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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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