Читать книгу History of Halifax City - Akins Thomas B. - Страница 4

Notwithstanding the advantages held out by Government to the settlers at Halifax, and the repeated large grants of money by Parliament, the people were rapidly removing to the old Colonies. Little progress had been made in clearing the country. The fishery, one of the main inducements of the settlement, was almost altogether neglected, and the population was reduced to much less than half its original number. They subsisted chiefly on the money expended by the Army and Navy, and were dependent on Boston for their provisions and many other necessary supplies.

In 1755, Dr. Breynton, the minister at St. Paul's, estimated the inhabitants of Halifax at 1,300, eight hundred of whom professed themselves members of the Church of England; and again in 1763, eight years later, according to the Doctor's returns to the Propagation Society, the number was still found not to exceed one thousand and three hundred souls; nine hundred and fifty of them being of the Church of England, and three hundred and fifty Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics.

Up to the year 1757, the enormous sum of £560,000 sterling had been expended on the settlements, and though in some respects the Colony had been considered a failure, yet in a military point of view it was of incalculable importance to Great Britain, and to its position as a naval and military depot may be ascribed in a great measure the downfall of the French power in America.

On 30th June, 1757, Lord Loudon with his transports and 12,000 regulars and provincials arrived at Halifax, and on July following, Admiral Holborn arrived with his fleet. This armament, which was destined for an attack on Louisburg, left Halifax early in August, but having proved a failure the fleet returned to England in September, but Loudon returned with his army to New York; they both left Halifax on the same day, 16th August. Holborn arrived at Louisburg on 20th, where finding the French fleet superior to his own, he continued to cruise off Louisburg harbour until 24th September, when he encountered a severe gale of wind which scattered his fleet, several ships were lost, eight sail got safe to Portsmouth, and the rest got to New York. This powerful armament consisted of 13 sail of the line – the Newark 80 guns, Invincible 74, Grafton 68, Terrible 74, Northumberland 68, Captain 68, Bedford 64, Orford 68, Nassau 64, Sunderland 64, Defiance 64, Tilbury 64, Kingston 60, Windsor 54, and the Sutherland 50, with several others which afterwards joined them, and 16 smaller vessels of war. The naval forces amounted 10,000 men, and the land forces to 12,000, six thousand of whom were provincial troops. Loudon left three regiments at Halifax, and several of the vessels remained to winter here.

In May of this year the Governor and Council offered a bounty for sowing land with grass on the peninsula of Halifax, also for the erection of stone fences around the lots, and for raising grain and potatoes.

Loudon was succeeded in the supreme command by Abercrombie, another incompetent – a debilitated old man who remained in command for a short time. He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Amherst.

In the following spring about 12,000 troops arrived at Halifax, under the command of General Amherst. They were soon followed by Admiral Boscawen from England with a large fleet consisting of 23 ships of the line and 18 frigates. This great fleet arrived in Halifax harbour in May, 1758, accompanied by 120 transports. The land forces amounted to 12,260 men. On Sunday, 28th May, they set sail from Halifax, 157 vessels in all. They were met by General Amherst, with part of the force, as they went out of the harbour. Governor Lawrence accompanied the army and took command of one of the Brigades, Colonel Monkton being left in command during his absence.

After the siege, which was protracted for two months, part of the fleet and army returned to Halifax, and some of the vessels remained to refit. The colony was sacked for provisions and the town turned into a camp for the troops. A number of the provincial soldiers and others, having enriched themselves with the spoils at Louisburg, became settlers in the town. All the ammunition and stores, with a quantity of private property, were removed to Halifax, and the town once again began to assume a prosperous appearance.

This year was also memorable as the one in which Representative Government was established in Nova Scotia. The subject of calling a Legislative Assembly had undergone much discussion. It had been represented by the Governor and Council, to the authorities in England, that such a step at that particular time would be fraught with much danger to the peace of the colony. Chief Justice Belcher, however, having given his opinion that the Governor and Council possessed no authority to levy taxes, and their opinion being confirmed in England, it was resolved in Council on 3rd January, 1757, that a representative system should be established and that twelve members should be elected by the province at large, until it could be conveniently divided into counties, and that the township of Halifax should send four members, Lunenburg two, Dartmouth one, Lawrencetown one, Annapolis Royal one, and Cumberland one, making in all twenty two members, and the necessary regulations were also made for carrying into effect the object intended.

