166 THE EXAMINER.

1 Te Pe EE EL Ea TTC ET TE SES

: ye t.4... | former fury, [Would nok dip myiingse id. water to ego) he) . —— ‘i ‘former fury, | Would not dip my finger in w

Colonial Legislatur ct. }demon’s tongue. hose petitioners appear to be sadly at a

RRR mma | oss to. Know what the Leader of the Government means by

XCGTISLATIVE COUNCIL. an equitable settlement of the land question. I think, your

LEGISLATI\ K Cl U NCIL js [lonors, if they will look at the Land Purchase Bill, they

Monpvay, March 31. will there see the price at which the Government me

The Ri lielie d € evia ad a second | to buy tand ; and the land obtained under the provisions 0

oe derwihs sory hee nea? that Bill and re-sold, will amount to about the price they

The Bill defining the limits of the City of Charlottetown

—— _—. we

admit they are glad to catch; and if they get that they will ‘urisdiction of the Mayor's and Police Courts was| think themselves fortunate. : _ se: arte the House of Sedan and read a first time,| The next charge is made against the ra mrs ; 2m The Hon. Col. Secretary informed the Couneil that the | ™2, who, in the same debate, says :— Be nett sn House of Assembly had agreed to the amendments of the | ° doubt, that the proprietors will be glad to x ag ae Council to the Bill regulating the proceedings of Justices of | the Government, the land tax they will fine . | a ~ the Peace in summary convictions and orders, what heavy burden, which is not without its Influc oaeaial The Hon. Attorney General presented a petition from the! them now.” If your Honors will refer to another aaa 2 Trustees of the Dunstaffaage Schoo!, praying the concurrence | the correspondence, you will there see the acknowle: Be of the House in a grant to reimburse costs and damages | Confession of the petitioners pemenives, Some he: oe ineurred in legal proceedings in connection with the said | words used by the Hon, J. Wightman: ‘ For the re os s¢hool house. \on wilderness property has obliged proprietors to let lands The Hon, Attorney General introduced a Bill to amend | without much discrimination as to the ciroumatances of the the law of limitations of actions for real estate. Read a first, Settlers, &e.” I must now call your Honors’ attention to the time. last paragraph of this grandiloquent document, which I cer- tainly cannot pass without reading; and | must say, had the

. tn - » arenes Anrmi Colonial Minister condescended to peruse it, he must have PETITIONS AGAINST THE TENANTS’ COMPEN—) 1 oon catistied that the whole of the petitions were founded on

SATION AND RENT ROLL TAX BILLS. misrepresentations and falsehood. The One-ninth Bill is also Hon. Colonel Swabey moved a Committee of the whole | made a subject of complaint. I have been on the [sland on the resolutions reported from the Special Committee. nearly fifty years, and L never heard of more being demanded, Hon. Mr. Walker in the Chair. ‘but in two cases; a state of things which clearly proves that The resolutions having been read, Hon. Colonel Swabey | the Bill is now what it was intended to be, a one-ninth Bill. moved that they be adopted. The petitioners complain they have almost given their Jands His Honor the PRESLDENT.—I think it is the duty of away by letting them for 999 years, at the yearly rent they this House to record its sentiments on the Journals with say of £3 15s. British sterling. Now Jet us see, your Honors, reference to the manner in which it has been treated. I say | how far this is a just ground of complaint. The landlords, this, believing that the acts in question are essentially neces-| for that length of time, will reccive,-according to their own sary to the welfare of the Island. Therefore, it is that [| statement, a very pretty sum, amounting to about £3746, cousider it due to the dignity and character of this House to | and land tax saved to the amounl of about £400, making in record its opinion of the manner in which the petitioners|the whole between four and five thousand pounds sterling, have expressed themselves, with reference to the action we/| for one hundred acres, and the land will then fail back into alopted in our legislative capacity. [ must not be understood | their or their assigns’ bands again. This is certainly some- as desiring to infringe on the right of any man or body of| thing to complain of. Those petitioners a'so complain of the men to petition or remonstrate against the passage of any | line of distinction drawn between proprietors of not more measure they might deem prejudicial to their interests, and | than five hundred acres and those of a larger quantity. If, using every legitimate mode of opposition; but I go no fur-| your Honors, the large proprietors had looked with less ther—I concede to them no right to abuse any Legislative | jaundiced eyes, they wou'd have been convinced that part of

