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Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols —^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to broceedings of the person holding that appointment are to be conducted under the directions of the Lords Com- missioners of your Majesty's Treasury ; Mr. Carmichael, the person now holding the same, was appointed thereto more than six years since by Lieutenant Governor Smith, and nothing has ever appeared to satisfy the Colony that 'V . ed of or confirmed by ^'m from the result of V i\der the directions 18, that these pro- rdships. his appointment has bee^ their Lordships, while w the proceedings carried c of Lieutenant Governor I: ceedinss were unauthorized . . Fourth. That your Majesty's ^.x... ^ners humbly crave vour Majesty's paternal attention to the extraordinary management under which these proceedings have been conducted after the lapse of four years and a half with- out any demand for payment being made, and when many circumstances had led your Majesty's petitioners to believe that unless the payment of Quit Rents was enforced in the neighbouring Colonies at the same time, that no farther demand would be made on them ; under these circumstances they naturally expected that a com- munication from authority would have been made to the Colony, announcing to your loyal and affectionate Sub- jects, the landholders thereof, that the demand for payment, after so long an interruption to the collection, was authorized and directed by the J^rds Commis- sioners of your Majesty's Treasury, and not as in 1818, the act of Lieutenant Governor Smith, and at the same time we mi"-hthave expected that sufficient notice to enable your Majesty's petitioners to comply with the demand without subjecting them to a ruinous sacrifice of property wouianave oeen given , ihslcci^i ^.i ^t^^ivs-j • •- ----j - ever given or pretended to be given was an obscure and B 2 ambiguous Advertisement*, as will be seen on the face thereof, put up by the Acting Receiver in a few places about Charlotte Town, the Capital of the Island, iit December, intimating- that the Quit Rent Office would be open from the First to the Fourteenth of January inclusive, for three hours a day ; and this same notice, which contained no demand, was so managed that it liever was heard of, or known to one tenth part of the landholders, and the first knowledge they generally had thereof, was by seeing the Acting Receiver-General's Bailiffs coming among them to distrain their property for not complying with a demand of which they had never heard, at the same time insisting on the payment of heavy expenses, as hereinbefore mentioned. These circumstances, we humbly conceive, mark strongly that the intention of proceedings conducted in this manner, was for the double object of giving a legal colour to the deniand of heavy expeiises in addition to the arrears of Quit Rent, and in case of resistance to the same, sup- port to the Lieutenant Governor's accusation of disaffec- tion, which he has thought fit to impute to your Majesty's Subjects in this Island without the smallest foundation. Such, may it please your Majesty, is the conduct ob- served by Lieutenant Governor Smith, and his Son-in- law, the Acting Receiver of Quit Rents on this occasion, and we feel the utmost confidence that the loss and injury which we have thereby suffered, and which fell with great severity on this County, could never have been intended by your Majesty's confidential Servants. Fifth. That Lieutenant Governor Smith has not, since his residence in thif Island, a period of ten years, been absent froia Charlotte Town, except on one occasion that he ventured about eighteen miles from thence for two days ; that he has therefore failed in his duty to make himself acquainted with the actual state of the Country committed to his charge by persona': observation and inspection, and is in absolute ignorance of its state and condition, to the manifest dereliction of the trust reposed m him, to the great injury of the Island in various ways, bvt more particularly to the extensive neglect of the High Roads and Bridges in this County and the constant misapplication of the Public Money and the Statute Labour of the Inhabitants thereof to + See Note if, Appendix. fliese highly important objects, t)y w!iic!i our process and prosperity has been greatly impeded and prevented. Sz.vth. That great loss and injury has resulted to several of the Proprietors and Inhabitants of this County, by V'Q illegal and oppressive measures adopted by the Lieutenant-Governor, for locating and laying out the reservations in the different Townships for Church f^nd school lands, the wliole of which have been taken in some instances out of the property of persons holding' but a small comparative extent of land in the Township, and in other instances these reservations have been lo- cated in one moiety of a Township, oi r-'-ally granted in severalty, and the other moiety hao been thereby entirely exempted from contributing any part of the extent required, to make up the full compliment of the reservation of one hundred and thirty acres in each Town- ship, a state of things evidently contrary to common sense and honesty, and attended with the farther absur- dity if persisted in, of defeating, in a great measure, the original object of the Reservation, as by such ill-chosen and inconvenient locations, the site of the future Church and School will be at such a distance i>om the principal part of the Inhabitants of the Township, as to be of little or no value in promoting the object thereof. That in other cases, these Reservations have been taken within the Boundaries of Farms long occupied and more or less improved by the Proprietors or their Tenants, without any allowance or consideration for the same being made ; that in all the cases herein referred to, other Locations equally valuable and convenient for the object might have been made, to which no objection exists, and which would have avoided all interference with the rights of the Proprietors and Landholders of the rebpec- tive Townships, while the injury complained of is ap- parently without other object, than that of compelling the party thereby aggrieved to resort to the Court of Chancery for redress, where His Excellency sits as sole Judge, upon a claim which must be prosecuted in opposi- tion to what he considers as legally within his power and authority as Lieutenant-Governor, and where the Costs of such a proceeding, according to the now general rate thereof, will amount to a much larger sum th^n the iwtiaem-t fpA eii-nnlp vnliip of thp. Tinnd soiis'ht, to ho. vp- }•' — ■^ — i — • — o — -- — — covered, and while there is not at this day one of these Re- servations occupied, or likely to be occupied, for the pur- poye thereof,during the life of any pt . bon now in existence. » Seventh. That the Inhabitants of this County have suffered most oppressive exactions in the shape of Cus- tom-House fees, the effect whereof has operated with great severity on the export of our agricultural produce to the Markets of Newfoundland and Halifax, where the prices obtained for the last two years have been so low, as in many instances to produce on the sale of a Cargo only sufficient to pay the Freight and the Custom-House charges, though at both these ports the amount of the latter does not exceed one half the sum which we are com- pelled to pay at your Majesty's Custom-House in this Island. That this evil has been long felt and repeatedly complained of without obtaining any redress, a misfor- tune which we attribute to the officers being protected by Lieutenant-Governor Smith, (his son Henry being for three years past at the head of the Department), whereby they are enabled to obtain a decision in their favour on these complaints, without the Facts or State- ment transmitted in answer thereto being ever seen by or communicated to the Complainants, or any reply thereto being called for or permitted. Eighth. That in January, 1818, the Lieutenant-Go- vernor constituted a Court of Escheats without legal authdrity, and therein prosecuted to condemnation the valuable and extensive Tract of Land or Township, Number 65, part of this County, in an illegal and op- pressive manner, and in violation of his own Public Pro- clamation of the 8th of October, 181G *, announcing to the Colony your Majesty's gracious intentions of extend- ing immunity to the Proprietors of Land in this Island from the Forfeitures to which they were liable under the terms of their Original Grants, and that this procc «ding was commenced and brought to a close before the absent Proprietors thereof could be made acquainted therewith, thereby depriving them of every means of protecting their rights, a proceeding which your Majesty's Peti- tioners aie apprehensive may hereafter be drawn into a Precedent, under which your Majesty's Subjects in this Island may be deprived of their whole property. As the sentence of Forfeiture against the Proprietors of one of the best-settled and improved Townships on the Island, ♦ Sec the Proclamation in a note on the firgt charpc : in June 1818, five inonthB after this proceed insf, bis M ijcsty was pleaRed, accordini? to the promise of immunity from forfeiture announced in this prorlamatioii, to ffrant a full release from the obllf^atinii of scttiinij the iiiiids*, wiiil forei^^n Protestants, and they may now he settled with persons froh \ny country, without in(iuirini,' as to their particular religious tenets. ^ixfmgmm'dmmim*'' ■■ was therein declared to proceed on that condition of the Grant, which required the Township to be settled with Foreign Protestants, instead of which this valuable Township, containing 20,000 acres, was chiefly settled by persons of the Roman Catholic Religion from Scot- land, a Population which certainly did not fulfil the Terms of the Grant in favour of the Original Proprietors and their Heirs, but which afterwards so far found favour in the Lieutenant-Governor's eyes, that he was pleased to give them Grants under the Great Seal of the Island, for a considerable part of the Township thus escheated, though theirprevioussettlement thereon, under the title of the Original Proprietors, was held insufficient to preserve the rights of the latter from Forfeiture. Ninth. That your Majesty's Subjects in this County, in common with their fellow Subjects in Queen's and Prince County, humbly request your Majesty's gracious attention to the treatment which our Colonial Legisla- ture has experienced from Lieutenant-Governor Smith, who has proceeded to insult, vilify, and calumniate, the House of Representatives, and to reduce and dishonour your Majesty's Colonial Council, and for nearly three years past to deprive the Island of all benefit or protec- tion from its Colonial Legislature, in proof of which we humbly state the following extraordinary facts. Tenth. That in November, 1818, he did most uncon- stitutionally refuse to receive an Address from the Lower House of Assembly, in Answer to his Speech at the open- ing of the Session, and persisted in refusing the same, after he had appointed an hour to receive the House with the said Address, such refusal being