Much discontent prevailed in the town, and also in other parts of the province, in consequence of the opposition of Governor Lawrence to the calling of a Representative Assembly. Hitherto the Government had been carried on solely by the Governor and Council, who possessed both Legislative and Executive authority. Under the Royal instructions the Governor was directed to call a Representative Assembly as soon as the circumstances of the country would permit, but the Governor was of opinion that it would be injudicious to proceed to a popular election until the country was better prepared for it. After repeated remonstrances from the people of Halifax and some pressure from his Council, it was on the 7th January resolved in Council that an assembly should be called, and a plan was drawn up and submitted to the Board of Trade for the sanction of the home government. We find, however, that in February following it was resolved by the inhabitants of Halifax to petition the Crown against the conduct of Governor Lawrence, not only as regards his unwillingness to establish a representative government, but his oppressive and overbearing conduct in other respects to many of the leading inhabitants. This petition was entrusted to one Ferdinando Paris, a gentleman in London, accompanied by affidavits and a power of attorney, conferring on him authority to represent the subscribers before the Privy Council and the Board of Trade and Plantations. A subscription was set on foot, and about £120 sterling subscribed, to meet the expenses of the application to Government. These documents were certified by Chief Justice Belcher as authentic, on 14th March. As these proceedings bear date in February, 1757, it is probable that the resolution of the Council of the 7th January had not been made known. The petition and power were signed by the following residents of the town who reputed themselves as a committee appointed by the people for the purpose of forwarding their views: Robert Saunderson, William Pantree, Malachi Salter, Jonathan Binney, Otto Wm. Schwartz, Robert Campbell, Henry Ferguson and John Grant. These papers were also accompanied by a copy of an address from the people of Halifax to Lt. Governor Robert Monkton, praying that certain sums of money, collected as rum duties, etc., might be expended on the fortifications of the town as a protection to the inhabitants, and offering to contribute both labour and money for the purpose. It also complains of the "miserable management of those who have had the direction of the defences." This petition bears date 19th October, in the same year. The language of one of the letters addressed to Mr. Paris, the request on the subject of the Halifax grievances and the overbearing military rule of Governor Lawrence, bespeak much excitement to have existed in the town on the subject. The feeling appears to have prevailed principally among the leading inhabitants. We find that the list above referred to was signed by Mr. Binney, Mr. Salter, Mr. Pantree, Mr. Schwartz, Dr. Grant, Mr. Saunderson, Mr. Fairbanks, Mr. Robt. Campbell, Mr. Butler, Mr. Suckling, Mr. Vanput, Mr. G. Gerrish, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Wiswell, Mr. Mason, and many others.

On the first of November following, the Grand Jury of Halifax petitioned Governor Lawrence that some immediate steps may be taken to fortify the town so that the inhabitants might be placed in a more secure position in case of invasion. They refer to a petition presented to Lt. Governor Monkton on the same subject, to which no reply had been made, and concluded by asking that they might know without further delay what they were to expect; that if no further security is to be provided for the settlement they may have an opportunity of conveying themselves, their families and effects to a place of greater safety in some of the neighbouring Colonies. The names of the Grand Jury were Robert Saunderson, Joseph Rundell, John Anderson, Paul Pritchard, Hugh McKay, Joseph Fairbanks, William Schwartz, Robert Campbell, William Pantree, John Killick, John Brooks, Henry Wilkinson, Walter Manning, John Slayter, Richard Catherwood, Joseph Pierce, Alexander Cunningham, Richard Tritton, Jonathan Gifford and Benjamin Leigh.

On Monday, the 2nd of October, 1758, the newly elected members met in the Court House in Halifax, pursuant to summons from the Provost Marshall; their names were as follows:

They sent Messrs. Nesbitt, Newton and Rundell, to wait on the Governor, who sent Messrs. Morris and Green from the Council to swear them in. They then chose Robert Saunderson their speaker, which was confirmed by the Governor, who addressed them as follows: "Gentlemen of the Council and House of Representatives: His Majesty having been most graciously pleased by his royal instructions to his Governors of this Province to direct the calling an assembly of the freeholders to act in conjunction with his Governor and Council as the Legislative Authority, when such a measure should be found essential to his service; I am to assure you that it is with particular pleasure I now meet you convened in that capacity, in consequence of a plan some time since formed here for that purpose, with the advice and assistance of His Majesty's Council, and by me transmitted to the Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations to be laid before His Majesty for his approbation.