body, or to allude offensively and unjustifiably to individuals, as these petitioners have done. They have exceeded the bounds of common courtesy, and in some instances of common decency, They have expressed, with offensive freedom, their | Opinions on individuals, on the Legislature, and on the| character of the whole population. Under these circumstances, f cannot consider it improper for this House to repel the | charges and imputations that have been dealt out in such | profusion. I do not intend to enter into the particular state- ments contained in the various documents. If I did, I could easily prove the falsity of many cf the assertions, which cannot be substantiated. I do not purpose to enter the! lists as a rival to the petitioners in slander or abuse; such | course would be undignified in this House; but we ought to shew the sense we entertain of the petitions by a resolution appearing on our Journals. The resolution reported from | the Committee is, I think, well frame1; it is to the point, and | contains a sufficiently clear expression of the opinion of the flouse.

Hon. Mr. CRASWELL. — In rising to support the | resolution now before your Honors, I shall endeavour to | express my opinion on the documents which have caused it | to be laid on the table of your Honors’ House, as well as my | regret that the Colonial Miuister for the day should have | stooped from the dignity of his’ position to receive petitions | couched in language so unqualified and false ; stigmetizing | Her Majesty, her then advisers, the Government of the {sland, both branches of the Legislature, and also basely slandering the inhabitants of the Island, from north to south, | from east to west, the whole length and breadth of the land; | and charging this branch of the Legislature with corrupt and | unjust motives in the discharge of their duties. I would ask your Honors, looking at the feeling that exists in a neighboring | country, if such is the way a British Colonial Minister | expects to keep unsullied the loyalty of eighty thousand of | Hor Majesty's subjects, by receiving and acting apon do-uments that libel and traduce; to the lowest degree, the character cf the peop'e of the Island? [think not. What, your Hionors, would a respectable person think if, on arriving on the Island, he were to read those documents? Woald he not say, peti- tions written in such foul slang were more like the ebullition of some pestiferous pot-house than language of persons who | were seeking their rights, and would wish to be thought of | rane minds? Such, | think, would be the stranger’s opinion. | With the permission of your Honors, Lewill now refer to| those documents, which are so mixed up each with the other. that it is impossible to separate them. In the first of these | petitions part of the second clause reads thus :—

**T do not hesitate to say that justice is quite out of the question, and could not be hoped for, under such arbitration. The Act would have, and | is intended to have, in connection with other Acts, the effect of depriving | the landlord of every remedy, other than the expensive one of an action at | law in the Supreme Court of Judicature,—the rent being no more than one shilling per acre per annum, the defendant being generally destitute | ulike of property and of principle, the jury being unavvidably composed | of tenants, or persons interested for tenants, or hoping themselves to become freeholders, without purchasing their land, and the sanctity of | an oath being but little regarded when a proprictor is to be injured by its | infraction.”

Here, your Honors, is one of the most foul stain spots that | can possibly be laid to the charge of the people of the Island, | which I feel bound to repe! with disdain, and burl back upon | the slanderer the foul assertions. What, your Honors, men | called by their country to sit as jurors upon the life or death | of their fellow man, care not for an oath, when arbitrating upon the paltry sum of five or ten pounds! Hide your diminished head, you slanderer, you are unworthy the coun- tenance of your fellow man! The next section in this document, to which I will draw your Honors’ attention, is the Record Bill, a measure, 1 think, very necessary, requiring all proprietors, large or small, to record their titles. This Bill, which has not become law, is represented in the petition to my Lord John Russell, as being a Government measure— a statement without the least foundation of truth; and the | allegation of its being published as baving been passed by the Legislative Council, so as to lead the country constituency to believe it to be the law of the land, is equally untrue and unfounded. On the same page there is a reference to the speech of the [lun. George Coles, the Leader of the Govern- ment, which I will read :—

