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1758, where a Scotch regiment suffered fearfully." As proof of this he quotes the following from Garneau's History of Canada :— "The British Grenadiers and Highlanders there persevered in the attack for three hours without flinching or breaking rank. The Highlanders, above all, under Lord John Murray covered themselves with glory. They formed the troops confronting the Canadians, their light and picturesque costume distinguishing them from all other soldiers amid the flames and smoke. The corps lost half of its men, and twenty-five of its officers were killed or severely wounded."* The next quotation is from Maple Leaves, a work also from the pen of Mr Le Moine, comprising anecdotes and stories illustrative of Canadian history and folk-lore :

Some Highlanders taken prisoners by the French and Canadians huddled to. gether on the battlefield, and expecting to be cruelly treated, looked on in mournful silence. Presently a gigantic French officer walked up to them, and whilst exchanging in a severe tone some remarks in French with some of his men, suddenly addressed them in Gaelic. Surprise in the Highlanders soon turned to positive horror. Firmly believing no Frenchman could ever speak Gaelic, they concluded that his Satanic Majesty in person was before them-it was a Jacobite serving in the French army.

Mr Le Moine then reverts to Fraser's Highlanders, and their appearance at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

Of the conduct of the Regiment on that eventful 13th September, an eye-witness, Malcolm Fraser, then a Lieutenant in this corps, has left an excellent narrative.+ From it we give the following extracts:-"After pursuing the French to the very gates of the town, our regiment was ordered to form, fronting the town on the ground where the French formed first; at this time the rest of the army came up in good order. General Murray having then put himself at the head of our regiment, ordered them to fall to the left and march through the bush of wood towards the General Hospital, where they got a great gun or two to play upon us from the town, which, however, did no damage, but we had a few men killed and officers wounded by some skulking fellows, with small arms, from the bushes and behind the houses of the suburbs of St Louis and St John." We shall interrupt this quotation of Lieutenant Fraser's journal to insert some details, very recently furnished to us, by our respected townsman, John Fraser, Esq., better known as Long John Fraser; his memory is still green despite the frost of many winters. "In my youth," says Mr Fraser, "I boarded with a very aged militiaman who had fought at the battle of the Plains; his name was Joseph Trahan. In 1759 Trahan was aged 18 years. Frequently has this old gossip talked to me about the incidents of the fight. I can well recollect old Trahan used to say how Montcalm looked before the engagement. He was riding a dark or black horse in front of our lines, bearing his sword high in the air, in the attitude of encouraging the men to do their duty. He wore a uniform with large sleeves, and the one covering the arm he held in the air, had fallen back, disclosing the white linen of his wristband. When he was wounded a rumour spread that he was killed; a panic ensued, and the soldiers rushed promiscuously from the Buttes a nepveu towards the Coteau

*The Highlanders under Lord John Murray were no other than the famous Black Watch, and what is above called "the engagement at Carilton," is better known to Highlanders as "the disaster of Ticonderoga." The Highlanders cut through the abbatis with their claymores, and some, driving their dirks between the stones of the wall, succeeded in mounting the fort, but they were eventually called back by General Abercromby. The 42d lost 8 officers, 9 sergeants, and 297 men killed (or more than one-half of the killed of the whole attacking force); and 17 officers, 10 sergeants, and 306 men wounded. The enemy, who were completely sheltered in the fort and outworks, numbered 5,000 men, of whom 2,800 were French regular troops of the line.C. M.

+ Published under the auspices of the "Literary and Historical Society of Quebec -1867-8."

Sainte Genevieve, thence towards the St Charles, over the meadow on which St Roch has since being built. I can remember the Scotch Highlanders flying wildly after us, with streaming plaids, bonnets and large swords-like so many infuriated demonsover the brow of the hill. In their course was a wood, in which we had some Indians and sharp-shooters, who bowled over the Sauvages d' Ecosse in fine style. Their partly naked bodies fell on their face, and their kilts in disorder left exposed a portion of their thighs, at which our fugitives, on passing bye, would make lunges with their swords, cutting large slices out of the fleshiest portion of their persons."

