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Electric Scotland News
Late start to this newsletter as I had to do some banking and then get some blood work done and while I parked a chap called me over to tell me I had a flat tyre so then had to go and get that fixed. So all this took almost 4 hours. And then when I eventually got home I lost my internet access and so that took another half hour to fix the problem.
So all and all not a good start to the day. Mind you I did receive a new fridge/freezer yesterday free of charge due the power companies clean energy promotion. I got an audit done and was advised that due to the age of my current fridge/freezer I was eligible to get a free replacement and so it arrived yesterday.
I am actually due to get a new computer as mine is now some 10 years old and still on Windows 7. Problem is that when I considered getting a Windows 10 machine I found it wouldn't run two of my programs which I use daily. This is still the case but now I'm having issues with my email program. Like today I lost my email folders and had to restore from backup.
I will note that I used Canadian Tyre to fix my puncture issue and will say it was a pleasant experience with smiling and polite staff albeit it took 1.25 hours to repair.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Park status suggested for Ben Nevis and Lochaber
National park status could be sought for Lochaber - home to the UK's highest mountain and deepest loch.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0qx7eyep9o
The latest maps of the world's eighth continent
New research on the geology of Zealandia is revealing how it formed and why it sank
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...ghth-continent
Kate Forbes hails Fergus Ewing as living legend after his suspension from SNP
Kate Forbes stood alongside rebel MSP Fergus Ewing as he spoke to the media following his suspension from the SNP.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...ewing-31083246
Labour needs a thumping majority at Rutherglen to win big in the UK
More than three years after the COVID law-breaking that cost the SNP’s Margaret Ferrier her job as MP, voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West will be summoned to the polls on October 5 for a byelection to choose her successor. Why is Labour’s Michael Shanks very widely expected to win? And what would a Labour gain here mean.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2023/10/labou...big-in-the-uk/
How humble oats have fuelled a nation
Oats are synonymous with Scotland as famous as the Loch Ness monster or whisky but this understated grain is as essential as ever to the sustainability of the land and its people.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...elled-scotland
Electric Canadian
Scotch Grove Pioneers
The story of those hardy Scotchmen, who made an overland journey from the Red River of the North to Jones County, Iowa, in 1837 and formed the settlement now known as, Scotch Grove. Compiled at the time of the Centennial Celebration of Scotch Grove, August 14 and 15, 1937 by Josephine Sutherland (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...ione00unse.pdf
Scotland and her Memories
An address delivered at Montreal, Hallowe'en, 1890 by Hon. Geo. W. Ross, Minister of Education for Ontario (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...emor00ross.pdf
The Story of Lord Mount Stephen
By Keith Morris (1922)
You can read about him at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...nt-Stephen.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 1st day of October 2023 - Winning & Losing
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...winning-losing
Canada's Debt to Scotch Pioneers
From The MacLeod Times Newspaper
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cleodtimes.htm
St. Andrew’s Society of Ottawa
Anniversary Sermon 1889 preached by Rev. B.D. Berridge, B.D. in St. Andrew's Church (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...ermo00herr.pdf
Electric Scotland
Fifty Years in Ceylon
An Autobiography by the Late Major Thomas Skinner, C.M.G., Commissioner of Public Works, Ceylon, edited by his Daughter Annie Skinner with a Preface by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, K.C.I.E. (1891) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00skingoog.pdf
J. Charles "Scotty" Thompson
Author of So You're Going to Wear the Kilt
A wee account of this author which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans...s_thompson.htm
A Year of Sport and Natural History
Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Falconry and Fishing with Chapters on Birds of Prey, the Nidification of Birds and the Habits of British Wild Birds and Animals edited by Oswald Crawfurd (1895) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00unkngoog.pdf
Eighty Years Reminiscences
By Colonel Anstruther Thomson with illustrations in two volumes (1904). Added links to these volumes to the foot of our page The History of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt 1775-1910
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...hunt/index.htm
When the Pipers Play
The original full length version of When The Pipers Play. Winner of four awards, this is the definitive history of the great Highland bagpipe in peace and war. Narrated by Hannah Gordon, Tom Conti and Charlton Heston this compelling story combines inspiring songs with stunning footage, bringing to then screen a unique insight into one of the world’s most popular instruments. [external link]
You can watch this at:
https://youtu.be/Lhnb_KN9NMA?si=SFEBb3h-CKHKz_Ej
Selections from the writings of the Rev. Thomas Hardy, D.D.