a breach of the Privileges of the House, highly injurious to the Colony, and intended to prevent the true state of its Public affairs from reaching the knowledge of your Majesty's confidential Servants. Eleventh. That in addition to this Public Insult to the Colony, the Lieutenant-Governor sent a Message, on the 15th of December, to the Assembly, requiring both Houses to adjourn to the 5tn of January following ; and before the business in which they were then occupied was finished, and when the Lower House was on the point of adjourning, according to the purport of the said Mes- sage, it was insulted by Mr. Carmichaol, the Lieutenant- Governor's Son-in-law and Secretary, who, advancing withinside the Bar, addressed the Speaker loudly in these words: " Mr. Speaker f if you sit in that chair one ! il ■ s i minute longrr, this House will be immediately dissolved*,*^ at the same time shaking his fist at the Speaker ; and while the House was engaged in considering the means of punishing this insult, the Lieutenant-Governor sent into the House for the Speaker, and holding up his watch to him, said he would allow the House three minutes, before the expiration of which, if it did not adjourn, he would resort to an immediate dissolution, thereby exhi- biting a degree of illegal violence and unconstitutional conduct, of which we believe there is no other instance to be met with in the behaviour of a Colonial Governor under your Majesty's authority; and this extraordinary conduct was soon after followed by a Prorogation of the Legislature, in consequence of the House having com- mitted to Jail the Lieutenant-Governor's Son, Mr. Henry Smith, for breaking the windows of the apartment in which the House was then sitting. Twelfth. That at the same Session of the Legislature, the Lower House preferred Thirteen serious and impor- tant charges against Thomas Tremlet, Esq. Chief-Justice of the Island, and addressed the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that he would suspend the Chief-Justice until your Majesty's pleasure therein should be known ; but instead of complying with the request of the House, though it was well known that the Lieutenant-Governor was in the constant habit of expressing the most decided disapprobation of the Chief-Justice's conduct and cha- racter, he thought fit, on this occasion, to interpose his opinion in opposition to these Charges, whereby all in- quiry into their Validity has been hitherto evaded, and that change in the oflice which the Colony has long anxiously desired has been prevented f. Thirteenth. That the Accusation transmitted against the Conduct of our Representatives in that Session of the General Assembly, by the Lieutenant-Governor, to Earl Bathurst, your Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, were most unjust; and the declaration on oath, of certain persons tons unknown, which was rut therewith, in support of the Lieutenant-Governor's Ku- presentations, on the faith of which it appears that his Lordship declined laying the Address of the Assembly before your Majesty, was unfounded in truth, and a gross misrepresentation, of which the Lieutenant-Governor Citlonial SocTotiiry, lU'nisfrar, hiiiI Clerk of the Council, t Sec thcsp I'liaVgea in Note \\, •HR«S wa8 so conscious, that at the next Meeting of the Lecjis- latiire, when the House addressed him requesting a a copy of the said Declaration, he refused to communi- cate the same, pretending that the House had no right to examine into what had passed at aformrr Session of the Assembly!! since which he has declined to meet the Legislature of the Island, knowing well that the Lower House have it in their power, and would most likely enter into such proceedings as would prove to ycur Majesty the unworthy means to which he has resorted for the pur- pose of concealing his own conduct and the real state of the Colony from your Majesty, Fourteenth. That in 1821, your Majesty's subjects in this island being desirous to establish Fisheries on the coast thereof, for that purpose humbly addressed the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that he would hold a Se-sion of the Assembly, and earnestly pressed upon his attention the necessity that existed for a Meeting of the Legislature, that such measures might be adopted as were required to give a beginning to that object, and which the community was most anxious about, but far from entering into our feelings, or the important inte- rests in view, his Excellency declined Meeting the Legis- lature* considering only the unhappy necessity he had brought upon himself of depriving the Colony of every opportunity of laying at your Majesty's feet, through the proceedings of its Representatives, his own improper conduct and the actual state of the Colony, the conse- quence of which has been severely felt in the increasing difficulties of the island, and the nearly total want of all circulating medium therein, so as to deprive even per- sons of extensive and valuable property, of the means of paying in money the ordinary disbursements of their domestic expenditure, and at the same time placing persons of small property though otherwise of competent means to meet all their engagements, absolutely in the power of their Creditors, who may now sacrifice their whole property for claims only amounting to a few shillings. Fifteenth. That having contrived for three years past to deprive the Colony of all benefit or support from the Lower House of Assembly, the Lieutenant-Governor has also accomplished the total degradation of your Majesty'* Colonial Council, which by the Royal Commission and instructions should be selected fruui amoiig the pemonii c I'll ■ of most property and consideration in the Colony, but as now modelled by Lieutenant-Governor Smith, consists only of Five Members, the Senior of whom being long disabled by age and infirmity, cannot attend at the Board; to the seat of the second, if the others were pro- perly occupied, little objection could be made ; the Third Member is the Chief Justice, who takes his seat at the Board ex-officio, but who certainly enjoys less of the consideration and respect of his fellow-subjects, than any other person who has yet held his important office in the Colony. The Fourth Member is Mr. Ambrose Lane, a Lieutenant on the half-pay of the late 98th Regiment, now Town Major of Charlotte Town, and without any other connexion with the Island when he was brought into the Council, than his having then recently married a daughter of the Lieutenant-Governors. The Fifth Mem- ber is a Mr. William Pleace, who came to the Island a few years ago, as a Clerk and Contracted Servant to a Mercantile Establishment, from which trust he has since been dismissed, and now keeps a petty shop of his own, where he retails spirits, being the first instance we ever heard of, of a person in such circumstances being brought into a seat at a Colonial Council Board : such, may it please your Majesty, is the actual present composition of that body which should be looked up to as the Constitu- tional Support of the Colonial Administration, and which also performs the functions of the Upper House in the Legislature of the Island, and likewise exercises with the Lieutenant-Governor an important Appellate Juris- diction in Causes from the Supreme Court, in all cases where the value in dispute amounts to the sum of Three Hundred Pounds ; according to the original practice and constitution of the Board, such Appeals could only be proceeded upon in the presence of Five Members, but at the Hearing of a recent Appeal, when the Value of the Property liable to the effect of the decision was much above Ten Thousand Pounds, the Board consisted only of the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Lane, and Mr. Pleace, the discarded Servant of the Appellants. To this state of the present composition of your Majesty's Co- lonial Council in this island, we have to add that in 1819, two of the most useful and intelligent members were dismissed from their seats when the Legislature was _-- - -• -T-JTS-^-nj r* xtJ:TJ".St tx II J ll|r|/ttj list ( VvlCSX/il^^ VtXI^-l I XSCIZX might arise from their s\iperiority over the rest, one of 11 in them being your Majesty's Attorney-General of the Island. Sixteenth. That the Lieutenant-Governor, as Chancel- lor, has permitted a heavy and most vexatious addition to the fees attending the usual proceedings before himself in that Court, which has taken place since he appointed to the office of Register and Master thereof his Son-in- Law, Mr. Ambrose Lane, a military man, unacquainted with the duties of such an office, thereby at the same time uniting m his person duties and appointments of the most opposite and inconsistent nature, proving, in the strongest manner, that the Lieutenant-Governor considers the in- terests of his own Family as paramount to every consi- deration of decency and propriety in the distribution of the Public Patronage to office at his disposal*. Seventeenth. That when the Grand Jury of the Island, assembled at the Hilary Term of your Majesty's Supreme Court of Judicature found Bills of Indictment against the Acting Receiver's Deputies for Extortion, and when the Trial of the accused was on the point of commencing, the Attorney and Solicitor General were sent for by the Lieutenant-Governor, and on their return into Court, it appeared that no Trial was to take place, the Accused being withdrawn from the justice of the country by the interference of the Lieutenant-Governor ; thereby shewing in the clearest manner the total want of Protection which your Majesty's Subjects labour under from the Laws and Institutions of the Countrj, under the Administration of Lieutenant-Governor Smith. Eighteenth. That the Lieutenant-Governor has in an arbitrary and illegal manner, by Instrument under the Great Seal of the Island bearing date three days before its actual existence, taken upon himself to supersede John Mac Gregor, Esquire, High Sheriff of the Island, regularly appointed to that Office under the authority and directions of our Colonial Statute for the regulation thereof, without the existence of any charge Public or Private against him, appointing to the Office the person who had been Mr. Mac Gregor's Under Sheriff, but pre- viously dismissed by him from the said Office, and who has not been obliged to give the usual Security rcquireui lUiiJu.l <% ftii tErtlS, ht;iii ircf, latv, were pivcn to complete the popuiatitu? of the tllen unsettled townships, an object in which, owing Ui the unhappy utiitc of the Lluad, uo (ficat progrciis hus since been made. u 14 That your Majesty's humble Petitioners regret much the necessity they are under of approaching your Ma- jesty's sacred person in the language of complaint now submitted to your paternal consideration, and humbly trust that on a full review thereof, your Majesty will be satisfied that the farther continuance of Lieutenant- Governor Smith in the command of this your Majesty's Island, cannot be otherwise than greatly distressing to its Inhabitants, and by preventing the usual course of Legislative proceedings therein required to meet the natural progress of the Island greatly impede the settle- ment and