On the sixth of March, the first meeting called by the sheriff took place at Charlottetown. Considering the deep snow on the ground and the state of the roads, it was numerously attended, and the proceedings were conducted with the utmost order and regularity. A number of resolutions were passed, which were embodied in an address to the King, containing grave charges against the governor. It was said that, though he had resided on the island for ten years, he had only been once absent from Charlottetown, when he ventured to drive eighteen miles into the country, thus failing to make himself acquainted with its actual condition. He was charged with illegally constituting a court of escheat in 1818, and, in violation of his own public proclamation of the 8th of October, 1816, harassing by prosecution the tenants of township number fifty-five. He was charged with refusing to receive an address from the house of assembly in answer to his speech at the opening of the session in November, 1818, though he had appointed an hour for that purpose. In addition to this public insult, he was accused of sending a message, on the fifteenth of December, to the assembly, requiring both houses to adjourn to the fifth 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, in accordance with the said message, it was insulted by Mr. Carmichael, the lieutenant-governor’s son-in-law and secretary, who, advancing within the bar, addressed the speaker loudly in these words: “Mr. Speaker, if you sit in that chair one minute longer, 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 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; and this extraordinary conduct was soon after followed by a prorogation of the legislature, in consequence of the house having committed to jail the lieutenant-governor’s son for breaking the windows of the apartment in which the house was then sitting. The lieutenant-governor was also charged with screening Thomas Tremlet, the chief justice of the island, from thirteen serious charges preferred against him by the house. He was also accused of degrading the council by making Mr. Ambrose Lane, a lieutenant of the 98th regiment, on half pay, and then town major of Charlottetown, a member of it, without having any claim to the position, save that of having recently married a daughter of the lieutenant-governor. Another member was a Mr. William Pleace, who came to the island a few years previously as a clerk to a mercantile establishment; from which trust he was dismissed, and then kept a petty shop of his own, where he retailed spirits. These were some of the charges brought against the governor, and the address concluded with the following words: “That your Majesty’s humble petitioners regret much the necessity they are under of approaching your Majesty’s sacred person in the language of complaint now submitted to your paternal consideration, and humbly trust, on a full review thereof, your Majesty will be satisfied that the further continuance of Lieutenant-Governor Smith in the command of your Majesty’s island must be distressing to its inhabitants, and, by preventing the usual course of legislative proceedings, greatly impede its prosperity.” The addresses, adopted by the other counties were similar to that of which we have just given a sketch.
One of the accusations brought against the governor, which has not yet been mentioned, was, that he permitted, as chancellor of a court over which he himself presided, heavy and vexatious additions to the fees since the appointment of Mr. Ambrose Lane as registrar and master. On the fourteenth of October, the lieutenant-governor, on pretence that this charge was a gross libel and contempt of the court of chancery, commenced proceedings before himself—on the complaint of his son-in-law—against the members of the committee appointed by Queen’s County to manage the address to the King, who were all served with an attachment, and subsequently committed to the custody of a sergeant-at-arms. The object of these proceedings was evidently to get hold of Mr. Stewart, in order to prevent him from going to England with the petitions,—of which the lieutenant-governor had determined to get possession. Mr. Stewart only got notice of the governor’s intentions two hours before officers arrived at his house on purpose to take him into custody; but he escaped to Nova Scotia with the petitions, and thence proceeded to England. Had Stewart been taken into custody, there would, doubtless, have been a rebellion in the island, for the people were exasperated. Chagrined beyond measure at Stewart’s escape, the lieutenant-governor determined to lay a heavy fine on the other members of the committee, and sequestrators were appointed to enter upon their property and secure the amount; but being now alarmed at unmistakeable symptoms of a popular tumult, he prudently ordered proceedings to be delayed till his judgment could be enforced. The defence was ably conducted by Messrs. Binns and Hodgson.
On Saturday morning, the twenty-sixth of July, 1823, appeared the first number of the Prince Edward Island Register, printed and edited by James D. Haszard, in which newspaper all the proceedings to which we have alluded were published. For the publication of these, Mr. Haszard was served with an order to appear at the bar of the court of chancery, being accused as guilty of a contemptuous libel against the court and the officers of the court. Mr. Palmer was agent for the prosecutor. Mr. Haszard was asked if he would disclose the authors of the publication complained of,—which he agreed to do. The parties were Messrs. Stewart, McGregor, Mabey, Dockendorff, Owen, and McDonald. Addressing himself to Mr. Haszard, the chancellor said: “I compassionate your youth and inexperience; did I not do so, I would lay you by the heels long enough for you to remember it. You have delivered your evidence fairly, plainly, clearly, and as became a man; but I caution you, when you publish anything again, keep clear, sir, of a chancellor! Beware, sir, of a chancellor!” And with this solemn admonition, Mr. Haszard was dismissed from the bar.