"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

"I entertain the most sanguine hopes that you are come together unanimously disposed to promote the service of the Crown, or in other words, the real welfare and prosperity of the people whom you have the honour to represent, in every point to the utmost of your authority and capacity.

"This, I presume, you will conceive is justly to be expected, not only from the immediate regard due to the Civil Rights and Interests of your constituents, but likewise from the unspeakable obligations you are under to demonstrate in their behalf your dutiful sense of His Majesty's paternal concern for the prosperity and security of those his subjects in those distinguishing marks of his royal favour and protection which we have from time to time so happily experienced in the fleets and armies sent out for our immediate preservation when we were under the most imminent danger of being swallowed up by a merciless enemy; also in the ample supplies of money for so many years annually granted for the support and encouragement of this infant colony; and moreover still, in the continuance of His Majesty's royal bounty for that purpose, when from the seeming inclination of the inhabitants to have an assembly convened some time ago, it might have been presumed, and indeed by an article of His Majesty's Instructions, which I shall order to be laid before you, it has been judged that the Colony has become capable of providing for the necessary support of government here, as has been usual in all His Majesty's other American Dominions.

"Gentlemen of both Houses:

"As my Military occupation requires my attendance as early as possible upon the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces to the Westward, and as the Lieutenant Governor is now necessarily employed, and will be for some time to come, upon an enterprise of importance in a distant part of the province, there is not at present an opportunity of entering upon such particulars as might otherwise call for your attention; I am therefore earnestly to recommend to your serious consideration the expediency, or rather the necessity of unanimity and dispatch in the confirmation of such Acts or resolutions of a legislative nature, as the Governor and Council under His Majesty's Royal Instructions have found expedient, before the forming of an assembly and indispensably necessary for promoting the welfare and peaceable Government of this people.

"You may depend upon it, Gentlemen, on my return to the Government you will find me perfectly disposed to concur with you in enacting such further laws, making such amendments to the present ones, and establishing such other regulations as shall appear upon more mature deliberations to be consistent with the honour and dignity of the Crown and conducive to the lasting happiness of His Majesty's subjects where I have the honour to preside.

Charles Lawrence."

The House then resolved that the members should all serve without pay for the session. The calling of the Legislature had been delayed till the autumn in consequence of both the Governor and Lt. Governor being absent with the Army at Louisburg. Governor Lawrence came up to Halifax from Louisburg specially to meet the Legislature.

The Governor in his letter to the Board of Trade about this time noticed particularly the serious effects on the settlement of the enormous importation and retail of spirituous liquors, and expressed a hope that the Legislature would check it.

On 2nd July, 1761 (second session) the House voted £50 for a public clock in the Town.

The following year (1759) Halifax was again the rendezvous for part of the fleet and army both before and after the siege of Quebec; not a few of the more enterprising settlers followed the camp and enriched themselves during the war, Admiral Darell with 4 ships of the line arrived in Halifax Harbor in April and left for the St. Lawrence on 5th May.

At the news of the victory, the town was illuminated, and fire works, bonfires and other public entertainments lasted several days.

Between the years 1759 and 1763 the harbor had been the constant resort of the squadrons under Lord Colville and others; the place was enlivened by the presence of a large army and navy, and at the close of the war several gentlemen of condition were induced to become settlers.

Peace having been proclaimed in 1763, the 28th day of December of that year was solemnized at Halifax as a day of thanksgiving on account of the termination of the war. Though the town possessed all the advantages to be derived from the presence of the naval and military forces, the resident population did not increase. From the notitia parochialis of the Rev. Dr. Breynton, the Rector of St. Paul's, the number of inhabitants in the town did not exceed 1300 souls. However, in 1769, six years after, the Doctor makes the following return: Inhabitants in and about Halifax including Garrison, Acadian French and fishermen, by the late public survey 5000 souls, of which 200 are Acadians and 55 protestant dissenters. The number of births that year was 200 and the deaths 190.