prosperity thereof. May it, therefore, please your Majesty to relieve us, and give the Island, by an adequate appointment to our government, the same advantages which your Majesty's subjects in the neighbouring colonies are now enjoying from the management of their Public Affairs being en- trusted to able and upright Governors. And your Majesty's Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, ^c. wmmmm 15 QUEEN'S COUNTY PETITION. TO THE KING 3 MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. May it please Your Majesty, We, your Majesty*s faithful and affectionate Subjects, the Freeholders, Householders, and other Inhabitants of Queen's County, in Prince Edward Island, assembled* by Public notice from the High Sheriff of the Island, to take into consideration the present alarming and dis- tressed state of the Colony, beg leave to approach your Majesty with sentiments of the most loyal and devoted Attachment to your Majesty's Person, Family, and Government, and to lay at your Majesty's feet this our humble Representation and Petition, stating the con- duct of Charles Douglass Smith, Lieutenant-Governor of this Island, in the ardent and anxious hope Lhat your Majesty will be graciously pleased to command such an investigation into the state of this Colony, under his Administration, as to your Majesty in your royal wisdom may seem proper and adequate to produce a full and satis- factory exposition thereof. That your Majesty's subjects assembled on this occa- sion, entered into a number of Resolutions, stating the following specific Charges against the said Lieutenant- Governor Charles Daglass Smith, which they are ready to make good at any Inquiry which your Majesty may be graciously pleased to order on the subject thereof ; under which charges your Majesty's Petitioners state, that ever since the Lieutenant-Governor entered upon the Administration of this Government, he has conducted himself towards your Majesty's subjects therein, with Harshness, Injustice, and Contumely, of which we beg leave to adduce the following instances: — First. That soon after his arrival he took upon him- self, without investigation or legal inquiry of any kind, to disturb and challenge the Titles and Rights of Persons who had obtained Grants of Lands under the Great Seal of the Island, in the usual form, as stated in the Resolu- tions herewith transmitted. Secondly. That he took upon himself to challenge and disturb Persons holdin"" Town Lots in the Ganitol of the Island, long since built upon, and improved from an ♦ March 6th, 183:1. it 10 early period of the Settlemont, whose original Grants in the lapse of Forty or Fifty Years, have been lost and the Record thereof mislaid or mutilated by the carelessness with which the Register Office had been kept, compelling these persons to take out new Grants for such Property from himself, and in some instances granting Lots, so circumstanced to other persons, without any inquiry into the rights of those who were thus divested of their Property. Thirdly, That he also compelled the Proprietors of Building Lots in Charlotte Town, held by Titles, founded on Judgments of the Supreme Court, upon Public Pro- secutions carried on by the Colonial Treasurer, to take out new Grants of such Property from himself, notwith- standing these Persons held the same under Deeds from the High Sheriff or Coroner of the Island, which Deeds are declared by an Act of the 26th of the late King, to vest in the Purchasers, their Heirs and Assigns forever a good and valid Title to such Lands*. Fourthly. That in January 1818, he caused proceedings to be instituted for enforcing Payment of your Majesty's Quit Rents, when the promised New Scale thereof, at a reduced Rate, announced in his own public Proclamation, had not been received by him, or then decided on by your Majesty. Fifthly. That at the same time he constituted a Court of Escheats, without legal Authority, and therein prose- cuted to Condemnation the valuable Tract of Land or Township, No, 55^ in an illegal and oppressive manner, and in violation of his own public Proclamation of the 8th of October, 1816, announcing to the Colony your Majesty's gracious intention of extending immunity to the Proprietors of Land in this Island, from the For- feitures to which they were liable, under their original Grants. Sixthly. That in his conduct to our Colonial Legisla- ture, he has proceeded to insult, vilify, and calumniate the House of Represontatives, to reduce and dishonour your Majesty's Colonial Council, and for nearly three years past to deprive the Island of all benefit or protec- tion from its Colonial Legislature, in proof of which we humbly state the following extraordinary facts. * The Resolutions of Queens County Meeting' oonciude these, their first charjo^es, by stating- that the sole object in these unjust and oppres- sive proceeding's was to extort money''froin the persons who were so unt'ortuiiate as to have properly involved in those difficulties. 17 Seventhly. That in November, 1818, ho did most iin- ronstitutionally refuse to receive an Address from the Lower House of Assembly, in Answer to his Speech at the opening^ of the Session, and persisted in refusing the same, after he had appointed an hour to receive the House with the said Address ; such refusal being a breach of the privileges of the House, injurious to the Colony, and intended to prevent the true state of its Public Affairs from reaching the knowledge of your Majesty's confiden- tial servants. Eighthly, That in addition to this public insult to the Colony, in refusing to receive tae Address of the House of Representatives legally assembled, the Lieutenant- Governor sent a Message on the 15th of December, to the Assembly, requiring both Houses to adjourn to the 5th of January following, and before the business in which they were then occupied, was finished, and when they were on the point of adjourning according to the purport of the said Message, the House was broke in upon by Mr. Carmichael, the Lieutenant-Governor's son- in-law and secretary, who advancing withinside the Bar, addressed the Speaker loudly in these words, '' Mr. ** Speaker, if you sit in that chair one minute longer as ** Speaker, this House will be immediately dissolved," at the same time shaking his fist at the Speaker, and while the House was engaged in considering the means of punishing this insult, the Lieutenant-Governor in person, sent into the House for the Speaker, and hold- ing up his watch to him, said, " he would allow the '* House three minutes, before the expiration of which, ** if they did not adjourn it should be dissolved ;" there- by exhibiting a degree of illegal violence and unconstitu- tional conduct of which we believe there is no other example to be met with in the behaviour of a Colonial Governor under your Majesty's authority. And this ex- traordinary conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor was soon after followed up by another insult on the House by his son Mr. Henry Smith, who was detected and acknowledged breaking the windows of the apartment in which the House was then sitting, and being committed to jail for such an outrage under the Speaker's Warrant, the Legis- lature was thereupon prorogued, and Mr. Smith imme- diately released without satisfaction or apology being made to the Colony for such an insult. Ninthly. That at the same Session of the Legislature, 18 the Lowei House preferred Thirteen serious and important Charges againstTiiomas Tremlett, Esquire, Chief Justice of the Island, and addressed the Lieutenant-Governor praying that he would suspend theChief Justice until your Majesty's pleasure therein should be known: but instead of complying with the rr juest of the House, though it was well-known that the Lieutenant-Governor was in the constant habit of expressing the most decided disap- probation of the Chief Justice's conduct and character, he thought fit, on this occasion, to interpose his opinion in opposition to there charges, whereby all inquiry into their validity has been hitherto evaded, and that change in the office which the Colony has long anxiously desired, has been thereby prevented. Tenthly. That the accusations transmitted against the conduct of our Representatives in that Session of the General Assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor to Earl Bathurst, your Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, were most unjust, and the declaration of certain persons, to us unknown, which was sent there- with, in support of the Lieutenant-Governor's represen- tation, on the faith of which it appears that his Lord- ship del?lined laying the Address of the Assembly before your M<'ijestv, was unfounded in truth, and a gross mis- represeiit L or, ; of which it isevident that theLieutenant- Govenicr was o co-^scious, that at the next Meeting of the Legislature, which sat from the 25th of July to the 10th of August, 1820, when the Hou'^o of Representa- tives addressed him, requesting a Cop^ jf the Declara- tion, he refused to lay the same before them, on the ground that the House had no right to examine into what had passed at a former Session of the Assembly !! since which he has declined to convene the Legislature of the Colony, knowing well, that the Ijower House had it in their power, and would most I'kely enter into such proceedings as would prove to your Majeblv the unworthy means to which he had resorted for the purpose of con- cealing his own conduct and the real state of the Colony from your Majesty, Eleventhly. That having contrived to deprive the Colony for many years past of all benefit or support from — — "«c j^icuLuuanL-\jrovernor nas aiso ac- IjO Tri;i ixvjuocr. complished the : 3tal degradation of the Colonial Council, vvhich by the original Royal Commission and Instruc- tions to our first Governor, should ue selected from it 19 among the peisons of most property and consideration in the Colony, but as now modelled by Lieutenant-Gover- nor Smith, consists only of Five Members, the senior of whom being long disabled by age and infirmity cannot attend ; to the seat of the second, if the others were pro- perly occupied, little objection would be made ; the third member is the Chief Justice, who by the Royal Instruc- tions takes his seat at the Board ex-officio, but who certainly enjoys less of the consideration and respect of his fellow-subjects than any other person that ever yet held his important office in the Colony; the fourth member is Mr. Ambrose Lane, a Lieutenant on the Half-Pay of the late 98th Regiment, now Town Major of Charlotte Town, and without any other connexion with this Island when he was brought into the Council than his having then recently married a daughter of the Lieutenant- Governor's ; th. "'fth member is a Mr. William Pleac.e, who came to the Island a few years ago as a clerk and contracted servant to a Mercantile Establishment, from which trust he has since been dismissed, and now keeps a petty shop of his own, where he retails spirits, being the first instance we ever heard of, of a person in such circumstances being brought into a seat at a Colonial Council Board. Such may it please your Majesty, is the actual present composition