History of Prince Edward Island

After alluding to the fact, that the high sheriff of King’s County had been recently resisted by a considerable body of armed men, while engaged in enforcing an execution on a judgment obtained in the supreme court for rent, and had his horses barbarously mutilated, he recommended, as a remedy for the evil, that land-agents should have a discretionary power to relieve tenants of arrears of rents, in cases where it was impossible they could ever pay them; and that long leases should be granted at the rate customary in the colony, the rent to be payable in the productions of the soil at the market prices. He also recommended that, in cases where long leases were objected to, the tenants should be allowed to purchase the fee simple at twenty years’ purchase, or that payment for their improvements, at a fair valuation, should be ensured on the expiration of their terms.

The governor forwarded a copy of the circular containing these reasonable suggestions to the secretary of state for the colonies. This mode of dealing with the tenantry, it may be here remarked, had already, in numerous instances, been acted upon with the best results, so that the efficiency of the change recommended in securing harmony between landlord and tenant had been most satisfactorily tested.

Towards the close of 1837, a rebellion broke out in Canada. The insurgents mustered in considerable numbers, but without sufficient organization, and their leaders – utterly incompetent and cowardly – were the first to escape after a few shots were fired. The militia of the island offered their services in vindication of the King’s authority; but the troops in Canada were quite sufficient to extinguish the rebellion, ere it had attained to any formidable dimensions.

The colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, transmitted to the governor the copy of a memorial from the proprietors of land, protesting against the royal assent being given to an act of the legislature of the island for levying an assessment on all lands in the island, and demanding an opportunity of stating their objections to it, by their counsel, before the judicial committee of the privy council. This document was referred to a joint committee of the legislative council and assembly, who, in April, 1838, produced an able and elaborate report in justification of the law. The committee, of which T. H. Haviland, R. Hodgson, John Brecken, Joseph Pope, Edward Palmer, and others were members, showed that the local expenditure of the government for the last twelve years had been £107,643, of which £27,506 had been expended on roads and bridges, to the great advantage of the property of the memorialists; £13,556 on public buildings and wharfs; and £66,562 for other local purposes. And of these large sums, the whole amount contributed by the proprietors of the soil had been only £7,413, leaving the balance of £100,000 to be borne by the resident consumers of dutiable articles. The committee fortified their position by extracts from despatches sent by Lords Stanley and Glenelg, and completely justified the imposition of a tax of four shillings currency on wilderness lands. The report, when printed, occupied upwards of five newspaper columns, set in minion type, and bore striking evidence of the industry and ability of its framers.

It appears from a despatch from Lord Durham, then governor general of British North America, which we found at Government House in Charlottetown, and which was not published either at the time or subsequently, that Lord Glenelg forwarded this able report, along with other documents bearing on the subject of escheat, in September, 1838, to his lordship, for the purpose of obtaining his special opinion on the subject, for the guidance of the home government. It is scarcely necessary to premise, before giving this important state document, that Lord Durham is considered the highest authority on those colonial subjects of which he treats in his celebrated report, – a document which will stand for successive generations as a lasting monument of his ability as a statesman, and which has been and is now recognized as embodying the most masterly exposition of colonial questions which has ever been published.

“Castle of Saint Lewis, Quebec,

8th October, 1836.