Among the local occurrences of the year 1759, was the trial of Thomas Lathum, baker, for the murder of Lieutenant Collins of the Royal Navy. It appeared that Mr. Collins, Captain Sweeney, Doctor Johns, Mr. Fulton and others of the Navy, had been sipping at the house of one John Field, and late in the evening proposed to go out in search of some women with whom one of them had made an engagement. They knocked at the door of one Hewitt, and inquired for Polly. On being refused admission, it appeared that Thomas Lathum, the brother-in-law of Hewitt, who lived in the neighbourhood, hearing the noise, came to his own door and demanded of the gentlemen in the street whether they intended to rob Mr. Hewitt. They replied that they were gentlemen and not robbers. Some further words provoked a scuffle, in which Fulton was dragged by Lathum into his house. The affair terminated in Lathum discharging a gun after the party, and mortally wounding Collins. Captain Sweeny had previously called the guard, who shortly after the affair arrived and took Lathum into custody. Lathum was tried on the 24th April, 1759.

The names of the grand jury, who found the bill of indictment, were Michael Francklin, foreman, Charles Proctor, Abraham Bowyer, Walter Manning, James Quinn, Nathan Nathans, J. Pernette, John Craig, Terrence Fitzpatrick, John Kerby, Jonathan Pierce, James Porter, Henry Sibley, J. Flanagan, Michael Moloney, Robert Cowie, Charles Terlaven, Jonathan Gifford and James Browne.

On the 11th March, 1760, the following gentlemen were appointed Justices of the Peace for the county of Halifax, viz.: The Hon. Jonathan Belcher, Hon. Benjamin Green, Hon. John Collier, Hon. Charles Morris, Hon. Richard Bulkeley, Hon. Thomas Saul, Hon. Joseph Gerrish, William Nesbitt, John Duport, Joseph Scott, John Creighton, Sebastine Zouberbuhler, Edward Crawley, Charles Proctor and Benjamin Gerrish, and on 30th December following, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Johnathan Binney and John Burbidge were added to the number. Messrs. Morris, Duport, Scott, Gerrish and Crawley were appointed Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas.

Governor Lawrence, who had been for 7 days ill, died of inflammation of the lungs on the morning of the 19th October, 1760. The Council were immediately summoned, and Chief Justice Belcher sworn in to administer the Government. A question had arisen on a previous occasion, between Mr. Belcher and Mr. Green, as to the eligibility of the Chief Justice to the office of administrator of the Government, which was decided in favour of the Chief Justice, but some years after, the question was determined by the British Government declaring that the two offices of administrator of the Government and Chief Justice, should never be held by the same person.

It was resolved in Council, that the funeral of the late Governor should be at the public expense, and a monument to his memory was afterwards voted by the Assembly to be placed in St. Paul's Church.37

The funeral of Governor Lawrence took place on the Thursday following, 24th October, at 4 p. m. The procession began from Government House as follows: —

The Troops in Garrison, the Military Officers, two field pieces 6 pounders, the Physicians, the ministers, the corpse in a coffin covered with black velvet, and the pall, to which were affixed escutcheons of His Excellency's arms, supported by the President and the rest of His Majesty's Council.

The Mourners, the Provost Marshall, the House of Assembly, the Magistrates, the Civil Officers, the Freemasons and a number of the inhabitants. The Bearers, Clergy, Physicians and all Officers, Civil and Military had linen and cambric hat-bands.

The corpse was preceded near the church by the orphans singing an anthem. The pulpit, reading desk and the Governor's pew, were covered with black and escutcheons, and a most pathetic Funeral Sermon was preached by the Reverend Mr. Breynton, Rector of the Parish, after which the corpse was interred on the right side of the Communion Table.

Minute guns were fired from one of the batteries, from the time the procession began, until the interment, when the whole was concluded with three volleys from the troops under arms.

The Supreme Court, which began on Tuesday following, was hung in mourning and escutcheons.

The following fulsome eulogium, to the late lamented Governor, appeared in the newspapers of the day: "The Lieutenant Governor was possessed of every natural endowment and acquired, accomplishment necessary to adorn the most exalted station, and every amiable quality that could promote the sweets of friendship and social intercourse of human life.

