In 1852 Arnprior, which had been a dilapidated scene of log-house ruins, began to revive under the auspices of Mr. Daniel McLachlin, who that year purchased the property from the Messrs. Middleton, of Liverpool. When it came into his possession it wore a most dreary aspect. The dam built by the Buchanans had been torn down--the grist-mill had entirely disappeared--the saw-mill was a shattered ruin, and all that stood was the tavern then occupied by Mr. James Hartney. The property was surveyed into town lots. The dam was rebuilt for Mr. McLachlin by the Hincks Government in 1853, and the saw-mill was renovated and put into operation. A stone grist-mill was erected--mechanics, operatives, and laborers were encouraged to settle by the most alluring prospects--and in 1854 the sound of workmen's implements, the blows of the axe clearing the surrounding forest, the hammering of the carpenters and the ringing strokes of the blacksmiths' sledges on the various anvils reminded one of the classic days of Queen Dido when busily occupied in the building of ancient Carthage, so beautifully described in the AEneid of Virgil. Now Arnprior may boast of its three thousand inhabitants. Then only two families occupied the neglected waste. A few short years has effected this prosperous change, and Mr. McLachlin's stone mansion is situated on the terraced banks of the majestic Ottawa, on the very site of Kennell Lodge, where the Chief of McNab once ruled a supreme despot, unchecked and uncontrolled. Then an order from the Chief was tantamount to a law and was obeyed with alacrity. Then the township of McNab was thinly peopled, having only 102 inhabitants all told; now, including Arnprior, it can number upwards of 6,500. Then the people were poor, struggling for a miserable existence, ground down by oppression; now the great majority are independent, and many are in affluent circumstances. Then McNab was the poorest and most miserably wretched township on the Ottawa; now its assessed value is by far the greatest of any municipality in the County of Renfrew. It may be said to be the empire township of the County. Had the contemplated feudal system been carried out--had the attempt and the actual existence of the tenure not been resisted, and resisted too by the most heroic struggle ever carried on by an impoverished people against wealth and power--it would have been in the same languishing condition as the most besotted portions of degraded Spain, or in the same wretched state as those parts of Ireland where oppression has not been tempered by law or justice, and where Fenianism has taken the place of order to redress grievances which constitutional measures alone can remove. In 1838 the first school was established in the township; now we have numerous educational establishments and a Grammar School--all of a high order. In 1839 the first Presbyterian congregation was formed.