“My Lord, – I have had the honor of receiving your despatch of the fifth October, whereby you desire that I will express to you my judgment on the whole subject of escheat in the Island of Prince Edward. After perusing the voluminous documents with your lordship’s despatch, I do not feel that it is in my power to add anything to the very full information on the subject which these documents comprise. The information before me is now so ample that upon no matter of fact can I entertain a doubt. Nearly the whole island was alienated in one day by the Crown, in very large grants, chiefly to absentees, and upon conditions of settlement which have been wholly disregarded. The extreme improvidence – I might say the reckless profusion – which dictated these grants is obvious: the total neglect of the government as to enforcing the conditions of the grants is not less so. The great bulk of the island is still held by absentees, who hold it as a sort of reversionary interest which requires no present attention, but may become valuable some day or other through the growing want of the inhabitants. But, in the meantime, the inhabitants of the island are subjected to the greatest inconvenience – nay, the most serious injury – from the state of the property in land. The absent proprietors neither improve the land themselves, nor will let others improve it. They retain the land and keep it in a state of wilderness. Your lordship can scarcely conceive the degree of injury inflicted on a new settlement hemmed in by wilderness land, which has been placed out of the control of government, and is entirely neglected by its absent proprietors. This evil pervades British North America, and has been for many years past a subject of universal and bitter complaint. The same evil was felt in many of the states of the American Union, where, however, it has been remedied by taxation of a penal character, – taxation, I mean, in the nature of a fine for the abatement of a nuisance. In Prince Edward Island this evil has attained its maximum. It has been long and loudly complained of, but without any effect. The people, their representative assembly, the legislative council, and the governor have cordially concurred in devising a remedy for it. All their efforts have proved in vain. Some influence – it cannot be that of equity or reason – has steadily counteracted the measures of the colonial legislature. I cannot imagine it is any other influence than that of the absentee proprietors resident in England; and in saying so I do but express the universal opinion of the colony. The only question, therefore, as it appears to me, is whether that influence shall prevail against the deliberate acts of the colonial legislature and the universal complaints of the suffering colonists. I can have no doubt on the subject. My decided opinion is, that the royal assent should no longer be withheld from the act of the colonial legislature.

“At the same time, I doubt whether this act will prove a sufficient remedy for the evil in question. It was but natural that the colonial legislature – who have found it impossible as yet to obtain any remedy whatever – should hesitate to propose a sufficient one. Undeterred by any such consideration, – relying on the cordial coöperation of the government and parliament in the work of improving the state of the colonies, – I had intended, before the receipt of your lordship’s despatch, and still intend, to suggest a measure which, while it provides a sufficient remedy for the evil suffered by the colonists, shall also prove advantageous to the absent proprietors by rendering their property more valuable. Whether the inhabitants of Prince Edward Island prefer waiting for the now uncertain results of a suggestion of mine, or that the act which they have passed should be at once confirmed, I cannot tell; but I venture earnestly to recommend that Her Majesty’s government should be guided by their wishes on the subject; and in order to ascertain these, I propose to transmit a copy of the present despatch to Sir Charles FitzRoy, with a request that he will, after consulting with the leading men of the colony, address your lordship on the subject.

“With respect to the terms proposed by the proprietors, I am clearly of opinion that any such arrangement would be wholly inadequate to the end in view.

“I am, &c.,

“Durham.

“Lord Glenelg.”

The reference in the closing paragraph of the despatch is evidently to a memorandum of terms proposed by the proprietors for the sale and settlement of land in the island, and forwarded to Lord Genelg by Mr. G. R. Young, their talented solicitor and counsel, in January, 1838.

The very decided opinion expressed by Lord Durham led to the confirmation by Her Majesty of the act passed in 1837 for levying an assessment on all lands in the island, which confirmation was effected at a meeting of the privy council, held on the twelfth of December, 1838; but his lordship’s despatch was not communicated to the assembly by the governor. Its publication would have gratified the inhabitants of the island, and mightily strengthened the agitation which had been prosecuted for so many years with so comparatively little success.

Lord Durham, in his report, has repeated many of the arguments contained in the despatch which we have given, and the valuable evidence given by John W. Le Lacheur, Robert Hodgson, – now Sir Robert, – Sir Charles FitzRoy, George Wright, Thomas Haviland, John Lawson, and G. R. Goodman is published as a portion of the appendix to His Lordship’s report, – evidence which presents a clear and most reliable account of the land question, and exhibits within a moderate compass, with startling effect, the evils which had their origin in the reckless disposal of the island to non-resident proprietors, who disregarded the conditions on which it had been granted.

The coronation of Her Majesty the Queen took place on the twenty-eighth of June, and the event was celebrated in Charlottetown in a manner becoming the loyalty of the inhabitants. The prison doors were thrown open and the debtors set free. A plentiful repast was provided for the poorer classes, of which they joyfully availed themselves. The city was illuminated in the evening, and large bonfires kindled. At a county meeting, held in the court-house, a congratulatory address to the Queen was adopted, and forwarded to London by the governor.

