Illustrations: Frontispiece--Armorial Bearings of the Clan Menu and Toast List Card 23 Alexander Fraser (MacFhionnlaidh) 33 Robert Lovat Fraser 63 Ex-Mayor John Fraser 75 William A. Fraser 79 Georgina Fraser-Newhall 94 Simon, Fourteenth Lord Lovat 102 Brigadier Simon Fraser 105 INTRODUCTORY The Gael has proved himself not less a pioneer of civilization, and adaptable to changing conditions of living, than a lover of the traditions of his race, holding tenaciously by ancient usages and manners, and stirred profoundly by racial sentiment. As a pioneer he has reached "the ends of the earth," possessing the unoccupied parts of the world. As a patriot he has established not a few of his cherished customs in the land of his adoption. His love of kindred is probably his most notable characteristic; it found embodiment in the clan system, under which his race achieved its greatest triumphs and enjoyed its greatest glories, and the bond of clanship, with its inspiring memories, the true clansman will never disregard. While the clan system, as such, would be impracticable in the British colonies under present-day conditions, even more so than in its old home in the Highlands of Scotland, its spirit lives, leavening the system of government and exercising no small influence in the fusion of heterogeneous elements into new and distinct peoples. These observations are applicable in a peculiar degree to Canada, where a very large number of clansmen have found a second Highland home. Many of the forests which rang with the clash of the claymore in the struggle for British supremacy, fell afterwards to the axe of the Gaelic settler. His trail lies across the continent, from ocean to ocean. His energy and intelligence have been honorably felt in every walk of life, and his enterprise and skill have done much to develop and upbuild the Dominion. No body of people occupies a more distinguished place in this respect than the Frasers; indeed, even among the clans, no name is more closely identified than that of "Fraser" with the early days of Canada. To tell of their services on the field, in government, in commerce, in the professions, would occupy a large volume, as would a similar story of other clans, and an attempt to do so, in an introductory chapter, would be altogether out of place, but there are a few events of importance to the country in which the Frasers figured to which it will be well to allude with fitting brevity.