject is now in his
possession.
The proposed augmentation,
however, did not take place. The views of government were altered, and
instead of augmenting the Fencible Corps, they gave commissions in the
regiments of the Line to those officers of the Fencibles who could bring a
certain number of volunteers with them.
The Glengarry Fencibles were
afterwards employed in the mountains and other parts of Conomaragh, where
some of the most desperate rebels had taken refuge, and where the embers of
rebellion continued longest unextinguished. The Chaplain was their constant
attendant down to the year 1802, when at the short Peace of Amiens, the
whole of the Scotch Fencibles were disbanded.
I have obtained a list of the
officers of this Regiment from an army list of 1798. The Regiment was
stationed at Kilkenny at the time. It will be observed that Colonel
Macdonald is named as Colonel, Glengarry being in charge of the Brigade :
Colonel—Donald Macdonald.
Lieutenant-Colonel—Charles McLean.
Major—Alexander Macdonell.
Captains.
Archibald McLachlan,
Donald Macdonald,
Ranald Macdonell,
James Macdonald,
Archibald Macdonell,
Roderick Macdonald,
Hugh Beaton.
Captain-Lieutenant and
Captain—Alexander Macdonell
Lieutenants.
John Macdonald,
Ronald Macdonald,
Archibald McLellan,
James Macdonell,
James McNab.
D. Mclntyre,
Donald Chisholm,
Allan McNab.
Ensigns.
Alexander Macdonell
John Macdonald,
Charles Macdonald,
Donald Macdonell.
Donald Maclean,
Archibald Macdonell,
Alexander Macdonell,
Andrew Macdonell,
Francis Livingstone.
Adjutant—Donald Macdonell.
Quarter-Master—Alexander
Macdonell.
Surgeon—Alexander Macdonell.
Taken as a whole, the names
seem to be somewhat Scotch, and to savor, as did these of the men, of the
clan whose suaicheantas was the heather!
I may mention that this is
but one of the twenty-six Scottish regiments, almost all Highland,
enumerated in the army list of 1798, though a young essayist has gravely
assured us that the finer qualities and instincts of the men of that and
previous generations had been dwarfed by long subjection to the despotism of
their chiefs, and that even their physique had degenerated under oppression,
and that it required years and another climate and changed surroundings to
counteract the stunting influences of centuries.
The Highlanders now found
themselves in the same destitute situation as they were in when first
introduced into the manufactories of Glasgow. Struck with their forlorn
condition, the Chaplain, at his own expense, proceeded to London to
represent their situation to the Government and to endeavor to induce
ministers to lend them assistance to emigrate to Upper Canada. He was
introduced to the Right Honourable Charles Yorke, Secretary at War, and by
him to Mr. Addington, the Premier. The latter, on account of the
testimonials which the Chaplain presented to him of the good conduct of the
Regiment during the whole of their service, signed by the different general
officers under whose command they had been, directed that a sum of money
should be paid to the Chaplain, out of the Military Chaplains' fund in lieu
of half-pay, which could not be ranted to him without forming a precedent to
other Chaplains of Fencible Corps; and this favour was conferred upon him at
the recommendation of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, then
Commander-in-Chief, on account of his having constantly attended the
Regiment when every other regimental Chaplan had retired upon five shillings
a day by virtue of an order issued from the War Office in 1798. Mr.
Addington requested the Chaplain to state to him, in writing, the cause of
the frequent emigrations from the Highlands of Scotland. The Chaplain
complied with his request in a series of letters, on the perusal of which
Mr. Addington expressed his deep regret that so brave and faithful a portion
of His Majesty's subjects, who were always found ready at the call of
Government, and from whom no murmurs or discontents were ever heard, even
under the most trying and distressing circumstances, should be compelled to
quit their native soil by the harsh treatment of their landlords, and to
transfer their allegiance to the United States, whither the emigration had
been flowing previous to this period.
Mr. Addington added that the
loss of so many Highlanders was one of the circumstances which had given him
the greatest uneasiness during his administration, and that nothing would
give him greater satisfaction than to convince them of the friendly feelings
and kind intentions of Government towards them by putting them in the way of
acquiring, in a few years, prosperity, and even wealth, with which they
might return and live in ease and independence in their native land. He then
proposed to the Chaplain to send a colony of those Highlanders with whom he
was connected to the Island of Trinidad, which was then first ceded to the
British Empire; and to give a farm of eighty acres of land to every head of
a family, and money out of the treasury to purchase four slaves for every
farm a larger proportion of land and slaves to such gentlemen who would
accompany the colony, and to the Chaplain as large a salary as he could
reasonably demand. Mr. Addington also offered to send a surgeon and a
schoolmaster, with salaries from Government, to the new colony, and, to
remove the difficulties which the Chaplain had stated in regard to the
unhealthiness of a tropical climate and the propensity of Highlanders to
drink ardent spirits, undertook to furnish the colony with as much wine as
the Chaplain and Surgeon should consider necessary for the preservation of
the general health tor three years, also sufficient vinegar wherewith to
wash their habitations for the same period; after which it might be supposed
that the constitution of the settlers would become inured to the climate.