Minister of Foulis Wester, Perthshire, 1852-1910 with Foreword by his daughter with illustrations (1910) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/p...orpo00hard.pdf
Story
Short Account of the Emigration from the Highlands of Scotland to North America
And the establishment of the Catholic Diocese of Upper Canada (1939)
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 lsle of 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 undei Major Small, 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 celerated 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 the 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 less 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 (he illiherality 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 nto 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 was, 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 ihe 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 yet 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. Macdonell, however, declared his willingness to accompany the Highlanders, and take his chance of the Penal Laws. The Catholic Labourers to the number of between 700 and 8OO 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 Fiench 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 bis 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 Macdonell 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. Macdonell 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. Honourble 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 Macdonell, Esq. of Glengarry, to serve in any part of Great Britain & Ireland, and in the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, &c. and Mr. Macdonell 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 all 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 moqntanious 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 by 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 he 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 just 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 ot his charge, and 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 loya! 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 Gteat Britain, of which Board Colonel Fulleiton 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, be 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 sj slender ahold 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. Macdonell 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. Addimyton 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 1803, 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. MacdonelPs 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, ofttimes 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 inland lakes and descending the rapids of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence. Mr. Macdonell 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. Macdonell 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 Mr 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 1826, he was appointed the first Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada, and the Government settled upon him a salary of £400 per annum, which wa« afterwards increased to £600. Bishop Macdonell then succeeded in obtaining an increase to the number of his Clergymen; some he educated at his own expense, and ethers be received from Europe; and the Government allowed him the stim 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 pre^ vailed 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 the 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 were little able to assist him.
When Bishop Macdonell first arrived in Canada in the year 1804 he found but two wooden Catholic Churches and one stone Church in the whole province. It now contains 48 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 times 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 aa 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 pf 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 frcm 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 d’nected ibeii steps towaids the British Provinces.
The claims of the Irish Catholics upon Government are also powerful and irresistible; for they have almost all 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 Beaubarnois, 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.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
Late start to this newsletter as I had to do some banking and then get some blood work done and while I parked a chap called me over to tell me I had a flat tyre so then had to go and get that fixed. So all this took almost 4 hours. And then when I eventually got home I lost my internet access and so that took another half hour to fix the problem.
So all and all not a good start to the day. Mind you I did receive a new fridge/freezer yesterday free of charge due the power companies clean energy promotion. I got an audit done and was advised that due to the age of my current fridge/freezer I was eligible to get a free replacement and so it arrived yesterday.
I am actually due to get a new computer as mine is now some 10 years old and still on Windows 7. Problem is that when I considered getting a Windows 10 machine I found it wouldn't run two of my programs which I use daily. This is still the case but now I'm having issues with my email program. Like today I lost my email folders and had to restore from backup.
I will note that I used Canadian Tyre to fix my puncture issue and will say it was a pleasant experience with smiling and polite staff albeit it took 1.25 hours to repair.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time. Here is what caught my eye this week...
Park status suggested for Ben Nevis and Lochaber
National park status could be sought for Lochaber - home to the UK's highest mountain and deepest loch.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0qx7eyep9o
The latest maps of the world's eighth continent
New research on the geology of Zealandia is revealing how it formed and why it sank
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...ghth-continent
Kate Forbes hails Fergus Ewing as living legend after his suspension from SNP
Kate Forbes stood alongside rebel MSP Fergus Ewing as he spoke to the media following his suspension from the SNP.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...ewing-31083246
Labour needs a thumping majority at Rutherglen to win big in the UK
More than three years after the COVID law-breaking that cost the SNP’s Margaret Ferrier her job as MP, voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West will be summoned to the polls on October 5 for a byelection to choose her successor. Why is Labour’s Michael Shanks very widely expected to win? And what would a Labour gain here mean.
