Canada has shown the same virile spirit as other great nations, and we may take pride in the way in which our people have recognized what they owe to General Brock and the men who fought with him on this field one hundred years ago. This spot has seen several inspiring demonstrations.
Brock and Macdonell had been buried in Fort George in 1812. In 1824 their remains were removed and buried again under the first monument here. In 1824 there were no railways, practically no steamers, and the population of the Province was very small, and yet in the funeral cortege there were 560 men on horseback, 285 carriages and wagons, and thousands of persons on foot, in all estimated at about ten thousand people, who followed the remains the seven miles from Niagara to this place. That was a remarkable tribute to the memory of the great general.
In 1840 the monument was blown up on Good Friday by an Irish rebel or Fenian named Benjamin Lett. This aroused intense indignation throughout the Province, and a great demonstration was organized to arrange for building a new monument on a grander scale. The meeting was held in July, 1840, and a great number of the foremost men in public life attended. Ten steamers, all crowded with people, moved up the river in procession. About eight thousand persons were present. A new monument was decided upon and it is here above us now. It is a wonderful monument to have been erected by a small community when there was very little wealth in the country. This monument is as a column the finest and grandest I have seen. I put it far above the column to Alexander I. in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. It is about forty feet higher than the one to Nelson in Trafalgar Square. The National German Monument in the Neiderwald does not strike me as being so impressive.
In 1859, on the anniversary of the battle, there was another great gathering here for the inauguration of the monument. I was here with a detachment of my corps and there were a great many other detachments and people, and about two hundred of the old veterans of the war who came again to do honour to their dead chief. In the following year the late King was visiting Canada, and naturally he came here to do honour to the memory of the great general and to meet the surviving veterans of the war. There was another great demonstration and I was there on that occasion also. Could anything show more clearly the deep hold that General Brock had on the affection and memory of the Canadian people than these repeated gatherings? And now, after another fifty-two years, there is this splendid demonstration of respect and gratitude. I am proud that our people have done their duty to-day, and I hope that our action will inspire our children a hundred years hence to commemorate the great event. I make no apologies for coming here to glory over the victory. Brock died on this field and our fathers fought here that we should be a free and independent people, and we have enjoyed that position for a hundred years, thanks to their efforts. How can we use that freedom better, than in testifying in the heartiest manner our gratitude and appreciation for the priceless boon which we owe to those who then won it for us!
J. A. MACDONELL, K.C., GLENGARRY, ADDRESSING THE GATHERING.
Dr. Alexander Dame, Col. George Sterling Ryerson, Dr. James L. Hughes, Col. George T. Denison, Major W. Napier Keefer (next right
of speaker), Major Gordon J. Smith, Dr. Charles F. Durand.
MR. J. A. MACDONELL, K.C.
Glengarry, Ontario
Permit me to express on behalf of the members of this generation of the family to which the former Attorney-General Macdonell belonged, my warm appreciation of the honour which was done to that gentleman's memory, by the invitation which in terms so generous and complimentary and so appreciative of his services, was extended to me as the representative of his family, to be present on this most interesting occasion as the special guest of your Committee.