of that body, which should be looked up to as the constitutional support of the Colo- nial Administration, and which also performs the func- tions of the Upper House in the Legislature of the Island, and likewise exercises, with the Governor, an important appellate jurisdiction in civil causes froi ^ the Supreme Court, in all cases where the value in dispute amounts to the sum of Three Hundred Pounds. According to the original constitution and practice of the 'loard, such Appeals could only be proceeded upon in the pre- sence of Five Members ; but at the hearing of a recent Appeal, when the value of the property liable to the effect of the decision was much above Ten Thousand Pounds, the Board consisted only oi the Lieutenant- Governor, Mr. Lane; and Mr. Pleace, the discarded servant of the Appellants. To this ^tate of the present composition of your Majesty's Colonial Council in this Island, we have to add, that in 1819, two of the most useful and intelligent members thereof were dismissed from their seats" without any apparent reason than arise from their superiority over the rest, one D 2 might 20 of them being your Majesty's Attorney-General of the Island *. Twelfthly. That the Lieutenant-Governor, as Chancel- lor, has permitted a heavy and most vexatious addition to the fees and expenses attending the usual proceedings before himself in that Court, whicn has taken place since he appointed to the office of Register and Master there- of his Son-in-Law, Mr. Ambrose Lane, a military man, unacquainted with the duties of such an office, thereby at the same time uniting in his person duties and appoint- ments of t!ie most opposite and inconsistent nature ; proving, in the strongest manner, that the Lieutenant- Governor considers the interest of his own family as paramount to every consideration of decency and pro- priety in the distribution of the Public Patronage to office at his disposal. Thirteenthhj . That in 1820, during the absence of the Attorney-General in England, seventeen informations were filed in the Court of Chancery by the Lieutenant- Governor's orders against supposed trespassers on un- granted lands in the Royalty of Prince Town, without one conviction having taken place, though at an expense of £200. drawn from our small Colonial Revenue, a great part of which was paid to the Lieutenant-Governor and his Son-in-law the Register in Chancery, while the utmost value of the land said to be trespassed on, if sold at public auction, would not have paid one fourth part of the expense in urred in the prosecution, and while at the same time there exists on our Statute Book, a Colonial Law, in the Act of the 16th of the late king, providing for the prosecution of such offences in the Su- preme Court, at one tenth part of the expense incurred in this proceeding in which the unfortunate Defendants suffered great loss, and were much distressed thereby. Fourteenthly. That your Majesty's Subjects, the in- habitants of Charlotte Town and its vicinity, have been greatly harassed and injured by the Lieutenant-Gover- nor's conduct in forcing them, under the authority of an Act for regulating the Militia, to furnish Guards at their own expense in a time of profound peace, and to perform thedutyof watching and warding at the same time, with- out the existence of any disturbance \\\ the Island, or the smallest risque or appearance of such : that in like man- * Sec Nofc iit paire 10. 21 ner, fines are levied on your Majesty's Subj(»cts under the Militia and High Road laws, for supposed neglects, when the persons so fined are engaged in the perform- ance of other public duties legally required of them, and cannot possibly be employed in two places at once. Fifteenthly. That in 1821, when in consequence of the alteration in the Timber duties our trade in that article had nearly ceased and the greatest difficulty was expe- rienced in making remittances to Great Britain to support the commercial credit of the Colony, and enable us to ob- tain the usual supply of British manufactures required for the consumption of the Inhabitants, and the absolute ne- cessity of resorting without delay to some adequate means of securing that object, became evident to all among us ; Public Meetings were held in the capital, at which it was resolved that an attempt should be immediately made to estaL lish Fisheries, and thereby to lay the foundation of securing to the Colony a participation in the advantages of that extensive and highly beneficial business carried on upon our coasts, and at present chiefly occupied by Americans of the United States, and a Committee of respectable persons were appointed to communicate on the subject with the Lieutenant-Governor, and ear- nestly to press upon hi^attention the distressed state of the Colony, and the necessity that existed for meeting the Legislature, that suc^h measures might be proposed to that body as were required to give a beginning to the business, by securing the capital therein to be embarked with such regulations as experience has shewn to be ne- cessary for the protection and safety of the object, and on which the community was most anxious : but far from entering into our feelings, or the important interests in view, his Excellency declined meeting the Legislature, considering only the unhappy necessity he liad brought upon himself of depriving the Colo of every opportu- nity of laying at your Majesty's feet, through the pro- ceedings of its Representatives, his own improper conduct and the actual state of the Colony under his administra- tion ; the consequence of which has been severely felt in the increasing difliculties of the Island, and the nearly total extinction of all circulating medium therein, so as to deprive even persons of extensive and valuable property of the means of paying in money tiir most trifling sums, anrnor Smith from the administration of the government of this Island, and to take such further niea- sures in the premises as your Majesty may be graciously pleased to sec fit. PRINCE COUNTY PETITION. TO THE king's MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. May it please your Majesty, We, your Majesty's loyal and dutiful Subjects, the Magistrates, Landhoiuers, Merchants, and other Inha- bitants of Prince County, Prince Edward Island, leo-ally assembled this day in a general meeting of the Co°unty to take into consideration the present distressed State of the Colony, beg leave to approach your Majesty with this our humble Complaint and Petition, confident that the paternal solicitude with which your Majesty watches over the interests and happiness of all your people, even m the most remote parts of your Majesty's extensive empire, will ensure to us your gracious and favourable consideration and redress of the Grievances which we are now compelled to lay at your Majesty's feet, shewing that the present alarming and distressed State ot the Island is occasioned by the mal-administration of the local government under the authority and influence of Charles Douglass Smith, Lieutenant Governor thereof in conjunction with Thomas Tremlett, Esquire. Chief Justice of the Island; the Suspension of our Colonial Legislature and the Perseverance of the Lieutenant Go- vernor in depriving the Island of its exertions and pro- tection in the various interests and objects to which its authority is applicable in promoting and extending the iniprovement and progress of the Colony; instead of Which the Lieutenant Governor, after misrepresenting the proceedings of the Lower House of Assembly, and slandering them and their constituents with a charge of Disloyalty and Disaffection to your Majesty's sacred Person and Government, is now apparently determined to continue that System of intolerable Oppression which 1"^ T?£"^* ^**® uniformly evinced sinjce he entered upon t..e x-.uministfation of our public Atiairs, whereby the Colony is now suffering most severely, and from whicli ! 1. 2b your Majesfy*s gracious and paternal interference can alone relieve us. And your Majesty's humble Petitioners, in proof of their just complaints, state, for your Majesty's consi'- deratioii, the substance of Thirteen Resolutions pro- posed and unanimously agreed to at the said County Meeting-. First, That, at the Openin|^ of the Session of the General Assembly, convened by the Lieutenant Governor on the 3d day of November, 1818, the Lower House of the General Assembly framed a dutiful and respectful Address to the Lieutenant Governor, your Majesty's Representative, in answer to his Speech at the com- mencement of the Session, but which his Excellency, in a contemptuous manner refused to receive under pretext -that it was unconstitutionally framed ; but notwith- standing- such conduct of the Lieutenant Governor, the Lower House proceeded with the business of the Session and passed a Bill of Supply, as well as several other salutary laws for the benefit and regulation of the Colony, and also preferred thirteen serious charges against Thomas Tremlett, Esquire, Chief Justice of the Island, and addressed his Excellency to suspend him from that high office until your Majesty's pleasure therein should be known ; we therefore humbly submit that such conduct on the part of the Lower House of Assembly was highly creditable to them, and a striking contrast to the intemperate and uncoustitutional conduct of the Lieutenant Governor. Second. That the Lieutenant Governor forwarded certain false and unfounded representations and afli- davits of persons to us unknown to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, your Majesty's principal Secretary of >State for Colonial Affiiirs, stating that a certain Address to your Majesty from the Lower House of the General Assembly, agreed to in the same Session, was voted and passed by its members in a disorderly and tumultuous manner, after the regular adjournment of the House; in consequence of which representations andaflidavits, the Grievances complained of in the said Address never reached your Majesty's notice, and your Petitioners most humbly submit that such conduct of the Lieutenant Governor was unconstitutional, illegal, and highly de- rogatory to his character as the Representative of your Myjesfy. I can .27 ^ Third. That the Lower House of Assembly, by their Journal of the 15th of December, 1818, 'shew their anxious desire to comply with the wishes of the Lieu- tenant Governor for adjourning the House to the 5th of January following, and had his message to that effect under consideration when they were interrupted by his Secretary, Son-in-law, and the Clerk of the Council, John Edward Carmichael, Esquire, who entered the body of the House, and rushing up to the Speaker's Chair in a most contemptuous and threatening manner, shaking his fist at him, said, *' Mr. Speaker, if you sit in that chair as Speaker one minute longer, this House will be dissolved," and immediately withdrew ; and very soon after this gross insult offered to the House, when it was in deliberation thereon, the Lieutenant Governor sent for the Speaker to attend him in the Council Chamber, who, upon his return to the House, stated that the Lieutenant Governor took out his watch and told him that the Lower House had five minutes to