"As Governor, he exerted his uncommon abilities with unwearied application, and the most disinterested zeal in projecting and executing every useful design that might render this Province and its rising settlements flourishing and happy. He encouraged the industrious, rewarded the deserving, excited the indolent, protected the oppressed and relieved the needy. His affability and masterly address endeared him to all ranks of people, and a peculiar greatness of soul made him superior to vanity, envy, avarice or revenge.

"In him we have lost the guide and guardian of our interests, the reflection on the good he has done, the anticipation of great things still expected from such merits, and circumstances which, while they redound to his honour, aggravate the sense of our irreparable misfortune."

About the end of October, Commodore Lord Colville arrived in the harbor with the Northumberland and three other ships of the line and several frigates from Quebec. The Sloop-of-War England also arrived from England with dispatches and next day sailed for Louisburg and Quebec. Several transports also came in about the same time with Col. Montgomery's Highlanders to relieve the two battalions of the 60th Royal Americans.

Among the advertisements in the Halifax Gazette of 1st November, 1760, is the following:

"To be sold at public auction, on Monday the 3rd of November, at the house of Mr. John Rider, two Slaves, viz.: a boy and girl, about eleven years old; likewise, a puncheon of choice old cherry brandy, with sundry other articles."

1759. Among the town officers nominated by the Grand Jury this year were, John Fillis, Richd. Wenman, Richd. Gibbon and Wm. Schwartz as Commissioners of the poor for the town.

Surveyors of Highways, Chas. Morris, Esq., Chas. Proctor, Esq., Mr. Wm. Prescott and Mr. John Rider.

This year an Act of the Legislature was passed to regulate the Sambro Light House at the entrance of Halifax Harbor, which had been erected the previous year at the expense of £1000. The Work House was also erected this year. Firing guns within the town and peninsula was forbidden in 1758 under a penalty.

The accession of King George the Third was proclaimed at Halifax on the 11th February, 1761, with great ceremony. The proclamation was first read at the Court House door,38 then at the north gate of the town,39 at Government House, at the south gate,40 and lastly on the Parade, where the troops were drawn up and a salute fired by the artillery. Lord Colville's fleet being in the harbour at the time, "each ship fired a Royal Salute, beginning with his Lordship's flagship the Northumberland."

The order of the procession on this occasion was as follows: – 1st, A Company of Grenadiers; 2nd, Constables of the Town; 3rd, Magistrates; 4th, Civil Officers of Government; 5th, Constables; 6th, The Provost Marshall with two deputies on horseback; 7th, a Band of Music; 8th, Constables; 9th, The Commander-in-Chief of the Province, the Honorable Jonathan Belcher, with Admiral Lord Colville and Colonel Foster, commandant of the Garrison, and the members of His Majesty's Council; 10th, the Speaker and the members of the House of Assembly, followed by the principal inhabitants. At three o'clock the company waited on the Commander-in-Chief at Governor Lawrence's head tavern, where a very elegant entertainment was provided for them, and after dinner His Majesty's health was drunk under Royal Salute from the Batteries, also other toasts, and the evening concluded with great rejoicings and illuminations, bon-fires and artificial fire works, played off by the Royal Artillery. A sermon was afterwards ordered to be preached (13th February, 1761) in St. Paul's Church, on account of the decease of the late King, and all public amusements were ordered to cease for one month from that day. The 17th was accordingly set apart and the sermon preached by the Rev. T. Wood, the Curate. Part of St. Paul's church was hung in black, and minute guns were fired for an hour and a half, and the flags on the Citadel and George's Island were half-mast during the day.

On the 11th day of February, 1760, two Indian Chiefs of the Passamaquoddy and St. John River tribes, came to Halifax with Colonel Arbuthnot and appeared before the Council, and by their interpreter, settled with the Governor terms of peace, renewing the Treaty of 1725 and giving hostages for their good behaviour. At their request truck houses were established at Fort Frederick. Benjamin Gerrish, John Collier and Thomas Saul were appointed a Committee to prepare the Treaty in French and English, which was to be taken back with them to be ratified by their tribes. It was arranged that Colonel Arbuthnot should accompany them, and that they should be sent back at the public expense, after which His Majesty's health was drunk and the Chiefs returned to the quarters assigned them by the Governor. On the 13th the Treaty was ratified in Council and the Indians and the Governor and Council settled the table of the prices to be established at the truck houses. The Indians stated that the number of their tribes, men, women and children, was about 500. During the sitting of the Council on the 13th, Roger Morris, one of the Mic-Mac Indians, appeared and brought with him three Frenchmen who were lately arrived from Pictou, and another Indian called Claude Renie, who said he was Chief of the Tribe of Cheboudie Indians. He stated that he had left 70 of his people at Jeddore; the men were out killing moose and their families were in want of provisions. It was arranged that provisions should be sent to them and that the men should forthwith come up and conclude a peace.

