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COLONIZATION. 
 
 NOVA SCOTIA BARONET RIGHTS. 
 
 ;^rnr>. 
 
 COPY OF THE 
 
 MEMORANDUM AND PROTEST 
 
 PLACED IN 
 
 EARL GREY'S HANDS BY A DEPUTATION, 
 
 On the 2nd of June, 1848. 
 
 JIT.«.WM!=^i- 
 
 TITE ADDRESS 
 
 ■'M'Ji ..LV'N A &,!/.■» iU~f-f '••i-'i- inf-i. i '■ ■■^- ■ ; 
 
 THE HON. SIR RICHARD BROUN, BART. 
 
 =11%. ■jj^atgt.J'V" ■.;{!• 
 
 >»'« DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 !.-:-,(! l" 
 
 Commictee of tjje Baronets of Scotlanti antr Nolja Scotia 
 ,,: 0oba Scotia mtfijts, ; ' 
 
 On the 16M of October, 1848. 1 
 
 " We have the honou r to rank ourselves with those friends of Government whose attach- 
 ment to the laws and liberties of their country have tatight them zeal for the dignity of the 
 Crown, and affection for the person of their Sovereign. If his M^esty should be pleased to 
 reinstate us in our ancient properties, we know that the influence which might arise to us upon 
 the continent of America would be faithAiUy employed in his M^esty's service, and we flatter 
 ourselves might be of some importance in disseminating the principles of genuine patriotinu 
 and loyalty."— .^ddreM/t-om the BarotuU of Scotland to the Government, Vlth March, 1777. 
 
 ' . LONDON: 
 
 BLACKBURN AND BURT, PRINTERS, 
 90J^, HOLBORN HILL. 
 
iio) 
 
 i 
 
 COMMITTEE 
 
 f i = • or THE I " 
 
 BARONETS OF SCOTLAND AND NOVA SCOTIA 
 
 FOK 
 
 NOVA SCOTIA RIGHTS. 
 
 Appointed by a General Meeting of the Order, held at Edinburgh, on the If h of November, 1844 . 
 
 toith power to add to their number. 
 
 The Right Honourable The EARL OF CARNWATH. 
 
 The Honourable SIR WILLIAM GORDON, Premier Baronet. 
 
 The Honourable SIR WILLIAM BACON JOHNSTON, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR WILLIAM OGILVIE, Uart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR ROBERT MURRAY, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER MAXWELL, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JOHN CAMPBELL, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR CHARLES FITZROY MACLEAN, Hurt. 
 
 The Honourable SIR ROBERT .MENZIES, Bart. 
 
 Tlie Honourable SIR JOSHUA C. MEREDYTH, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR FREDERIC HAMILTON, Hurt. 
 
 The Honourable SIR ROBERT K. DICK CUNYNGHAM, Hnrt. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JOH.. MAXWELL, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JOHN PRINGLE, Bart 
 
 The Honourable SIR WILLIAM C. SETON, Hint, 
 
 The Honourable SIR RICHARD BROUN, Burt. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JAMES STUART, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JA.MES J. R. MACKENZIE, HHit. 
 
 The Honourable SIR ALEXANDER REin, Bart. 
 
 The Honourable SIR JAMES D. H. HAY, Hart. 
 
 The Hon 
 
 ble. 
 
 lean. S'tcrrtarfi 
 SIR RICHARD BROUN, Hinf. 
 
 Banlifri) 
 The BANK OF SCOTLAND, Eiliiiburgli 
 
 * tT'ommdirr Kooms. 
 
 CLARENDON HOTEL, Hoiul Street, London 
 
BARONETAGE OF SCOTLAND 
 
 AMD 
 
 NOVA SCOTIA. 
 
 t4. 
 
 <* 
 
 REPORT of the Proceedings at a Meeihy of 
 the Committee of the Order for Nova Scotia 
 Rights, held at the Clarendon Hotel, Bond 
 Street, London, IGth of October, 1848.* 
 
 The HoiiWe. SIR FREDERIC HAMILTON, Bart, in the Chair. 
 
 The Meeting was presided over by the Hon. Sir Frederic Hamilton, Bart. ; and 
 in addition to the members of the Committee at present in London, was open to 
 such other resident members of the Order as found it convenient to attend. 
 
 The members of the Committee were convened for the purpose of having submitted 
 to them Earl Grey's reply to the " Memorandum and Protest," placed in his hands 
 by a Deputation, on the 2nd of June last, consisting of the Honourables Sir Wm. A. 
 Maxwell; Sir W. Ogilvie; Sir Fred. Hamilton; Sir Thomas M. Cunninghame; and 
 Sir Richard Broun, Baronets ; and taking into consideration the course to be now 
 taken for the purpose of giving increased effect to the objects for which the Com- 
 mittee was constituted. 
 
 The following is a copy of the " Memorandum and Protest " referred to : — 
 
 " Memorandum and Protest placed in the hands of the Right Hon, Earl Grey, 
 
 her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the 2nd of 
 
 June, 1 8 1'8, by a Deputation from the Committee of the Baronets of Scotland 
 
 for Nova Scotia Rights, 
 
 "The Deputation have the honour to' wait upon the Colonial Minister, pursuant 
 
 to a series of resolutions which were passed by the Committee of the Baronets of 
 
 Scotland for Nova Scotia Rights, at a meeting held in London on the 23rd ult, the 
 
 Hon. Sir William Alexander Maxwell, Bart., of Caiderwood, presiding. 
 
 ♦' The objects for which the Deputation have been appointed are threefold : — I. To 
 present a copy of a compilation, entitled ' The Nova Scotia Question, with Observa- 
 tions Geographical and Statistical — Historical Summary of Events relative to the 
 Baronetage of Scotland and Nova Scotia — Roll of Existing Members — List of 
 Charters, and Opinions of Counsel,' II, To submit on behalf of the Order, that, in 
 lieu of all territorial claims, a consolidated grant shall be made to the Baronets of 
 2,500,000 acres of the vacant land in New Brunswick, upon the line of the proposed 
 Hnilway between Halifax and Quebec ; and III. To plac? in the hands of her Majesty's 
 Government a formal protest against the sale, grant, or concession of any of the 
 
 * This Kbpoht filled si*, cohmins of the Morninq ll^-iild of the I7th October, 1848. 
 
 B 2 
 
vacant territory wiiliiii the province of New Scotland, as originally bounik'd, pending 
 the Settlement of the Claim of Right now urged by the Baronets. 
 
 " In discharging the duties devolved by the Committee on the Deputation, it.s 
 members embrace the opportunity of drawing Earl Grey's special attention at this 
 juncture to the fact, that the revival, in British North America, of the chartered 
 rights and objecis of the Baronetage of Scotland and Nova Scotia, would be a work 
 of combined justice, policy, and humanity. As regards justice, the crown charters, 
 acts of parliament, and other legal instruments founded upon (upwards of two hun- 
 dred in number,) demonstrate, beyond all doubt or cavil, that the rights and privi- 
 leges which they vest in the Order are still valid, subsisting, and etfectual. The 
 policy of restoring to 'ctivity and usefulness such a great monarchical iastitute as 
 the Baronetage of Scotland and Nova Scotia, would be a means of rapidly settling, 
 with a loyal and attached landocracy, yeomanry, and peasantry (the main constituent 
 elements of British society,) that portion of our vast trans- atlantic empire which, 
 from geographical position, n/ineral resources, and water facilities, is, and must ever 
 be, the arx et domicilium of British power, industry, and enterprise, in the western 
 hemisphere, is too self-apparent to require comment. AVliilst the humanity of has- 
 tening the time when regulated emigration and colonization shall become the passion 
 of the great as wHl as the necessity of the humble, will not be denied after the recur- 
 rence of a second Famine Visitation within the space of ten years, by any one who 
 reflects that never was there an age or coimtry in which problems in population of 
 more signal difliculty, or awful importance, arose to demand practical solution, than 
 those which nniltiply in Great Britain at the present day. 
 
 " The Deputation cannot advert to the second matter entrusted to it — viz., to submit 
 that, in lieu ofa'l territorial claims, two-and-a-half millions of acres along the line of 
 the proposed Railway between Halifax and Quebec shall be assigned to the Baronets, 
 out of the twelve million acres of soil now vacant in New Brunswick, — without 
 observing that no possible inconvenience, on the one hand, can arise to the Colonists 
 from closing with a proposition by which all litigation will be avoided; whilst, on the 
 other, and that at a crisis when the pillars of civil order are being everywhere shaken, 
 there would be an entire absence of any disposition on the part of the home govern- 
 ment to countenance an infraction of Royal covenants, and a depraving of statute 
 laws. It is a solemn and binding engagement between the Crown and the Baronets, 
 twice ratified and contirmed by parliametit, that ' no lapse of time, non-user, or 
 any other adverse circumstance whatsoever,' shall bar the rights and privileges which 
 are vested in the Order by their charters. Nor wfll the propriety of the restitution 
 of these rights be denied by Ministers to a body that has ever deserved well of the 
 Sovereign and the nation, seeing that, since 1798, no less than ten several con- 
 secutive territorial concessions have been made to satisfy the unjust demands of not 
 merely a rival but a revolted state. 
 
 " The charters, acts, and other documents referred to in the connpilation on the 
 Nova Scotia Question — a copy of which publication is placed herewith in the hands 
 of the Colonial Minister — constitute a complete chain of historical and legal evidence 
 in support of the claim of right preferred by the Baronets. With such indefeasible 
 grounds to proceed upon, and seeing that questions connected with subsistence and 
 population will successively arise to embarrass the nation, the Deputation deem it to 
 be impossible that a wise and paternal government, actuated by due fidelity to the 
 Crown, and love for tlie people, will fail to recognise the duty of restoring the rights 
 in Nova Scotia of the Scottish Baronetage, and making the Older again subservient 
 for the great and paramount ends for which it was devised by the wisdom and 
 patriotism of former sovereigns, privy councils, and parliaments. 
 