* I@eg to submit to your Lordship some extracts from a speech made by the CUvloniai Secretary, the Hon. George Coles, in the House of

Assembly, on March 29th last, in the course of a debate on the old sub- ject of escheat. Your Lordship wil! sce that these extracts are not mete |

expressions of feeling uttered during the heat of debate, but they are | 100, 1000, or 10,000 acres of land ean enrich the mind of tieliborate avowals of the past policy and present views of the speaker: | any man, and render him more capable of serving his country

‘Believing that escheat was impracticable, [ have introduzed and carried

, ; : : other measures for the benefit of the people, at the expense of the pro- — the pee of but oneacre. No doubt, your Honors,

prietors, 4c &ec. I have followed the seme policy of dealing with the jand question mwderately, but te some practical effect,’ ”’ &e. &e.

Here, your Honors, is a bold and manly statement made

by the Leader of the Government, giving opportunity to his | holds one. While I assure them that L hold no such plague

opponents to meet him on fair and even grounds; not like the base assassin who, hiding himself in the dark or behind the screen of deception, plunges his dagzer into the character of au unofiending and unprepared people. No meed of praise must be placed to the credit of the Leader of the Government for suppressing escheat. No, no, nothing done for the good of the country must be attributed to the present Government, that proceeds from other causes. With regard to escheat, I beg to state, | have always been opposed to it—but I now posi- tively say that if escheat was again to blaze forth in all its

| this will amount to £4,000; that in twenty years, at five

alludes, [ believe, to myself and my friend, the Hon. Mr.

the Act was altogether in their favour, as the purchaser of 500 aeres, the moment he made his purchase, commenced to pay an annual tax of six shillings and eight-pence on every hundred acres, and the proprietor or seller of the same land ceased to pay the tax immediately. Therefore it would stand thus—the purchaser of 500 acres of land would have to pay an annual tax of £1 lds. 4d., while the large proprietor would not only save the tax of £2 5s. 10d. yearly, but create a capital by such saving equal to £45 18s, yearly, in addition to the purchase money, say £50 per 100 acres, £250, which amount at five per cent is equal per year to £12 10s. This very Act, all unprejudiced minds must see, is, although designated by the petitioners as odious, very favourable to the proprietors, while its usefulness benefits hoth parties.

The Tenants’ Compensation Bill, one of the rejected Bills, [ now call your Honors’ attention to. This Bill, had it become the law of the land, would have had a most desirable effect in setting at rest for ever the bad feelings that have existed for so many years between landlord and tenant. | [t would have given the tenant a stimulus for improvement and exertion, and by proper encouragement from the land- lord, enabled him in a few years to have overcome a number of difficulties that now prevent him from meeting the demands of his landlord, and would also have helped bim to make his family more satisfied, comfortable and happy. The petition- ers state this Act to be fraudulent; I deny it; and we find the petitioners saying of the tenant, they have an unwilling- ness to interfere with or prevent his making the necessary improvemeuts, resting satisfied that by so doing he was pro- moting the interest of the tenant, and enabling him to pay his rent with greater ease in future years; the very intention of the Legislature. This Act is made to appear in the peti- tiors as class legislation of an odious kind, and to serve no other end than to reduce the value of real estate, as may be seen, they say, by the price paid by the Government for the Worrell estate. This, your Honors, is certainly a turning of the tables, for when the Worrell estate was purchased, the Government was grossly attacked and charged with extrava- gance; and the Act was designated as a most odious measure, which would induce a wasteful expenditure of the public money, and every species of slander was at the time heaped upon the Leader of the Government for the shamefully extravagant price paid for it; and now it is referred to as being bought at a reduced price. Verily, we have strange bipeds in this- Is'and; possibly the proprietors have never given the question of the sale of their lands to the Govern- ment a proper consideration. I will therefore, your Honors, endeavour to demonstrate the advantage that would acerue to them by selling to the Governmeut under the Land Purchase Bill. Suppose A and B had each 20,000 acres of land; A will not dispose of his ualess he obtains 10s. per acre, taking it good and bad, and holds his land for twenty years, at which time he sells it for 10s. per acre, realizing £10,000: out of which, for the time he has kept it, he has paid tax, say £1800; that will leave Aa clear sum of £8,200. B sells his 20,000 acres to the Government at the present time for 4s. per acre ;

