The Adjutant-General, United States Army, under date of June 15. 1911. writes as follows: "An exhaustive search of the few records on file in the War Department for the approximate period, has resulted in failure to find any record showing the date upon which the British evacuated the posts on Lak Champlain, referred to within."

"It is possible, however, that some information on that subject may le obtained from the Department of State, Washington, D.C."

In a letter to the writer from the Secretary of State of the United States. under date of August 4, 1911, it is stated "that the archives of this Department have been examined, and that nothing concerning the evacuation by the British of the posts at Pointe au Fer, and Loyal Block House has been found." And what of the builder?

Justus Sherwood, a native of Connecticut, and of English stock, was an early settler in New Haven, Vermont, whence he came in the year 1774. settling on the farm, on Lanesboro Street, afterwards owned by Judge Elias Bottum. and still known as the Bottum place. It was Lot No. 31 of the town as laid out under its charter from Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire. I am informed by Mr. Clark, who visited the site of Justus Sherwood's old home last fall, that a house erected by Captain Sherwood is still standing there. He was proprietor's clerk of New Haven from 1774 to 1776, when, as the records have it: "He was a Tory and fled to Canada."

But let us analyze this brief statement a little. To my mind and from the deductions I draw from a more or less close study of the subject of Tories or Loyalists generally, I claim that he whose memory we honour here to-day was a consistent Loyalist, and that by whatever name he was called, be it Loyalist or Tory, it was a badge of honour, and borne by one whose honour and constancy was never questioned, by friend or honest foe.

Holding as he did, his land in New Haven under the New Hampshire title, he was not involved in the bitter controversy between New York and Vermont known to history as the New Hampshire Grants Controversy, and consequently we must believe, and know, that he was not embittered and driven out by this internecine strife, but that from a sense of duty he left his home in Vermont, and giving up his all for him whom he considered his lawful ruler, he went away, sorrowfully as must have been, to make a new home in a new and strange land, but among men whose principles he approved.

I must confess that I have never had that bitter hatred for the English that seems to obsess some of our countrymen, of American birth, even to this day. Coming as my forbears did from old Connecticut, "the land of steady habits," and from a town where a town meeting met to discuss urgent public affairs at the outbreak of the Revolution was opened by these words, “With hearts full of loyalty and duty to our rightful Sovereign King George the Third." This is the expression of men who were subsequently second to none in their devotion to the cause of American Independence, in which, I trust I may be pardoned if I say that my own ancestors bore no inconsiderable part. When an old and highly-esteemed friend of Irish birth tells me that he firmly believes that the salvafion of the whole world depends on English law, and the English sense of right and justice, I do not feel that I need make apology or defence, in that I hold to-day a brief for a patriot, for such was Justus Sherwood, a man of Anglo-Saxon blood, of the race from which I am sprung, and in whose destiny I firmly believe.

Justus Sherwood, after leaving New Haven, appears to have taken up his residence, during the war at least, at St. John's, in the neighbouring Province of Quebec, Canada. It was from here we may assume that he was commissioned a Captain, in the Partizan Corps raised from among the American Loyalists, and known as the "Queen's Loyal Rangers." This Corps was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Peters, a native of Hebron, Connecticut, and also, as was Justus Sherwood, a consistent Loyalist.

That the Regiment, or a portion of it, was engaged at the Battle of Bennington, history relates, and it is said that in that action Captain Justus Sherwood behaved with gallantry." Colonel Peters says of him that he was "active," that he was "a man of culture," that he was "forward in every enterprise of danger to the end of the campaign.”

Of the service of the Regiment, as a Regiment, and of the services of Captain Sherwood with it, aside from the above, the details given by written history are meagre, but of the detached service of Captain Sherwood, in enterprises similar to the building of the work where we stand to-day, the Canadian Archives are filled. The trusted officer of the representative of his Sovereign in Canada, he was throughout the war, "forward," not only as his Colonel states, "in every service of danger," but in every enterprise of the Crown in Canada, which called for the services of a man of known intelligence, skill, and tried and true loyalty to his King.

The accounts of the labours of Justus Sherwood, in the land to which he "fled." are written large in the history of the Dominion.