Treaties of peace were afterwards concluded on 10th March following with three Mic-Mac Chiefs, viz., Paul Laurent, chief of the Tribe of LaHave, Michael Augustine, chief of the Tribe of Richibucto, and the before-mentioned Claude Renie, chief of the Cheboudie and Musquodoboit Indians; the treaty was signed in Council on that day and they received their annual presents. Another treaty of peace was signed in Council on 15th October, 1761, with Jannesvil Peitougawash, Chief of the Indians of the Tribe of Pictock and Malogomish, and the merchants and traders were notified that the Indian trade to the eastward would be thrown open under regulations in the following spring. The following summer Joseph Argunault, Chief of the Mongwash Indians, with a number of followers, appeared before the Council and executed a final Treaty of peace. The members of Council and Legislature, with the Magistrates and public officers, attended on the occasion.

The Abbe Mallaird being introduced, interpreted the treaty to the Chief, who was then addressed by the Hon. Mr. Belcher, the Commander-in-Chief. The treaty was respectively signed by the Commander-in-Chief and the Indian Chief, and witnessed by the members of the Council present, the Speaker of the Assembly and Mr. Mallaird.41 The Chief then addressed Mr. Belcher in the following manner: That he had formerly paid obedience to another King, but that he now acknowledged King George 3rd for his only lawful Sovereign, and vowed eternal fidelity and submission to him; that his submission was not by compulsion, but that it was free and voluntary with his whole heart, and that he should always esteem King George 3rd as his good father and protector. That he now buried the hatchet in behalf of himself and his whole tribe, in token of their submission, and of their having made a peace which should never be broken upon any consideration whatever. The Chief then laid the hatchet on the earth, and the same being buried the Indians went through the ceremony of washing the paint from their bodies, in token of hostilities being ended, and then partook of a repast set out for them on the ground, and the whole ceremony was concluded by all present drinking the King's health and their Haggas. This ceremony is said to have been performed in the Governor's garden, westward of the old English burial ground, where the Court House now stands. Benjamin Gerrish, Esquire, was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and additional truck houses were built and other arrangements made throughout the Province for more effectually carrying on the Indian trade.

On the 30th December, 1760, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Jonathan Binney and John Burbidge were appointed Justices of the Peace for the Town of Halifax. Mr. Burbidge was a member of Assembly; he afterwards removed to the country and settled in Cornwallis township, where his descendants now remain.

The French having invaded the British settlements in Newfoundland, and captured the fort of St. John, a council-of-war was called at Halifax, for the purpose of consulting on means of the defence of the town in case of an attack. This Council was composed of Lt. Governor Belcher, Col. Richard Bulkely, Halifax Militia, Major General Bastead of the Engineers, Col. William Foster, Lt. Col. Hamilton, Lt. Col. Job Winslow, and the Right Honorable Lord Colville, commander-in-chief of the squadron. They met on the 10th July, 1762, and continued their sittings until 17th August. They recommended to Government the embodying a portion of the militia force, and that the Batteries on George's Island, Fort George, Point Pleasant and East Battery should be put in repair and guns mounted, and the erection of such works around the town and at the Dockyard as might be considered necessary for the protection of the place. The whole to be placed under the superintendence of General Bastead of the Engineers. Some of the old works were put in repair and others added on this occasion, but the cause of alarm having subsided, further expense was deemed unnecessary.

