Nemo Me Impune Lacessit 
     
     HIGHLAND SOIREE 
     
     A SOIREE will be held at the TOWN HALL on FRIDAY 
     
     next, being 
     
     St. Andrew’s Day, 
     
    

    
     at SEVEN o’clock, in the Evening, to which all Scotsmen, 
     
     and descendants of Scotchmen, are requested to supply 
     
     themselves with tickets of admission.36 
     
    
   
   
    
     The St. Andrew’s Day dinner was held by the Highland Society as 
     
     usual, but Society President, Hon. Charles Young, attended the Soiree. 
     
     Young was accompanied by another Highland Society member, John 
     
     Arbuckle. Obviously, both were temperance advocates (at this time 
     
     anyway). The Soiree necessarily presented a rather amusing contrast to 
     
     both the gatherings of other years and the wet celebrations of that year 
     
     attended by the majority of Society members. For instance, at the Soiree, 
     
     “After partaking of Tea, the President of the Highland Society, the 
     
     Hon. Charles Young, read a very eloquent Address.” At 10:30 p.m., 
     
     after a rendition of “God Save the Queen,” President Young and some 
     
     “older and graver” guests departed. At 1:00 a.m., the party was over. 
     
     All the guests left for their homes “evidently well pleased with the 
     
     rational, sober, still merry and light-hearted manner in which they had 
     
     enjoyed themselves. ”’7 
     
    

    
     On the other hand, the Highland Society dinner held at the Victoria 
     
     Hotel, and served “in Mrs. Davis’ best style,” was quite in keeping with 
     
     its predecessors. First Vice-President Joseph McDonald presided over 
     
     the activities; forty men arrived to share in them. Speeches, songs, and 
     
     recitations delivered by various gentlemen during the course of the 
     
     evening were accompanied by ample amounts of excellent wines, and the 
     
     “deoch an’ dorris in a bumper of Whiskey Toddy in the good old 
     
     Highland style.” Like the Soiree—goers, the guests at the dinner were 
     
     “delighted with the entertainment of the night.”” 
     
    

    
     The temperance movement would continue to play a major role in 
     
     Highland Society and, later, Caledonian Club activities until well into 
     
     the present century. The movement was not mentioned in every 
     
     newspaper account of the society’s affairs, but hints of its influence 
     
     appeared from time to time. 
     
    

    
     In 1850, the Society held its first picnic — probably its first daytime 
     
     gathering —— at the Block House, across the Charlottetown Harbour 
     
     from Trout Point. The number in attendance was not recorded in the 
     
    
   
   
    
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