Subsequent to the war, Justus Sherwood was granted by the Canadian Government, a tract of 1,000 acres of land near Brockville, Ontario, upon which he settled, and where he died. ‚··

My study of the history of the American Loyalists, induced by a desire for information regarding this fortification and its builder, has led me to the sincere belief that they were men imbued with motives of at least equal patriotism, to that which induced our ancestors to engage in the struggle leading to American Independence.

That the term "United Empire Loyalist" was a badge of honour in the country of their adoption, is evinced by the following "Order in Council,” passed at Quebec, Monday, 9th November, 1789:

His Lordship intimated to the Council, that it was his wish to put a Marke of Honour upon the families who had adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard in America before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1781."

"The Council agreeing with His Lordship, it is accordingly ordered: "That the several Land Boards take course for preserving a Registry of the names of all persons falling under the description aforementioned to the end that their posterity may be discriminated in the Parish Registers and Rolls of the Militia of their respective District and other public Remembrancers of the Province, as proper objects, by their persevering in the Fidelity and Conduct so honourable to their ancestors, for distinguished benefits and Privileges."

"And it is also ordered that the said Land Boards may in every such case provide not only for the sons of those Loyalists, as they arrive at full age, but for their daughters also, of that age, or on their marriage."

That they were the villains that some of your Vermont writers like

Thompson and Robinson would have us believe, is not borne out by a careful study of the actual facts.

It is stated by as accurate and candid a writer as Dr. Asa Fitch, the historian of Washington County, New York, that a belief in the supposed villainy of the American Loyalists was sedulously cultivated by interested persons, who feared that they, the former owners of their lands, might return and take from the then holders, these lands which had been confiscated. Dr. Fitch mentions particularly the case of Major Philip Skene, settler of Skenesboro, now Whitehall, New York, and owner of large tracts of land in that vicinity which had been confiscated by authority of the State of New York. That children were taught in answer to the question as to which they would rather meet, "old Skene or the devil," to reply the latter.

And what was our loss was Canada's gain. In every subsequent generation have the Sherwood family been distinguished. Justus Sherwood's son, Livius Peters Sherwood, born in St. John's in 1777, was a man learned in the law, Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, Speaker of Parliament of Upper Canada, and a Colonel in the War of 1812. His son, Edward Sherwood, removing from Brockville, Ontario, to what was subsequently selected as the Capital of the Dominion, also engaged in a distinguished career at the bar. And of his son, your honoured guest to-day, and of his long and honourable career in the public service of Canada, it is my high privilege to speak. For thirty-one years Superintendent of Dominion Police, a Lieutenant of the Governor-General's Foot Guards, Captain, Major, and Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 43rd Rifles, a member of the Canadian Rifle Team at Wimbledon in 1885 and 1889, President of the Canadian Military Rifle League, and Captain of the Canadian Rifle Team at Bisley in 1903, Honorary Aide de Camp to Lord Minto, Earl Grey, and His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and member Victorian Order and his son who is here to-day, serving his King, as have his forbears, faithfully and well.

I do not know that I am called upon to point a moral to adorn a tale, but I cannot forbear to give utterance to a thought that has come to me in my study of this most interesting subject.

There is one point that I would make here to-day: That it is right to follow the dictates of one's own conscience, as did these American Loyalists. Let us say in the words of the "immortal poet":"This above all, Horatio, first to thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

And we Americans may well honour, as we do to-day, the memory of the American Loyalist, Justus Sherwood, the builder of Loyal Block House, true to himself and loyal to his King.

V.

THE REV. JOHN BARCLAY, M.A., THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER SETTLED IN KINGSTON.

BY MISS A. BLANCHE BURT, B.A.

Our country is not rich in Church Mural Tablets, especially of the quaint and imaginatively suggestive kind so common in the old land, some of which seem in a few words to suggest the very essence of the person's life. In an old cloister in London is a tablet with the inscription: "Jane Lister, dear childe," which to me is infinitely appealing and perfectly sufficient in its simplicity.

In St. Andrew's Church, Kingston, in a prominent place near the choir, is a white marble slab with the following inscription: Sacred to the memory of The Reverend John Barclay, M.A., First Minister of St. Andrew's Church: ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 26th, 1821; died Sept. 26th, 1826. "A man greatly beloved."