At the first settlement it had been found necessary to occupy not only every elevated position in the vicinity, but also large spaces around the town as at first laid out, for the purposes of defence and other military objects. After the necessity for those defences had ceased, it frequently occurred that the military commanders would lay claim to the grounds as military property, and in this way obstacles had continually arisen to the extension of the town, a grievance which has continued to be felt until the present time. Those whose duty it was to plan and lay out the town appear to have been guided more with a view to the construction of a military encampment than that of a town for the accommodation of an increasing population. The narrow blocks and small dimensions of the building lots have been found to be a continual drawback on the comfort, the health and the convenience of the inhabitants, and of late years these inconveniences have been severely felt in the business parts of the city. This, however, was not the case in laying out the north and south suburbs; here the lots were of ample dimensions, and though the streets were not of the width frequently met with in modern cities, yet of sufficient dimensions to ensure comfort. It is to be regretted that the town and city authorities, during the last 35 years, have not, as in other places, exerted their authority in the arrangement and laying off of building lots, and by wholesome regulations, prevented the crowding of buildings on pieces of land not sufficiently deep to admit of proper ventilation. It is also a matter of the utmost importance to the future welfare of the city that those lands now in the hands of the military and naval boards in various directions around the city which are not immediately required for military works should be handed over to the Civil Government for public promenades and other useful purposes.

July 18th, 1768. The Chiefs of the tribes of Indians of St. John's River, named Pierre Thomas and Ambroise St. Aubon, appeared before the Council with the following requests: They said the use of rum and spirituous liquors was too common among them, and requested that a remedy might be thought of to prevent it. They also required lands for cultivation, and that they should not be required to bear arms in case of war with any of the European powers. That some further regulations of prices in their traffic should be made, and several other matters, all of which appear to have been granted them. They desired to return home as soon as possible, that their people might not be debauched with liquor in the town.

This year (1768) Mr. Joshua Mauger retired from the office of Agent of the Province in London. Mr. Mauger came up from Louisburg with the army and resided in the town as a distiller of rum, and followed the camp for several years. He received grants of land from the government in various parts of the province. The bench at the south-west extremity of Cornwallis Island, now known as McNab's Island, was named after him. Mr. Mauger was afterwards elected a member of the British Parliament.

In the month of May of this year was presented to the Legislature the celebrated revolutionary document known as the Massachusetts or Boston Letter. This was a letter addressed by Speaker Cushin of the House of Representatives at Boston, to the Speaker of the Assembly in Nova Scotia. It bears the date February 11, 1768, and was on the subject of the differences existing between the British Government and the American Colonies, then on the eve of revolt. This letter is couched in very moderate but firm language; it appears to have been received, however, with great indignation by the House, who declined to have it read. A memorial was presented to the Governor and Council in March, 1767, by Colonel Dalrymple, then commander of His Majesty's troops at Halifax, complaining of the undue occupation of grounds about the town, on which there had been palisaded forts and lines of defence. It appeared that Governor Lawrence had granted certain small tracts of land on which a palisaded line of defence had formerly been, and that such tracts of land could not be supposed to come into use on any future occasion for fortifications. That Colonel McKellan of the Engineers had advised the situation of the Work House with an enclosure, in the front of said line, and that a whole bastion of two curtains of Lutterell's fort were covered by it, and that Governor Lawrence had further laid out more of such grounds on which part of the palisading of Horseman's Fort formerly stood, all of which it appeared he did by an undoubted right of the power given him by the King's Commission, to erect and demolish fortifications, and therefore to convert the ground to other uses, it being no more serviceable for the former purposes. But it also appeared that none of the Barracks were ever granted or admitted into private occupation. That Governor Lawrence had admitted the occupation of some of the ground reserved for fortification, on condition it should be surrendered when the King's service should again require it, by which it was evident that the King's rights in their lands had been sufficiently secured. Horseman's fort occupied the ground in the vicinity of the present Roman Catholic Cathedral. Lutterell's fort stood where the old Poor House and County Jail formerly stood. In June, 1763, the Council recommended the Governor to make a grant of the Common for the Town of Halifax to trustees for the benefit of the inhabitants. The Trustees were John Collier, Charles Morris, Richard Bulkeley, William Nesbitt, Charles Proctor and Richard Best. Some question having arisen as to the limits of the common, the Council were unanimously of the opinion that the lands which had been granted without the town were not within the limits of the Common as appeared by the plan thereof laid before the Lords of Trade, and which had not been disapproved of by their Lordships. No copy of this plan is now to be found.