per cent, will realize £4,000 more; the tax saved £1,800; which being added to the two former sums will amount in the aggregate to £9,800, leaving a balance in favour of B over A of £1,600; but should B have placed the saved land tax at compound interest, it would have amounted to a much larger sum in his favour, besides being clear of the trouble that attends the occupation of Jands in Prince Edward Island.

I now come, your Honors, to the last of these nondescript petitions; and as the others have columns of untruths and mistatements, this will make the cap-stone of shame to that mass of corruption and slander, and with ene more reference to them, I shall commit them to the sink of iniquity from which they emanated. The last reference [ have to make

Walker. There is, your Honors, if I may so speak, an arrow shot into this House, and while the shaft may be intended to inflict pain on your Honors, the barb wasintended for myself and my honorable friend. In one place the petitioners state “that members of the Legislative Couneil are not qualified, according to either the letier or spirit of the royal commission and instruction,” and in another, that “ late appointments to that body would lead to the conelusion that a property qualification, if not altogether done away with, is at least not essentig!.” [have yet to learn whether the ownership of

the petitioners think the only road to a seat in this House is the possession of a ragged polluted rent roll, and that no honorable member can give a conscientious vote unless he | spot, 1 regard with contempt and scorn the slanderer who made the assertion. It may not be known that, when the first Responsible Government was formed, I was requested to accept a seat in this honorable House. I declined the offer, for 1 resided at a considerable distance from Charlottetown, and UL cousidered that there were many in the country, better qualified than I, who could attend with less personal incon- venience, to the duties of legislation. When, four years later, [ was again solicited to take a-chair at this table, 1 ‘considered that, if my services could be beneficial to my

a el OO

country, it was my duty to render them. I took my — here, and it will ever be & pleasure to me to reflect tha | since I did so. I have been associated with gentlemen, who, | in the intercourse of social life, are second to none in the Island ; gentlemen who, as Legislators, are competent and willing Pp) discharge their duties honestly and beneficially for the interests | of the people and the welfare of the Country ; gentlemen from whom I have received every kindness, attention and courtesy, the recollection of which will, as I said before, be always a source of pleasure to me. But, your Honors, there | are men whose political orgies have caused a cess-pool, the fumes arising from which have polluted the moral, social and | politieal atinosphere around them —cess-pool in which they love to grovel and pander to the worst passions of their depraved natures, mad to think that they cannot draw down to their own degraded level all around them,——a cess-pool over | which political death rides latghingly triumphant, with his uplifted dart ready to plunge into their guilty hearts, when | their odious sinful cup of political iniquity is full, and then | this Pandemonium of their own creation will disgorge and | spew them out on its own filthy edges, there to writhe and | crumble into dust like the carcasses of traitors who have dropped peacemeal from the gibbets on which they have been executed. The aim and object of our gracious Queen is the happiness of the people over whom she reigns, and who could have walked more iu Her Majesty’s steps than our beloved | and respected Governor, when he gave his sanction to Acts of the Legislature tendivg to promote the general well being of the people whom he was appointed to Govern. I have no doubt that those, or similar Bills, will yet become law. Let the people be true to themselves, and their representatives act with firmness, they will find in this House a disposition to do what in us lies for the advancement of the true interests of the Colony. I am yet, your Honors, notwithstanding their bad conduct, willing to extend to this little faction of petitioners the right hand of fellowship, if they will promise to cast away their sinful opposition, which, in my opinion, is maintained merely for its own sake, and unite with usin giving along pull, a strong pull and a pull all together. ‘Then we may make such laws as shall make all classes, from the old man, drawing to the close of his earthly pilgrimage, to the child in the cradle, sing with joy, and as the happy sound leaves the smiling infant, may it be taken | up by angels, echoed and re-echoed in strains breathing | heavenly love, peace, prosperity and happiness to the people of Prince Edward Island. I must apologise to your Honors for the length of time I have occupied in making these ob- servations, which, it appears to me, are justified by the documents be‘ore us.

