The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-27 00:00:00

HIGHLAND SOCIETY OF
LONDON.

On Saturday the 18th, the last Quarterl-,
r's.Jrt Meeting of tnis patriotic Serf„"tv,
took place a the
Freemasons' vern. The Hon. William Fraser,
b!",,tnar of Lord Saltoun, was in the chair. Among
other distinguished visitors, who honoured the company
with their presence, were Captain Macdonald, and W.
Young, Esq., president of the Highland Society of:Nova
Scotia—a gentleman who bas done much to foster the
mountain spirit of his native land, among the gallant
people of that colony. After the usual toasts, " The
Queen,"" Queen Dowager," the " Army and Navy,"
had been drank with Highland honours,
Captain MACDONALD rose to return thanks for the
Army and Navy, in the course of which he observed :
While most respectfully and cordially acknowledging the
distinguished compliment you have been pleased to pay to
the military and naval professions, I avail myself of
this opportunity of introducing to you Mr. Young, the
first President of the Highland Society of Nova Scotia,
lately arrived in this country, as one of the Delegates to
Government from the House of Assembly of that Colony,
where your Branch Societies are, by his talents, and the
enthusiasm of Scotchmen, soon likely to become most use-
ful and infLential in promoting in the rising generation a
sound British system of education, with sincere sentiments
of loyalty to England and her noble institutions.—( Cheers. )
In Nuva Scotia and the adjoining provinces of New
Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island,
there are upwards of a hundred thousand of our country-
men and their descendants, who, with our other fellow.
colonists of English and Hill descent, will y ield to no
province or country in this world in sentiments of de.
voted attachment to our mos: Gracious Sovereign, and
this great empire. —( Hear, hear, and cheers.) In
the name of my Transatlantic countrymen, I beg to
offer you all, Gentlemen, my sincerest thanks for your
numerous marks of kindness, and particular:), for having,
three years since, honoured me, in conjunction with Sir
Cohn Campbell and Sir John Harvey, with commissions
to establish four of your Branch Societies in those
flies. I hope you approve of the mariner in which your
views have been accomplished ; and as my military duties
may soon take me to another country, I have requested my
accomplished friend Mr. Young to represent to the thou-
sands of our American Highlanders their great obligations
to this illustrious Society, and particularly to the truly
Noble Earl of Breadalbane and Sir George Murray (the
right arm of the Conqueror of Napoleon), for lately so
eloquently pleading our cause at the Colonial Office. All
we require is, that instead of the books and schoolmasters
we now generally have, that British teachers, British
books, and British principles may be established among
us; they will more effectually secure the colonies to the
mother country than ten regiments ; they will have the
effect of perpetuating to future generations our natural
and eternal anxiety, that nothing in life or death shall ever
separate us from this powerful and glorious empire. The
Gallant Gentleman sat down amidst loud cheering.
The health of Mr. Young, coupled with the High-
land Society of Nova Scotia, was afterwards proposed
by the Honourable CHAIRMAN, and drank with en-
thusiasm, and Highland honours.
Mr. YOUNG rose to acknowledge the honour that had
been done him, and began by observing that he had
seldom felt himself oppressed by so much embarrass-
ment. Accustomed as he had been to public speaking,
for many years, at the bar and in the assembly of his
own province, he was here in a new position, adddressing
himself to a body of gentlemen, to all of whom he was,
personally, a stftne•er, except to his friend beside him,
whose partiality had led him to use the language of un-
merited and extravagant eulogy. It is true, Mr.
Chairman, continued the Honourable Gentleman,
that I took a warm interest, as well as an active part,
in the formation of the Highland Society of Nova
Scotia. The fame of the Parent Stock had long
extended to us, but we had little expectation that so
distinguished a body of our countrymen engaged in the
prosecution of great national designs at home, would
stretch forth to us the right hand of fellowship across the
Atlantic, am!. permit us the high honour of an intimate
connection. When my friend beside me, then, exhibited
the Commission, addressed jointly to his Excellency
Sir C. Campbell and himself; and brought his own pa-
triotic enthusiasm in aid of ours, we eagerly embraced
the opportunity of associating together as a branch of
this Society, and selecting such of its objects as
seemed most adapted to our local condition. Some of
them we conceived to be beyond our reach. Celtic an-
tiquities, of course, we have not ;—the martial spirit of
our people, as of every other, depending on their own
native energy, had hitherto slumbered in inaction, as
the course of events had not yet summoned it into life
and being ;—and the preservation of the national garb,
and the music of the Highland tongue, seemed more ap-
propriate to the sons of the Gael, in their own native
valleys, than to us whose lot had cast us in the new
world. But the event has shown that where the materials
are abundant, arid of a combustible character, a spark
will soon light them into a vivid lime. When the plan
was made known, all classes of Scotchmen and their
descendants, Highlanders and Lo islanders, Catholic and
Protestant, continued to a common oblivion, whatever
differences until then had divided them, and came for-
ward with the most cordial unanimity to enrol their
names as Members of the Branch Society, and contri-
bute to its funds.—(Great cheering.) All acknowledged
the paramount importance of the object we more espe-
cially aimed at, the instruction of the people,
and communicating to thousands of children
in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton the elements of a

