"On October 19th, 1760, Governor Lawrence died from inflammation of the lungs, brought on by a cold taken at a ball at the Government House. He was deeply mourned by the colony, and his loss was severely felt. He was accorded a public funeral, and the Legislature caused a monument to be erected to his memory in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, as a mark of their sense of the many important services he had rendered the province. He was a wise and impartial administrator, and zealous and indefatigable in his endeavours for the public good; even his opposition to calling a General Assembly made him few enemies, and his strongest opponent in the matter, Chief Justice Belcher, who succeeded him in the administration, remained on good terms with him."[145]
In the same month that Governor Lawrence died, occurred the death of George the Second, in consequence of which the first House of Assembly of Nova Scotia was dissolved, and a new election, with some changes in the electoral districts, took place. The first meeting of the new Assembly was held the 1st of July, 1761, and the members of the House again agreed to give their services gratuitously. From the death of Governor Lawrence to the close of the American Revolution in 1783, there were ten governors and lieutenant-governors of Nova Scotia, under whose administration the colony was quiet and prosperous, though there was little increase in the population (until the influx of the U.E. Loyalists), and domestic manufactures were discouraged in the interests of English manufacturers.[146]
Down to the year 1783, at the close of the American revolutionary war, the population of Nova Scotia amounted to only a few thousand; but in the following year, by the forced exodus of the Loyalists from the United States, the population more than doubled. "Even before hostilities began, a number of loyal families emigrated from Boston, and settled on the River St. John, founding the town of Parrtown, now St John, N.B. They found the climate and soil both much better than they had expected; and the colony soon began to thrive apace. Settlements were made at Oromocto, where a fort was built, and one bold explorer penetrated as far as the present site of Fredericton, and cleared a farm there for himself. These emigrants numbered about 500, and the district they settled in was made the county of Sunbury. This, however, was only the advance guard of the immense army of emigrants which was to be attracted to the colony at the close of the war, and which was destined to play so important a part in the history of the Maritime Province. The exodus of the Loyalists from New England commenced immediately after the opening of negotiations for peace in November, 1782; for so bitter was the action of the different State Legislatures against them that Sir Guy Carleton (afterwards Lord Dorchester) could not await the action of Parliament, but took upon himself to commence their removal to Nova Scotia. On the 18th of May, 1783, the ships bearing the first instalment of Loyalist emigrants arrived at Navy Island, and during the summer they continued to arrive, until about 5,000 had settled between Parrtown (St. John) and St. Anne's. The peninsula now occupied by the city of St. John was then almost a wilderness, covered with shrubs, scrubby spruce, and marsh. Large numbers of emigrants also arrived at Annapolis, Port Roseway, and other points; and Governor Parr, in a letter to Lord North in September, 1783, estimates the whole number that had arrived in Nova Scotia and the island of St. John (Prince Edward's Island) at 13,000.
"These emigrants included all classes—disbanded soldiers, lawyers, clergymen, merchants, farmers, and mechanics; all in indigent circumstances, but willing to build up their own fortunes, and those of the land of their adoption, by honest labour and industry."[147]
FOOTNOTES:
[141] General Description of Nova Scotia. Printed at the Royal Canadian School, 1825, p. 13.
[142] General Description of Nova Scotia, p. 17.
[143] Bourne's Our Colonies and Emigration, pp. 100, 101.
"The proclamation inviting emigrants to Nova Scotia guaranteed them the same form of government and rights as the other colonies; but owing to alleged difficulties in the way of electing an Assembly, no Assembly was chosen, and laws were made and the affairs of the colony were administered by the Governor and Council, until Chief Justice Belcher raised the question in 1755, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, as to the constitutionality of several laws passed by the Governor and Council without the endorsement of a representative Assembly. The question was referred to the Attorney and Solicitor-General of England, who decided that the Governor and Council alone had not the right to make laws, and that any laws so made were unconstitutional. The Lords of Trade advised the Governor (Lawrence) to convene an Assembly without delay, but he objected to it as needless and impracticable; when the Lord of Trade replied sharply, that he knew their desires on the subject; and as he did not seem disposed to gratify them, they were obliged to order him to do so; adding, that they knew that many had left the province and gone to other colonies on account of the discontent at the delay of calling an Assembly."
In obedience to these instructions, Governor Lawrence brought the subject before his Council the 20th of May, 1758, and a resolution (prepared by Chief Justice Belcher the year before) was passed, to the effect "That a House of Representatives of the inhabitants of this province be a civil Legislature thereof, in conjunction with the Governor for the time being, and the Council; that the first House shall be known as the General Assembly, and shall consist of sixteen members, to be elected by the province at large—four by the township of Halifax, and two by the township of Lunenburg; and that as soon as any other township which might be erected had fifty electors (freeholders), it should be entitled to elect two representatives to the Assembly, as well as having the right of voting for representatives for the Province at large. Eleven members besides the Speaker were to form a quorum." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap, li., pp. 238, 239.)