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BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



new land compared with the one they had left. As the country grew 

 older, as its means of communication increased — very slowly it must be 

 admitted in this long neglected island — as its great coal mines were deve- 

 loped, the appearance of Capo Breton improved much for the better. 

 Many of the children of the old settlers went to the American cities, and 

 returning from time to time to their old homes, brought with them fresh 

 ideas which have already made their influence felt, even in the remote 

 Scotch and Acadian settlements. Sir William Alexander's dream of a 

 new Scotland has been realized in a measure in the eastern parts of the 

 province where it was his ambition to be " lord paramount." But now, 

 instead of the titled proprietor, who were to divide the country amongst 



REVEREND DR. FORRESTER. 



them, instead of the baronets with their glittering insignia and armorial 

 bearings, we have stalwart Scots, clad in home-spun, or broad-cloth on 

 holidays, and answering to the historic names of Archie Campbell, Donald 

 McDonald, Alec Fraser, Dan Morrison, Kory McLennan, Sandy McPher- 

 son, " and others of that ilk," very familiar to the Scottish glens and lochs 

 and mountains. The total Scotch population of the country, east of 

 Halifax and the Avon is about one hundred and twenty-five thousand, of 

 whom at least sixty thousand are sçttlcd in the four counties of the 

 island of Capo Breton.' The Scotch population for a century of our 

 history have given to the province many men famous in education, 



1 See Brown's Cape Breton ; Bourinot's French memorinis of Cape Breton, and 

 an intere.sting article in the Halifax Herald for AuKUst 11, 1892, on "Glimpses of 

 Cape Breton" by Professor B. Hand, of Harvard University. 