 '•The duty of restoring the public functions and utility of the Scottish Baronetage, 
 as a body constituted for ever to advance 'the opulence, prosperity, and peace' of 
 Scotland, by and through the right colonization and settlement of Nova Scotia, is 
 one alike onerous upon its members and the Crown. Corruption or non- utility in a 
 great monarchial institute is, under any circumstances, a state evil of enormous 
 magnitude — one which reflects equally upon the reigninir Sovereign, as the represen- 
 tative of the Royal founder, and upon those whose titles and prerogatives have 
 descended upon them as retaining fees for personal exertions. When James I. 
 annexed Nova Scotia to his ancient kingdom, 'th^'t its use might arise to the benefit 
 of that kingdom,' and projected the erection of the Baronetage to superintend its 
 plHntation, he declared he would make the business a ' Royal woik of his own.' 
 And his list iiijunefion to the Privy rouncil of Scotland, dated from his death-bed, 
 
^* 
 
 on the 23(1 of March, 1625, wat, ' PerseTere for the furtherance of this Royal work 
 that it nwy be brought to a full perfection — because it is to be the (ouiidation of so 
 great a work, both for the good of the kingdom in general, and lor the particular 
 interest of every Ba.onet* Whilst, then, in compliance with that Royal command- 
 ment, and in consideration of the necessities now pressing upon all ranks and classes 
 of the subject in Scotland, the Baronets are bound in honour and conscience to revive 
 the uses of their Order, our gracious Queen, her mhiisters and g«vernnient, are no 
 less bound in honour and conscience to facilitate the restoration of the Baronetage, 
 and to do whatever is needful to render it again the state organ of utility, in that 
 noble but neglected domain of social happiness and national aggrandisement, which 
 its Royal institutor intended it hereditarily to be. 
 
 " Finally, whilst this Committee, as representing the interests of the Scottish 
 Baronetage, consider the time has arrived when they may look with confidence to the 
 government for aid and encouragement, as regards the claim of right now urged by 
 the Baronets; nevertheless, pending that settlement, they have deputed it to .this 
 Deputation to lodge in the hands of Her Majesty's Government a formal protest 
 against the sale, grant, or concession of the vacant soil in any of the districts of the 
 Royal Province of New Scotland as originally bounded, and which comprehends. 
 Nova Scoti^v proper. New Jirunswick, Gaspe, Anticosti, Prince Edward Island, 
 Cape Breton, &c. In discharge, therefore, of this trust, the Deputation call Earl 
 Grey's particular attention, as presiding overthe Colonial Department of her Majes- 
 ty's Government, to the following clause in the foundation charter of the Scot- 
 tish Baronetage, viz., that the said charter 'is and shall be valid, sufficient, and 
 effectual, in all time coining, in all points thereof, against the Crown, its heirs 
 and successors, and against all other persons whatsoever, in all the courts of 
 the crown, and in those of its heirs and successors, and in all other places whatso- 
 ever, at all times and occasions, notwithstanding whatever law, custom, prescription, 
 practice, ordinance, or constitution hitherto made, ordained, and published or provi- 
 dedjjlid.notwithstanding any other matter, cause, or occasion whatsoever.' And the 
 Deputation formally protest against the sale, grant, or concession of any of the lands 
 still vacant in the Royal Province of New Scotland, as originally bounded, pending 
 the issue of the proceedings in which the Baronets are now engaged ; protesting and 
 declaring that all such sales, grants, or concessions, if any such shall be made to any 
 person or bodies whatsoever, from and after this date, are and shall be null and void 
 in law, notwithstanding whatever practice, expedient, or device may be set up or 
 alleged to the contrary. 
 
 " Signed by order of the Committee; and on behalf of the Deputation, this 2d day 
 of June, 1848. 
 
 " W. A. MAXWELL,Bart., Prese8, 
 "R. BROUN, Bart., Hon. Sec." 
 
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 A letter was read from Mr. Hawes, Under Colo; , Secretary, dated the 17th of 
 June, 1848, stating — "That Earl Grey having had uuae- his consideration the 'Me- 
 morandum and Protest' left with him by a Deputation from the Committee of the 
 Baronets of Scotland, on the subject of their claim to land in Nova Scotia, he was 
 directed by his lordship to acquaint the Committee, that, entertaining a conviction 
 tliat the alienation of the large extent of land which the Baronets claimed would be 
 highly detrimental to the public interests, and at the same time believing their claim 
 to such a grant, as one of right, to be untenable, his Lordship regrets that he can 
 return no other answer than that he declines to admit this claim, and will feel it his 
 duty to resist any legal measures which the Baronets of Scotland may think proper 
 to adopt for its establishment." 
 
 The attention of the Committee was called to the following ratification, by the 
 Scottish Parliament, of the rights and privileges vested in the Baronetage, bearing 
 date the 31st of July, 1(}30, viz.: — "The Estates presently conveened, all in one voice 
 ratifies, allows, approves, and confirms the Dignity and Order of Baronets erected by 
 his Majesty, and his late dear father, of blessed memory, and conferred by them 
 upon sundry Gentleman of good quality, for their better encouragement and retribu- 
 tion of their undertakings in the plantation of New Scotland, with all acts of the 
 Privy Council, and proclamations following thereupon, made for maintaining of the 
 said dignity, place, and precedency due thereunto, to continue and stand in force in 
 all time coming. And the said Estates, all in one voice, have concluded and agreed 
 tliat his Majesty shall be petitioned to maintain his right of New Scotland, and to* 
 
6 
 
 protect his subjects, undertakers of the said plantation, in the peaceable possession 
 of the same, as being a purpose highly concerning his Majesty's honour, and the good 
 and credit of this his ancient kingdom." Also to the following statute act passed 
 by Charles I, and the Scottish parliament, on the '28th of June, 1633, viz.: — "Our 
 Sovereign Lord and the Estates of this present parliament ratifies and approves the 
 Act of General Convention of Estates, at Holyrocd House, the last day of July, 
 1630, whereby the said Estates have ratified and approved the Dignity and Order of 
 Baronets, with all the acts of Privy Council and proclamations following thereupon, 
 made for the maintaining of the said dignity, place, and precedency thereof, &c.; and 
 his Majesty and Estates aforesaid will, statute, and ordain, that the said letters 
 patent, charters, and infoftments, and the said dignity, title, and Order of liaronets, 
 and all letters patent and infeftments of lands and dignities granted therewith to any 
 person whatsoever, shall stand and continue in full force, witii all liberties, privileges, 
 and precedencies thereof, according to the tenor of the same, and in as ample a 
 nianuf r as if the bodies of the said letters patent, infeftments, &c., above-mentioned, 
 were herein particularly engrossed and expressed." 
 
 There was laid on the table a copy of the book printed in 1842, by the order of 
 the Court of Directors, entitled " A Concise View of the Origin, Constitution, and 
 Proceedings of the Honourable Society of the Governor and Assistants of liOndon 
 of the New Plantation in Ulster, within the Realm of Ireland, commonly called the 
 Irish Society." And extracts were read from Mr. UodlVey's pamphlet, e'ltitled 
 " Letters and Correspondence on the Halifax and Quebec Railroad," showing that 
 the vacant lands recently held by the Crown in Nova Scotia proper amounted to 
 5,787,772 -cres; ditto in New Brunswick, 12,300,851; ditto in Canada, 70,000,000; 
 ditto in Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, 1,000,000; ditto in Gaspe, 
 4,586,71'6. Total, !)3,I<J5, 369 acres. 
 
 Letters were reported from various absent Baronets concurring in the propriety of 
 the steps which are being taken by the Committee. Also communications from 
 several correspondents in the Colonies, from one of which the following is an 
 extract : — " If the Baronets do not exert themselves and vindicate their rights, 
 depend upon it that every year tends but to weaken the connection between England 
 and her North American dominions. This is my firm conviction from extensive 
 local knowledge of the lower provinces. My feelings are strongly interested in the 
 advancement of this question; because I am satisfied that the greatness and stability 
 of the British connection with America is dependent on the success of your enter- 
 prise." Dr. Gesner, commissioner in Nova Scotia for Indian aifairs, writes as 
 follows : — " I trust all due allowance will be made for me when I remark that there 
 exists in this quarter a conuiion prejudice against the introduction of titled land- 
 owners, and all large grants of land to such claimants. And this prejudice extends 
 throughout the whole of North America. But this unfavourable opinion may, I have 
 no doubt, be removed in this province by a timely development of the objects pro- 
 posed by the Baronets of Nova Scotia, especially when they are associated together 
 to promote immigration, and the improvement of the resources of the country. With 
 the claims of the Order t am unacquainted; but having understood from articles that 
 have appeared in the papers, that they still retain a desire to settle the wilderness 
 lands that remain unalienated from the Crown, I have felt an ititerest in their cause, 
 which, by being promoted, would be generally advantageous to this and the parent 
 country." 
 
 Air. Gillies, the loyal and talented Editor of the Colonial Wafchman, published 
 at St. John, likewise makes thr following comments, in August last, on the pro- 
 ceedings of the Order: — " We r-ipeat our conviction that it would greatly benefit the 
 colony if the Baronets got 2,-500,000 acres altogether in New Brunswick, on the 
 express condition, however, of their occupying them by a rcsidcii' population within 
 a reasonable time. An iniirease of population is what we want, and we cannot 
 understand what solid objections can possible be made to 20,000 or 30,000 Scottish 
 settlers, rich and poor as they may happen to be, who would bring with them habits 
 of industry and economy, as well, as in many cases, a complete knowledge of agri- 
 culture. If gentlemen of rank, education, and property, should come with them, 
 there is nothing in our view of things could be more valuable." 
 
 The following extract from the St. John Courier, received by the last mail, was 
 read : — " Tor some weeks past wc have observed, with much regret, the departure 
 for the United States, by every steamer, of numbers of your.j, active, and enter- 
 prising persons, natives of this province, who go 'to return no more' to this colony. 
 