For these liberal and
advantageous offers the Chaplain could not but feel grateful to Mr.
Addington, but while he thanked him for kind intentions towards his
countrymen, he assured him that no consideration on earth would induce him
to prevail upon Highlanders to reside in the unhealthy climate of the West
Indies, or reconcile to his conscience the bitter reflection of his being
the cause of making a woman or a child a widow or an orphan.
Mr. Addington seemed greatly
surprised and disappointed at this expression of the Chaplain's sentiments,
and demanded in what other way he could serve the Highlanders. He was
answered that what they expected and wished was to be assisted in emigrating
to Upper Canada, where several of their friends had already settled
themselves.
The Chaplain proceeded to
state that if this assistance were tendered upon a more expensive scale, it
would allay the irritated feelings entertained by the Highlanders against
their landlords, whose cruel conduct was identified with the system and
operations of Government. Moreover, the Scotch, quitting their country in
this exasperated state of mind, and settling in the United States, readily
imbibed republican principles and a determined antipathy against the British
Government; whereas by diverting the tide of emigration into the British
colonies, their population would be increased by settlers retaining British
principles, British feelings and an attachment towards their native country,
not only undiminished, but even increased by the parental conduct of the
Government towards them.
Mr. Addington then offered to
lend some assistance to the Chaplain to convey his adherents to the sea
coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Cape Breton, but assured him that His
Majesty's Government considered the hold they had of Upper Canada so slender
and so precarious that a person in his situation would not be justified in
putting his hand in the public purse to assist British subjects to
emigration to that colony. The Chaplain, however, adhered to his first
resolution of conducting his countrymen to Upper Canada, and Mr. Addington
procured for him an order with the Sign Manual; to the Lieutenant-Governor
of Upper Canada to grant two hundred acres of land to every one of the
Highlanders who should arrive in the Province.
No sooner was it known that
this order had been given by the Secretary for the Colonies than the
Highland landlords and proprietors took the alarm, considering the order as
an allurement to entice from the country their vassals and dependents.
Sir John McPherson, Sir
Archibald Macdonald (the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in England), the
late Mr. Charles Grant, one of the Directors of the East India Company and
M.P. for the County of Inverness, with other gentlemen connected with the
Highlands, and even the Earl of Moira, then commanding the forces in North
Britain, endeavored to dissuade the Chaplain from his purpose, and promised
to procure a pension for him provided he would separate himself from the
Highlanders whom he had promised to take to Canada, and that the amount of
the pension should be in proportion to the number he should prevail upon to
stay at home.
So anxious were these
gentlemen to keep the Highlanders at home that they applied to the Prince of
Wales, and by His Royal Highness' sanction, Sir Thomas Tyrrwhit, the
Prince's agent, sent for the Chaplain to Carlton House for the purpose of
prevailing upon him to induce the intending emigrants to settle on the waste
lands of the County of Cornwall, under the patronage and protection of His
Royal Highness. This the Chaplain also declined, and in concert with Major
Archibald Campbell, then on the staff of General Pulteney, now
Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, proposed a plan of organizing a
Military emigration, to be composed of the soldiers of the several Scotch
Fencible Regiments just then disbanded, and sending them over to Upper
Canada for the double purpose of forming an internal defence and settling
the country. It was requested that a certain portion of land should be
granted to every man after a service of five years, or on his furnishing a
substitute; so that the same force might always be kept up and the
settlement of the country go on. It was considered that this plan would
prevent the frequent desertion of His Majesty's troops to the United States;
would make these military settlers interested in the defence of the
Province, and be a prodigious saving of transport of troops in the event of
a war with the United States.
Several distinguished
officers appeared anxious to join this military emigration, and the scheme
was nearly matured, when Mr. Addington found himself under the necessity of
resigning the Premiership, and Pitt and Dundas returned to office.
The war was soon after
renewed, and the Scotch landlords combined to keep their people at home.