live, and if they were not adjourned at that time, the Assembly sliould be dissolved; such conduct in the Lieutenant Governor, we conceive, being subversive of the Rio} (3 of the Colony, and a high breach of the Privileges of the Lower House. Fourth, That the Trade, Commerce, and Shippiriff Interest of this Island, and particularly in the Outports have been considerably injured and impeded. First— in consequence of the great expense and inconvenience of attending the Custom-House from the Outports, distant from forty to sixty miles, to enter and dear vessels. Secondly—in consequence of the heavy charges made by that office for fees, particularly grievous io those con- cerned in small Schooners from 15 to GO tons, which are engaged in conveying the Farming Produce of the Island to Nova Scotia, Miramichi, and the neighbourinn- Co- lonies, the inconvenience of going so far to a Cultom- House, and the charges there made generally consuming- the Profits of the Voyage. Thirdly— the arbitrary and illegal conduct of Lieutenant Governor Charles Douglass Smith, under which many suffered by his refusing to sin 11 Vessels' Registers unless the same were printed on Parchment, although Registers were legally presented to his Excellency by the proper ofHcprs for sjn-natur > and these officers were knonn to have no printed Re- gisters, nor could any be procured until a supply arrived \ \ ■i^ I « [il 28 from the Custom-House in London, whereby many vessels were detained for a very considerable time in the harbours of the Island, to the loss, detriment, and injury of trade and commerce. iWA. That by the frequent and long interruption to the Meetings of the Legislature, the Laws for regulating and governing the Militia have been permitted to expire, and the sole Act on that subject now standing on our Statute Books was passed so long since as the year 1780, during the prevalence of a General War, and the Ame- rican Rebellion, soon after the commencement of our Colonial Establishment, when our population was com- paratively small, and has been long considered as obsolete and inapplicable to the altered situation and circum- stances of the Island ; and previous to Lieutenant Go- vernor Smith's Administration and the expiry of the Laws hereinbefore referred to, was not for many years acted upon or enforced ; nevertheless, since the loss of these Statutes, the Lieutenant Governor has thought fit to enforce the observance of the obsolete Statute of 1780, to the great injury and oppression of your Ma* jesty's Subjects, by compelling them to comply with the the several provisions of that Act in time of profound Peace with all the World, and without any ground for apprehending tumult or danger within the Island, and has in several instances during the last year commanded Militia Musters at a time when, pursuant to the Laws for making and repairing the High Ways and Bridges, your Majesty's Subjects being engaged in that duty, could not attend at such Musters, in consequence of which many of them were summoned from a distance of forty miles to Chirlotte Town, and fined without power of appeal under the provisions of this obsolete -Law, with heavy Costs and Charges, to their manifest injury and oppression. Sixth. That there are many Plots of Land adjacent to the intended site of the Town of Prince Town, in this County, consisting of eight acres each, common'y called the Royalty Prince Town, ungranted and vested 'in your Majesty, no person having applied for grants thereof; and although there are no persons as yet residing upon the intended site of the Town, there is a very consi- derable population resident on and adjacent to the said Koyaity ; and notwithstanding repeated applications have been made to Lieutenant Governor Smith, praying that I i \ our 29 he would order the Surveyor-General to lay out and mark the several Division I.4nes of those Allotments, a very small proportion thereof has yet been surveyed, otherwise than by unauthorized persons, to the great loss and injury of individuals, and the confusion of pro- perty and boundaries. Seventh. That in the Winter of 1820, when your Ma- jesty's Attorney-General was absent on leave from the Island, the then Solicitor-General, by order of the Lieu- tenant-Governor, instituted Seventeen Suits in the Court of Chancery against so many persons, inhabitants of the Prince Town Royalty, for intrusion into nine of those ungranted Lots, by cutting wood growing thereon; and for the purpose of supporting the said Prosecutionsf, Lieutenant-Governor Smith prevailed on your Majesty's Colonial Council, to agree to his advancing upwards of 140/. but permitted only two of the seventeen Suits to proceed to a hearing before himself as Chancellor. Your Majesty's Attorney- General having returned to the is- land, he, in open Court, declared that there was no evi- dence to support the charge, although several Witnesses, both on the part of the Prosecution and of the Defend- ants, had been examined to support these two Suits, upon which the whole of the prosecutions were aban- doned, after an expense of 200/., paid out of the small Revenue of this Island, and of 100/, by the Defendants, the Inhabitants of Prince Town Royalty, being a public scandal to the Administration of Law and Justice, on the part of Lieutenant-Governor Smith. Eighth. That at the Session of the General Assembly, which continued from the 25th of Julv to the 10th of August, 1820, the Lower House of Ac 3a.bly did all in their power to vindicate the character of tho former House, and the long interval which has since elapsed is manifestly intended by his Excellency to prevent the Lower House of the General Assembly from contradict- ing tiic false and unfounded representations he had made concerning its proceedings during the preceding Session, and for the purpose of keeping the real state cf the Island and his own conduct from being represented by them ; and your Majesty's loyal and dutiful Subjects feel it to be an unmerited grievance to them, and to all the Inhabitants of this Island- that his Excellencv has not, at regular periods, convened the General Assembly, accord- ing to the practice in our sister Colonics, for the purpose III 'Ul I n 30 of amending and renewing old and expired Statutes, enacting new Laws, much wanted, and generally of meeting and providing for the many eontigencies of an increasing Population, and the great and alarming de- pression of Trade. Ninth. And your Majesty's dutiful Subjects further shew unto your most excellent Majesty, that in the Year 1821 , a numerous and respectable Meeting of Magistrates, Landholders, Merchants^ and other Inhabitants o^' this Island, convened and met at Charlotte Town, tor the purpose of taking into consideration the expediency and means of establishing one or more Fishing Companies, for which this Island possesses many and great local ad- vantages ; and in furtherance of such object, presented to Lieutenant-Governor Smith a respectful Petition, pray- ing that he would be pleased to convene the General As- sembly of the Island, for the purpose of framing and enacting such Laws and Regulations as they should in their Wisdom see fit for regulating and encouraging such Fisheries, but w^ith which Petition his Excellency refused to comply, without assigning any reason for such refusal, thereby, as we humbly submit, evincing a de- termination, on his part, to suffer them to struggle with every difficulty of the declining state of the Timber and other Trades, and not to listen to any proposition of your Majesty's Subjects for promoting their relief or pros- perity, or to induce him to meet again the General Assembly. Tenth. That the recent proceedings of the Actin"* Receiver-General of your Majesty's Quit-Rents, in qu- forcmg the payment of four and a half Years' arrears thereof, become due since the year 1818, have been con- ducted illegally and oppressively, and to the great loss and injury of your Majesty's Subjects in this Island. First— -that after refusing, in the Years 1819, 1820, and 1821, and since, to receive payment when tendered by various persons, the late Public Notice, requiring pay- ment of the Arrears due since 1818, extended only to fourteen Days, which had expired previous to the Notice being publicly known in this Countv. Secondly— By the subsequent conduct of the Acting Receiver-General, in distressing the people in various parts of the Island,' by distraining for, and exacting, through his Deputies and Bailiffs, charges and expenses in many instances ten- fold more than the Amount of your Majesty's Quit-Rents. 31 Eleve.)th. That Lieutenant-Governor Smith conducts the Government of this your Majesty's Island without the aid of a Colonial Council selected from the principal Landholders and Persons of property and consideration in the Colony, according to the spirit and directions of the Royal Instructions to him in that behalf, but chooses as Members of that Board strangers and persons with- out property, in no connexion with the Country, unac- quainted with the detail and bearings of its general and local Interests, or dependant on himself by the tenure of Offices held during his pleasure, whereby that impor- tant Body have lost all weight and consideration in the Country, and the Proceedings of the Colonial Go- vernment have long been such as to entail disgrace upon the Island, and to render its character odious and con- temptible among our fellow ?Jubjects in all the neigh- bouring British Colonies, and thereby greatly impedes and prevents the settlement and prosperity of the Colony, by deterring from it Persons of property. That the Supreme Court of Judicature within this Island has long since ceased to administer Law to the ends of Justice, and Thomas Tremlett, Esquire, the Chief Justice, by the delays he occasions, through ignorance of the Rules of Practice, and the Principles of Law, and the high contempts he sutFers continually to be com- mitted before him unchecked, prevent your Majesty's loyal and dutiful Subjects of this Island from the attain- ment of Justice in that Court; and your Majesty's Court of Chancery is no longer open to them, on account of the exorbitant and oppressive Fees exacted by the only Acting Officer of that Court, his Excellency's Son- in-law. Twelfth. That Lieutenant-Governor Smith hath lately dismissed John Mac Gregor, Esquire, from the Office of High SheritFof this Island, to which he was legally ap- pointed, before the expiration of the Year of his ap- pointment, contrary to the Statutes of this Island enacted for regulating the Office of Sheriff, and appointed in his stead his discarded Deputy, without requiring any Secu- rity for his good conduct pursuant to those Statutes, by which arbitrary and illegal Act, and the submission tiiereto of your Majesty's Chief Justice at the last sitting of the Supreme Court, during Vv-hicli such dismission and new appointment took place, has occasioned great un- easiness and distrust in the Suito s of that Court, con- il hiifll., i la i 11 Wi I lii cerning the legality of such Proceedings, and the effect which they may have on the security of Property, if here- after questioned. Thirteenth. That the Lieutenant-Governor has, during the period