4« 
 
 was 
 ture 
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 inv. 
 
 Jn each succeeding week the throng of tliose depaitiiig seems to iiicicasc, and it is 
 painful to notice among them many — sometimes whole families — whom we should 
 have supposed firmly rooted to our soil, and attached to it hy numberless ties." 
 Also the following, from a letter, dated Nov. 12, 1846, written hy a Yorkshire 
 gentleman, lately high sherilf of that county, who liad twice during the summer of 
 that year travelled over a great portion of New Brunswick : — " In traversing the 
 province, I had many opportunities of judging of the soil, climate, &c. In the 
 counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Gloucester, and Restigouche, particularly 
 in the two latter, the soil cannot be surpassed, and is not equalled by any that I have 
 seen in this country, or on the continent of Europe. As a proof, wheat weighs 
 68 jibs, to the bushel, and, at the agricultural meeting at Bathurst, the average was 
 661bs., and other produce in proportion. The climate is most salubrious and healthy. 
 I saw numbers of emigrants who, in a few years, have been enabled to purchase their 
 properties, and are now living in a state of independence. From ils position, soil, 
 and climate, I consider that New ■^jnmswick possesses many advantages tor emigrants 
 over Canada, South Australia, and New Zealand; an(i, by documents, I am prepared 
 to prove it. I am convinced that the government are not aware of the rc:il value, 
 importance, and resources of our North American provinces, or they would at once 
 turn their attention to them, and adopt measures for preserving and assisting in 
 colonizing tliom. Tlmse several provinces must be united by one governor-general, 
 with one parliament, a uniform currency, and free interchange of produce." 
 
 Mr. Godfrey, also, in his able pamphlet, already cited, states that, " between 
 Halifax and Quebec there is sufficient space for the comfoi'table support of 1,000,000 
 people, provided they depended entirely tipon agriculture for support- — but that 
 would not be the case;" whilst, in a letter dated February, 18.1'7, he observes, "One 
 great error that our rulers have fallen info is, that they do not distinguish between 
 colonization and emigration. There are, on the average, some 30,000 souls who 
 annually emigrate to these provinces. Yet I do not know a single instance where 
 any number of these people have beconi'^ permanent settlers. Of some 0,000 persons 
 who landed at St. John, New Bumswick, last year, (ISKi.) I do not believe that 
 one hundred persons are now to be found in that province of all who emigrated to 
 it ! " Another correspondent, whose letter is dated from Nova Scotia, in .January 
 last, says, " If the Baronets required the lands actually granted to them, and many 
 of which have long since heen sold hy the Government, and are now occupied, a 
 serious question would indeed arise. But they only ask a limited compensation in 
 waste and ungranted tracts, the improvement of wliieh would greatly benefit the 
 country where they are situated, and relieve the sufferings of British subjects who 
 are desirous to emigrate. What the Riironets seek to obtain has been granted to 
 thousands of individuals in this country — to many who had no claims — and, in 
 many instances, ta those who are rank republicans. The oiler of tlie Baronets 
 is, therefore, one of favour to the imperial Government ami to th ■ colony. This 
 view is capable of removing much opposition." 
 
 Letters were reported from Robert Sherriil", Esq., of Fitzroy Ilirbour, Canada, 
 the senior co-heir and representative of Sir William Alexander, Viscount of Canada, 
 and Earl of Stii;,i^ and Dovan, Over-Lord of Nova Scotia .and Canada, and her 
 Majesty's Hereditary Lieutenant or Viceroy in those provinces. 
 
 These several reports and communications having been made, the Convener of 
 the Committee and its Hon. Secretary, the Hon. Sir Richard Broun, Biirt., sub- 
 mitted for consideration and adoption the series of resolutions hereafter noticed, and 
 in doing so made the following Address : — 
 
 " It is in the remembrance of the members of this Committee, and also of the 
 members in gener.il of the Hereditary Order whom the Committee represent, that, 
 on a former occasion, and after hearing various legal authorities on the point, it was 
 unanimously resolved that the (jUL'stion of the validity of the territorial rights and 
 privileges subsisting in the Scottish Baronetage, under the chartered covenants and 
 grants of James I., Charles I., and succeeding sovereigns, should be raised by that 
 process of law technically called a Petition of Rigid. The inducing reasons which 
 led the Committee to that conclusion briefly comprised these — viz.: " That a Peti- 
 tion of Right was a much more preferable mode of raising the question than by a 
 Petition to the Queen in Council, inasmuch as the adoj)tion of the latter course 
 would he for the Baronets to select a tribunal to adjudicate \i))on their case, which 
 was liable to several objections, but especially to this, that the Judicial Comuiittec 
 ^ the Privy Council might, after considering the petition, come to the conclusion 
 
upon it that they had nu jurisdiction. Tliat, on the oontiiiry, hy a Petition of Right, 
 the Sovereign was Rsked to name the tribunal, and it (lid not follow that Uer Majesty 
 might not be advised to refer it to the Privy Council, in which event, however, it 
 would come before their lordships, not from the BnronctN, hut from the Queen, with 
 the endorsement, ' Let right be done.' That, in this laltt'r cniie, the Petition would 
 come before the Privy Council not in their judicial onpaolty ui\dor the recent Act, 
 but in their elder capacity, and they would sit upon it «« a comntUiiion to instruct 
 the conscietice of the Queen. That a Petition to the Queen in Council might be 
 inoperative, whereas a petition of right embraced the wldvHt poHtdhle range. That, 
 by going to the Privy Council, the Baronets would ask for litigation, whereas, by 
 going to the Queen, they would ask for right. That, on ronaidering the petition of 
 right, the Queen might be advised to prant its prayer, otherwise it would be cer- 
 tainly referred to some Court competent to entertain it. and to come at once to ti 
 decision on the merits. That there was little ditferenoe in n petition of right and a 
 Petition to the Queen in Council, as regarded forma, but the cflVotof the former 
 would be very different from that of the latter, and would hu attended with much 
 less delay and expense." Since the date of the meeting of the Ctmnnittee referred to, 
 an elaborate Petition of Right has been prepared under the profesnional supervision 
 of Mr. H. S. Westmacott, of St. John-street, Uedford-row, the head of one of the 
 most eminent solicitor firms in Loudon i and further, the joint logal opinion of two 
 of the ablest juris-consults at the Knglish bar has been taken U|inn the same, who 
 agree in thinking, after a full consideration of the documentHry evidence laid before 
 them, 'That the Baronets of Scotland, created ttom lU'ifi to 1G38, hold their 
 respective Baronies of 16,000 acres each in Nova Scotia, (»a originally bounded, 
 which includes New Brunswick, &c.) given with other titlea, in free blanch farm, 
 and as liege regal fiefs immediately of the Kings of Scotland ; that the Baronets 
 created between 1638 and the Union in 1707 have the snine equitable rights to 
 Baronies of 16,000 acres each in Nova Scotia as they would have had if their 
 charters had been made out ad longum, the general words in their family patents, 
 taken in connection with the regulating patent of the Premier Baronet and other 
 instruments, constituting a suflScient obligation to bind thti oonsoienoe of the Sove- 
 reign ; that the rights and privileges of the whole body or Order are valid and 
 subsisting, not having been extinguished or impaired by statutes of limitation, 
 by adverse possession, by foreign conquest, by non-tisngc, nor by any other 
 cause or circumstance whatsoever ; and that it is open and oompettut to the 
 Baronets to recover the same by an application to tho Sovereign in person, 
 as the fountain of justice, through the legal medium of a ' Petition qf Right.' 
 This Opinion was laid belore a meeting of the Coujmittee held at Edinburgh on 
 the 9th of September last year, the Right Hon. the Earl of Camwath presiding, 
 when the Committee unanimously approved of the presentntlou to Her Majesty of the 
 Petition of Right, and directed that all due diligence should be \ised to urge forward 
 the proceedings to an immediate conclusion. The cireuuistuuce, hnwever, that a 
 noble Baronet then present, placed in the hands of the Committee copies of 
 various important documents previously undiscovered, showing that the Baronets, 
 after several general meetings, had made in 1777, (only fourteen years after the 
 Treaty of Paris, when Nova Scotia was finally restored by tho French, and when 
 scarcely any portion of the Province as originally bounded was settled) a formal 
 application to the Crown for the restoration of their rights and privileges — taken in 
 conjunction with the exigent necessity for an immediate regulated colonisation of 
 British North America, produced by the late Famine Visitation— led the Committee, 
 on its first assembling for business this session, to think, that previous to presenting 
 the Petition of Right, it would be desirable to adopt the interntediate course of waiting 
 upon Earl Grey by a deputation, and placing in his hands the " Memorandum and 
 Protest,' a copy of which is now before the public. That document contains a pro- 
 position, not only unexceptionable in itself, but one which wa**, and is, supported by 
 considerations that well may be held irresistible. And yet what is the issue? It 
 is one that leaves the chartered rights of the Order wholly unharmed. It is one that 
 will checkmate all colonising enterprise, all railway projects, all investments in 
 lands, in mines, in fishings, in buildings, &c., throughout Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
 wick, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, and Gaspe ; for what British emigrant or 
 capitalist, in the face of this ' Memorandum and Protest,' will or can have any 
 security on which he can rely for any outlay of money from its datu within these 
 bounds? It is one, further, that will astonish ami aggrieve every junl and loyal- 
 