sound, moral, and religious training, from which they are
now unhappily excluded. Nor is this all. A genuine
Highland feeling has been called into play.—(Cheers.) As
we are now engaged in a social meeting, you will permit
me perhaps to describe our festivity as an index of the
temper and disposition of the people. Something of
the kind we find with us, as I believe it is with you,
indispensible to the well-being of every Society, as the
good wine that is now before us, lends a higher flavour
and a racier zest to the objects of our graver thoughts.
It was determined, therefore, at our Annual Meeting
in March, that we should commemorate the formation
of our own branch, and the question was, whether it
should be done by a public dinner or ball. The elder por-
tion of eur memberspreferred the former,butthe younger,
and more active carried the day, and, in order to
permit the fairer half of creation to share in our festivi-
ties, a Highland ball was duly announced in Halifax.
The effect was electrical. Old men, whose dancing
days, like my own, seemed to have passed away, were
seen busily engaged for days decorating the room with
scarves, tartans, and claymores, and every tasteful va-
riety of Highland emblem.—( Hear.) We imported
a capital piper, bringing him upwards of a hundred
miles—(Cheers)—invited the Governor, all the heads
of departments, and the officers of the army and navy,
and assembled as happy a party of 500 guests as ever
graced a ball-room in our province. A few cl:an-limbed,
well made, and ardent sons of the Isles gave us a spe-
cimen of the Highland fling—( Hear, heat)—and the
very spirit of enjoyment and uninterrupted good humour
presided over and enlivened the scene. Fashionable
dances with tv,, and I presume in England also, thoudi
1 have not yet had the opportunity of personal obser-
vation, are distinguished by a certain elegant langour.
Some of our finest belles and most fastidious gal-
lants looked on at first with amazement ; but one
after another yielded to the infection of the hour,
and before the evening was closed, it was uni-
versally admitted that the airy mazes of the

qumirillo and the fascinating and graceful move-

inents of the waltz nitist viell to the Hie uui anima-
tion of the geeuineland reel, daf cod to the
stirring music of ;he bagpipe.—(Hear, hear.)
So much, Mr. Chairman, for matters of lighter moment,

and now a f.w words for such ►►s are of gra►er import.
Much has been sai,l of Lite of the loyalty of the British

North American Provinces, and we have been called

upon in various ways to proclaim it. In the Lower
Provinces this is new to us—our loyalty was never
talked of, because it was never questioned. It was
as,umed as a matter of course, just as it would now

be in Aliddlesex or in Edinburgh.—(Cheers.) In Nova
Scotia and in I\i-'w Brunswick we look upon ourselves

not as the inhabitants of a depend;ney—not as
Colonists to be held sep,rate and dis iuct in any
sense from our feflow subjects at home,—but as a

part and parcel of the British Empire, participltiog
in the affections, feelings, and prejudices, if you
please, and claiming all the immunities of Bri-
tish subjects.-4 Continued cheering.) Were we even dis-
posed to unite with Canada, we have not strength to
maintain an independent government, end if we cease
to be Britons, we must fall into the embrade of the
American Rep,O)lic—a con,ummation devoutly to he
feared.—( Hear.) Sir, we have watched with the keenest

anxiety, the progress of that mighty experiment, now on
trial in the United States, and have no de,ire to mingle
our destiny with theirs. I have travelled in that
country, and have the honour of being personally
acquainted with many of her most eminent statesmen.
I have heard the most ingenious defences that can be
made of their institutions, and am more and more con-
firmed in the ardent, enthusiastic attachment, which I
derive from birth and education, to British institutions,
When my father, some five and twenty years ago, car-
ried me across the Atlantic, and settled in a British
colony, was I less a Scotchman thin before, or incapa-
citated on that account from fulfilling all the duties, and
enjoying all the privileges of a British subject? No-
where,
in the wide extent of her dominions, has the
Queen a body of men more devoted to her Government,
and more ready to peril their lives and fortunes in her
defence, than the inhabitants of Nova Scotia.--(Hear.)
lids no longer depends upon mere profession. During the
last session of Assembly, in the midst of an interesting
debate, we received the astounding intelligence, that
the State of Maine had dared to invade the territory of
1.!; . Emir! o,:e simultaneous burst of indignation
rok.; ::1),.,11•3.) All b,l,itiess was in-