86 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
from their enforced inaction. While many had returned to their peace- 
ful employments there was still a considerable percentage who were 
ready for any adventure, however reckless, which might restore to them 
the excitements of camp life. In addition to those who were of Irish 
descent, there was plenty of available material of kindred sort, and of 
these conditions the Fenian leaders took full advantage. It was now, 
or never, that their years of promises were to be fulfilled, and the flagging 
subscriptions to their cause be again aroused. 
On the Canadian side the cry of “ Wolf” has been so often raised 
on the borders, only to fade away, that not a few of the Canadian people 
had settled down into incredulity and into apathy. Militia expendi- 
tures were looked at askance or not warmly supported, perhaps due 
to an increased sense of security from the added regiments of the 
regular army which the British Government had sent over and distribu- 
ted through Canada for its defence. Some there were who, affected 
by the creed of anti-militarism, opposed any forms of drill or military 
organization, and expressed their reliance upon the intervention of 
the American Government to prevent any Fenian invaders from ever 
leaving the boundaries of the United States; but many others there 
were who considered that to trust solely to the British Government 
for defence, and to a foreign Government for protection, was neither 
honourable nor patriotic. Preparations for self protective action were 
therefore maintained by the more zealous, and the fervour of volun- 
teering which had been roused by the Trent “ Affair” of 1861, was by 
these earnestly continued. 
THe CALL To ARMS. 
The authorities at Ottawa had been keeping careful watch, and as 
a preliminary precaution a section of the Canadian Volunteer Force, 
some 10,000 in number, of which the Toronto Regiments formed a part, 
was on 8th March, 1866, called out, not for continuous active service 
but for daily drill at their several headquarters. 
I was then an undergraduate student in residence at Trinity 
College, and a private in the “Trinity College Company,” No. 8, of the 
Queen’s Own, a sister company of the “University College Company,” 
No. 9, of the same regiment in which President Bryce was serving, 
these being the two “Student Companies” of the Battalion. 
The enrolled students then attending Trinity College were not 
of themselves sufficiently numerous to quite fill the ranks of a full 
company, members were therefore accepted from kindred young men 
of the city families, the Grasetts, Hagartys, Harmans, Evans and 
others, and it is interesting to note, that of the whole number of 62 then 
serving in the Company, 18 of the 49 who were collegians were after- 