minded subject of tlic Cniwii, both in Scotland aiul in Nova Si-oti i. Thv ndiijre is 
 aa old as the days of the Ronifins — ' Quod Dma viilt perdvre prius demeninl.' 
 And if anything was wanting- to till xip that cup of popular indijination which tlie 
 present aditiinis'ration have of late hrewcd for their own drinking, it is just this 
 answer — an answer, given at a crisis when revolutionary emotions are rankling in 
 the breasts of millions in the United Kin;:rdom, whicli demonstrates an amount of 
 injustiee in the official advisers of the Sovereign in regard to matters of regal cove- 
 nant, privy council decree, and parliaiufntary statute, which is exceeded alone by its 
 imbecility. Supporting, as I have ever done. Conservative principles — abhorring, as 
 T do, the degrading policy of that Power-loom School, which would barter the whole 
 dependencies of this great maritime enir»ire for such a mess of pottage as the prac- 
 tical development of that new rule in ethics, ' Huy in the cheapt st — sell in the dearest 
 market,' is certa'n to entail — nevertheless I was one of those who hailed Earl 
 (Jrey's advent to Colonial Office rule with satisfactioti, fancying that he was a 
 statesman of such a calibre as would in some measure have re;!eemed that depart- 
 ment from being the sink of administrative inutility and corruption into which it 
 has fallen. But the combination of great opportunities which recent events have 
 produced for making his term of oilieiHl life glorious to himself, and memorable in 
 l!ie social annals of the monarchy, have all been perverted, abused, and rendered 
 nugatory. And now it is manifest that a mind more inane, more shallow, and 
 opaque, in all main questions of international concernment, never darkened the coun- 
 cils of the cabinet, nor ministered to the well-alFectcdof the subject, whether at home 
 or abroad, morf poignant grounds for merited reprobation. This man, be it remem- 
 bered, stands in the place of him in the counsels of the Sovereign, and in tlie 
 administration of the general affairs of the realm, who pre-emiuf ntly has the power, 
 were the volition also present, to do for this age and people scrvi -cs higher and more 
 enduring than those which Nelsou achieved on the (juarter-deck, or Wellington in 
 the field. And what hitherto have heen the sum-alls and the do-alls of this Colonial 
 Office chief? What, wiih millions of oppressed and suffering fellow-ereatures in the 
 united isles, willing to emigrate — wh-it, with millions of vacant acres of fertile soil, 
 only eight days' distance from our shores, seeking to be brought undi-r the dominion 
 of the plough — what, with the ability to create, and put into colonial circ\ilation, 
 millions of such currency as that by which Pennslyvania was planted, has been the 
 upshot of Earl Grey's colonial career? A continuiince simply of thiit ' Dog in the 
 Manger' policy, which will neither occupy aright this va^t field of national aggran- 
 disement, nor suflTer others, even those men who are its legitimate owners, to occupy 
 it! True it is. Earl Grey, since his accession, has thrown overboard that Jonah of 
 Colonial Office thimble-rigging and d"faults which had raised against that depait- 
 mcnt a just storm of seeva indis,nalw in every colony and dependency of the British 
 Crown. But what avails the exchange from a stool in the bureau to a chair in the 
 Privy Council, so long as every nook and corner of the Colonisl Office is filled with 
 the haze of an impure atmosphere, through which for ct iituries there has never per- 
 meated one noble thought — one bright wish — or one effective volition in favour of 
 that command first breathed as a blessing over our race in paraHise ; but disobedi- 
 ence to which, within the British isles, has filled our workhouses with idleness, our 
 gaols with crime, and our cottages with penury? The Times has lately remarked, 
 that 'a great statesman long ere this would have planned, encouraged, adorned, and 
 ennobled emigration.' But what minister has ever yet held the Colonial keys of 
 whom it may not truly be remarked that by so doing ' he unlaced his rc])utation,' if 
 he ever had such, and ' spent his rich opinion.' Colonization ! the word, as an 
 expression, is to be found within the leaves of our dictionaries, but, as a 'great fact,' 
 as a living reality, it has no existence in any portion of world-wide Britain. ' Amid 
 the spoils of every clime,' says a native authority. ' Britain nowhere sees the likeness 
 of herself. A true child of the majestic mother is nowhere to be found. We have 
 stocked plantations with slaves ; we have occupied rocks with soldiers : and peopled 
 solitudes with crime. We have increased the nominal rent-roll of the empire by 
 almost any compliance and at any expense. Yet the Englishman who once em- 
 barks from these shores will never again see happy England till he returns !' On 
 the same theme a foreign writer pours out upon us this burning reproach, ' You 
 seem to have made a choice diametrically opposite to that of Solomon. He chose 
 mind — wisdom. You have chosen the world. But do you hold it ? The British 
 empire is indeed a grand world! But what is an empire? A harmony of nations. 
 You have, I know well, your triplicity of powers —agriculturil, industrial, and naval 
 
10 
 
 ITiese are certainly very powerful means. And yet how does it happen tlmt having 
 them, you have s ucceeded so little in taking root ? I see you everywhere on the 
 surface of the globe — but firmly rooted nowhere. The reason is, that you have been 
 everywhere gathering and sucking the substance of the .^avth, but implanting no- 
 thing, no sympathy — no thought ! Having brought no noral ideas with you, ymi 
 have founded nowhere. But of all the English countries, the one that has suflered 
 the most by such a policy is assuredly England herself. Here the banker! will 
 laugh, and so will the lords perhaps, and with them a few hundred thousand men— Che 
 vampires of England. Yes ! but 20 million men are weeping, and these men arc 
 England herself.' The time, however, has come when the sin and shame of coloni- 
 zation neglect must be * put down,' and when the intellectuality, the loyalty, and the 
 Christianity of the nation must be aroused, and put in action, to advance the mighty 
 and benificent work for which the wisdom and patriotism of former kings, privy 
 councils, and parliaments, called this Order into perpetual existence — albeit the revi- 
 val of its uses appears 'alienation' to the conglomerated vision of a minister of the 
 Crown and a member of the Baronetage, on whose family shield shiiics the jilantiition 
 hand of Ulster, as a hatchment docs on the sepulchre of the dead ! Earl Grey, too, 
 since his term of olllcial sway, has busied himself with Labuan schemes, and AuBtra- 
 lian settlement concerns. But the statesman who can balance such acts of oommil- 
 sion in our remote eastern hemisphere, 20,000 miles distant, with his actsofoinldslon 
 in British North America, is fit only to rock the cradle of incipient democrnciek, and 
 to be parcel of a cabinet who can see the mote in the eye of such puny rebeU M 
 Ireland gives birth to, without discerning the beam of treason that darkens their 
 own. What is Irelanc' to us ? what would be the addition to the fabric market, of 
 Manchester of all the sang culotle tribes of Oceana, compared with the right 
 monarchical plantation of that mighty continent, only 16^0 statute miles Iroill 
 Valentia, and stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which is destined by Pro- 
 vidence to ^ the home-seat of British power, of Britisn industry, of British outlet, 
 through all the future 'generations of mankind ?* And yet that continent it now in 
 jeopardy — yet now that continent is hourly slipping from our grasp. ' Look at the 
 map, and where on the face of the earth do we find anything compared to the por- 
 tion of Nova Scotia in its ancient limits? Where do we find elsewhere throughout 
 the globe anything like its harbours, its mines, its facility of transport, and whatever 
 ha3 furnished the richness of Britain, its fisheries, its navigation, its n>aritiine great- 
 ness, its means of constructing ships, and of forn\ing the men by which they are to 
 be navigated I Cape Breton, Nova Sfotia {proper) New Brunswick, Prince Ed- 
 ward Island, are the very sources of maritime power — it is there the Trident hat 
 sprung' ^•^'^.nd has held that trident only since she possessed tlicm j and when 
 she l.ises them, it will have fallen from her grasp fur ever, if it has not been already 
 shattered in her hand. We stand, and have stood, in war invulnerable, not merely 
 because wc are an island, but because our island is constructed in a peculiar mannor> 
 It has the advantages of attack without being liable to the injuries of assault. Wo 
 have harbours looking upon rnd threatening the shores of France and Germany, 
 whilst they have no corresponding fastnesses and keeps. Further, we are to wind- 
 ward, and they are to leeward; we can send forth fleets to their coasts, favoured by 
 the winds by which tliey are opprc^8ed. This controlling power, possesNed by 
 England over the Continent, is exercised by North .\merica over Europe. A» 
 England stands with respect to the coasts of the Northern Ocean and to France, so 
 does Nova Scotia stand with respect to Europe, and to England herself. Westerly 
 winds blow during tw«-thirds of the year, and from Nova Scotia's thousand harbour* 
 fleets may reach the Mediterranean sboner than from Plymouth or the Downs. 
 Look at this position, and then count the fortune we ho'.d out to other powers the 
 moment we nre regardless of the value of our own North American possessions. In 
 these Colonies reside mamifaeturing means equal to those that Great Britain enjoys. 
 There is the same happy juxtaposition of iron and coal. There are fisheries et|iuil 
 and superior to those of England. There .";e to be found coasts and harbours, anil 
 extensive means of water- commimication, still greater than even the wonduiful 
 natural advantages of England can rival. There resides the maritime power which 
 tnust conunand Europe both by its timber and its naval position.'f Put, bcaidea 
 these things, the stern revolutionary necessitits which excess of population ia 
 
 ♦From Valentia Harlionr to Cunsenu the distance is only IfiSO statute mile«, and the lliin. 
 ('apt. Owon, R.N. statpii, the pnssnur may Ite nia<le in six davs, nr In six niul a linlf. 
 f .Mr. Unmliart. .M, l\ 
 
 4i 
 
■. 
 
 44 
 
^t! 
 
11 
 
 hourly giving birth to in the United Kingdom. Put, besides these things, the 
 ur'raosities and the tendencies of the United States — not, be it recollected, of 
 a monarchial community, sprung from our loins, for even although revolted 
 would have been a glory in that — but of a republican rabble, a democratic, 
 ] ankenstein populace, burning towards England with the deadliest hate. Put, 
 besides these things, thai; imperium in imperio ' La Nation Canadienne,' now 
 presided over by men for whose apprehension ten years back, as traitors and rebels, 
 rewards varying from i6500 to £1000 were offered — and whose banner, displayed in 
 December, 1837, bore a motto justifying their treason, culled from a document of 
 one of Earl Grey's own predecessors in office. Put, I repeat, these things together, 
 and then let every man who owns fealty to this great, this resplendent monarchy — 
 every man who has a heart British at the core— every man who ' Fears God, honours 
 the Sovereign, and loves the brethren,' in contradistinction to the modem war- 
 whoop, ' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' — consider whether this noble atid powerful 
 Order should regard Earl Grey's reply to our 'Memorandum and Protest,' in any 
 other light than as dirt to be trampled under foot with ignominy and scorn! 
 
