XXIV EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



The officers' reports were received and the following officers elected : 



President — Geo. H. Mills, Esq. 



1st Vice-President— Hon. A. McKellar. 



2nd Vice-President — F. W. Fearman, Esq. 



3rd Vice-President — Mrs. J. Rose Holden. 



Secretary-Treasurer — J. H. Land, Esq. 



Corresponding-Secretary — Justus A. Griffin, Esq. 



Executive Committee — Hon. D. Maclnnes; F. M. Carpenter, M. P. ; Hugh C. Baker, Esq. ; 



W. F. Burton, Esq. ; Hon. J. M. Gibson ; J. Alexander, Esq. ; J. Muir, Judge Co. 



Wentworth ; J. W. Jones, LL.B. ; Adam Brown, Esq. ; Alex. McKay, M.P.; Maj. 



Hy. McLaren. 



The thanks of the society were tendered to the Secretary of the Royal Society' for the volume of 

 proceedings for 1892. 



On the 19th of June, 1893, at a reception numbering quite YOO, Mrs. John Calder— a descendant 

 of one of the first U. E. Loyalist settlers — presented a beautiful banner to the societj^, commemorative 

 of the battle of Stony Creek, when addresses were made by A. Brown, Esq., Chairman, Principal 

 Grant, of Queen's, and Mr. Sanford Evans, president of the Canadian Club. Mrs. John Calder read the 

 following address : 



" Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the Wentworth Historical Society: The day and the 

 year inscribed on the banner which I have the honour of presenting to your society record both a war 

 and a decisive engagement. The war of 1812-13 was an unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion hy a 

 country peopled by eight millions against a population of but 250,000 peaceful and unoffending 

 French inhabitants and British pioneers, scattered over the then sparsely settled portions of the now 

 wide and great Dominion of Canada ; during which war Canada gave so freely of the life-blood of her 

 sons in defence of our glorious patrimony. It has been said, ' Blessed is the country that has no his- 

 tory ' — nay, rather would I say, perish the people which have no spirit of patriotism to warm and 

 stir the pulse of national life inciting them to noble thoughts and deeds ! 



" Upon reading the first publication of the proceedings and transactions of the Wentworth His- 

 torical Society I was impressed by the records and with the fact that you, ladies and gentlemen, as a 

 society, are worth}' custodians of the few but glorious memories of our still young country. I am 

 proud to be able to claim descent from United Empire Loyalists, as my great-grandfather, Captain 

 James Gage, was killed while fighting under the old flag in the revolutionary war of 1776. My great 

 grandmother, unhappy and broken-hearted at the loss and the result of the war, and not content to 

 remain under the rule of the newly formed republic, preferred, in connection with other U. E. 

 Loyalists, to seek a new home under the British flag, and with her only son undertook the long and 

 perilous journey to Canada. God grant that Canadians may never dishonour the memory of that noble 

 band of exiles whose loyalty to their king and country led them to Canada, and afterwards to perform 

 so many heroic deeds in its defence. 



" I feel, therefore, that I have a hereditary right to hand over to the keeping of your society 

 this banner, commemorating the engagement of Stony Creek, which was fought upon the home- 

 stead of my grandfather, James Gage, and which was taken possession of by two thousand Americans, 

 and his fiimily imprisoned, until released by a small but gallant band of British and Canadian heroes, 

 in number but 704, who defeated the invaders at every point, and whose bravery has bequeathed to 

 us the priceless boon of (Canadian freedom. And you, gentlemen of the Canadian Club, I am sure, 

 will never fail to honour the national sentiment which this banner is intended to foster and perpetuate, 

 and that you, if ever summoned to emulate the deeds of the heroic past, will be ever found at the post 

 of duty. 



" I have great pleasure, sir, in presenting you with this banner." 



