grandfather for a half hundred of flour,
and refused. A very respectable old lady, whom numbers of you knew, but
who some time since went away to her rest--whose offspring, some at
least, are luxuriating in comfort above the middle walks of life--was
wont in those days to wander away early in the spring to the woods and
gather and eat the buds of the basswood, and then bring an apron or
basketfull home to the children. Glad were they to pluck the rye and
barley heads, as soon as the kernel had formed, for food; and not many
miles from Picton a beef's bone passed from house to house, and was
boiled again and again in order to extract some nutriment. It seems
incredulous, but it is no fiction, and surely no homoeopathist would
desire to be placed on a lower regimen.

"I feel it unnecessary almost for me to tell you that the largest
proportion of the first settlers of this province were Americans who had
adhered to the cause of England. After the capture of General Burgoyne,
many of the Royalists with their families moved into Canada; and upon
the evacuation of New York, at the close of the war, a still greater
number followed. A large proportion of these were soldiers, disbanded
and left without employ. Some there were who had lost their estates by
confiscation; so that nearly all were destitute and dependent upon the
liberality of the country whose battles they had fought, and for whose
cause they had suffered. In order, therefore, to reward their loyalty
and relieve their present necessities, as well as to supply some means
of future subsistence, the British Government determined upon making
liberal grants of the land in Upper Canada and other provinces to the
American Loyalists. The measure was not only an act of justice and
humanity, but it was sound in policy and has been crowned with universal
success.

"The grants were made free of expense and upon the following scale: A
field-officer received 5,000 acres; a captain, 3,000; a subaltern,
2,000; and a private soldier, 200 acres. A survey was accordingly made,
commencing near Lake St. Francis, then the highest French settlement,
and extended along the shores of the St. Lawrence up to Lake Ontario,
and thence along the lake, and round the Bay of Quinte. Townships were
laid out, and then subdivided into concessions and lots of 200 acres.
These townships were numbered, but remained without names for many years
afterwards. Of these numbers there were two divisions--one