THE Indians of New Brunswick could not be expected to view with favor, the rapid progress of settlement by the whites, for every tree that was cut down in the forest, restricted the area of their hunting grounds. Yet they had never given the settlers much trouble and at no time, in the history of the province, has there ever been anything like a state of war between them and the whites. But in the progress of settlement, it was natural that difficulties should arise and sometimes they assumed a serious aspect. In May, 1780, two men named David Nelson and William Harboard, who had been soldiers In the Queen's Rangers, shot an Indian named Pierre Bonwab. This threw the Indians into a great state of excitement and they demanded justice against the culprits. Their principal settlement was near Judge Allen's house, and they camped around it and expressed their determination to remain there until the case was decided. On the other hand the white settlers were not well pleased that any white man should be tried for his life for shooting an Indian. The authorities were placed in a difficult situation, but it was evident that the ends of justice would best be served by bringing the alleged murderers to a speedy trial. This was done on the 13th June

and both prisoners were found guilty. Nelson,, who was the principal, was hanged ten days later, but [larboard was pardoned. The Indians were not well pleased, as they thought both men equally guilty and their attitude towards the whites, for some time, was so menacing as to excite alarm. Governor Carleton wrote to Sir Guy Carleton in the latter part of the year, that the settlers in the upper part of the river were alarmed by the menaces of the Indians in that district, and to quiet their fears he had established a temporary depot of provisions and arms among them, so that in the event of the Indians attacking them, they might keep together and defend themselves until help reached them. Fortunately, this precaution proved to be unnecessary, tor the Indians made no attack and the cause of the trouble was in the course of time forgotten. Efforts were made to improve the condition of these unfortunate children of nature, although it cannot be said with any great degree of success. The Indian, in New Brunswick at least, has not yet been raised to the level of the white man.

Among the agencies organized prior to the Revolution, for the pm-pose of civilizing the savages, was a society formed in England, for the purpose of propagating the gospel among the Indians. This Society, which mainly did its work in the State of Massachusetts, was generally known as the New England Company, and its funds were largely appropriated to general educational purposes by Harvard College. In 178G, the Company decided to abandon New England, which was no longer under the King's government, and begin work in New Rrunswick. Accordingly commissioners were appointed in this Province to supervise the work of educating the Indians, Lieutenant Governor Carleton being at the head of the Commission, while associated with him were Chief Justice Ludlow, Judge Allen, the Hon. Jonathan Odell, George Leonard, Ward Chipman, Jonathan Bliss, William Paine and John Oofiin. Schools for the Indians were established at Woodstock, Fredericton, Sheffield, Sussex and Miramichi and a considerable number of Indian children were taught to read and write. After a time the commissioners thought that better results would be achieved, if all the Indians, who desired an education, were collected in one place, so that they might be taught farming, as well as the ordinary branches of a common education. Sussex was selected as the most eligible place for this Indian school or College, and the establishment was maintained there until the year 1833, when the company retired from this missionary field. In the course of 47 years they had expended in this province about §140,000 of which more than $40,000 went to officials, who had nothing to do With the work of instruction. For instance, the Hon. John Coffin, a half pay Lieutenant General in the British army, received £125 sterling a year, as superintendent of the school, although it was located at Sussex while he resided at the mouth of the Nerepis in the parish of Westfield, and probably did not see the school once a year. Ward Chipman received £50 sterling a year, as secretary treasurer, which was nearly double the salary given to the teacher of the school. The chaplain was Rev. Oliver Arnold, who received £50 a year and who hoarded a number of Indian youths in his family at the rate of £20 a year, and what work they were able to do after school hours. The disbursements of the Company on account of the Indians in New Brunswick amounted to about £770 sterling a year or $3,700. The Indians complained that the academy was of very little benefit to them, because very few of them could live at Sussex. Certainly it would have been much better to maintain ten or twelve small schools in different localities for the teaching of Indian children.

The school was exposed to much criticism, and among those who were dissatisfied with it were three of the commissioners, Chief Justice Ludlow, Judge Bliss and Judge Allen who resigned in 1804. The Honorable George Leonard, who built the new structure for the academy at Sussex was accused of jobbery, and in a letter to Edward Winslow blamed the Chief Justice and his myrmidons for circulating false reports about him. Leonard's letter is that of a very angry man, but whether it is calculated to convince every one of the innocence of the writer may be doubted. Perhaps the best proof that could he supplied of the failure of this school is the fact, that when it ceased to exist, it left no trace behind to show that it had ever been. The Indians whom it had undertaken to teach agriculture, the arts of civilization and the Protestant religion, relapsed at once into barbarism and returned to the ancient faith. There are now no Protestant Indians in New Brunswick, and there are none which live after the manner of white men. The Indian declines to engage in the steady toil of the farm; his home is the forest, and he makes himself useful in work pertaining to the wilderness as a guide, axeman or river driver. If he has not risen in the social scale that may be due to the conduct of the white man who also refuses to treat him as an equal. It is difficult to see how a man of the greatest genius could rise superior to the squalid and uncongenial surroundings of an Indian wigwam. So far no New Brunswick Indian has risen to any prominence, except as a guide, and the majority of them show no desire to improve their lot. They prefer their own free mode of life, and it is a singular fact that there is a stronger tendency among white men to lapse into savagery than there is among the Indians to become civilized. Apparently the best that can be done for them at present, is to teach them the common branches of education, provide them with religious teachers of their own faith, and keep them from liquor, which is the bane of all the race. All these things are now attended to by the Dominion and Provincial governments, and at present it seems impossible to do more.