 " But to turn from this topic. Noble sir, we muster to-day in no great force. I am 
 speaking in a small assembly — as small almost as the quorum of the Huusc of lords 
 when a great act of oppression and injustice was done to Scotland, and a vote was 
 passed by a tribunal at once alisn and incompetent to deal with matters of Scottish 
 ecclesiastical polity, which had the eflect of rending in twain her national church. 
 But I am not speaking alone to those tliat are now present, but to the whole 
 memberhood, the whole chartered corporation, Peers and Baronets, (upwards of one 
 hundred and fifty in number,) who have a family interest in the vast question at 
 stake. This is a Committee of the entire Order, of our whole house, and all who are 
 absent in person are present by representation. Further, I am speaking in the 
 audience and on behalf of the Scottish Nation ; and by the words Scottish Nation I 
 mean the inhabitants of Scotland, whether European or Transatlantic, for Old 
 Scotland and New Scotland form part and parcel of one integral state, and are 
 inseparable by any statute that a British legislature may pass or sanction having 
 such a purview. I am speaking, too, on a matter concerning which it has been 
 remarked by one — now, alas, in the tomb — who received hereditary honours from 
 the hand of George IlL, for services such as few men in any age or reign ever 
 rendered to the Crown : ' It is a grand, a glorious project — its influence extends 
 over a vast space, both in the old world and in the new, and must affect the destinies 
 of hundreds of thousands of human beings not only now, but for ages yet to come.' 
 I am, finally, speaking when the chair is filled by the head of the senior line of the 
 premier ducal house in Scotland — a house declared in 1543 heir presumptive to the 
 crown J and when there are present men of whose ancestors it may truly be said, that 
 they mainly helped to lay the foundation of the Scottish Monarchy, and to 
 fight those battles for freedom and patriotism which have jointly conspired to render 
 that throne one of the most stable and illustrious in Christendom. On this 
 occasion, then, and seeing from the correspondence on the table that doubts 
 elsewhere exist as to the views and objects proposed by this movement, it may be 
 well at this juncture to rc-capitulate what they are. And, first of all, this is not to 
 be regarded as a mere question of interest to tlie members and families of the Scottish 
 Baronetage on the sordid consideration of pounds, shillings, and pence; but one as 
 defined by the charters of the Sovereigns who united tlie parent and the daughter 
 country; as one of national ' opulence, prosperity, and peace.' James I. and 
 Charles L called tins Order into perpetual being, and endowed it with its vast 
 territorial, seigneurial, commercial, aivd political -rights nd privileges — and why? 
 That ' every Baronet in particular, and that the whole Scottish people generally, 
 might thereby have the honour and profit.' Not honour alone, nor profit alone, but 
 both combined. We seek, tlien, the restitution of our rights ami privileges on the 
 highest of all public considerations; and we say further, that their restitution to the 
 fullest extent compatible with the advanced state of society can be urged upon, 
 and is supported by, the nmst exalted principles of national justice, humanity, and 
 policy. What would be the practical working out by the Baronets of Scotland of 
 that well-devised code of polity which their charters contain, but simply this — the 
 creation in British North America of a reflex of Scotland, not as what she was in 
 the dark periods of her feudal system, not as what hhe now is, ulcered over with 
 the worse than ' Pit and Gallows' bondage of jjnuperisni— but what she ought to 
 be, and will and shall be, when her natural resources are fully developed, and when 
 
12 
 
 wniU, ignomnce, and vice are generally put down by means ol" that noble and ever 
 active nnd efficient Machinery in her Churches and in her Schools, which has already 
 made her the best bulwark of the Protestant faith, and the purest exemplar to Europe 
 of whatever is highest in monHrchical loyalty, in constitutional fidelity, in industrial 
 enterprise, and in social worth. For myself, and knowing that low democratic and 
 republican sentiments in regard to great Crown tenants in chief supervade the mind 
 of the nascent populition of New Scotland, I do not consider there is one clause 
 within the four corners of the instruments collectively forming the Magna Charta of 
 the Scottish Baronetage of which the people o1" Scotland ought not to be as jealously, 
 as unitedly protective, as is the English subject of those which the Barons of that 
 realm achieved at Runnymede. And, in this view of the case, I will never, for one, 
 rest satistied until I see the vice-regal throne of Novi Scotia restored in the person of 
 the rightful heir of that illus'rious ho\ise to which it hereditarily belongs, and until 
 I sec, likewise, the common banner of tliis noble and nughty Order unfurled on every 
 battlement and keep of that keystone against United States' aggression on the one 
 hand, and of French Canadian predilections on the other, which, by position and 
 resources, must ever be the arx et doiniciliiim of British sovereignity in the west( rn 
 world. Let there, then, be no dubiety as to the extent to which this movement tends, 
 or, in relation to this other point, that the Baronets of Seotlatid — i. p., such of them 
 as may become domiciled in the province — will assert that right to hereditary seat 
 and voice in the legislative assemblies of Nova Scotia which their charters give to 
 them, in virtue of their respective Baronies and regalities of 1G,000 acres each. But, 
 at the same time, whilst every foot of Britisli North American soil south of the St. 
 Lawrence is the property of the Stirling Earldom heirs and of the Baronets, no 
 parties in present occupation need be under the slightest apprehension that their 
 private interests will be disturbed. Within the bounds defined by the grants to the 
 hereditary Lieutenant and the Baronets, there are still vacant and unsettled upwards 
 of 2^,000,000 acres — a quantity more than will suffice to meet, by m my times told, 
 all our demands. The properties belonging to the Baronets do not exceed two 
 million and a half acres; and these, if selected from the vacant lands in New 
 Brunswick, in consolidated blocks of seven Baronies each — i.e., 112,000 acres — 
 would put a simultaneous plantation machinery at work in that district of New 
 Scotland, equivalent to that which would be produced by upwards of twenty new 
 corporate associations. But no mere commercial company can do the work that this 
 Order united can accomplish. For the prest iff e of an old nobility in the heading of 
 an enterprise of this description is a thing which money cannot manufacture, nor a 
 reigning Sovereign create, nor a democratic government countervail. Hence, if we 
 are ever to have an effectual Crus:>(le of Peace to the western hemis];here, its leading 
 staff' can alone be wielded by the B.ironets of Scotland — a body whose family honours 
 are identified with this cause, and whose hereditnry titles render it cneroiis that ihcy 
 should advance it in every age and reign. In this view of the ease, well may the 
 writer of one of the letters on the table — one of the most intelli;;ent and loyal men in 
 Nova Sootia — remark, 'The offer of the Baronets is one of favouu to the Ini])erial 
 Government and to the colony.' That it is both, will be a ([uestion to no mind in 
 which dwells any correct perceptions of public virtue. No nation was ever so gifted, 
 so fitted, as is Scotland fir colonization enterprise. And when the 150 Baronies 
 and regalities of her Baronets become, not cesspools for the reception of such drift as 
 the ravages of hiniger and want ever and anon waft acrnss the AtUntic, but planta- 
 tion-adjuncts to our Sabbath .ind industrial schools, where the rising generations of 
 gen< rou8 Scottish youth are continually being trained in the pathways of religion 
 and science, who can estimate theinoral and the social excellencies of such a course, 
 or shall dare to arrest it in its onward progress to so glorious a consmnmation ? Nor 
 lei there be any feelings of jealousy or ill-will in this artiiir, on the part of either or 
 both of the sister kingdoms. 'I'hey also have their Baronets ; and between the (ircat 
 Lakes and the Pacific there is room enough, and to spare, for the erection of two 
 vice-royalties— New England nnd New Ireland. History is written in vain, and 
 Ulster is no standing monument of the colonizing wisdom and beneficence of the 
 first British Monarch of the House of Stuart, if, through the instrumentality of fh« 
 Ulster Baronetage, there was not made, • in the short space of nine years, more 
 advances towards the reformation of Ireland, than had been made in the four hundred 
 and forty years which had elapsed since the conque-^l of i' was first attempted.' The 
 Hmes are out of joint worse than when James L, in l(il5, in a letter addressed to 
 the Lord Lieutrnaut of Ireland, urging forward settling operations in Ulater, added, 
 
18 
 
 Hours 
 ihcy 
 • the 
 M in 
 j)orial 
 11(1 in 
 ;ifie(i, 
 •onies 
 ift as 
 iinta- 
 )iis of 
 ijiioii 
 )urse, 
 Nor 
 er or 
 Ireat 
 two 
 and 
 the 
 th« 
 more 
 idred 
 The 
 'd to 
 Idfd. 
 
 in his own handwriting, this memorable postscript : — ' Mjf Lord, in this service I 
 expect that zeal and uprightness from you that you will spare no flesh, English or 
 Scottish ; for no private man's worth is able to counterbalance the particular safety 
 of a kingdom, which this plan;:ition, bemg well accomplished, will procure.' And it 
 would be worth the bestowal of 16,000 acres ot British North Ameirican soil, in the 
 territories indicated, upon every English, Irish, British, and United Kingdom 
 Baronet, provided the Order collectively would recollect, that the Baronetage was 
 instituted ' to establish that so great a province of the empire as Ireland should more 
 and more flourish, not only in the true practice of religion, civil humanity, and pro- 
 bity of manners, but also in the affluence of riclies, and the abundance of all things 
 which contribute either to the ornament or to the happiness of the Comtnonwealth,' 
 and make tha^ emembrance not a dead letter, hut a living inducement for practical 
 action. It is r jar as noon-day that Ulster is the only oasis in the social desert of 
 Ireland, and t ,:e is no exaggeration whatsoever in the remark that * It may now be 
 said that the pl.mtation of Ulster was an act of political wisdom of more importance 
 to Ireland, to Great Britain, and to Protestantism, than, perhaps, any other Royal 
 act in the liistory of our country.'* 
 