of the last year in particular, evinced a deter- mination to Ljuppress the force and effect of the existino- Laws, to the uncorrupt and due Administration of which your Majesty's loyal and dutiful Subjects in this Island teel entitled, in common with your Majesty's Subjects in Great Britain, and particularly in respect to the privi- leges of Grand Juries ; nevertheless, Lieutenant-Gover- nor Smith, during the last sitting of the Supreme Court ot Judicature, when the Grand Jury had found two ?f ^M rS;^ ^i''« o^ Indictment and one Presentment against milifts of the Acting Receiver-General of your Majestv's Quit-Rents, for Extortion, sent for the Attorney and feoIicitor-Cieneral, and induced them to decline prosecut- ing the same; and your Majesty's Petitioners humbly submit, that such conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor tends to the great encouragement of Extortion, the sub- version of Justice, and Trial by Jury, and is destruc- Island "^^^*^^^*y ^^ y°"^ Majesty's Subjects in this That having presumed to trespass so far upon vour Majesty s attention with the detail of our Grievances, we trust that the matters herein stated, with the evidence transmitted in support of our Petition, will satisfy your Majesty, and obtain for us your Majesty's gracious and paternal Protection. ^ j & Your Majesty's faithful and affectionate Subjects therefore most humbly pray, that taking this our Peti- tion into your favourable consideration, your Majesty will be pleased to withdraw your confidence from Lieu- tenant-Governor Smith, and Thomas Tremlett, Esquire and recall them from their Appointments in this Island' that their conduct may no longer afflict your Majesty's Subjects, the Inhabitants thereof. '' ^ 33 PETITION OF THE GRAND JURY. f TO THE king's MOST EXCELLENT MAJI'Ty. The humble Petition of the Grand Jury of Princ.i Edward Island, legally assembled at the Trinity Term of your Majesty's Supreme Court of Judicature, June 24th, 1823. Most respectfully and anxiously sheweth, That your Majesty's Royal Father, our late venerable and beloved Sovereign King George the Third, of glori- ous memory, was graciously pleased in the Ninth Year of his Reign to erect this Island into a separate and dis- tinct Colonial Government, with a Constitution and Legislative Assembly, similar in power and rights to the same institutions in the neighbouring British Colonies, which took full efi'ect in the year 1773, when the first Legislature of the Island, was convened; the Upper House being formed according to the Royal Instructions, and the practice in the other Colonies of the Colonial Council appointed by the Crown, and the Lower House by eighteen Representatives, freely elected by the popu- lation of the Island, to represent the Commons in the General Assembly of the Island. That by the Colonial Legislature of the Island thus formed, various laws suitable to the situation and cir- cumstances of theColony,were passed in different Sessions and assented toby the Officers intrusted with the Govern- ment of the Island, and subsequently confirmed by the royal allowance, some of which Laws are permanent, while others were temporary, as admitting with greater facility of such alterations and improvements as expe- rience of their effects might render neces^'ary ; but from the long interruption which has taken place to the meet- ings of the Colonial Legislature, some of the most im- portant tempory laws have been suffered to expire, to the great loss and injury of this Island. II 34 That our presen, Lieutenant-Governor Charles Dou- Tn T.-iT'ifti'Q '^"''^' ^r^^'^^ "P^" *h^ administration m July 1813, since which differences have senerallv existed between him and your Majesty's subjects, and heir representatives, the Lower House of the Legisla- ture, which have been highly injurious to the progress and prosperity of the Colony; and at a Session of the W I'S?^ .r u ^«"^"^,^"^ed its proceedings in Novem- fZr]} ' . ^?'^ ^^^"-^^ '^ their duty in behalf of the Colony to address your Majesty on the subject of these differences, and the then state of the Island, lowpr H ^PP^?r\'^y a communication made to the mTi«9o"k l^h,^."^''^ Session of the Assembly in l^ay 1820, by the Lieutenant-Governor, that he had Hrv nf ^fT'f .k""!^"? ^^"'* Majesty's Principal Secre- tary of btate for the Colonies, the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, to withhold the said address from your Ma &?!"'' "^ "' ^"''^"^ ""^'^^ ^^' ^^^"^ ^^ken That assembly being dissolved, and a general election having taken place, the legislature was again'conveneS iulv to ^h!"inrf " r^.'''''"^?o^.'^^ ^^^ ^^«"^ ^he 26th of July to the 10th of August J820, and during the session the Lower-House addressed the Lieutenant-Governor for a copy of the representation with the accompanying documents, which he had transmitted to Earl Bathurst aga.ns the proceedings of the former House. To U ?sad dress the Lieutenant-Governor answered, that the House had nothing to do with what had passed ataformlmeet ing of the legisla f tire, and refused to make the desired com^ mumcatwn. and the assembly being thereupon prorogued the Lieu enant-Governor has not since thought fit to convene the legislature, nor is there, at present the smallest appearance that he will ever ^eet tKssemb'y again, unless he can secure himself from any farther representations to your Majesty against his conduct 1 hat the Colony being thus deprived for near three years of the advantages and protection of iur Colonial Legislature, so liberally granted to us by our late vene rable sovereign, the Island has thereby suffered grelt in- jury in various ways, and been prevented from bringing he state of its public affairs before your Majesty, through the constitutional means of the proceedings of is leL^sfa ure; in the mean time the grievances of th.Co^C^ «ni(l the consequent uneasiness of of vm.r Mn ;„«.„'. .„C r 35 Jects under them have, greatly increased, and seeing no other means left to them of makinjy their complaints against the Lieutenant-Governor's conduct known to your Majesty ; they have at county meetings, called by the high sherifFof the Island, without one dissenting voice, e^n- tered into resolutions stating various charges against the Lieutenant-Governor, and have embodied the same in petitions addressed to your Majesty, concluding with a prayer for inquiry into the state of the Colony, and the removal of the Lieutenant-Governor from his office as your Majesty's representative in this Island. That as the only constitutional representative body now permitted to meet on the Island, we think it our duty, humbly and respectfully as the Grand Jury of the Island, acting for the Colony at large, to present this our humble Petition to your Majesty, earnestly and and anxiously praying, that your Majesty will be gra- ciously pleased to take the said Petitions from our fellow- subjects herein referred to, into your Majesty's paternal consideration, and grant the prayer thereof, and thereby to secure to them the prospect" of enjoying the same rights and benefits which your Majesty's subjects in the neighbouring Colonies now possess from tlie manage- ment of their public affairs being intrusted to temperate, able and upright governors. And your Majesty's Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray, Sfc. 8fc. S^c. ^ " 3 ^ 2 . II APPENDIX. NOTE I. Bt His Excellency Charles Douglass Smith, Lieu- tenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's Island of Prince Edward and the Territories adjacent thereunto, Chan- cellor and Vice- Admiral of the same, 8fc. C. Douglass Smith, Lieutenant-Governor. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas it having been signified to me by the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's Principal Secre- tary of State for the Colonial Department, that it is in- tended on the part of the Crown, to extend to the Pro- prietors of Land in this Colony, immunity from cer- tain Forfeitures to which they were liable by the condi- tions of their original Grants, and also to grant the re- mission of certain arrears of Quit Rent, and fix a scale for future payment of such Quit Rent. I have thought fit by and with the advice of His Ma- jesty s Council, to apprize the Proprietors of Land in this Island, of this His Majesty's most gracious intentior., and that a new rate* of Quit Rent w?!l commence from the Twenty-fifth day of June in the present year, and that tbe first half yearly payment will be demanded on the Iwenty-fifth day of Decenibornext, and that if payment shall be neglected or withheld, by any Proprietor, mea- sures will be taken to resume possession of the Land on the part of the Crown. Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Char- lotte Town, this Eighth day of October, in the Yearof Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixteen, and the Fifty-sixth Year of his Majesty's Reign. By His Excellency's Command, Thos. Desbrisay, Secrctart/. God Save the Kino. .._*.T*'^ 'l^:!!/''!'' »f Q"'^ «/•"♦ »"'•*'• pronilsod was not finalh' Rrtflr.l linui.rune i«is?, in [Uv iii.Mnnmc the Licutcriant-Gc.vcrnor thmtrht fit ^> rommoncc procpo'linffs for the recovery of the Qui( Rents on tT.c old scale, as Btated In the Petition. 1 1 ii I 3S APPENDIX. NOTE n. Quit Rent Office, Nov. I6th, 1822. This office will be kept open from the 1st to the Uth of January ensuing, for the payment of all arrears of Quit Rent that IS to say all half yearly payments under £20 sterling! Uttice hours from eleven to two o'clock. Observation.— The original Grants and the Quit Rent Law, require only annual payments, therefore the demand for half yearly payments is totally without authority. NOTE III. Resolutions of the Assemble/, stating the Charges against Mr. Chief Justice Tremlctt, extracted from the Journal of the House December 8ouri, fiave been tardy, iluctuu- ting, and indecisive, and hisap|M)intinciits to that high office ha.s been, and is, a misfortune to the Coh)ny. I 40 APPENDIX. IIOH I 11. Resolred, That the said Chief Justice has brought con- tempt on his hifrh judicial situation in this Colony, by often sitting alone publicly to do the duty of an inferior magistrate, or justice of the peace, in recovering from privates and others of i*i'^ militia, fines for alleged neglect of duty as such. 12. Resolved, That the said Chief Justice in the important duty of annually nominating three fit and proper persons, one of whom to be chosen High Sheriff of this Island, (which nomi- nation is by law imposed on the Chief Justice) has often exer- cised the same illegally by nominating persons who could not be required to serve, nor fined for refusing ; and in particular the said Chief Justice has acted contrary to law, and shewn his total disregard to the welfare and internal peace of this Colony, by nominating the present High Sheriff of this Island, James Jack- . on, Esq., to fill that situation, well knowing him to be a person who had in last Hilary Term, and before such nomination, been indicted, and thereupon tried before him the said Chief Justice, and found guilty of a most heinous offence against the public peace, committed while the said James Jackson was in the commission of thepeace. 