The surrender of Quebec, after the death of the Marquis de Montcalm, is next chronicled by Mr Le Moine:

Chevalier Johnstone's Siege narratives also mention a French post on the Sillery heights, commanded by an officer of the name of Douglas-apparently a Scotchman. You will, no doubt, be surprised to hear of another Scotch name, within the precincts of the city before the capitulation, a high, very high official-in fact, the French Commandant of Quebec, Chevalier de Ramezay. The Lieutenant du Roy was

Major de Ramezay, one of four brothers serving the French King, three of whom had devotedly fallen in his service. Major de Ramezay, for his services, had been decorated by Louis XV. with the cross of St Louis. His father, Claude de Ramezay, of the French navy, had been two years Governor of three Rivers, and twenty years Governor of Montreal under French rule; he died Governor of that city. Nor was there anything unsoldierly in de Ramezay's surrender on the 18th September 1759. It saved the despairing, devoted inhabitants from starvation, and the dismantled city from bombardment, sack, and pillage. The proceedings of the French Council of War, held before the capitulation and published under the auspices of this Society,* has done the French Commandant effectual, though tardy, justice."

The following anecdote deserves mention :

During the winter of 1759-60, a portion of Fraser's Highlanders were quartered in the Ursulines Convent. Whether the absence of breeches on the brawny mountaineers was in the eyes of the good ladies a breach of decorum, or whether Christian charity impelled them to clothe the naked-especially during the January frosts, is hard to determine at the present time; certain it is that the nuns generously begged of Governor Murray to oe allowed to provide raiment for the barelegged sons of Caledonia. Also, a Canadian peasant aptly remarked of the kilt that he considered it trop frais pour l'hiver, et dangereux l'ete a cause des maringouins-that is to saytoo cool for winter, and dangerous in summer time on account of the mosquitoes.

Referring to the action fought at St Foye on the 28th April 1760, between General Murray and General de Levi, Mr Le Moine quotes from his own Maple Leaves :

With this old windmill (Dumont's) is associated one of the most thrilling episodes in the conflict. Some of the French Grenadiers and some of Fraser's Highlanders took, lost, and retook the mill three times, their respective officers looking on in mute astonishment and admiration; whilst a Scotch piper, who had been under arrest for bad conduct ever since the 13th September 1759, was piping away within hearing.

Peace being soon after proclaimed, we learn that Fraser's Highlanders were disbanded in 1764, when a very large number of them settled in Canada. Mr Le Moine says:

The countless clan of the Frasers, in the length and breadth of our land, retrace back to this grand old corps, their kinsfolk across the sea, and Simon Fraser's companions in arms, the Macdonalds, Campbells, Macdonells, Macphersons, Stewarts, Rosses, Murrays, Camerons, Menzies, Nairns, Munros, Mackenzies, Cuthberts, so deeply rooted in our soil."

* Mémoire du Sieur de Ramezay, Commandant à Québec.

A number of the old Fraser's Highlanders re-enlisted into the 84th or Royal Emigrant Regiment, when it was raised in 1775, on the outbreak of hostilities with the American colonies, along with men from the 42d and Montgomerie's Highlanders. The first battalion took part in the defence of Quebec against the Americans under Arnold and Montgomery, who were repulsed. The first battalion was reduced in Lower Canada in 1784, and the second in Nova Scotia the same year, when grants of land were allowed to the officers and meu as follows:-A field officer, 5000 acres; a captain, 3000; a subaltern, 500; a sergeant, 200; a private, 100. Before quitting the military settlers of Canada, two deserve mention. The first is-

Sergeant James Thompson of Fraser's Highlanders, a big giant, who was at Louisbourg in 1758, and Quebec in 1759, and came from Tain, Scotland, to Canada as a volunteer to accompany a friend-Captain David Baillie of the 78th. His athletic frame, courage, integrity and intelligence, during the seventy-two years of his Canadian career, brought him employment, honour, trust and attention from every Governor of the Colony, from 1759 to 1830, when he expired at the family mansion, St Ursale Street, aged 98 years. At the battle of the Plains of Abraham, James Thompson, as hospital sergeant, was intrusted with the landing at Point Lévi of the wounded, who were crossed over in boats; he tells us of his carrying some of the wounded from the crossing at Lévi up the hill, all the way to the church at St Joseph converted into an hospital, and distant three miles from the present ferry: a six-foot giant alone could have been equal to such a task. In 1775, Sergeant Thompson, as overseer of Government Works, was charged with erecting the palisades and other primitive contrivances to keep out Brother Jonathan.