One feels almost envious as one gazes at the words: envious of the beauty of the God-like character which could inspire such a tribute.

It seems a strange coincidence that the one sermon of the Rev. John Barclay which I have found, dated Kingston, U.C., 1822, has the following text: Ephes. 5: 2. "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." The paper on which the sermon is written is yellow with age, but otherwise quite intact; the handwriting small, neat and delicate, but very legible.

The sermon is too long to quote in full, but I shall give two paragraphs which will give some idea of its trend and also of the character of the man who wrote it.

"Let us do justice to the benevolent and kindly nature of the precepts of the Gospel. Let us by an observance of them in their true spirit of kindness and good will to all men shew to those who form their opinion of Christianity from the lives of those who profess it, that its precepts are precepts of love, and that they are far from fostering a harsh, censorious or uncharitable disposition, as is, alas! too often the case in half-Christians or in pretending Christians. Let us by an observance of the precepts of the Gospel in their true spirit of kindness and good will (to all men) shew to these persons who may take notice of us that their observance of them too, far from shutting them out from the innocent and cheerful and enlivened enjoyment of life, would increase their own happiness and the happiness of their associates, and let us thus lead directly to the sweeping assurance that an observance of these precepts by the whole of mankind would increase the happiness of the whole of the world.”

Say not such a one has injured me so much that I cannot walk in love with him. I must be allowed to hate him and to wish to be revengeful of

him. Christians, what would have been your case if this had been the rule which had determined Christ's treatment of you? It was when you were enemies to Him that Christ died for you. Walk, therefore, in love as Christ has loved you, and given Himself for you. Cultivate a general spirit of meekness, gentleness and forbearance and charity. Do what is in your power to give occasion to the using again of this beautiful observation and noble testimony of esteem, Behold how these Christians love one another.' Finally, walking in love is an essential part of the necessary preparation for acceptably partaking of that solemn ordinance of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. which you have so nearly in view. If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift."

"Now may the God of Love and of Peace be with you and bless you forever."

That the life of the speaker of these words must have been an example of his own teaching needs no greater testimony than the few words, “A man greatly beloved."

The simple and meagre facts of the life of the Rev. John Barclay are as follows: He was born at the Manse, Kettle, Fife, on July 9th, 1795, the eighth child of the Rev. Peter Barclay, D.D., the minister of the parish. He probably received his early education at the Kettle school, where his older brothers had been taught by Mr. Strachan (late Bishop Strachan). From there he went to Edinburgh College, from which he graduated with the degree of M.A. In 1819, after having been licensed to preach the Gospel, he became assistant to Mr. Walker of Collessie, a neighbouring parish, which post he held till Mr. Walker's death two years later. He was then chosen by the Presbytery of Edinburgh as minister of Kingston, Upper Canada, and ordained by them to that charge on Sept. 26th, 1821. He left Kettle Manse a month later, on Oct. 20th, 1821, to sail from Greenock for New York, en route to Kingston. to begin his ministry there.

The only account of this ministry which, I have been able to discover is in the Rev. Mr. Gregg's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada,” which is as follows:

"In Kingston the Presbyterians had been divided into two parties known as the Scotch and American. Messrs. Smart and Bell had vainly endeavoured to re-unite them, but two congregations were formed. A handsome stone church, called St. Andrew's Church, was erected by the Scotch congregation on an acre of ground granted by the Government, and an application was made by the elders and trustees to the Presbytery of Edinburgh to appoint a minister for the congregation. They selected Mr. Barclay, who arrived in Kingston in 1822, and officiated as pastor of St. Andrew's Church till his death on the 26th September, 1826, in the thirtieth year of his age, and exactly five years after the date of his ordination. The high esteem in which he was held as a pious and devoted minister is indicated in the following words, which occur in an application made to the Edinburgh Presbytery to appoint his successor: The success which attended the ministerial labours of our late lamented pastor induces us to state that the greater number of points in which the gentleman whose name you may determine to insert in the accompanying call resembles him whose early removal from among us we so deeply and so justly