EXAMINER. 208

BO

THE

mark. If I, as a landlord, consent to receive common sterling in lieu of my just a ght sterling, | make a concession to popular feeling, without in the slightest degree admitting the justice of that feeling in this instance.

charge and receive Eighteen-pence of Island currency

for the very same quan . which he Said have charged and received One Shil-

—Jacking, too, that humility which should prompt them) Ist of this month, which I laid before the Lieutenant nd legal right of British|/to make a surrender of their obedient souls to the dic-| Governor, and [ am commanded to express his regret tates of some few superanuated shopkeepers and official! that he does not consider the statement made by you in manopolists ;—whilst native born gentlemen—* modest” | explanation of your having presided at that meetin "to The tenant can and does|men like Mr. Haszard—aye, and wise ones—the honour-| be satisfactory. * ed descendants of the valiant refugees who could not tity and quality of produce for|suffer their sweet souls to be contaminated by the poison) jesty’s Justices of the Peace, you ought to have been of rebellion in Republican America—have been suffered aware that if any cause of compiaint existed against the

Wis Excellency is of opinion that as one of Her Ma-

ling of British Sterling. The store-keeper can and/to bud, blossom and fade in blank obscurity, presenting authorities of Georgetown, the proper and evident course

does charge and receive Thirty Shillings of Island cur- rency for the very same goods for which he would have charged and received Twenty Shillings of British Ster- ling, had British Sterling continued the order of the day. All bargains, except the landlord’s bargain, are equitably adjusted according to the currency ; he alone is to suffer. Instead of receiving Eighteen-pence of Island currency per acre, asin common fairness I ought to receive, for the One Shilling British Sterling per acre, for my land, I am to receive only common ster- ling, thereby mulcting myself of Three-pence halfpenny out of every shilling, or more than one-fourth part of my just and legal dues. An author who wrote on politica! economy and mercantile affairs in a. p. 1696 thus, by anticipation, states my case; speaking of the deprecia- tion of currency, he observes that “ to one sort of men it is no loss, to another it is actually a gain; but to the mass of the people it is a decided loss, yei., generally to the utter impoverishing of the realm, and weakening of the Queen’s Majesty’s power exceedingly. Those that suffer no loss, are they that live by buying and selling ;| those that are gainers, are al! that have torkings (leases), or farms, at the old rents. The losers are all noblemen, | gentlemen, and all others that live either by a stented | (fixed) rent or stipend, or do not manure (cultivate) their | round, or do occupy no buying and selling.” Next, as to Absentee Proprietors. I reside in this Island with my family, 1! have publicly stated to all my father’s and my own tenantry, that I am willing and desirous to receive from them, as part payment of arrears of rent, all that my little establishment require to eat, drink, wear,or use,so far as they,the tenantry,can or will supply me;—-what is the result: You may meet me, week after week, in Charlottetown Market, purchasing hay, oats, flour, firewood, &c. &c., for the use of my horse, cow, servants, and family. This is great en- couragement, (is it not?) for Absentee Proprietors to become resident? I will say nothing ofthose political and local circumstances and excitements which, to my certain knowledge, have deterred not only proprietors, but scores of respectable, desirable, and moderately wealthy persons, who are not proprietors, from coming to this Colony ;—but I confine myself to the facts which I have stated, as personally affecting myself, And remain, dear Sir, Your constant reader, ROBERT BRUCE STEWART. |

We have little to say in reference to the facts stated in the above letter. ‘Che candor and independence with which Mr. Stewart has stated his own case, en-

another sorrowful illustration of the truth of the poet’s! was to apply to the Executive Government, and to state lines : the grounds for such complaint, when it would have been

Ft presto yp ta is born to blush unseen, the duty of the Government to enquire into them; in- iiutimanenaeio ‘stead of this, His Excellency finds you presiding ata The deep unfathom’d caves of ocean bear.” | Public Meeting, at which Resolutions, condemning the

conduct of the local Magistracy, and accusing them of

Seriously, “ A Colonist” thinks that Mr. Haszard ought | neglect of duty were adopted and ordered to be publish-

to have been made, at least, an Executive Councillor ed; from the tenor of your letter, His Excellency is

— os nae > ” arn : nat i the me willing to believe that you acted inadvertently, and that e thing, and al! of a sudden strongly impressed with | you did not mean to concur i

a notion of his mental superiority, . y r in the Resolutions alluded

| to; the fact, however, still remains, that you occupied ithe Chair at the meeting, and nothing appears in the Resolutions, as published, to show that you disapproved and wonders how any Governor could have been so un-| ot them.

mindful of his talents as not to have made him one of, | am, therefore, directed to convey to you the expres- the pillars of the State. “ Natives ought to have been sion of His iixcellency’s disapprobation of your conduct. promoted,” cries * A Colonist”-~* Natives ought to have! 1 am, Sir, Your obedient Servant,

been promoted,” echoes Mr. Haszard; but in their vir- (Signed) T. H. HAVILAND. tuous indignatien they have forgotten two very important! ‘To \W. B. Arrxen, Esq., J. P., Georgetown.

