newspaper but it was stated that all present enjoyed themselves, aided by Mr. Kieley’s Brass Band and some dancing. Liquor was not noted in the report and most likely was not consumed at the picnic.39

In 1852, the St. Andrew’s Day dinner was held at Cairns’ Hotel on Kent Street. The “usual toasts were drunk,” but the party broke up at midnight — an uncommonly early hour for this celebration.‘0

In 1855, Dr. John Mackieson, one of the most eminent and loyal followers of the Society and the earlier Sons of St. Andrew, wrote in his journal that he was a member of both the Highland Society and a temperance club.‘I In 1859, Dr. Mackieson made a reference in the diary to attending a Temperance Tea-Party in Temperance Hall; by 1861, he had joined the “Teetotal Alliance.”2 .

The international increase in temperance activity coincided ap- proximately with social growth and formal changes in the Highland Society. The 18505 was an important decade for the society. The early part was marked by little activity other than the general meetings and dinners, the aforementioned picnic, and the deaths of the two most important members of the day: Sir Donald Campbell, chieftain of the society and the first Highland lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward Island, died in Charlottetown in 1850; and Lieutenant-Colonel R.C. Macdonald, founder and long—time supporter of the society, died in the Ionian Islands in 1852.“ By the latter years of the decade, the members’ recently-cultivated enthusiasm had been found wanting, and the club’s internal workings were examined and revitalized — a process that ended in the 1864 establishment of the Caledonian Club of Prince Edward Island.

At the general meeting of 1856, the members seemed to drop their long-espoused promotion of (though not their interest in) improved educational standards for Scottish children, probably because the Education Act of 1853 had raised the standards on the Island to a par with those of the other Canadian colonies. The group adopted a new set of objectives:

1. To cultivate feelings of Nationality in Scotsmen and their descendants. 2. To give pecuniary aid in suitable cases.“ These were admirable aims — a little vague in scope, but they were a beginning. In 1859, a meeting was called for 25 June to settle various matters, including preparations for a demonstration to welcome General Sir W.F.‘ Williams of Kars, newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief of Her

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