History of Prince Edward Island

by Duncan Campbell

In the autumn of 1825 an extensive and most destructive fire took place in Miramichi, which swept over an immense area, destroying timber, farm steadings, and cattle. Many of the unfortunate inhabitants perished in the flames, and hundreds were left destitute. A liberal collection was made in the island for the relief of the suffering, and a vessel chartered to convey produce to the scene of the disaster.

The governor returned from England towards the close of the year 1826, and again assumed the reins of government. The house met in March following. In his opening address, the governor congratulated the house on the improvements recently made in the internal communications of the country,—the western line of road being completed up to Princetown, and surveys having been made for extending the line to Cascumpec and the North Cape. His excellency also referred to the advantages which would accrue from the establishment of an agricultural society. Among other useful measures passed during the session was one for ascertaining the population of the island, and for authorizing the formation of a fire engine company for Charlottetown.

During the last session a petition was presented by the Roman catholics of the island, praying that they should be relieved from those civil disabilities under which they suffered. Consideration of the important subject was at that time deferred on account of the advanced period of the session. The subject was now brought up by Mr. Cameron, in a temperate and sensible speech, in which he stated that, notwithstanding the predictions of persons hostile to the prayer of the petitioners, not a single petition was presented to the house against the proposed change. Mr. Cameron concluded by proposing the following resolution: “Resolved, that it is the opinion of this house that the right of voting at elections of members to serve in the general assembly ought to be extended to His Majesty’s subjects of the Roman catholic religion within the island, and that the election laws should be altered conformable to this resolution.” A long and animated discussion took place, in which the attorney general, Dr. McAulay, Mr. Hodgson, and others supported it; and Mr. Campbell, Mr. McNeill, and Mr. Montgomery led in opposition. On the question being put, the votes were equal; but the speaker, Mr. Stewart, gave the casting vote against the resolution, on the ground that the question had not been settled in England. The speaker was one of the most enlightened men in the assembly, and his decision on this occasion cannot be said to have been in accordance with his general character. Had the resolution passed, the assembly would have had the honor of being in advance, on this question, of the parliament of Great Britain. As subjects of the Crown, the Roman catholics, in asking to have a voice in the election of the legislature,—whose laws they were bound to obey in common with protestants,—claimed no favor, but a right which ought never to have been withheld, and the subsequent concession of which experience has proved to be as satisfactory in practice as it is equitable in principle. On the presentation of the petition in 1825, a voluminous and very able correspondence was carried on in the columns of the Register, in the conduct of which the best talent in the island, on both the catholic and protestant sides, was enlisted. Theological questions, that had no bearing on the subject in dispute, were, unhappily, imported into the controversy; and, whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the discussion in its religious aspect, there can be none as to the fact of every argument advanced against the Roman catholic’s right to be put on an equal footing with the protestant in all matters appertaining to civil and religious liberty, being completely demolished by the accomplished advocates of the Roman catholic claims. While the elaborate communications to which we have referred were imbued on both sides with considerable bitterness, yet, to the credit of the island combatants, it may be truly said that such bitterness was sweetness itself compared with the venom characteristic of similar controversies, as carried on at this period in other places. Fidelity to historical accuracy, at the same time, constrains us to state that, while on the part of catholics, as the aggrieved party, whose rights were tyranically and persistently disregarded, paroxysms of irritation were the natural result of oppression, no such apology can to the same extent be offered in behalf of their opponents.

In October, 1825, the council passed a resolution to the effect that they would not in future be disposed to give their assent to any bill for appropriating money, unless the sums and services therein contained should be submitted in separate resolutions for their concurrence. This resolution was not agreeable to the assembly, who claimed the sole right of originating all money bills, and who denied the right of the council to alter or amend them. This difference of opinion led to a protracted controversy. In May, 1827, the council sent a message to the assembly, in which the question was elaborately argued, to which the assembly returned an equally elaborate reply. The dispute resulted, in 1827, in the council agreeing to the two principal bills of supply, and rejecting an ad valorem duty bill; but in the following session—that of 1828—the appropriation bill was rejected by the council, which obliged the governor to confine the expenditure of the year to purposes of necessity. In meeting the house, in 1829, the governor expressed the hope that the unfortunate dispute of the last session would be brought to an amicable adjustment, and recommended a system of mutual compromise as the most effectual mode of securing that object. Although the council had resolved to transact no further business with the assembly until the latter body expunged a previous resolution from their journals containing certain imputations on the council, yet the house had refused to do so. Business communication was, however, resumed, and continued as if nothing had happened.