The other is

Sturdy old Hugh M'Quarters, the brave artillery sergeant, who at Pres-de-Ville, on that momentous 31st December 1775, applied the match to the cannon which consigned to a snowy shroud Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery, his two aides, Macpherson and Cheeseman, and his brave, but doomed followers, some eleven in all, the rest having sought safety in flight. Old Hugh M'Quarters lived in Champlain Street and closed his career there, in 1812.

Amongst other Scotch emigrants are the United Empire Loyalists, who in 1783 settled at the Baie des Chaleurs, at New Carlisle, at Sorel, and at Douglas, Gaspé Bay, where they founded a town. There are also many other places, settled voluntarily, or by private enterprise, such as Metis, which was settled by Mr J. M'Nider of Quebec, in 1823.

Mr Le Moine gives sketches of some of the Scotch Governors, such as General Murray, Sir James Craig, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Elgin, and the Marquis of Lorne. Other notabilities are also mentioned, such as Sir William Grant, born at Elchies on the Spey, Attorney-General of Quebec, and afterwards Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas and Master of the Rolls in England; Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter, "brother of two celebrated physicians, John and William Hunter," who died in 1805. Governor the Duke of Richmond, who died in 1819; the Rev. George Henry, military chaplain and the first Presbyterian minister; William Smith, Chief-Justice of Lower Canada, &c.

Mr Le Moine's notes, appendices, &c., are very ably selected for the illustration of his arguments; and among our own well-known authors we find represented Skene's Highlanders, Brown's History of the Highlands, Stewart's Sketches, Logan's Scottish Gael, Burton's Scot Abroad, &c. Amongst other works, it will be sufficient to mention Garneau's History of Canada, Christie's History of Canada, Kirke's First English Conquest

P

of Canada, Rattray's Scot in British North America, Walrond's Letters of the Earl of Elgin, Le Moine's Maple Leaves, Jesuit's Journal, Journal du Siege de Quebec, Quebec Past and Present, &c. I have also personally to thank Mr Le Moine for the prominence he has given to some matter, with which I supplied him previously, relating to the capture of Quebec, and Highland soldiers wearing the kilt by choice; the latter subject has been extensively noticed by Mr Le Moine in his pamphlet. Amongst other matter there are lists of Jacques Cartier's crew, of noted Scotchmen of Montreal past and present, of British officers who have married in Canada, of principal marriages between British and French, of the Quebec Curling Club of 1838, and of the officers of the Quebec St Andrew's Society of 1836 and of the present day. At a St Andrew's dinner in 1837, Mr Archibald Campbell, "Her Majesty's Notary," sang a song urging his hearers to stick to the land their fathers conquered. The last

verse runs

Be men like those the hero brought,

With their best blood the land was bought,
And fighting as your fathers fought
Keep it or die!

Mention is also made of a famous Scotch dinner at Halifax, in 1814, where no less than fifty-two toasts were drank. The twenty-sixth may be repeated:" May James Madison and all his faction be soon compelled to resign the reins of government in America, and seek a peace establishment with their friend Bonaparte at Elba." Airs-"The Rogue's March," and "Go to the devil and shake yourself."