Read more at:
https://sceptical.scot/2023/10/labou...big-in-the-uk/
How humble oats have fuelled a nation
Oats are synonymous with Scotland as famous as the Loch Ness monster or whisky but this understated grain is as essential as ever to the sustainability of the land and its people.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2...elled-scotland
Electric Canadian
Scotch Grove Pioneers
The story of those hardy Scotchmen, who made an overland journey from the Red River of the North to Jones County, Iowa, in 1837 and formed the settlement now known as, Scotch Grove. Compiled at the time of the Centennial Celebration of Scotch Grove, August 14 and 15, 1937 by Josephine Sutherland (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/make...ione00unse.pdf
Scotland and her Memories
An address delivered at Montreal, Hallowe'en, 1890 by Hon. Geo. W. Ross, Minister of Education for Ontario (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...emor00ross.pdf
The Story of Lord Mount Stephen
By Keith Morris (1922)
You can read about him at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...nt-Stephen.htm
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 1st day of October 2023 - Winning & Losing
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...winning-losing
Canada's Debt to Scotch Pioneers
From The MacLeod Times Newspaper
You can read this article at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...cleodtimes.htm
St. Andrew’s Society of Ottawa
Anniversary Sermon 1889 preached by Rev. B.D. Berridge, B.D. in St. Andrew's Church (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/Reli...ermo00herr.pdf
Electric Scotland
Fifty Years in Ceylon
An Autobiography by the Late Major Thomas Skinner, C.M.G., Commissioner of Public Works, Ceylon, edited by his Daughter Annie Skinner with a Preface by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, K.C.I.E. (1891) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00skingoog.pdf
J. Charles "Scotty" Thompson
Author of So You're Going to Wear the Kilt
A wee account of this author which you can read at:
https://electricscotland.com/tartans...s_thompson.htm
A Year of Sport and Natural History
Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Falconry and Fishing with Chapters on Birds of Prey, the Nidification of Birds and the Habits of British Wild Birds and Animals edited by Oswald Crawfurd (1895) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00unkngoog.pdf
Eighty Years Reminiscences
By Colonel Anstruther Thomson with illustrations in two volumes (1904). Added links to these volumes to the foot of our page The History of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt 1775-1910
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...hunt/index.htm
When the Pipers Play
The original full length version of When The Pipers Play. Winner of four awards, this is the definitive history of the great Highland bagpipe in peace and war. Narrated by Hannah Gordon, Tom Conti and Charlton Heston this compelling story combines inspiring songs with stunning footage, bringing to then screen a unique insight into one of the world’s most popular instruments. [external link]
You can watch this at:
https://youtu.be/Lhnb_KN9NMA?si=SFEBb3h-CKHKz_Ej
Selections from the writings of the Rev. Thomas Hardy, D.D.
Minister of Foulis Wester, Perthshire, 1852-1910 with Foreword by his daughter with illustrations (1910) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/p...orpo00hard.pdf
Story
Short Account of the Emigration from the Highlands of Scotland to North America
And the establishment of the Catholic Diocese of Upper Canada (1939)
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 lsle of 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 undei Major Small, 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 celerated 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 the 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 less 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 (he illiherality 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 nto 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 was, 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 ihe 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 yet 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. Macdonell, however, declared his willingness to accompany the Highlanders, and take his chance of the Penal Laws. The Catholic Labourers to the number of between 700 and 8OO 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 Fiench 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 bis 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 Macdonell 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. Macdonell 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. Honourble 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 Macdonell, Esq. of Glengarry, to serve in any part of Great Britain & Ireland, and in the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, &c. and Mr. Macdonell 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 all 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 moqntanious 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 by 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 he 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 just 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 ot his charge, and 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 loya! 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 Gteat Britain, of which Board Colonel Fulleiton 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, be 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 sj slender ahold 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. Macdonell 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. Addimyton 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 1803, 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. MacdonelPs 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, ofttimes 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 inland lakes and descending the rapids of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence. Mr. Macdonell 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. Macdonell 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 Mr 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 1826, he was appointed the first Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada, and the Government settled upon him a salary of £400 per annum, which wa« afterwards increased to £600. Bishop Macdonell then succeeded in obtaining an increase to the number of his Clergymen; some he educated at his own expense, and ethers be received from Europe; and the Government allowed him the stim 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 pre^ vailed 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 the 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 were little able to assist him.
When Bishop Macdonell first arrived in Canada in the year 1804 he found but two wooden Catholic Churches and one stone Church in the whole province. It now contains 48 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 times 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 aa 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 pf 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 frcm 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 d’nected ibeii steps towaids the British Provinces.
The claims of the Irish Catholics upon Government are also powerful and irresistible; for they have almost all 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 Beaubarnois, 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.
END.
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
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