13. Resolved, That for the reasons afore-mentioned, it is un- advisable that the Chief Justice should be any longer continued in his office, which he hath proved himself at least incapable of filling with that dignity, learning, propriety, and independence, which are indispensably requisite in such officer, and which the British Constitution demands. NOTE IV. On the 1 4th October, the Lieutenant-Governor on pretence that this charge was a gross libel and contempt of the Court of Chancery, commenced proceedings before himself as Chancellor (on the complaint of his son-in-law Lane, therein named), against the Members of the Committee appointed by Queen's County, t'- manage the complaints in behalf of the County, who were all served with an attachment, issued by the Court of Chancery, and subsequently committed to the custody of a Serjeant-at-Arms, except Mr. Stewart, who having received notice of the intended proceedings, and that the object thereof was to prevent his going to England with the Petitions, which the Lieutenant-Governor had determined to get hold of, he therefore left the Island at two hours notice, to put it out of his Excellency's power, as far as he could, to disturb the peace of the Colony, by such an event as the seizure and detention of himself and the Petitions, which he knew in the state of the public feelings would not be submitted to, and that tlie people would not allow him to be sent to jail for doing what he had been called upon by the general voice of the Colony to undertake. After several days hearing of this business in the Court of Chancery, the Lieutenant-(iovernor determined to lay a heavy APPENDIX* 4t fine on the other Members of the Committee, and sequestrators were appointed to enter upon their property to secure the amount ; but the people, having in the mean time, removed and secured all their property, and his Excellency observing from the behaviour of the audience in the Court, that the public feelings were highly exasperated at the attempt, and that he had not the means of enforcing his judgment, he at last abandoned the proceeding. On being moved by the council for the prisoners to pronounce his final judgment against them, he refused unless they peti- tioned, saying " words were but wind: let them petition, I will have a record," and persisting in this, the prisoners to avoid longer detention at the expense of 2/. per day each, petitioned for judgment, which .,as promised; but two days after the Registrar addressed the following letter to Mr. Binns, Counsel for the Committee. In Chancery. Sir, (COPY.) Charlotte Toivn, October 30//t, 1823. V/ith reference to the petition of John M'Gregor, Richard Rollings, Paul Mabey, Donald M' Donald, Thomas Owen, and William DockendoriF, now in the custody of the Serjeant-at- Arms for a contempt, praying that they may be brought before the Court to receive final Judgment, I am directed by his Excellency the Chancellor, to acquaint you as their Counsel, that from the gross manner in which the Court was insulted on the last Court Day, he does not again intend to go there upon the business in question, until he can be assured that no return of the like conduct will be resorted to, nor does his Excellency .iitend to pass Judgment upon the Petitioners until he can be assured of that Judgment being enforced ; at the same time his Excellency is desirous that the Petitioners should not remain in the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms under day fees, until the time may come when Judgment shall be passed, and has there- fore ordered that the day fees shall be discontinued, and the Petitioners set at liberty until the Serjeant-at-Arms is called upon to bring thera up for Judgment. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient Servant, Charles BinnSt Esq, Sfc. (Sfc. Sfc. A. Lane, Registrar. 43 APPENDIX. In this proceeding may be seen what has probably seldom if ever happened, a Colonial Governor, in his character.of Chan- cellor, attempting to crush complaints addressed to the King against himself, and most audaciously presuming to sit in judg- ment in his own cause, and to determine on the merits of those conciplamts, adding at every step he took farther aggression, violence, and illegality, to conduct already over-charged with every kind of impropriety. - _ The insult to his Excellency which is complained of in the Registrar's letter to Mr. Binns, was nothing more than that, on hearing the Attorney-General, Mr. Johnston, say that he had listened very attentively to the whole of the proceedings in the case, and had not heard one precedent quoted in their sup- p 't, nor was he aware that any existed— the audience which ./as very numerous burst into a shout of applause— a circum- stance that has frequently happened in courts of much more dignity and consequence, without exciting any severe animad- version ; but on this occasion it served the Lieutenant-Governor as an excuse for stopping short in his intended judgment against the members of the committee, being aware that he had no means of enforcing it, as the attempt to swear in sixty Irish- men recently come to the island to support his proceedings had entirely failed. ^ ^ NOTE V. In the time of Lieutenant-Governor Des Barres' administra- tion the Council was filled in the same way, the Lieutenant- Governor's two sons, both at the time under age, and the noted Palmer, secured a majority to the Lieutenant-Governor, and between these three more than half the Colonial Revenue was divided, and the Treasury left greatly in debt when Mr. Des Barres was dismissed. Since the Petitions were framed, Mr. Haviland, the Naval Officer of the Island, has been appointed to the Council , this was done when Lord Dalhouise, the Governor-General was expected to visit the Island in August last, that there might be a quorum, that is, five members of the Council to receive his Lordship, and do business if he should be inclined to enter upon public affairs ; Colonel Grey, the senior member of the Board, being confined to his bed, there would not have been five with- out a new appointment. APPEJNDIX. 43 NOTE VI. To the Editor of Prime Edward Island Register. Sin, Referring to the prospectus which^'ou addressed to the public m the first number of your paper, we take it for granted that you are perfectly willing to make the Register the vehicle •)1 all public proceedings on the general interests of the Colony ; without farther preamble, we shall therefore proceed to the fol- lowing statement, which we hope will be inserted in your next number. In June, 1822, the Acting Receiver-General of Quit Rents, John Carmichael, Esq., posted up an advertisement in the fol- lowing words in the different parts of Charlotte-Town. " Quit Rent Office^ June 26th, 1S22. " This Office will be kept open from the first to the four- *' Jr"^^v?* ^^^^ ensuing, for the payment of all arrears of " Unit Kent, due and payable within this Island. Office " hours from ten o'clock to two. " J. E. Carmichael, " Acting Receiver General." It would be at once seen that this notice states no demand for paynient, and appears to leave it optional to persons in arrear, whether they would pay or not : accordingly it was little attended to, but by the small proprietors, some of whom recollecting the loss they had suffered in 18 IS, notwithstanding the proceedings ot that period were disapproved of and all that had been exacted above the rate of two shillings per hundred acres, ordered to be retunded, yet as no redress was given to those whose property was sold and sacrificed to answer the demand, many people thought It safest to make payment, and it is believed, that a considerable amount was received chiefly from the small pro- prietors m and about Charlotte-Town; no notice was taken of those who did not pay, or any communication either from the local Government or the Acting Receiver-General ever made to them on the subject : the money received was generally under- stood to be applied to the payment of tlie costs incurred by the proceedings m 1818, which had not been previously discharged Here it may be proper to state that when the arrangement re- specting the then Quit Rents inl 8 1 6 was made, and the heavy arrears iheii due, were graciously given up by his Majesty, it was at the same time declared that the future Quit Rent would 11 I I 44 APPENDIX. Ml ■i be demar >d on a reduced scale, then under consideration ; but without "Waitinj; for the decision thereon, the Lieutenant- Governor thought fit to direct the Acting Receiver-General to proceed in January, 1818, to enforce payment of the arrears, which had occurred between June 1816, and December 18 i7, on the old scale, and we all remember the scene of distress with which these proceedings were attended. Notice of this state of the Colony having reached England in April following, and a communication thereon being made to Government by the Pro- prietors, resident in the United Kingdoms, orders were soon after transmitted from the Colonial Department to discontinue these proceedings, and to refund to the parties from whom the same had been exacted, all that had been received above the rate of two shillings per hundred acres, and that the new rate should commence from December 1816, instead of the preced- ing June, as formerly intimated. It was then also announced, that the payment thereof would be expected and regularly en- forced in future, and such was the general expectation of the landholders; but the years 1819, 1820, and 1821, passed over without any demand being made, and several persons who were desirous to avoid the risk and inconvenience of allowing the Quit Ren.s to accumulate to a sum, which it might afterwards be difficult for them to discharge, if payment of the whole sliould be demanded at one time, tendered payment of their respective arrears to the Acting Receiver General, by whom they were informed that he had no authority to receive pay- ment, and it was very generally believed in the Island, that unless the Quit Rents of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were also exacted, that no further Quit Rent would be demanded from the Island, and this impression was confirmed, when it was observed that no dissatisfaction was expressed by the local Government, at the general neglect with which the Acting Re- ceiver General's notice of June 1822, was treated by the great majority of the landholders, (which it was believed he had re- sorted to, without any more recent orders than the arrangement of 1818), for the purpose of enabling himself to meet the de- mand upon him for the costs of the proceedings he had instituted in that year, the payment of which had been recently sanc- tioned by the Lords of the Treasury, on the application of the Law Officers to their Lordships, after it had been refused by the Lieutenant-Governor. In December 1822, the Acting Receiver General posted up another advertisement in a few places about the town, and it is said that a few were also sent into the country, but if so, the matter was so managed that not ono tenth of the inhabitants «iv*»r liAurH ni' tliorn iinlil nApr tha tifnp fnr rinvinonf fJioroan limited had expired ; the words of thei notice, it will ue ob- over APPENDIX. 