f
1812, my grandfather went out against the enemy with his sons,
Alexander, David, and James, in which war my father lost his life.

"Hoping you may be able to find something in these fragments which will
be interesting to you,

"I remain, with the greatest respect,

"Yours most faithfully,

"J.B. HUTCHISON."

_Patriotic feelings--Early Settlement of Prince Edward County and
Neighbouring Townships._

Extracts of an address entitled "Scraps of Local History," delivered by
Canniff Haight, Esq., before the Mechanics' Institute of Picton, March
16th, 1859:

"If I feel a pride in one thing more than another, it is that I am a
Canadian. I rejoice more in being the descendant of these early pioneers
of Canada, than if noble blood coursed my veins. I point you back with
more unmitigated pleasure to that solitary log cabin in the wilderness
which once bordered your fine bay, as the home of my fathers, than I
would to some baronial castle in other lands.

"Is there for honest poverty,
That hangs his head, and a' that?

"The coward slave we pass him by--
We dare be poor for a' that.
For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure and a' that;
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that!'

"We love our country. Thousands of sweet recollections cluster round our
childhood's homes, and as we think of them the words of Scott occur to
us:

"'Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land;
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned.
As home his footsteps he hath turned'----

"What part of the world can you point me to to show such rapid changes
as have occurred here? Where among the countries of the earth shall we
find a quicker and more vigorous growth? Seventy years ago this
beautiful and wealthy county of Prince Edward was one dense and untrod
forest. We can hardly realize the fact, that even one century has not
passed away since those strong-hearted men pushed their way into the
wilderness of Upper Canada. Were they not heroes?

"In the summer of the year 1795, or thereabouts, a company of six
persons, composed of two married men and their wives, with two small
children, pushed a rough-looking and somewhat unwieldy little boat away
from the shore in the neighbourhood of Poughkeepsie, and turned its prow
up the Hudson. A rude sail was hoisted, but it flapped lazily against
the slender mast. The two men betake themselves to the