Towards the close of the year 1838, a Mechanics’ Institute was established in Charlottetown, mainly through the instrumentality of Mr. Charles Young, – now the Honorable Judge Young, LL. D. The introductory lecture, which was subsequently published in the Gazette, was delivered by that gentleman. The Lieutenant-governor, Lady Mary FitzRoy, the chief justice, and a large number of the leading people of the town were present. A course of lectures was thus inaugurated which for many years furnished entertainment and instruction to those who availed themselves of the privilege of attendance. In Charlottetown, as well as in other towns, there is a good deal of latent talent which might be beneficially elicited in the delivery of lectures during the winter evenings. It not unfrequently happens that lecture-committees apply for lecturers in quarters where more able ones than can be found with themselves do not exist.

“’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.”

In the year 1838, the chief of the Micmac tribe presented a petition to the governor, praying for a grant of land to his tribe, which he represented as consisting of five hundred souls. This number seems to have been exaggerated; for the governor, in writing to Lord Glenelg, in reply to an application for information, states that the number of Indians on the island did not exceed two hundred. The governor recommended a grant of Lennox Island – the property of Mr. David Stewart – to the tribe.

Two sessions of the assembly were held in 1839. Whilst the first was proceeding with the public business, a despatch arrived ordering the governor to form an executive, separate from a legislative council. He immediately prorogued the house, and made the necessary nominations to both the councils. The house again met in March, in order to complete the business which remained unfinished at the recent prorogation. During the short interval which had elapsed since the termination of the late session, intelligence had reached the governor that active measures had been taken by the State of Maine to enforce by arms their alleged claims to the territory in dispute between that state and the province of New Brunswick. The season of the year did not admit of any active assistance being rendered in the emergency; but the island authorities determined to respond to the feelings and sentiments expressed by the council and assembly of the neighboring province of Nova Scotia.

W. Cooper was the speaker of the house of assembly in 1839, and was sent as a delegate to London on the land question. Three propositions were made on the subject, namely, the establishment of a court of escheat; the resumption by the Crown of the rights of the proprietors; and a heavy penal tax on wilderness land. The home government rejected the project of escheat, and did not feel at liberty to recommend the advance of two hundred thousand pounds from the treasury. With respect to the third proposal, Lord John Russell, the colonial secretary, expressed his unwillingness to adopt it at the moment, so soon after the imposition of a tax of the same description, and until it had been clearly proved that no remedy was to be expected from the imposition of that tax, and from the disposition of the proprietors to come to an equitable arrangement with the tenantry. The colonial secretary declined to discuss the question with Mr. Cooper, and made his decision known, through the governor of the island, in a despatch dated the seventeenth of September, 1839, in which he expressed his approval of the terms proposed by the proprietors, through their agent, Mr. Young, recommending them as the basis on which Her Majesty’s government desired that the question should be arranged.

CHAPTER VII

Marriage of the Queen – Education in 1842 – Foundation-stone of the Colonial Building laid – The Governor withdraws his patronage from Public Institutions – Dispute between the Governor and Mr. Pope – Election disturbances in Belfast – The Currency Question – Responsible Government discussed – Governor Huntley succeeded by Sir Donald Campbell – Earl Grey’s reason for withholding Responsible Government – The death of Sir Donald Campbell – Ambrose Lane, Administrator – Sir A. Bannerman, Governor – Responsible Government introduced – Temperance movement – The loss of the “Fairy Queen” – Dissolution of the Assembly – Governor Bannerman succeeded by Dominick Daly – The Worrell Estate bought by the Government – J. Henry Haszard perishes in the Ice Boat – Census of 1855 – A loan wanted – The Imperial Guarantee promised, but not given – Resolutions praying for a Commission on the Land Question – Charles Young, Administrator – Biographical Sketch of Bishop McDonald, – Death of James Peake.