Most of these gentlemen had
received commissions from the Government to raise levies, and were, of
course, anxious to fulfil their engagements. Seeing that so many thousands
of their poor countrymen who had been let loose in the country in a state of
destitution, had no other alternative, if prevented from emigrating, ♦ban to
enter the army, they procured an Act of Parliament to impose certain
restrictions and regulations on vessels carrying out emigrants to the
Colonies. By those regulations, a vessel could not get her clearance from
the Custom House if she had more than one passenger, even an infant, for
every two tons of the registered burden of the ship—although the transport
regulations for carrying troops to the East and West Indies allowed a ton
and a half for every soldier, even without reckoning women and children;
another clause was that the provision should be inspected and certified,
that a pound of salt beef or pork and a pound and a half of flour or of hard
biscuit should be found on board as the daily provision for every man, woman
and child for the space of three months. A third clause was that a vessel
carrying emigrants from any part in Great Britain and Ireland to the
Colonies should be provided with a surgeon, who should have his diploma from
Surgeons' Hall in London, from Edinburgh University or Trinity College,
Dublin. A diploma from any other college or university in Great Britain
would not qualify him for this charge. Several other clauses similar to the
above were contained in this Act, and all under the specious pretext of
humanity and tender benevolence towards the emigrants, and, forsooth, to
prevent the imposition of those who were employed ip chartering vessels to
carry emigrants to the Colonies, who were designated by the Scotch lairds,
dealers in white slaves; yet, by the operations of this merciful Act of
Parliament, an emigrant could not pay the passage of himself, his wife and
four children under eight years of age for a less sum than £84!
Alexander Hope, then Lord
Advocate of Scotland, was instructed to bring this bill into Parliament, and
in his luminous speech in the House of Commons, the learned gentleman, to
show the necessity of such regulations, related a most pathetic story of an
emigrant vessel arriving in a harbour in one of the British Colonies of
North America, the whole of the passengers and almost the whole of the crew
of which were found dead in their berths, and the few survivors of the crew
not able to cast anchor. He also asserted that emigrants who had been some
time in the Colonies were desirous to get back to their native country, and
when they could not accomplish their wishes, were desirous to prevent their
friends at home from emigrating, but dared not acquaint them of their now
miserable condition but by stratagem desiring them to consult their Uncle
Sandy, and if he advised them to come, then they might proceed. Now, it was
well known that Uncle Sandy was dead many years previous. These and many
other such like pitiable and affecting passages of the Lord Advocate's
speech in the House of Commons blazed through the public prints in Scotland,
and were believed, or it was pretended that they were believed, like Gospel,
by the Highland lairds and their friends.
The moment that this bill
passed into law, an embargo was laid on all emigrant vessels in British
harbours, and this though many of them had already nearly received their
complement of passengers, and the whole of the emigrants of the season,
after selling their effects, had arrived or were on then way to the seaports
to embark. Fortunately, however, for the soldiers of the disbanded Glengarry
Fencibles, the greater part of them had got away before the bill came into
operation. The Chaplin, having been detained m London on business, after the
sailing of his adherents, received a call from the Earl of Selkirk, who
proposed to him to join in his plan of taking emigrants to North America.
The Chaplain requested his lordship to explain his views and intentions,
upon which the Earl stated that he intended to settle those regions between
Lakes Huron and Superior with Scotch Highlanders, where the climate was
nearly similar to that of the north of Scotland, and the soil of a superior
quality; besides, they would enjoy the benefit of the fish with which the
lakes teemed, particularly the white fish of the Sault Ste. Marie,
The Chaplain at first
declined this offer on the plea that private business would detain him in
London. The Earl than offered him an order for £2,000 upon his agent, as an
indemnification for any loss or inconvenience he might experience by so
sudden a departure. The Chaplain was a second time compelled to give a
refusal and to decline this generous offer of the Earl, declaring at the
same time he felt most grateful for such generosity, but that he could never
think of putting himself under so great an obligation to any man, that the
situation which his lordship had selected for his settlement was beyond the
jurisdiction of the Government of Upper Canada, and so far from any other
location that he was apprehensive that emigrants settling themselves in so
remote a region would meet with insuperable difficulties; that he could by
no means induce those with whose interests he was connected to go beyond the
protection of the Provincial Government, and, besides, such a settlement
would entirely destroy the Northwest Company, as it would cut off the
communication between the winterers and Canada; and as several of the
principal members of that Company were his particular friends, no
consideration would induce him to enter upon an enterprise that would injure
their interest.
The Chaplain then asked the
Earl what could induce a man of his high rank and great fortune, possessing
the esteem and confidence of His Majesty's Government and of every public
man in Britain, to embark in an enterprise so romantic as that he had just
explained. To this the Earl replied that the situation of Great Britain, and
indeed of all Europe, was at that moment (September 1803) so very critical
and eventful that a man would like to have a more solid footing to stand
upon than Europe could offer.
The following letter was
addressed by Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to
Lieutenant-General Hunter, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, at the time
of the departure of this important emigration to Canada:
"Downing Street, 1st March,
1803.
"Sir
"A body of Highlanders,
mostly Macdonells, and partly dis-banded soldiers of the Glengarry Fencible
Regiment, with their families and immediate connections, 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 that 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 favour and consideration which can consistently
be extended to them and with the encouragement usually afforded the Province
they would no doubt prove us 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 former!, C'haplain of
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,
"Hobart." |
