Volume 2 / Part 2 — CHAPTER XLII.
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Governments of the British Provinces—Nova Scotia.
To the painful narrative given of the banishment of the Loyalists, and confiscation of their property, at the close of the revolutionary war, and their settlement in the British provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada, so fully detailed in the preceding pages, it is proper to add some account of the Provincial Governments.
Nova Scotia is the oldest of the present British American Provinces. This territory had the general appellation of New France, or Acadia, and comprehended, until 1784, New Brunswick and Cape Breton. It was originally regarded as a part of Cabot's discovery of Terra Nova, and as such claimed by the English Government, and was afterwards comprehended within the boundary of a large portion of America, called North Virginia. In the wars between France and England this country changed masters several times; but in 1710 Nova Scotia was again re-conquered by the forces of her Britannic Majesty Queen Anne, sent from New England, under the command of General Nicholson; and by the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, it was finally ceded and secured to Great Britain, and has ever since continued in her possession.[141]
"There were originally three sorts of government established by the English on the continent of America: Charter Governments, such as those of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; Proprietary Governments, as Pennsylvania and Maryland; and Royal Government, as Nova Scotia. A Royal Government is immediately dependent upon the Crown, and the King appoints the Governor and officers of State, and the people only elect the representatives, as in England."[142]
"Peace was declared between France and England the 8th of November, 1762; and by the treaty which followed, all the French possessions in Canada, with Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and the islands in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, were ceded to Great Britain. In the year 1764, the Island of St. John, named Prince Edward Island in 1799, in honour of the Duke of Kent, was annexed to Nova Scotia.
"Of Acadia, and accordingly of Nova Scotia, during its early government by the English, the province now known as New Brunswick formed a part, and to the colony was added, in 1758, the Island of Cape Breton, then finally taken from the French. In the same year the military rule which had prevailed was exchanged for a regular Constitution, in which a Governor, representing the British Crown, presided over a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly modelled to some extent from the two estates of the English Parliament."[143]
The first Assembly of Nova Scotia met on the 7th of October, 1758, at Halifax, and elected Robert Sanderson as Speaker. A number of laws passed by the Governor and Council were passed with slight alterations; and the Assembly, on the question being put whether any money should be paid them for their services, unanimously resolved that the members should serve without any remuneration that session. (This was repealed by the members of the next elected Assembly.) The usual Speech from the Throne was made, and a complimentary address was moved in reply; and the Governor and his new Assembly got on better together than he had expected.[144]
"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]