Preface


 

The following poem was written in the year 1846, and with much diffidence, is now, for the first time, published by its author. Its design was mainly to preserve a few peculiar traits of a generation of men, now alas! nearly passed away: the United Empire Loyalists of Canada; those brave and devoted defenders of the British Crown, Connexion and Government, in the American Revolution, that ended in the partition of the Empire, and the settlement of Upper Canada, by the Loyalists Refugees on the one hand, and the formation of the United States on the other. The author is conscious of many faults his work; and although it has lain by, a longer time than Horace recommends even, he fears its quality will not have improved by the keeping, as it has been wholly neglected during that time. Such as it is however, he ventures to publish it, in the hope that his humble tribute to the memory of the noble Patriarchs of Upper Canada, who, with this goodly land, the fruit of their early toils and almost incredible hardships, have left us the still nobler inheritance of their patriotic of their patriotic and loyal example, may not be unacceptable to Canadian readers. For such must ever cherish the memory of the U. E. Loyalists, as a class of men who individually and almost without exception, deserved that fine encomium of the Roman poet:



"Cui Pudor, et Justitiœ Soror,
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas;
Quando ullum invenient parem?"

NIAGARA. 1859