But the rule of the chancellor was destined not to be of much longer duration; for on Thursday, the twenty-first of October, 1824, His Excellency Colonel Ready, accompanied by Mr. Stewart, arrived in a brig from Bristol, after a passage of twenty-eight days. “He was loudly cheered on landing by a great concourse of spectators, and was received on the wharf by a guard of the 81st regiment and a number of the most respectable inhabitants.” A public meeting of the inhabitants, called by the sheriff, Mr. William Pope, was held for the purpose of voting an address to the lieutenant-governor. Colonel Holland, Mr. Hodgson, and Mr. Binns were appointed to prepare it. “We feel,” said the inhabitants, “the utmost confidence that the harmony which ought always to exist between the government and the people is perfectly established, and that your excellency will believe that loyalty, obedience to the laws, and a love of order is the character of the inhabitants of Charlottetown. We cannot omit on this occasion to express our unfeigned gratitude and thanks for the attention which His Majesty has been graciously pleased to pay to the interests of this colony, in confiding its government to your excellency’s hands, and to add our most fervent wishes that your administration of it may be long and happy.” The town was illuminated in the evening, and, to the credit of the inhabitants of Charlottetown, the exuberance of joy and festivity on the occasion was not marred by any impropriety, or insult to the man who had exercised his functions with a harshness and tyranny which made him the most unpopular governor who ever ruled on the island. The new governor was entertained at dinner in the Wellington Hotel. John Stewart was chairman, and the Honorable George Wright croupier. It is only fair to say, that an address was presented to the late governor, previous to his embarkation for England, signed by the members of council, principal officers of government, and two justices of the peace. Considering the character of Governor Smith’s administration, there is a spice of humor in the following portion of his reply: “I assure you I must ever feel a high interest in the prosperity of a colony whose welfare, it is well known to many of you, I have unceasingly watched over. It is my confident hope, as well as my fervent wish, that the island may continue to flourish under my successor, aided as he will be by the same support and advice from which I have myself so much and so generally benefited.”
CHAPTER V.
Governor Ready desires to govern constitutionally—Energetic legislation—George Wright, Administrator—Change in the mode of paying Customhouse Officials—Fire in Miramichi—Petitions of Roman Catholics to be relieved from civil disabilities—Proceedings of the Assembly touching the question—Dispute between the Council and Assembly—Catholic Emancipation—The Agricultural Society—Death of George the Fourth—Cobbett on Prince Edward Island—Colonel Ready succeeded by A. W. Young—The Census—Death of Governor Young—Biographical Sketch of him.
Governor Smith delighted in autocratical rule, and had not called an assembly together since 1820; but Governor Ready, wishing to govern the island in a more constitutional manner, summoned, on his accession to office, a new house, which met in January, 1825, and proceeded to business with some degree of spirit and earnestness. Acts were passed for the encouragement of education, for regulating juries and declaring their qualifications, for regulating the fisheries, for limiting and declaring the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, for empowering the governor to appoint commissioners to issue treasury notes to the extent of five thousand pounds, and for increasing the revenue by taxation. Another session of the house was held in October of the same year, when the house displayed equal energy and diligence in transacting the public business. John Stewart was speaker, and the members elected for Charlottetown were Robert Hodgson and Paul Mabey. Mr. Samuel Nelson was an unsuccessful candidate for the town. He had been accused of not signing the address to the King, praying for the recall of Governor Smith. In his reply to that charge, Mr. Nelson stated a fact which shows the inherent meanness of the late governor in his treatment of the people. “Governor Smith,” said Mr. Nelson, “never did anything for me. On the contrary, he broke me as a captain in the militia, and when I was putting a porch to my door he sent a peremptory demand to pull it away.”
The governor returned to England towards the close of the year, on private business, and during his absence the government was administered by the Honorable George Wright.
The officers of customs received in this year official instructions from the lords commissioners to discontinue the exaction of fees after the fifth of January ensuing, as fixed salaries were to be granted to them,—a regulation which extended to all the colonies.
In this year, eighteen vessels arrived at the island from Great Britain, and one hundred and twenty-eight from the British colonies. There were imported fifty-four thousand gallons of rum, two thousand five hundred gallons of brandy, three thousand gallons Geneva, and two thousand gallons of wine, which, for a population of about twenty-three thousand, was a large supply. The imports were valued at £85,337, and the exports at £95,426.