45 served, are somewhat different from the June notice, but still it states no demand, and was not accompanied with any notice from the Colonial Government, stating to the public that, after so long an interval (during which tenders of payment had been so often refused), orders had been received from the proper de- partment in England, to enforce payment of all arrears. If that mode of proceeding had been resorted to, and a reasonable time given to enable those in arrear to complete their payments, there is no person acquainted with the Island, that can for a mo- ment doubt that it would have the desired effect ; no reasonable opposition could be made thereto, and all would have complied with what was expected from them to the utmost of their means, though it is perfectly certain, that a great number would not have been ablo to complete their payments in fourteen days, it being utterly impossible, in the present state of the Island, to collect such a sum of money in fourteen days as four years and a half Quit Rent would amount to, though a great part of the Island is in the hands of non-resident proprietors, who have the option of making their payments in England, yet the amount of the arrears on the land of residents would exceed all the circulating medium either then, or now to be found in the Island, a truth for which we can appeal lo every intelligent man in the com- munity without fear of contradiction. A charge of dissaffection and disloyalty against the inhabi- tants of the Island, it is pretty generally understood has been made at the office in England from high authority here, and it seems as if the conduct observed towards the Colony on this occasion, was intended to drive individuals into some act of op- position to legal authority, which might give a colour to the accusation ; be this as it may, the Acting Receiver General's Office, was shut against all payments at three o'clock on the 14th January, some who came an hour too late had their money refused, as had many more, for a week or two after, though from a few who were so lucky as to find favour with him, pay- ment continued to be received for a considerable time ; they were told, the intended proceeding was not meant to affect the faithful. On the 27th January, the Acting Receiver General s bosom friend. Conn Douly Rankin, attended by Cecil Wray Townshend, the then Deputy Sheriff of the Island, was des- patched to commence proceedings against the Proprietors great and small, and began their operations by taking a distress on the lands of two of the principal Proprietors on the Townships 36 and 37 ; without stopping or leaving any person in possession, they then proceeded rapidly to the eastern district of King's County, being one of the most populous districts in the Island, an».i where tne greatest niimbcr of small Proprietors are resi- dent, who had never even heard of the mischief that was com- ing upon them, uiuil they found Mr. Rankin among them, with 4,6 APPENDIX. hir a demand for their respective arrears, mth cost and charces amounting to ten, and in some ir ♦ances, to twenty years' Quit Rent, and threatening all those who refused to make imme- diate payment, or to secure the same by their promissory nx)tes, payable in ten days, with the sale of their stock and lands, withm that period. In this district which is situated from fifty to seventy miles from Charlotte Town, and where the greatest part of the inhabitants are Highlanders, many of them speaking 110 other language than their native Gaelic, and all of them very little informed of their rights and privileges, most of them to prevent the threatened ruin, from a source against which they were without any protection, were compelled to pay or give their notes, to redeem which they were obliged to set off for the town, through deep snows, at a most inclement season, with loads of wheat and such other produce, as each was ena- bled to bring to market, for the purpose of raising money ; the labour, fatigue, and difficulty of their journey, as all will ac- knowledge who were then on the Island, were such as no man would suffer for three times the value of the property they brought with them, or indeed, for any thing short of saving themselves and families from a>^solute ruin. The market soon became overstocked, and after t j had submitted to a variety of insult and abusive language from the Acting Receiver General and his Deputy, their wheat was accepted in payment, at from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per bushel under the price that had previously been current through the Island, which occasioned many to fall short of their payments ; one man to complete his, was compelled to part with his worsted mittens that he had worn on his journey, to Mr. Rankin the worthy friend and deputy of the Acting Receiver General. The impression that was generally made on the public mind by such atrocious proceedings, will long be remembered, and a number of respectable persons being determined to rouse the Colony into a proper sense of the injuries which have been in- flicted on its inhabitants from the same source, addressed a letter to John Macgregor, Esq., High Sheriff, of the Island, requesting him to call a Gen. ral Meeting of the inhabitants in, the three counties into which the Island is divided, that they might according to the practice of the parent country, consult together for the public interest ; the following is a copy of the address to the High Sheriff with his public notice appointino- the desired meeting. ^ " To John McGregor, Esquire, High Sheriff of Prince Edivard Island. " Sir, " We His Majesty'sjoyal subjects, Freeholders and House- '• holders, in different parts of this Island, in the present very APPENDIX. 47 alarming and distressing state thereof, threatened at thi^' time with proceedings on the part of the Acting Receiver-General of Quit-Rents, the immediate effect whereof cannot fail to in- volve a great part of the community in absolute ruin, feel ourselves irresistibly impelled, (ivhen the Island has been ne >.>■ three years deprived of that constitutional proterAion andsuppm ♦,, why '^ might be expected from our Colonial Legislature J to cal! up vou as High Sheriff of the Island, to appoin. General Mt .igs of the inhabitants, to be held in the three counties into which this Island is divided, that they may have an op- portunity, according to the accustomed practice of the parent country, of consulting together for the general benefit, and joining in laying such a state of the Colony at the foot of the throne, for the information of our Most Gracious Sovereign, as the present circumstances thereof require. Trusting in your attachment to the general welfare, your spirit, patriotism and good sense, we hereby call on you to appoint a General Meeting of the inhabitants of each county, to begin with Queen's County, to be held at Charlotte Town, at as early a day as will suit your convenience, after the ensuing term of the Supreme Court, and for King's County to be held at St. Peter's on the same day, on the ensuing week, and for Prince County to be held at Prince Town, on the same day, in the following week. And we do also request that you will per- sonally give your attendance at each of these Meetings, "hereby you will be enabled to vouch for the spirit of loyalty, decorum, and perfect propriety with which they will be con- ducted on the part of His Majesty's subjects, therein to be assembled." PUBLIC NOTICE. " Having this day received a requisition, signed by forty re- spectable Freeholders and Householders, calling upon me to " hold a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of tlie three coun- *' ties, into which the Island is divided. I do hereby give this " notice, that I will in conformity therewith hold a General " Meeting of the inhabitants of Queen's County, at Charlotte " Town on Thursday the sixth day of March next, and of " King's County at St. Peter's, on Thursday the thirteenth of *' March, and of Prince County at Prince Town, on Thursday " the twentieth of March, of which persons desirous to attend " the same may take notice. " John M'Gregor, Sheriff. Charlotte Town, February 6, 1823." xiofh r.T wnif'Ti T-kpjuni- inirnpflinfrtlmr »»r>Mth March the General Meeting of Queen's County, appointed by the High Sheriff, took place at Charlotte Town, which was very numerously attended, considering the season and the state of the roads from the depth of snow on ihe ground as well as the various extraordinary exertions that were re- sorted to for the purpose of keeping persons frcni attending it, and the proceedings were conducted with g suinmary of the mode in which this business was conducted will shew the spirit and feeling towards iiidiridnal proprietors which prevailed on the occasion. In the Township, N"o. 4S, consisting of 23,600 acres, originally granted in two equal lialves, the whole of the Reservation lias been taken out of the property of ilfr. John Stewart, consisting of .3,700 acres parcel of the ivesicrn moiety of the Township ; in the Township, No. .38, consisting of 20,000 acres, the whole of the Reserva- tion has been taken out of a tract of 1 100 acres, the property of the same person. On the Township, No. 45, originally granted in severalty, the whole Reservation has been taken out of one half of the Township, which is also the property of Mr. Sieioart, and the site of a Protestant Church, with the Ministers glebe, placed in the midst of a Roman Catholic population. In Lot 46, the whole Reservation has been thrown upon 07ie half of the Township, and not one acre taken out of the other half. In the Township, No. 39, the property of Charles and Edward Worrell, the Reservation has been taken partly out of farms, long vnder lease and cultivation, without the smallest allowance for the loss and inconvenience to which the Proprietors are thereby subjected, and persisted in notwithstanding they pointed out other lands, equally well situated, which they were desirous sho\ikl be taken. In the Township, No. 42, held in halves, the whole of the Reservation was laid out on the eastern half and located on a Farm loiuj occupied and improved, and proceedings in Cliancory commenced against Lieutenant-Colonel Yonge, tlic tenant in possession, as^ for a trespass on crown lands, and there is n<» (hniht but he would have been turned out and saddled with heavy costs, had not Lord Kathurst, on tiiecase beijig stated to the Cohmial Department, directed the proceedings to bo dis- continued, and that withovit subjecting Colonel Yoi'.ge to any costs, in consequence of which the expense of tliis most oppressive pioceeding has hwn thrown on the Colonial Treasury of the I ill APPENDIX. .)it Island ♦. In the Township, No. 36, the Reservation has been taken out of the domain of the principal proprietor, so as to pre- vent the extension of his cultivation, and to deprive him of tim- ber and fire-wood for his domestic use, coming close to his back fences; and though the hardship of the case was clearly stated, and Mr. Macdonald offered land in every respect equal in value for the object of the Reservation, no redress' could be obtained; the Lieutenant-Governor, in answer to his applica- tion, stating *