 " Having adverted to the views and objects whioh this movement implies, I have 
 next to say somewhat as to the wa> s and means by which the proceedings now in 
 progress shall be carried onward. We are engaged in a contest for the revival of 
 our birthrights which has already exceeded in duration the length of the Trojan war. 
 But we have worthier ends in contemplation than those for which blood was ever 
 spilt in any portion of the Pagan world — even an outlet from the bondage chains 
 of want for the millions of our countrymen who ask bread, and to whom the Govern- 
 irient oflTer a stone. We are not, then, a Body occupied with a warfare in which 
 there should be any hesitation — any lack of co-operatiou — or any feeling of parsimony. 
 The Cotton-spiimer's League, to throw down the protective laws which mainly built 
 up those huge manufacturing lazars in which Mammon and Moloch alone are deified, 
 and to enable them with, a 600 million iron-man-power, to wage an exterminating 
 competition with the manual industry of every neighbouring state, subscribed the 
 sum of £414,000. This cause, in which the Baronets are embarked, contemplates, 
 throu!<h a farming of the pauperism of Scotland, the addition to the fabric consump- 
 tion of Manchester of a larger, a stabler, and a better market than they will ever else- 
 where find within the precincts of the globe. And what is required to do this, regain 
 for every Baronet a princely inheritance in New Scotland, and add to the confines of 
 Scotland a realm twice as large as herself? A subscrijition only of i620 each fron the 
 several Peers and Baronets forming the order. Twenty pounds, multiplied by 1 50, 
 the number of members, is JG3000, a sum total so petty compared with the stake at 
 issue, involving as it does patrimonial inheritances that cannot be estimated worth 
 less than £5,000,000 sterling, that I should be ashamed to think that there can be 
 found even one man wearing the orange riband and jewel of Nova Scotia who shall 
 fail to give his quota towards the expenses, whether the issue prove favourable or 
 adverse. Twenty pounds is such a sum as blacklegs every day venture upon the 
 upshot of a cock-fi>?ht — and its negation in a cause like this by any Baronet would 
 not only be the height of itijustice to the heirs of his title coming after him, but also 
 a fruud towards the one hundred and forty- nine other members of the Order. Our 
 ancestors paid for these lands and privileges 3,000 mcrks each — 450,000 in all — no 
 inconsiderable sum two centuries back, when Nova Scotia was a terra incognita, 
 lying across what was then considered an i"^ -passable ocean ; and shall we to-day 
 with the signs and shakings of the times around us, giudge £20 a-piece to regain 
 them now ? But some may act upon the principle of standing aloof, and letting this 
 Committee fight the battle, with the mental reservation of Rob Roy at SherifT-Muir, 
 that they will step in at the close, and share the spoil, I have not occupied for twelve 
 years the place in which 1 stand to the Baronetage in both its great divisions — Ulster 
 and Nova Scotia — without knowing the length and breadth of every man's foot that it 
 enrols ; or without knowing also that within the Baronetage, ns well as without the Baro- 
 netage, there are to be found rotten-hearted men, men ot crawling minds — betrayers 
 of their state position, whether as regards hereditaments of Family honour, or elements 
 of Order power — and whose necks a halter would become as much as a cordon! 
 But I have yet to learn that there exists within the circle of this noble fraternity a 
 spirit so despicable as would first shrink a contribution of £'20, and afterwards clutch 
 a property of 16,000 acres. Neither can I imagine that there can be in our ranks 
 one heart so unpatriotic as to doubt the propriety of the steps now in progress — or 
 
 * Iter, Dr. Laufc. 
 
14 
 
 one head so shallow as to be sceptical abi)ut the result. Tlie time, however 
 has now arrived when those men in the Order who have hitherto been deaf 
 to the calls made upon them, should adopt one of two alternative- — either pay 
 the contribution expected, or agree to sell to this Committee their claims and 
 rights. If any, after the legal opinions taken and the progress achieved, shall be of 
 the notion that £20 is a better liird in the hand than lf»,()()0 acres of virgin soil in 
 the woods of New Brunswick, then we will readily buy up their interests in their 
 Baronies and regalities at such an estimate of their value. But my desire is that no 
 Baronet may be found either faithless or unfaithful in this cause, and that all con- 
 cerned, as one united and determined phalanx, may approach the Sovereign with our 
 Petition of Right, and abide the issue. Be it remembeied, that we are not a Body 
 that can be driven to the wall, unlfss we continue to be, through self-defection, a 
 mere parcel of disintegrated titularies, witliout common utilities, common sympathies, 
 or common aims. Tlie Baronetage nobility occupies in Scotland a position next in 
 rank and dignity to the Peerage nobility ; but far excelling the latter in the social 
 and political franchises which are vested in it. We have, at this moment, one of our 
 members in the Cabinet. About a third of the House of Commons is made up of 
 Baronets, their sons, brothers, and relatives; whilst in the House of Lords we have 
 more than twenty votes. If report speaks cci-rect, the coming Prime Minister will 
 not only be a Baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia, but one also of that name which 
 stands first upon our roll.~ But, however tliis may bo, no ministry can stand the force 
 of tlie corpopate action of this Order, when urging demands so rightful in themselves, 
 and which are supported by such considerations as those which our ' Memorandum 
 and Protest ' embody. It is perhaps a work of supererogation to dwell longer on 
 this topic. Yet this is no ordinary occasion — it is needful that great truths should 
 be reiterated ever and again in the national ears. When the Committee was insti- 
 tuted in November, ISH; I then observed that 'the time was at hand when the 
 Christian public of the whole united empire would esteem the Baronets that shall 
 fail to support this movement, to be such men as in a former age would have played 
 the coward on the field of Bannoekburn, und, in times more recent, would have 
 headed the massacre of Glenco.' I repeat that language to-day — and I also repeat 
 what I then urged on behalf of the necessity for, and the policy of, an extensive emi- 
 gration and a methodical colonization. 'The press, tiie pulpit, and the platform 
 have all,' I said, ' within the period of my labours in this selected field of usefulness, 
 plied on these themes the most convincing rhetoric. They have likewise been the 
 subjects of manifold addresses to the Throne — manifold petitions to parliament — 
 manifold appeals to the nation at large. Both cogent, and loud, and long have been 
 the articles penned, the speeches spoken, and the argnnients used, in or on this wide 
 but neglected domain of social enterprise. Is it needful then, that I should supple- 
 ment what the wisest heads, the largest hearts, and the loftiest minds in the nation 
 have exhausted? Systematic colonization is now a thing to be done, not a question 
 to be talked about — an experiment to be practisad, not a theory to be promulged. 
 And why ? Because the reasons to be assigned in words are results in operation. 
 Problems not they in the ideal regions of fancy or conjecture, but corollaries in 
 masses of organised matter and moral existence. Facts — great, mournful, overwhelm- 
 ing, terrific, have we to deal with, not merely laid up in sanitary reports, in poor-law- 
 commission proceedings, and in parliamentary investigations, but moving around and 
 about us in the gaui\t flcsli and honcof millions of our fellow-subjects, whose unheeded 
 suilVrings are silently, hut surely, preparing Heaven to pour retribution on all the 
 first-horn of the land.' Since these words were spoken but a few short years have 
 elapsed, but how pregnant they have been with woe.' How many and awful have 
 been the handwritings upon the wall. Famine, devastations, mercantile collapse, 
 conununity revolutions, sceptres broken, dynasties swept away. Is this, then, a time 
 when, with ancestral rights, and personal inducements, and posterity obligations, such 
 as no portion of the nobility of any kingdom or people ever possessed, we are to omit 
 the opportunities now jiatent to us of making Great Britain in the western world the 
 theatre of a mighty operation for the remedy of those evils in popul.ation that afflict 
 the united realms? ()r, by apathetic conduct, to countenance the growing supposi- 
 tion that tiie titled Orders are an effete superinciunbent mass upon the energies of 
 the nation, fit only to be broken like pie-crust, ami scattered to the winds? 
 
 " Already 1 have exceeded the length of an ordinary speech — and yet I cannot 
 conclude without making some observations somewhat partaking of a personal nature. 
 Tliroughout the long, the laborious, the chequered, the painful career, during which, 
 