fact: first, that when Mr. Coles, who is a native, was! _,,, ae fhese letters are followed by a communication signed

called to the Council, he was cried down by the whole| 4 clique, voted against by Mr. Haszard, and blackguarded | by Hugh McDonald, W. McKay snd wi Sanderson, by his favourite amanuensis. A Jew, a Turk, or a Hot-| Esquires, three of the Magistrates of Georgetown, in

tentot,would have been more acceptable than a “Native.” | which it is emphatically declared that no “riotous or And second, that Mr. Haviland and Mr. Pope have been | disorderly proceedings” occurred to warrant the calling promoted toa great number of offices; they, too, are|°)* public ineeting—and “ no further measures” deem- “English gentlemen,” and we wil] be bound to say, that ed necessary at present for the protection of life and if every office in the gift of the Crown, was bestowed | property in Georgetown.” We extract the following

for their benefit. or left at their disposal, our sorrowing | paragraphs from this communication :

and ill-treated Queen’s Printer would offer no opposition “ We have not seen nor heared of any riotous, nor can or objection. | we say disorderly, proceedings in Georgetown, unless

| what has arisen, in a few instances, by cases of intoxi- cation, the facilities to which, we are sorry to say, in ‘such a limited community, are far more than adequate,

‘ Feels like one whe treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted,”

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EXAMINER.

Sirn— The ever-memorable Foreman of the ever-memorable | Grand Jury who, in the last June ‘Term, found u Bill against! the Hon. George Coles, yourself, and others, on a charge of! Riot, because a few panes of glass were broken on the night of | Mr. Coles’s election procession—has made an effort in the| “Tslander” of yesterday to blow up one of those bubbles oe the making of which he has become celebrated since his arri-| val in this Colony. Now, Sir, from the views sought to be in- culcated by Mr. T. B. Tremain, on the Currency question, one might think, that he is a very sincere friend of the farming po- pulation—that his financial scheme would be the means of ad-| vancing their interests, for, in the opinion of this financier, a| fair price for grain is a positive injury to the agriculturist, and | that, in order to make the Island a second Golconda, or every | man as rich as Creesus, we should go back to the good old Ha-| lifax standard; fer then the merchant, in order to make his re-

| inittances, would not be compelled to buy the farmer’s nroduce. p ) I

He says the farmer has lost by the change from the Halifax to!

and the inducements held out by certain parties, who appear to have been the principal originators of this Meeting, are far from creditable to themselves, and tend in a great measure, to produce the disorders complained of.

“We have not heard of any person’s life being threat- ened, nor in danger, in Georgetown; neither have we heard of nor seen any personal property wilfully or in- tentionsliy injured; nor has any complaint of such been made to us, individually or collectively, at the present time or previous, without receiving our immediate at- tention—if we except what we have heard occurred at this Meeting, wherein we have been informed that one of its principal declaimers was publicly accused of of- fering a certain sum of money to induce an individual

the present rate of Island currency, as the merchant has since tg get fire to a widow’s property, situate in George-

. ‘ y ! titles him to very favourable consideration. We could | real fact? T remember when Mr. Tremain came to this Island

wish that all the Proprietors had similar statements to offer. Although we may differ with Mr. S. and even with our late Lieutenant Governor, as to the Is. 6d. per acre being a moderate rent for lands, we had no wish to include him in the general censure when we declared, that high rents, short leases, and absenteeism, contribut- ed largely to produce that general poverty which exists amongst the mass of the Tenantry. However he may manage to pay the Js. 6d. out of the produce of a well- cultivated farm, we are satisfied that no poor tenant can pay it upon a tract of land which years of toil have not rendered amply productive. ‘Ihe generosity or fairness of one landlord does not excuse the entire class, and consequently does not refute our proposition. Thousands of acres are rerted fora much shorter term than 100 years, and thousands of tenants have to pay a much higher rent than Is. 6d. Absenteeism 1s an evil, though in many cases, the absentees may be “more sinned against than sinning:” it is an evil, if for no other reason “sthan this: if places a class of people over the tenants “who first seek to advance their own interests, and se- condly, the interests of the absent proprietors. The tenant is too liable to suffer between them. There may be some zood agents—-and we have no doubt there are but w2 should be very loth to write their panegyric, and take them in the lump.—[{Ep. Exr.

ae

NATIVES versus “ENGLISH GENTLEMEN.”