On the sixth of January, 1825, died Benjamin Chappell, late postmaster of the island, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He and his brother William emigrated from England in the year 1775. They owned one of the first packets that sailed between Charlottetown and the mainland. He saw the country in its rude and wilderness state, and was an attentive observer of all the vicissitudes it underwent in its gradual progress towards improvement, and few took a deeper interest in its prosperity. He was a man of sterling piety, actively devoted to the cause of religion, and may with truth be considered the founder of the present Methodist establishment of the island. He was personally known and beloved by John Wesley, who was in the habit of corresponding with him for many years; and it afforded Mr. Chappell much delight to detail to his friends many interesting anecdotes that grew out of his intimacy with that great and good man. He was brought up to the millwright business, and was well acquainted with machinery in all its extensive branches. He was a man of intelligence and strong mind, and, with a perfect knowledge of his own business, possessed a great deal of useful information. If a life of consistent piety, as expressed in the virtues that dignify human nature, can endear a man to society, the memory of Benjamin Chappell will be long and affectionately cherished in the island.

In the session of 1829 a select committee of assembly, for preparing a specific plan on which a bill might be founded for promoting classical education, presented their report, recommending the establishment of a classical academy in Charlottetown, to be designated the “Central Academy,” vesting the management in a patron and nine trustees. Two masters were to be employed, each to receive a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds a year; and no religious test was to be permitted. A bill in conformity with these recommendations was accordingly introduced and sanctioned.

The most important act passed in the session of 1830 was one “for the relief of His Majesty’s Roman catholic subjects.” The agitation for the removal of the disabilities under which the Roman catholics suffered in the old country resulted in catholic emancipation; and the British government recommended the adoption of similar measures in the colonies, which recommendation weakened unreasonable opposition to the change. The act now passed provided that all statutes which imposed on Roman catholics civil or political disabilities should be repealed, and that all civil and military offices and places of trust or profit should be as open to them as to other portions of the King’s subjects.

The agricultural society, which had been for some time in operation in the island, was active in accomplishing the beneficent purposes for which it was established: it encouraged improved stock by an annual exhibition and premiums, and imported seeds. District societies were formed at Saint Eleanor’s and Princetown. The governor took a practical interest in the operations of the society, of which the Honorable George Wright was president; the Honorable T. H. Haviland, vice-president; and Mr. Peter MacGowan, secretary and treasurer.

In August, 1830, intelligence of the death of King George the Fourth, which had occurred on the twenty-sixth of June, reached the island. The reign of His Majesty lasted about ten years and a half; but, including his regency, he was at the head of the government more than nineteen years. He was succeeded by William the Fourth.

The ignorance which in our days prevails in the old country respecting the American colonies is not quite so deplorable as that which existed at the period of the island history at which we have now arrived. It may amuse the reader to learn what the celebrated Cobbett thought at this time of Prince Edward Island, as a home for emigrants, and of the kind of business that was prosecuted there: “From Glasgow,” wrote Cobbett, “the sensible Scots are pouring out amain. Those that are poor, and cannot pay their passage, or can rake together only a trifle, are going to a rascally heap of sand, rock and swamp, called Prince Edward Island, in the horrible Gulf of Saint Lawrence; but when the American vessels come over with indian corn and flour and pork and beef and poultry and eggs and butter, and cabbages, and green pease, and asparagus for the soldier, and other tax-eaters that we support upon that lump of worthlessness,—for the lump itself bears nothing but potatoes,—when these vessels return, the sensible Scots will go back in them for a dollar a head, and not a man of them will be left but bed-ridden persons.” If such are the doctrines which were taught to the people of Britain by men like Cobbett, what must have been the depth of ignorance respecting the North American colonies which pervaded the masses? The very articles which the islanders were prepared to export to the states, if an inlet for them were permitted, were the articles which the foolish grammarian imagined they were importing. He little thought that in the capital of this island of “rock” a cargo of whinstones would be very acceptable, and find ready sale.