15 
 
 in 
 
 tiehn- 
 
 h-law- 
 
 and 
 
 lecded 
 
 111 the 
 
 have 
 
 have 
 
 fapsp, 
 
 time 
 
 [such 
 
 1 omit 
 
 the 
 
 kfflict 
 
 )si- 
 
 ^s of 
 
 tnnot 
 Iture. 
 Ihich, 
 
 in good report and bad report, T have done what in ine lay to advance this cause — I 
 have had the gratification to experience the unbroken confidence of men of the 
 highest honour and personal worth in the Order, and to carry with me, through almost 
 insuperable difficulties, abating a few casual defections, the Order as a gentral body. 
 But the task of breathing new vitality into an institution that for 200 years has been 
 a corpus cadaver for all the high uses contemplated by its erection, is not a work for 
 one man's strength, nor yet, for a Committee, however distinguished in zeal, in talent, 
 or in consideration. In our 'Memorandum and Protest' we have ventured to submit 
 that ' the duty of restoring the public functions and utility of the Scottish Baronetage, 
 as a body constituted for ever to advance ' the opulence the prosperity, and the peace ' 
 of Scotland, by and through the right colonization and settlement of Nova Scotia, is 
 one alike onerous upon its members and the Crown ;' that * corruption, or non-utility, 
 in a great monarchical institute, is, under any circumstances, a state evil of enormous 
 magnitude, one which reflects equally upon the reigning Sovereign as the represent- 
 ative of the Royal Founder, and upon those whose titles and prerogatives have descended 
 upon them as retaining fees for personal exertions;' and that 'whilst in compliance 
 with Royal injunctions, and in consideration of the necessities now pressing upon all 
 ranks and classes of the subject in Scotland, the Baronets are bound in honour and 
 conscience to revive the u.-;es of tlieir Order, our gracious Queen, her ministers and 
 government, are no less bound in honour and conscience to facilitate the restoration 
 of the Baronetage, and to do whatever is needful to render it again the state organ of 
 utility in that noble but neglected domain of social happiness and national aggran- 
 disementj which its Royal Author intended it hereditarily to be.' "Whilst this, then, 
 is a work for the Sovereign on the throne and for the rulers in the land to put their 
 shoulder to, I have to bear my humble meed of praise to the noble and untiring 
 labours which the leading joinnals in the United Kingdom and in the British North 
 American colonies have given to the advancement of a cause in which I have only 
 been a fellow-worker with others whose minds and whose attainments are superior to 
 my own. This, however, I can say, that none of all who have put pen to paper on 
 colonization questions in the present reign has had to encounter such difficulties as 
 have interposed themselves to the progress of that mission which it is my lot to 
 serve. Nor do I stand this dsiy in this assembly without having it to say with poig- 
 nant feelings of pain ' They that hate me wrongfully are many in number, they also 
 that reward evil for good are against me.' It is now six yars, at this same ' 
 season, vhen, during a short absence in Scotland, the labours of many previous 
 consecutive years of toil were rendered abortive, and an avalanche, directed from 
 the hand of a colonial minister, prostrated an association organised by nie 
 for 'the best devised colonization plans,' to quote the language of a London 
 banker of thirty years' standing, ' that had ever, within the course of his 
 experience, appeared upon the Stock Exchange of London.' Nevertheless, I 
 have since borne forward, not as 1 best would, but as I best could, the standard of 
 this cause. And, notwithstanding the catastrophe I refer to, lot no individual, in 
 recollection of it, quote again;-t nie the fable of the ' Ass kicking the dying Lion.' 
 Earl Grey, though expiring daily in publl;i ostiiua'iiou, still .stands in the position of 
 a minister of the crown — and 1 myself, when less in my own eyes, and acting sfngle- 
 handtd, made good my right to a natitial honour, in despite of the present head of 
 the government, who, in 1839, debarred the Queen from the exercise, in my behalf, 
 of a regal duty, made onerous upon her alike by coronation vows and statute acts 
 of parliament, en the pretence 'that the reigning sovereign is not bound by the 
 engagements of her predecessors to confer the same!' It is true that my conduct in 
 that particular, and in consideration of which the general Committee of the Baro- 
 etage for Privileges bestowed upon me a testimonial of approval, has been viewed by 
 some few individuals, better fitted to hold a chamber door whilst a daughter was con- 
 tamitiated than to sit in judgment on such a proceeding, as tantamount to a 'bearding 
 of the Sovereign.' The Sovereign, however, never received at my hands, at any 
 time, or in any place, anything but loyal and dutiful respect. The bearding in 'he 
 case was a bearding of the Sovereign's mal-adviscrs — of men in olfice, who dcpiavcd 
 the laws, tampered with the personal obligations af their Royal mistress, and com- 
 promised the functions and the dignity of the Crown. And further, that upright 
 man — the Lonn Chiei- Justick or P^nolanh — who shortly afterwards opened the 
 prison doors of O'Conncll, thereby putting one foot on the decision of the law eourts 
 of Ireland, and tlie oiluT on the opinions of the Judges in England, has expressed 
 hin\self, from the judicial bench he adorns, witli special refertnce to the step 
 
10 
 
 tftkcn by me, that he saw nu harm in it. I am the O'Connell of a better cause than 
 that of tlie Repeal of ihe Union — even of one that not only contemplates the ex- 
 tinction of disaffection and distress within the British islands, but which will also 
 s<!e to it, that within the vast confines in the western world now hooped together by 
 England's diadem, the injunction of William the Fourth shall be obeyed — ' Let 
 Canada neithsr be lo^t, nor given away.' If this Committee, then, stands true to its 
 trust, I know what my power with the nation is to carry this cause — and I abide 
 my time. We do not represent a titled aristocracy of that squeezable kind, 
 through the downfall of which the minions of Henry VIII. wormed their way into 
 ducal coronets, and grew ' bloated upon confiscations voluntarily surrendered by 
 their rightful owners, with a gibbet at their doors.'* Moreover, .whilst the lamented 
 Lord George Bentinck was as yet occupied with his stables, and Coi)den with his 
 looms, I was doing battle for the protective interest of the agricultural and industrial 
 classes in the United Kingdom, and receivin^f, at the hands of vast public assem- 
 blages of my countrymen, votes of confidence and applause. My apprenticeship in 
 economics has been served in no mean, in no false school. My creed, whether as 
 regards man's temporal or eternal welfare, is drawn from the Bible ; and as regards 
 the former, it will be found to divaricate not from that which, in the widest and best 
 sense, says — ' Do unto your neighbour as you would be done by.' Waste Lands, 
 Surplus Population, Colonial Exciicquer Notes — these are the elements for 
 a practical Golden Rule of Three, by which to redeem the Paupi:kism of Britain, 
 provided they are wielded by a Christian Government — by one consisting of men 
 capable of founding New States in the humanities of wisdom, education, virtue, 
 religion, loyalty. This is the mission on which I am embarked; and if any indi- 
 vidual may presume to think he can win spurs or challenge consideration, on ac- 
 count of the gratuitous advocacy, and the unrequited advancement, of great social • 
 questions for the general amelioration of society in the British islands, I consider, 
 after fifteen years' consecutive devotion to such ends, I am entitled so to think. 
 And now, when difficulties overwhelming are rapidly approaching that pitch which 
 would almost warrant a practical compliance with the declaration once made, in my 
 hearing, by a Cambridgeshire Yeoman, and which contains more sterling virtue than 
 all that was ever uttered against Free Trade in either Hsuse of Parlament — namely, 
 ' that he would rather mount his cavalry horse and shed the last drop of blood in 
 his veins, than sec the last penny in his purse j' and when it has crossed my mind 
 that I might yet be called upon to throw my sword, as I have done my pen, into that 
 scale where trembles on the beam the dearest and best interests of Old England — 
 the Times, long halting between two opinions, has offered the choice of an alterna- 
 tive of another description. ' Events show,' says that great authority, * that a 
 city i? on the eve of revolution when half of its inhabitants are out of work. 
 This is the choice, therefore, we arc called upon to make — Colonization or 
 RevoliUTion ; a peaceful increase of the empire in its Colonies, or an overthrow of 
 authority and order at Home. In other words, we must make the increase of our 
 race our worst enemies or our best friends.' Colonization or Revolulion — with 
 this putting of the issue, I, for one, am fully content; for whilst I would speak 
 da;j:gttrs, and have spoken daggers, to the criminal apathy that pervades the 
 upper ranks in society, I would use none. This, this only. Is the thunder I 
 would employ: — ''Now there is not really a grander or a kinder thought than 
 whatiscalLd a scheme of extended emigration. To move and extend — to pursue 
 the setting sun, and wear pathways across the ocean — to people desert shores — to 
 wrest the first I'ru'' >f victory from rugged nature, and found great empires — this 
 seems the glciious - 'stiny of the British race. It is an instinct in our souls ; it is 
 developed in our nurseries and in our schools. Every British child is taiight that 
 he needs only nature or the gentler savageness of uncivilised men to work upon, and 
 he can easily obtain a single-handed triumph over the wilderness, over tribes. The 
 opening genius of the school-boy is nursed in the midst of dawnin[7 empires. From 
 the deep springs of the great Eastern monarchies, he passes to the heroic beginnings 
 of Grecian liberty and glory; and through the brilliant crowd of Egean and Medi- 
 terranean colonies he travels on to the rude foundations of Rome — to her early 
 difficulties, her awful progress, her universal grandeur. Thence history takes up 
 with him another tale, and out of the decay of Rome reproduces the conquerors and 
 possessors of the world, amongst whom he stands. So noble, so soul- inspiring is 
 
 I 
 
 * Kdiuund Iturke. 
 