Hon. ATTORNEY GENERAL.—I consider, your Honors, that no apology is necessary from the hon. member for the length of time his speech occupied. I have been much gratified at many of his remarks, and if I have any complaint to make against him, it would be that he bas gone so fully into the several matters contained in the documents before us, as to leave but little for myself or others to say. [ shall content myself by pointing out a few instances in which, [ conceive, the statements contained in the Memorials are, to use the mildest term possible, incorrect. It is stated in ove of them, and pretty well endorsed by the others, that by an existing local law, the process of distraint is rendered so difficult as to be almost impossible, especially on land managed by agents. Now, I am at a loss to know to what law this complaint refers, for, so far as [ can call to mind, the Law of Distress is exactly the same here as in England, except in cases of distress of cattle, Ke., made between the first days of December and June; when the tenant, under the provisions of our statute, on giving a Warrant of Attor- ney with securities for the forthcoming of the property, can postpone the sale of the property seized until the first of June. Now this does not render the process of distraint difficult, it only makes a humane provision, called for in a country like this,where, during winter, stock are almost unsale- able, or saleable only at a fearful sacrifice. ‘The landlord is amply protected, so far as the property levied on is concern- ed; he has security for its forthcoming, and the law merely postpones the day of payment, to prevent the property of the tenant being sacrificed by a hasty sale, a result which no landlord, possessed of humane feelings, would desire. Indeed in many instances this provision must work beneficially for the landlord, as well as the tenant. The last Act passed on the subject of distress, 14 Victoria, cap. 13, with which some of the Memorialists appear much displeased, is taken wholly, or at least with very little alteration, from the British statute. It is a just and beneficial measure, and its object is to prevent tenants being oppressed by undue ex- peuses when their property is distrained upon. It worked well in Kugland, and [ cannot see what just cause of com- plaint, against its operation here, any individual can justly adduce. How, too, can the allegation made by some of the memorialists be sustained, that landlords in this Colony are debarred from suing in the Small Debt Courts. That asser- tion is manifestly incorrect, Before the passing of the Small Debt Act the Landlord had, and still has, various remedies for the recovery of his rent. He can distrain, or bring an action of debt, or he may bring an ejectment on the cove- nant in the lease for renting, in case of non-payment of rent. The latier course can in general only be adopted where a distress has been made, and sufficient property to countervail a half year’s rent is not found on the premises. The Small Debt Act does not deprive landlords of their right to sue, it merely says to them, “ befure you do so, you must pursue your remedy by distress, and if you cannot find sufficient property to meet your claims, you may bring your suit in the Small Debt Court.” The right to sue, is, consequently only postponed, not taken away. ‘The rent can still be recovered by distress, by suit in the Supreme Court, by suit in the

Small Debt Court after exhausting the process of distraint, |

or lastly, by ejectment to re-enter on the land according to the nature of the case. There is one clause in the remon- strances which to me appears childish and ridiculous in the extreme. It is that in which it: is stated, “ That in all Acts of Parliament hitherto passed, either in the Parent State or its Colonies, infants, married women, lunatics, idiots, or insane persons, have been considered entitled to the special protection of: the law, whereas in this Bill they are specially excluded and rendered liable, not only to the payment of the tax, but to all the fines, penalties and forfeitures imposed by it.” Now if any of your Honors will take the trouble to refer to the English Income Tax Act, I believe you will find that the clause in question contained in the Rent Roll Bill is taken almost verbatim from that act—a fact which the memorialists ought to have ascertained before makin

