122 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Who can doubt that not only would such permission be granted,. 
but that an undertaking of this description would be applauded and 
meet with all the encouragement merited by enterprises that make for 
the consolidation of the Empire, and the cultivation and settlement of 
such portions of it as are yet in a condition of primeval wilderness ? 
The great resources and splendid capabilities of the Royal Province 
ought to be within the knowledge of every one of her Baronets to-day, 
and the contemplation of her natural features, the vast forests, the mag- 
nificent harbours, the mineral wealth,* the numerous animals yielding 
rich furs, the teeming fisheries, the lovely scenery of varied beauty, and 
the glorious climate, should provide them with glowing themes of peren- 
nial interest, and a sense of pride and gratification that they are still 
entitled to designate themselves Baronets of Noya Scotia. 
The restoration by the Crown of the Baronies, or rather of a new 
grant of land to each Baronet of Nova Scotia, would entail upon the lat- 
ter duties and responsibilities which could not honourably be neglected; — 
and he who failed to improve his lands by cultivation or mining would 
prove himself the peer of that wicked and slothful servant in Scripture 
who when accounting for the talent entrusted by his Lord to his care, 
could only say, “ Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping 
where thou has not sown, and gathering where thou has not strawed : 
And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, there 
thou hast that is thine.” § 
Whether the present writer’s suggestion above-made as to the 
restoration of lands or new grants to the Baronets of Nova Scotia is 
feasible or could ever be carried out, it is needless here to discuss, he 
merely ventures the opinion that such a scheme undertaken by members 
of the Order, might even at the present day further justify the pre- 
vision of King James the First, and be attended with results 
“whereby bothe they in particular and the whole natione generally 
may have honour and profite.” ? 
But even as matters now stand the Baronets can do something 
for the land from which they take their designation, absentees though 
they be. “The conquest by the mailed hand has been effected; but 
only to a few of the Order is the credit due of being among the pioneers. 
But every Baronet may still, as he extends a hand of sympathy and 
aid, exclaim, ‘Munit haec, and by bringing the merits of the Royal 
Province before the world, he will build up walls of perfection in flesh 
and blood—will develop ties of union between the old country 
and the new, will cultivate the unsettled soil until it vies with the 
lovely valley round the old town of the baronets, Annapolis itself. In 

* Vide E. Gilpin, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.C., Ores of Nova Scotia, 1898. 
