XXXII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the number of legal executions, and are often accompanied by the most, 

 barbarous scenes. Yet they seem to be accepted by public opinion as 

 an unavoidable evil. Tn many other ways in everyday life, one could 

 point out the great advantage that we Canadians are all deriving 

 to-day, from the honourable and law-abiding example set us by our 

 Loyalist fathers, and the influence that it ha? had and continues to. 

 have upon the social life of our people. 



It is a great blessing to us all that we live in a country where the- 

 laws are honestly administered, where justioe is not bought, where> 

 crimes are punished, where life and property are secure, and where, 

 we enjoy as much real liberty as any people on earth. It is due to the 

 law-abiding British sentiment of our people, brought here by our- 

 fathers and handed down to their children, that we possess all these- 

 inestimable advantages which we do not fully value, because we accept 

 them as a matter of course. 



The United Empire Loyalists have also exerted a great influence 

 on the political history of this continent. 



Nova Scotia, as I have said, was mainly founded by the Loyalists, 

 so was New Brunsfwick, and so also was Upper Canada. The latter was. 

 in a somewhat different position from the other provinces. The loyaî' 

 fighting men of the Eevolution, those who came first to Canada, were- 

 the stern, unyielding, determined supporters of their King and Con-- 

 stitution, men in whom loyalty was a creed, a duty to both God and 

 man. 



These men settled, some in Glengarry county, and along the St. 

 Lawrence, some in the Bay of Quinte District, some about Toronto in 

 the Home District, many in the Niagara District, and some in Norfollc 

 county and along the shore of Lake Erie. Lt.-Governor Simcoe, in 

 order to increase the settlement of the Upper Province, and in the hope- 

 of drawing from the United States some of those lukewarm loyalists 

 who had remained behind, established a most liberal system of land' 

 grants to incoming settlers. The immunity from Indian attacks which 

 British fair and kindly treatment of the original tribes had secured 

 to those living under the British flag, as well as the advantageous land 

 regulations, brought a number of settlers from the United States who- 

 cared little or nothing for national sentiment, and did not care under 

 which flag they lived. In twenty years these two classes were almost 

 equal in numbers, the loyalisil:s being recruited by settlers from the- 

 Old Country who had settled in Canada from a desire still to retain 

 their allegiance, and live under their own flag. 



This was the condition of affairs' in Canada in 1812, at the opening - 

 of the war with the United States. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick: 