assertions direetly to the contrary. Great stress is also laid upon remarks made by the Leader ef the Government in a speech made by him in the House of Assembly last session. There is scarcely a column in which some allusion is not made to that gentleman’s remarks, He is represented as saying that the imposition of the Rent Roll Tax would compel proprietors to sell their lands to the Government under the Laud Purchase Bill, and he is denounced for daring to give breath to such a sentiment. Now, your Honors, without pausing to ascertain whether the language imputed be correct or not, it appears to me, on a reference to the records of former years, somewhat strange that such utter condemvantion of the spirit of those statements should emanate from some of the memorialists. I will refer your Honors to the Journals of the House of Assembly for the year 1837. L there find a despatch from Lord Glenelg, at that time His Majesty’s principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which despatch, after stating that His Majesty’s Government declined advising His Majesty to take measures for escheating the Townships, bis Lordship points out what he considered to be the proper mode of meeting the difficulty,

—_—+

and bringing about a settlement of the Island. He that in other North American Colonies similar difficulties had arisen, which their various Legislatures had endea

lto remedy by taxing the lands, and he recommended

adoption of a similar course here. Now, your Honors, this is in my opinion a direct recognition aud recommendation of the principle of taxing lands, which nay be held nm large

‘quantities by individuals, in order to force a sett : | But on turning to page }0, of the same Journal, find that

the House of Assembiy, acting on Lord Glenelz’s advice, took up the question of land assessment, and passed certajp resolutions on which the Bill afterwards introduced was

[ will particularly call your Honors, attention to the third resolution which is as follows :—

“3. Resolved, That Uis Majesty having been advised to distlow the establishment of a Court of Escheat, for revesting in the Crown jaads as might be found liable to forfeiture for the non-performanes of the conditions imposed on the Grantees, and having suggested the adoption of a measure whereby all lauds in this Island would be made to contribute towards the general Revenue of the Colony, and this Com. mittee coinciding in opinion with His Majesty's Government that a measure would be the means of inducing the proprietors of targe tract, of wilderness lands speedily to settle or dispose of the same, and there.

by lessen the burthens which have hitherto been borne by the r

Colonists only, they recommend to the House to order a Bill to be brought in, for imposing an assessment on lands within the Island.”