In conclusion, Mr Le Moine after enumerating various leading Scots -Canadian merchants and litterateurs (amongst whom he includes Evan Maccoll)-he concludes as follows:

The voice of a Neilson, a Galt, a Robertson, a Ross, an Ogilvie, in our Commons at Quebec, has responded to that of a Morris, a Macdougall, a Brown, a Mackenzie, a Macdonald, in the Supreme Council of the Nation at Ottawa. With such hopeful materials-such energetic factors, as the free, the sturdy Briton-the cultured descendant of the Norman-the self-reluctant Scot-the ardent Milesian, there exists in those fertile northern realms ruled over by England's gentle Queen, the component parts of a great commonwealth, which will gradually consolidate itself, with the modifications time may bring into the national organisation, under which Canadians of all creeds and origins may associate in a vast and liberty-loving confederation.

SKETCH OF EXPLORATIONS IN AUSTRALIA.

SOME time ago, when noticing the publication of Dr Maclachlan's songs by the Ardnamurchan Glasgow Association, we made complaint of the general inaction of other Celtic Societies, We are glad now to find the Cowal Society issuing a very neat and most interesting booklet-a "Sketch of Explorations in Australia, by the late John Mackinlay," a native of Cowal, carefully prepared and judiciously arranged by a good and genuine Celt our excellent friend, Mr Duncan Whyte. The frontispiece is a good likeness of the indomitable explorer, while on the title-page we have a capital wood-cut of his boat on the Alligator River. There are also several other illustrations, including one of a very handsome monument erected to Mackinlay's memory in the colony. The profits from the sale of the book are to be devoted to the relief of the widows and orphans connected with the Society, and we are glad to find that this is not the first successful venture by the Society in the same field.

Correspondence.

PRINCIPAL SHAIRP A HIGHLANDER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.

DEAR MR EDITOR,-I find in one respect, with considerable regret, that I committed a mistake in my short address last month at our Gaelic Society festival. Speaking of the beauties of the Gaelic language philologically, I stated that "even many learned Lowlanders greatly admired that language, and I gave as examples Professor Blackie, Principal Shairp of St Andrews, Professor Geddes of Aberdeen, and William Jolly, Esq., H.M. Inspector of Schools-gentlemen who, though they were not Highlanders, and had not a single drop of Highland blood in their veins, sought to pry into the origin of languages, and were most enthusiastic in their admiration of Gaelic." I am now satisfied, on the best authority, that I ought not to have included the honoured name of Principal Shairp in this list, he being a gentleman who has undoubtedly genuine Celtic blood in his veins. As a proof of this, I find that his mother was a Campbell, of the house of Auchinbreck, one of the oldest branches of that Clan, and a descendant of the Auchinbreck honourably mentioned in the Legend of Montrose. But still more, his father's mother was Mary Macleod of Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, a daughter of the Macleod of Macleod who lived in the middle of last century. Owing to this connection the learned Principal's father was named Norman. It must therefore be allowed, and allowed with no ordinary pleasure, that Principal John Campbell Shairp has much true Highland as well as Norman blood in his veins. He is not, however, the only Principal who was of this distinguished lineage, for King's College, Aberdeen, had its Principal Macleod, a gentleman of the family of Talisker in Skye, a branch or sept of the Macleods of Dunvegan. Principal Macleod was maternal grandfather to the present Professor Norman Macpherson of the Edinburgh University; and from his connection with the Chiefs of Dunvegan, must have been a relative of Principal Shairp of St Andrews.

The Highland connection of this esteemed Principal is thus established, but I am afraid it is hopeless to discover any Highland blood in the veins of the learned and indefatigable Professor John Stuart Blackie, he himself having frequently asserted that he is not, what he would dearly wish to be-a Highlander. Yet his regard for the Highlanders, and for their language, and dress, and songs, and music, is so great, that he has done all in his power to possess as much as possible-to become, as it were, one of themselves. The worthy gentleman is particulary proud of everything Celtic; but were he to appear in the Highland garb, with belted plaid, plumed bonnet, philabeg, dirk, and sword, his alert, elastic frame would not make a very successful representation of Rob Roy on a theatrical stage! The very sight of the learned Grecian thus robed might more than likely cause some astonished Bailie to exclaim, " My conscience !" The excellent Professor has, however, secured for himself the rightful title of a Highland proprietor, and all his friends, who are many, may rest assured that there will never be any cruel evictions from his beautiful property. Long life to the creator of the Celtic Chair!

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