In February, 1840, the Queen was united in marriage to Prince Albert, of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and in November of the same year the Princess Royal was born. Intelligence of an attempt to assassinate the Queen reached the Island towards the end of July. The culprit was a lad named Edward Oxford, a servant out of place. As Her Majesty, accompanied by Prince Albert, was proceeding in a carriage for the purpose of paying a visit to the Duchess of Kent, at her residence in Belgrave Square, they were fired upon by Oxford, who held a pistol in each hand, both of which he discharged. The shots did not, however, take effect, and it was subsequently discovered that the youth was insane.

The governor, Sir Charles A. FitzRoy, having been appointed to the West Indies, he was succeeded by Sir Henry Vere Huntley, who arrived in November, 1841, and received the usual welcome. In March of the year following died the Honorable George Wright. He had been five times administrator of the government, a duty which devolved upon him as senior member of the council, to which he had been appointed in 1813. He also, for many years, filled the office of surveyor-general. He appears to have discharged his duties conscientiously, and his death was regretted by a large circle of friends.

In February, 1842, Mr. John McNeill, visitor of schools, presented his report, which furnished interesting facts respecting the progress of education in the island. In 1833 the number of schools was seventy-four, – in 1841 they had increased to one hundred and twenty-one. While the number of schools had increased in this ratio, the number of children attending them had in the same period been more than doubled.

In November, 1842, Mr. John Ings started a weekly newspaper, designated The Islander, which fully realized in its conduct the promises made in the prospectus. For thirty-two years it continued an important public organ, when, for reasons into which it is not our business to inquire, it was discontinued.

In March, 1843, a serious disturbance took place in township forty-five, King’s County, when a large assemblage of people forcibly reinstated a person named Haney into the possession of a farm from which he had been legally ejected. The dwelling-house of a person employed by the proprietor to protect timber was also consumed by fire, resulting from the torch of an incendiary. Energetic measures were adopted to enforce the majesty of the law.

On the sixteenth of May, 1843, the corner stone of the colonial building was laid by the Governor, Sir Henry Vere Huntley. A procession was formed at government house, and moved in the following order: masons, headed by a band of music; then followed the governor on horseback, surrounded by his staff; after whom came the chief justice, the members of the executive and legislative councils, the building committee, the various heads of departments, the magistracy, – the members of the Independent Temperance Society bringing up the rear. Having, with trowel and mallet, gone through the ceremony, His Excellency said: “The legislature having granted means for the erection of a provincial building, and the corner stone having been now laid, I trust that a new era of prosperity will open in this colony, and am satisfied that the walls about to rise over this stone will resound with sentiments expressive of British feeling, British principles, and British loyalty.” A royal salute was then fired, and three hearty cheers for the Queen were given by hundreds who had collected to witness the proceedings. The design was drafted by Isaac Smith, President of the Mechanics’ Institute, and the building was to be composed of freestone, imported from Nova Scotia, – the estimated cost being nearly eleven thousand pounds currency.

At the annual meeting of the Central Agricultural Society, a letter was read from Mr. T. H. Haviland, intimating that in consequence of recent public measures with relation to government house, the governor withdrew his name from the public institutions of the island, and that consequently he ceased to be the patron of the agricultural society. It seems that the governor deemed the action of the assembly, in reference to government house, illiberal in a pecuniary sense; but that was a very insufficient reason for a step so fatal to his excellency’s popularity and usefulness. The committee, with a negative sarcasm which the governor must have felt keenly, simply passed a resolution expressing regret that any public measures – in reference to government house – over which the society had no control, should have been deemed by his excellency a sufficient reason for the withdrawal of his name as patron of the society; and a resolution was passed, at the annual meeting, soliciting the honor of His Royal Highness Prince Albert’s patronage, which, it is unnecessary to add, was readily granted.

