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The venerable and
distinguished Institution mentioned in the text, the Highland Society of
London, of which Bishop Macdonell was instrumental in establishing a
branch in Canada, was founded in 1778, and has always received the
encouragement and approbation of the Sovereign and Princes of the Blood
Royal
The interest which Her
present Majesty takes and has ever taken in all that concerns Scotland
is proverbial. But her predecessors of her line and other members of
their Royal Family have been equally pronounced in their solicitude and
respect for all that appertained to that portion of their Kingdom, the
earlier of them indeed when men, reverenced by them and properly counted
amongst the most devoted and loyal of their subjects still lived who had
not hesitated to risk their lives and sacrifice their fortunes m another
and an adverse though unfortunate Cause. How nobly they have been
repaid, the history of Great Britain records.
In 1776, Mr. Pitt,
afterwards the first and the great Earl of Chatham, in his celebrated
speech on the commencement of the differences with America, was able to
pronounce from his place in Parliament the following eulogy on the
Jacobite clans:-
"I sought for merit
wherever it could be found. It is my boast that I was the first Minister
who looked for it, and found it in the Mountains of the North. I called
it forth, and drew into your service a hardy and intrepid race of men ;
men who left by your jealousy became a prey to the artifices of your
enemies, and had gone nigh to have overturned the State in the war
before last. These men in the last war were brought to combat on your
side; they served with fidelity as they fought with valor, and conquered
for you in every quarter of the world."
Let me give the record of
the Highlanders of the next generation. It shows that they had not
degenerated.
From 1806 to 1814, gold
medals were granted to officers who rendered conspicuous service in
battles fought between those years. I take the official list and find
that in the twenty-six battles for which they were granted those names
occuring more than four times were all Scottish, with the exception of
three.
The Battles and Actions
for which gold medals were granted were as follows :-
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