The meaning of that resolation was, that as Escheat could

‘not be had, (the Hon Colonial Secretary is represented ag

saying he believed it impracticable), the then House of As. semb! y were of the same opinion as his Majesty’s Government, that a tax should be put upon lands to induce proprietors to settle on disposed of the same. In the majority which voted in favour of the resolution, and thereby declared their proval of the principle it embodied, are to be found & names of Mr. Nelson, one of the memorialists, now, strange to say, denouncing in unmeasured terms the enunciation of such sentiments by the Hon. Colonial Secretary, also the names of Mr. Palmer and Mr. Pope. The despatch, it must be remembered, was a deliberately written state document, and the resolution was passed after mature deliberation, and not put forth, as the words complained of were, in the heat of debate. It appears to me that the Hon. Colonial Secretary is in the same predicament with Lord Gleuelg, Mr. Nelsom and the others, and in their company I shall leave him. Butag his Honor, Mr. Craswell, justly remarked, an unfair spirit pervades the whole of the memorials, and it is easy to per- ceive in them a spirit of determined hostility to the Govern ment, cloaked under the guise of remonstrance against ifs measures. The very remarks alluded to were made, not in a debate on the Rent Roll Bill, but when the speaker was pointing out the evils and utter hopelessness of agitating a much more extreme and violent measure—namely, Escheat, All this, however, is carefully aud most ungencrously kept back, and | will ask in what manner is any measure the Government may bring in, invariably met by these parties? The Government is reviled ; improper motives are imputed; epithets of reproach, with a repetition of which I will not scil my mouth, cast upon them. I know this well; but I abstain from retaliation, elthough L have been myself attacked. The measures were introduced by the Government in hopes to satisfy and quiet the public mind. The manner in which they have been met is known to your Honors, and the public will place the responsibility of the failure of those Bills on the proper partics. The Tenants’ Compensation Bill has been denounced in an unjustifiable manner, instead of its merits or demerits being fairly and honestly argued. It is taken from a Bill introduced into the Lmperial Parliament by Mr. Sharman Crawford in 1847, which did not pass, it is true, but it was met in a spirit very different from that manifested by the memorialists. Mr. Crawford was not charged with improper motives, or a desire to subvert the rights of property, but the Bill was discussed in a gentle- manly and courteous manner. Mr. Labouchere's speech on the occasion, as published in Hansard’s debates, shews the — spirit in which he opposed the Bill. ‘Se details of the bill were objected to, but not the principle on which it was based, namely, Compensation to Tenants. Mr. Labouchere, in speaking to the question, refers to the introducer of the bill, Mr. Crawford, as being a large landed proprietor, a cireum- | Stance worthy of notice. I will not detain your Honors with any arguments on the subject of the Rent Roll Bill, as ‘the subject was fully discusscd last session, when it passed this House ; nor will IT comment oa the remarks of the me- morialists of the constitution of this House, as their object, and the spirit which dictated them, are sufficiently manifest ; but I will state that I am not one of those who think a long purse indispensably necessary to make a good legislator, or that the possession of a rent roll supplies the plaee of brains. I know many men who possess neither the one nor the other, but who, being men of moderate means, and honest, independent spirits, are, in my estimation, much better quali- fied for the discharge of Legislative duties than many of those who affect to despise them.

His Honor the PRESIDENT.—It is amusing to observe the manner in which the Tory party in this Island blows hot and cold as it suits their purpo-es. Formerly, with them, the Liberals were mere men of straw, demagogues, the very off-scourings of the community, legislating merely for their own private purposes. Now, however, they find that some of the liberals actually possess some property, and that appears to have given as much offence as if they were in the other state formerly attributed to them. As far as I am personally concerned, I have much pleasure in thanking them for the notoriety they have conferred on me, as having some property. After the observations of the Hon. At General on the Tenants’ Compensation Bill for Ireland, is unnecessary for me to trouble your Honors with any ob servations of my own. I will, however, merely observe that the necessity for such a Bill is, to a certain extent, - superseded by the establishment of the Encumbered Estates Court. I repeat what I previously said, that your Honom in passing the resolution which I am giad to see is 8 moderate in its tone, do nothing but your duty to your selves and the Country, by expressing in becoming terms your opinions on statements so false and unjust. ;

(To be continued.)

882 REABIBRA.

CHARLOTTETOWN, APRIL 21, 1856.

= ~~,

Tue following is a list of the Acts passed during the last Session of the Legislature, and assented to by the Lieutenant Governor at the prorogation on Monday last. We are pre cluded, by want of space, from offering any comments in our present No. respecting any of those measures. We shall, however, avail ourselves of the first opportunity to do so.

2 An Act to continue the Act for the regulation of the Mackerel ishery.

An Act to continue the Act relating to the laying down, erection and maintenance of Buoys asd Dencons in this Island. | An Act to protect Justices of the Peace from vexatious | actions. | An Act to amend the Law in this Island, as to Bjectments ‘and Distresses, and as to the occupation of lands. 7

An Act to facilitate the performance of the duties of Justiee® of the Peace in this Island, with respect to persons charged with indictable offences. :

An Act to facilitate the performance of the duties of Justi’ of the Peace, with respect to summary convictions and F

An Act to authorize the Government to prohibit the exporta tion of Saltpetre and other chemical salts.

An Act relating to the Indians of Prince Edward Island.

An Act transierring to one of Her Majesty's Prine

|Seeretaries of State, the powers and estates vested im principal officers of the Ordnance,