Sone merry wag has perpetrated a rather ludicrous joke at the expense of our worthy Queen’s Printer. We illude to a communication which appeared in the

Gazdle of Tuesday, signed “ A Colonist.” The gist of

_it is simply this: In the filling up of seats in the Comcils of this Island gentlemen have been selected whe had not the felicity of being born upon the soil, but

wh» had the audacity to come from England, and invest) William B. Aitken, Esquire, expressive of His Excel-

ther capital here—bringing a profound knowledge ofall the principles of the Constitution of the Mother Country, _anian ardent desire to preserve and maintain her institu- tims—men whose minds are strengthened by experience ~enriched wiih knowledge and polished by education ; bit most wofully lacking that ductility which is the gand characteristic of Charlottetown tory!s™, end which siould be the chief qualification—evidently in the opi- yon of “ A Colonist”—in every man who would aspire

with which I was furnished by him, | find that he sold ‘Tobacco at 2s. per Ib. Tea at 5s., Sugar from 8d. to 10d., Molasses 4s., and every kind of Dry Goods 50 per cent. higher than what ts now demanded for such goods in any shop in Charlottetown ; while the highest price given for produce in those days was— 4s. per bushel for Wheat, Is. 2d. to Is. 4d. for Oats, (which was often sold at Is.), Barley from 2s 3d. to 2s. 6d., and Pork never ranged higher than 24d. per !b. But since the Currency rose to its present rate, Produce commands from 50 to 100 per cent. more, and all kinds of merchandise have fallen 50 per cent. at least. Mr. Tremain himself will now sell Tobacco for Is. Id. far superior to what he formerly sold at 2s, Sugar at 6d., Tea 3s., Molasses 2s.6d.; and Oats, as he says in his letter, ranges from 2s. to 2s. 6d. This statement plainly enough shows, that instead of losing, the farmer has gained materially since the change in the Currency. You will agree with me, Sir. and so will every intelligent farmer in the land, that it does not require a Solomon to perceive who the real parties are that Mr. T'remain would fain benefit by the publication of his finan- cial scheme. 1 am, Sir, yours, A FARMER.

THE GEORGETOWN MEETING.

The following letter will shew that we were right in the doubt we ventured to express as to the necessity there existed for calling a Public Meeting at George- town, on a recent occasion, to complain of the inefficient protection to life and property at that place.

Secretary's Orrice, Charlottetown, Sir ; January 20, 1848.

J am in receipt of your letter relative to the late Pub- lic Meeting at Georgetown, which [ laid before the Lieutenant Governor, and I have received His Excel- lency’s instructions to transmit to you for the information of yourself and the local Magistracy of Georgetown, the accompanying copy of a communication, which, by com- mand of His Excellency, I have this day addressed to

lency’s disapprobation of his conduct in having presided at the Meeting referred to. Iam, &c., T. H. HAVILAND, Sec’y. To Hvuew McDonaxp, Esq., Senior Magistrate, Georgetown.

—_———

(Copy.) Secretary’ Orrice, Charlottetown, Sir; January 20, 1848.

lam jn receipt of your letter ofthe 14th January

heen obliged to increase the cost of his goods 20 per cent. to > “or , . . itown. make up for the difference of exchange. Now, what is the! stan | We are truly sorry that any number of the respect-

as a merchant,—the English shilling then passed for 4d. to 15d.|able inhabitants of Georgetown should have counte- and the Sovereign for 258.—and.on reference tosome accounts; nanced such a meeting, and the absurd proceedings

‘thereof; tending, as it must do, to their own disadvan- tage, as representing a community where anarchy and ‘confusion is the order the day, and where life, as well as the rights of property, are disregarded. But we trust |a discerning public will only see in this, and this | Georgetown Meeling, an exemplification of that envy, malice, and vindictiveness, which is the moving princi- ple that actuates certain parties in and about George- town, and which may be perceived in this as well as in some of the late proceedings which have taken place in this community.

“Wedo not hesitate to say, that we consider the Resolutions passed at that Meeting one of the most wanton and disgraceful libels ever cast on a portion of the inhabitants of this Island; for in our opinion—and we appeal to the Calendar of the Supreme Court. for King’s County, and likewise to those individuals whose business leads them from time to time to be partial re- sidents ainong us—the people of Georgetown, w:th few exceptions, and the surrounding country, are as peace- ably-disposed, orderly, and respect the rights of society, equal to any class of Her Majesty’s subjects in this or ‘any other British Colony.”

Treasurer’s Office, Jan. 25, 1848. WARRANTS from Number One Hundred

and Seventy-three (173), to Number Two Hundred and Ten (210), both inclusive, of the date of the Ist May,1845, will be paid at the Treasury on demand, together with the Interest

due thereon. J. SPENCER SMITH, Treasurer.

Treasurer’s Office, Jan. 10, 1848. \ OTICE is hereby given, that all Treasury

4 Notes now afloat or in circulation, which have from time to time been issued from the Treasury of this Island, under and by virtue of the several Acts or Laws of this Colony, authoris- ing the issue of Treasury Notes, are called in; and all per- sons holding the same, are required to present them at my Office for the purpose of having them exchanged for Notes of new and improved dezign, in the terms of the Act, 10 Vic. Cap. 12.

By Command, : J. SPENCER SMITH, Treasurer.

Days for Exchange, Mondays and Thursdays during Ofhics

+ participate in the administration of the Government,

|instant, relative to the meeting at Georgetown, on the

hours.

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