the militia ranks.”  When Hull invaded the province and issued his boastful and threatening proclamation he used language which must have seemed a mockery to the children of the Loyalists.  They remembered too well the sufferings of their fathers and brothers during “the stormy period of the revolution,” and it seemed derisive to tell them now that they were to be “emancipated from tyranny and oppression and restored to the dignified station of free men.”  The proclamation issued by Governor Brock touched the loyal hearts of a people whose family histories were full of examples of “oppression and tyranny,” and of the kind consideration and justice of England in their new homes.  “Where,” asked Brock, with the confidence of truth, “is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the government in his person, his property, or his liberty?  Where is to be found, in any part of the world, a growth so rapid in prosperity and wealth as this colony exhibits?” These people, to whom this special appeal was made at this national crisis, responded with a heartiness which showed that gratitude and affection lay deep in their hearts.  Even the women worked in the field that their husbands, brothers and sons might drive the invaders from Canadian soil.  The 104th Regiment, which accomplished a remarkable march of thirteen days in the depth of winter, from Fredericton to Quebec—­a distance of three hundred and fifty miles—­and lost only one man by illness, was composed of descendants of the loyal founders of New Brunswick.  This march was accomplished practically without loss, while more than three hundred men were lost by Benedict Arnold in his expedition of 1777 against Quebec by the way of Kennebec—­a journey not more dangerous or arduous than that so successfully accomplished by the New Brunswick Loyalists.  In 1814 considerable numbers of seamen for service in the upper lakes passed through New Brunswick to Quebec, and were soon followed by several companies of the 8th or King’s Regiment.  The patriotism of the Loyalists of New Brunswick was shown by grants of public money and every other means in their power, while these expeditions were on their way to the seat of war in the upper provinces.

Historians and poets have often dwelt on the heroism of Laura Secord, daughter and wife of Loyalists, who made a perilous journey in 1814 through the Niagara district, and succeeded in warning Lieutenant Fitzgibbon of the approach of the enemy, thus enabling him with a few soldiers and Indians to surprise Colonel Boerstler near Beaver Dams and force him by clever strategy to surrender with nearly 600 men and several cannon.  Even boys fled from home and were found fighting in the field.  The Prince Regent, at the close of the war, expressly thanked the Canadian militia, who had “mainly contributed to the immediate preservation of the province and its future security.”  The Loyalists, who could not save the old colonies to England, did their full share in maintaining her supremacy in the country she still owned in the valley of the St. Lawrence and on the shores of the Atlantic.