I 
 
 17 
 
 this vision of history and of hope, in which one hardly knows what is done, what 
 remains to be done, and where the golden future is marked off from the glorious past, 
 tliat we can never cease to wonder why Colonisation is not with us the passion of the 
 great, as well as the necessity of the humble. Why do not our nobility themselves 
 endeavour to surpass their Norman ancestors or predecessors in their titles, by 
 substituting the conquests of peace for the conquests of war — by heading their coun- 
 trymen across not channels but oceans, and adding new realms, not to the honours 
 of one selfish despot, but to the uses of the human race ? Everything is made to 
 hand — their armament is ready and waiting. They enjoy, or should enjoy, such a 
 position — such a hold on affection, on respect, and obedience — so helpful a Govern- 
 ment — such openings, such facility of men and means — as no other aristocracy does, 
 or ever did, or most probably ever will. Starving myriads wait the call of these 
 illustrious Chiefs. Did the rank and wealth of this country once lead the w.iy, the 
 many forms of poverty and dependence would follow, not so much willingly and 
 readily, as without doubt or choice-^ mere shadows following their substance. 
 Total banishment and absolute surrender of home, wealth, and position are not 
 necessary, though they would have a proportionate effect. But the sacrifice of a few 
 years' income, a temporary absence from friends and equals, a mere sojourn on the 
 edge of the wilderness, or even an occasional visit by the twelve days' steamers, 
 would establish and elevate thousands of their degraded countrymen, remove vast 
 evils at home, create vast blessings abroad, and what is worth taking into account at 
 this time of day, would restore the lustre of faded rank, and answer the often 
 repeated question, 'What is the use of the British Gentry?'"* Yes, this is the 
 Exodus by which alone the siirplus of our people can effectually be led from the 
 slaughter-house of pauperism — find a dwelling-place of plenty and repose on 
 the plains of our inheritance — have some respite from the toils of the perishinfr 
 body — some relaxation for the concerns of the immortal soul. To this course God 
 in bis mercy is now shutting us up by manifest dealings of his Providence, and let 
 us not srek to evade, or tamper with our destiny, until the calamity of a third Famine 
 Visitation shall arise to convert the common breast into one universal lair of stormy 
 and irrepressible jiassion. Sixteen years ago, commissioners appointed by Earl Grey's 
 government reported to the British nation the fact, ' that there then existed in Ireland 
 2,385,000 of the people in a condition always bordering on starvation, and sometimes 
 in a state of actual famine.' Each subsequent year those numbers have steadily 
 increased, and yet during that period nothing whatever was attempted by the 
 imperial government to arrest, to diminish, to remedy, or to eradicate this nrjonstrou.i 
 evil. Providence gave us fourteen long years of grace. Then was the accepted lime. 
 We passed them in a state of morbid apathy to the unexampled sufferings of our 
 fellow-subjects. The Almighty suddenly foreclosed upon ua in 18 IG by the annihilation 
 of their food. The night came when no man could work. W^e sowed the whirlwind 
 and wc reaped the storm! Let us go on to pursue that precedent — and ere long 
 chaos will come again. Ten years before Charles I. erecled his fatal standard at 
 Nottingham, he addressed a letter to our ancestors the P.aronets of Scotland, in 
 whicii he observed, 'There are none of the subject whom it concerns so much 
 in credit to be affeetioned to the progress of the work of colonizing Nova 
 Scotia as those of your number, for justifying the grounds of our princely 
 favour which you have received by a most honourable and g -nerous way.' Can any 
 one living say, with the signs of civil commotion around us, that we are ten years 
 removed from scenes of national desolation more awful and calamitous than those 
 which erected the scaffold at Whitehall ? Let no man deceive himself. We have 
 not only Cromwells amon,^ us, as yet guiltless of their country's blood, willing to 
 cross the Atlantic and found settlements, but also, in many districts in l-'ngland, in 
 Scotland, and in Ireland, physical masses of hungry men, far out-numbering the 
 three armies at Waterloo, whose despair, ready to burst into delirium, is a very 
 different and very superior argument for a new Civil War to that which either pro- 
 duced the first, or would have sanctioned the contemplated W'hig insurrection in 
 18;52, which the publication of ' the Young and Napier (Correspondence' has just 
 brought to light. Were there then no falling thrones in Europe, were there no 
 other grounds for popular discontent at home, it ought to sutfice that the reins of 
 power are held by men who, after wriggling for years through every species of 
 political quackery, nnv stand manifestly convicted at the bar of national opinion as 
 
 * Tinii'K, Peiitcnilici', IS44. 
 

 i;: 
 
 IH 
 
 1)chig fit for no liiglirr vocations of stntcsmanship than to nurse into vitality incipient - 
 rebellion in Ireland, and to sit in incubation over bastard republican dependencies 
 in North America ! The movement, in which we are now engaged, will scatter no 
 seed that will ever, at any time, spring up in armed bands. It is a holy movement ; 
 one that, in its broadest phasis, contemplates ' filling the mouths of all the families 
 in the land with food, and their hearts with gladness ' Although, then, it likewise 
 implies what Earl Grey calls the ' alienation ' of 2,500,000 acres of soil, to those, 
 however, who are alike the faithful vassals of the Queen and its lawful owners, I will 
 venture to say that the negation of the same, whether at the hands of our present or 
 any future rulers, will alienate from them, not only the confidence and respect of two 
 and a half millions of the subjects in Scotland, but of every just-minded liegeman of 
 the British Crown. And further, I will add my belief that the common, the universal 
 distrust which this treatment of the Baronets will create at this juncture, as regards 
 mir.isterial fidelity, capacity and honesty, will immeasurably tend to accelerate and 
 evoke that other extremity predicted by the Times. Yet it is possible to redeem 
 the error — yet it is possible to save the State ! But the good and the faithful of all 
 ranks and denominations must be up and doing. This noble Order may indeed fail 
 me — the unquestionable justice of this cause may fail me — the expansive humanity 
 of it may fail me — the sterling policy of it may fail me. But the vis a tebgo pro- 
 (.uced by the unexampled necessities of 15,000,000 souls in the United Kingdom 
 almost ready to perish, that will not fail me. Already we have had our ' Three 
 Warnings ' — railway mania, potato-crop rot, and free-trade delusion. Let us go on 
 to chafter abo\it, to dally with, and piecemeal betray all vital questions of social con- 
 cernment until the horrid * Sauve qui pent ' of another Famine Visitation rings 
 throughout the British Islands, and then* that hurricane (if vengeance will come that 
 shall shatter to their foundations all the time-glorious institutions of England — 
 which will leave upon another not one stone of that focus of monarchical 
 plantation discouragement the Colonial Office — and which will also break the 
 roof-trees of every gradation of titled rank tliat stands nearest in proximity to that 
 once brilliant font of honour and justice — the British Throne." 
 
 A series of resolutions were then submitted, and, on the motion of the Hon. Sir 
 William Johnston, seconded by the Hon. Sir James D. 11. Hay, unanimously 
 adopted, to the effect that the proceedings should be printed and communicated 
 to Her Majesty, to the members of the Order not present, and to the official 
 authorities in Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia ; that steps to present the 
 Petition of Right shall be taken between this and the opening of Parliament ; and 
 that such Nova Scotia Peers and Baronets as have not yet complied with the resolu- 
 tions of the meeting passed at Edinburgh, in September, last year, Lord Carnwarth 
 presiding, shall be requested to do so. 
 
 After a vote of thanks to the noble Baronet presiding, for his conduct in the Chair; 
 and to the Hon. Secretary, for his long and valuable services to the Order, the Com- 
 mittee adjourned. 
 
 Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, London, 
 \<Sth October, 1848. 
 
LIST OF CHARTERS, DOCUMENTS, &c., 
 
 UPON WHICH THK 
 
 CLAIMS OF THE BARONETS TO LANDS AND RIGHTS IN NOVA 
 
 SCOTIA ARE FOUNDED. 
 
 I. 
 
 11. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 
 VIH. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 The Charter of James 1., 10th September, 1621, annexing Nova Scotia to Scotland. 
 Charter of Novodamus, 1624. 
 
 One hundred and fifty Charters to the different Baronets, granted from 1625 to 1707 ; 
 
 and the Infeftments taken by many of them to their grants of land. 
 The Royal Commission of Charles I. to the Lords of the Privy Council of Scotland, 
 
 25th July, 1625, empowering them to complete the creation of one hundred and fitty 
 
 Baronets, and to confer upon each like privileges, grants, immunities, &c. 
 Two Acts of Parliament, made and passed 31st July, 1630, and 28th June, 1633, ratifying 
 
 and confirming all the rights and privileges of the Baronets then created, or after- 
 wards to be created. 
 A Charter of Novodamus by William III. in 1698, to the Premier Baronet, thus re 
 
 cognising the validity of his ancestor's Charter of 1625. 
 Numerous Royal Letters, Warrants, and Proclamations, connected with the erei.tion of 
 
 the Baronetage. 
 The IVeaty of Union in 1707, which provides that no alteration shall be made in the 
 
 Laws which concern the private rights then subsisting in any class of the subjects 
 
 within Scotland. 
 The Treaty of Utrecht in 171:!, and the Treaty of Paris in 1763, when Nova Scotia was 
 
 finally restored to Great Britain, and the rights of the Baronets revived jure poKt- 
 
 liminii. 
 The various steps and proceedinijs taken liy the Baronets in 1775, 1777, 1783, and 1836. 
 
 to keep alive their rights. 
 
 LEGAL OPINIONS. 
 
 
 First, By George Bowyer, Esq., of the Temple, Doctor of Civil Law.-;, &c., 
 
 llth Nov. 1844. 
 
 " I have read the Reiwrt of the proceedings of the Baronets of Scotland, with mui-h interest, 
 and trust they will go on vigorously in the undertaking so justly commenced. I cannot con- 
 ceive what pretence the Government can have for refusuig to abide by the Charters of the Nova 
 Scotia Baronets, which appear to ine unimpeachable in point of Law. ' I do not see that the loss 
 of the Province by war can have extinguished the rights of the claimants. I lliink that by the 
 recapture of the Province their rights were revixeAjwe pogtliminii ; and I caimot untlcrstand 
 how it is possible for the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, to affect them." 
 
 piiair; 
 3om. 
 
 Spcond, By T. Chisholme A»i#tey, Esq., of the Chancery Bar, Professor of 
 Jurisprudence, &c., 21st Nov. 1844. 
 
 " I take a great interest in the protreedings of the Scottish Baronets, witli ri'sjicct to the 
 Lands and other rights they claim in Nova Scotia. And the facts set forth in tlie Keport of tlie 
 proceedings of the General Meeting of the Order at Glasgow, in August last (wliicli 1 have read 
 this morning,) leave no doubt on my mind, as a hiwyer pretty conversant with this department 
 of science, that those claims are legal to their fullest extent,' and must be upheld tis such by 
 any Knglish Court to which they may be referred." 
 
 Third. By John Hosack, Esq., of the Middle Tettiple, Author of Confiir/s 
 in the Law of England and Scotland, 22nd Nov., 1844. i 
 
 "I have read, with great interest, the Reports of the proceedings, both at Glasgow and at 
 Kdinburgli, relative lo the claims of the Nova .^rotia Baronets. As the (piestion is one of high 
 importatn e, not merely to the parties immediately concerned, but to the nation at hirge^ every 
 exertion ought certainly to lie made to bring it proiniiietitly before the public. Were this done 
 effectually, I confess 1 cannot see upon what ground the Government could resist the just 
 •laims of'^the Order." 
 
 BLACHBUHN AND BURT, PRINTERS, 90^, IIOLBORN HILL.