In 1846 a dispute arose between the governor and Mr. Joseph Pope, which excited considerable interest at the time, and which resulted in a correspondence between the colonial office and the governor. It seems that Mr. Pope had opposed strenuously, as an influential member of the house of assembly, – he was then speaker, – a proposal to add five hundred pounds to the governor’s annual salary, and this generated in the mind of his excellency a very undignified feeling of hostility to Mr. Pope, who had only exercised a right which could not be legitimately called in question. Writing to Mr. Gladstone, then colonial secretary, the governor said of Mr. Pope: “As for any support from Mr. Pope, I am quite satisfied that in all his private actions, since the time of my persisting in reading the speech, at the opening of the session of 1845, respecting the debt he had accumulated, he has been my concealed enemy.” The governor resolved to get quit of Mr. Pope, as an executive councillor, and proceeded, in utter disregard of his instructions, to effect that object by suspending that gentleman from his seat at the board, without any consultation with other members of the council, assigning to Mr. Gladstone, as his reason for dispensing with the usual forms, that he had learnt from good private sources that the council, if consulted, would have dissuaded the suspension of Mr. Pope, and would have recommended the commencement of proceedings, by referring the question to Her Majesty’s government. This reason could not prove satisfactory to the colonial secretary, and the governor was ordered to bring the case before the executive council, in which Mr. Pope was to be reinstated as a member; and if they should advise his suspension, then, but not otherwise, he was to be suspended from his office as an executive councillor, until Her Majesty’s pleasure was known. Copies of the despatches in which charges were brought against Mr. Pope were ordered to be sent to himself, to which he had an opportunity of replying; but, in the meantime, he prudently tendered his resignation to the governor, in a long communication, in which he gave his reasons for so doing, and in which he embodied a reply to the governor’s charges, and condemned his gubernatorial action in very plain and energetic terms.

The legislature met for the first time in the new colonial building in January, 1847. An election for the district of Belfast was ordered to be held on the first of March. There were four candidates in the field: Messrs. Douse and McLean on one side, and Messrs. Little and McDougall on the other. A poll was opened at Pinette. The chief supporters of the two former gentlemen were Scotchmen, and of the two latter, Irishmen. A riot ensued, in which a man named Malcolm McRae was so severely injured that he died. Several others lost their lives in this disgraceful scene. Dr. Hobkirk testified before the executive council that from eighty to a hundred persons were suffering from wounds received in the contest. A large force was sent to the locality, and, on the nineteenth of March, Messrs. Douse and McLean were returned without opposition. There is not now a more peaceful locality in the island than that in which the riot took place; national prejudice and political rancor are lost in kindly fellowship.

Messrs. Charles Hensley, Daniel Hodgson, and George Birnie having been appointed by the governor commissioners to examine into all matters connected with the state of the currency of the island, presented their report in February, 1847, – a report which was creditable both to their industry and judgment. It appears from a letter addressed by Mr. Robert Hodgson, then attorney general, to the commissioners, that the legal currency of the island was the coinage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Spanish milled dollar, which was valued at five shillings sterling, – the debtor having the option of paying in either of these descriptions of money. The commissioners drew attention to the fact, that the currency of the island was greatly depreciated, and that the process of depreciation was going on, which was proved by the circumstance that the Halifax bank note of a pound, which twelve months previously, would purchase no more than twenty-three shillings of the island currency, was now received and disbursed at the treasury for twenty-four shillings. This depreciation the commissioners attributed to an extensive issue of unconvertible paper, both notes and warrants, combined with a growing distrust of the economical administration of the finances of the colony, arising from the continued excess of the expenditure over the receipts of revenue for some years past. They therefore recommended the reversal of the order of procedure, by diminution of outlay, the increase of revenue, the gradual abolition of notes, and the restraining of the issue of warrants to the amount required yearly for the public service. They also alluded to the advantages that would result from the establishment of a substantial bank, issuing notes payable on demand, and affording other facilities for the commercial and agricultural operations of the island. The commissioners concluded their report by expressing their deliberate opinion that whilst a paper circulation, based on adequate and available capital, was, under prudent management, of the utmost benefit to a commercial and agricultural population, and would contribute largely to its prosperity, unconvertible paper was a curse and a deception, – a delusive and fictitious capital, which left no solid foundation to rest upon in any time of reverse and difficulty. They also expressed the hope that on no pretext should a permanent debt be established in the colony, as the evil effects of such a burden would not be confined to the additional charge upon the revenue, but would necessitate the absorption of capital which might be more beneficially employed in commerce, manufactures, or agricultural improvement.