In 1789, the Legislature did not meet until the 15th October, a time when it was supposed the members would have more leisure than during the the summer. The House had been called together on the 6th October, but it was not until the 15th that a quorum could be obtained. During most of the session there was a bare quorum, as about half the members were absent. The only Westmorland member who put in an appearance, was the Speaker, and Charlotte which also sent four members, was represented only by Mr. Robert Pagan. Two St. John members, and two York members were absent, and Queens, Northumberland, and Sunbury were each short one member. This was the natural consequence of the removal of the Legislature to a town to which there was no road but the River. Cover nor Carleton himself, seems to have realized this fact, for the only recommendation he made in his opening speech was that the Legislature should encourage the establishment of proper roads to Fredericton.

The accounts of the Treasurer showed that the revenue of the Province, for the fifteen months ending September 30tli 1789 was, £1,230 13s. 3d. Of this sum, £1,384 2s. Id. was collected in St. John, where the importation of rum reached a total of 119,790 gallons. No return was received from any other county but Westmorland. The only account of expenditure is the payment of £53 6s. 8d. for printing the acts of the previous session. This left a balance of £1,177 6s. 7d. in the hands of the Treasurer. This year, we have for the first time, a statement of the arrivals of vessels at St. John which had dutiable goods on board. From this return it appears that from the 1st July, 1788, to the 30th Sept., 1789, there arrived at St. John, thirty-two sloops, seventeen schooners, and a brig from the United States; four sloops, fifteen schooners, twelve brigs, and a brigantine from the West Indies, and two sloops, two schooner's, a brig, and a ship from Nova Scotia. These figures, show sufficiently well, the course of trade. The United States port, with which most business was done, was New York, from which flour and other breadstuffs were largely imported. Goods, mainly sugar and rum, were imported from most of the British West Indies; Jamaica, Barbadoes, Grenada, Antigua, and St. Christopher, all contributing to this trade. The return shows a very creditable state of commercial development, for the brief period the country had been settled. The merchants of St. John were already extending their business, in every available direction, and giving their city that character for enterprise and energy, which it has ever since retained.

The acts passed in 1789, were nine in number, and none of them of very great importance. One of them was to provide for the erection of an ecclesiastical parish in the City of St. John, and to incorporate the Rectors, Church wardens, and vestries of the Church of England In the several parishes of the. Province. Another act provided, that persons convicted of felony, without benefit of clergy, instead of being branded in the hand, might be lined or whipped, except in cases of manslaughter. The criminal code of the Province, although based on that of England, was from the first less cruel in its operation than im the mother country, but it was not until the year 1829, after the passage of the English Act, 9th George IV, that the Legislature of the Province declared inoperative a number of old laws dealing with crimes, which had disgraced the English statute book.

At this time there was a disposition to encourage certain lines of industry in the province by means of bounties. There was but little money in the treasury, but it was thought some of it might be properly used in this way. On the last day of the session of 1789, a series of resolutions passed the House of Assembly, giving bounties to persons who should erect the first malt kiln in the city and county of St. John, and also to persons growing the largest quantity of good merchantable barley, hops and wheat.

There was no session of the Legislature in 1790, but early in February, 1791, the Provincial Parliament met. Two new members appeared to be sworn in, one of whom, Mr. James Glenie, a representative of Sunbury, was destined to exercise a considerable influence on the politics of the province. No House of Assembly was likely to be a very restful place which contained Mr. Glenie. This gentleman was a native of Scotland and had been an officer in the Royal Engineers. He became a resident of Sunbury County and soon began to take an interest in public matters. Glenie was a reformer of the most advanced type, and was a full half century in advance of his time. We look upon Howe and Wilmot and Fisher as our leaders in reform in the Maritime Provinces, but James Glenie was a reformer, and was doing good work in the Legislature before either Howe, Fisher or Wilmot was born. No man who ever sat in a New Brunswick legislature was a greater reformer than James Glenie and if he had been able to carry his ideas into effect, New Brunswick would have had responsible government half a century before it was obtained.

Glenie suffered the fate of all reformers in that he was not beloved by those whose methods he attempted to mend. The Governor and all the Governor's friends detested him most cordially, and if he had any love for them he dissembled it admirably. The Governor called Glenie "a son of Belial" and Glenie described the Governor as "a man wholly unfitted for his office." Glenie was not tender in his treatment of the Governor's friends. The Ghief Justice is described as "Ludlow, the ignorant, strutting Chief Justice." and ignorant, uncouth Dutch boor." It is only fair to say that the description given of Chief Justice Ludlow by Judge Jones of New York, is not much more flattering than that of Glenie. The official view of Glenie, is perhaps best expressed in a letter, written by Capt. Lyman, who had been a representative of York, in the House of Assembly. Lyman speaks of tbe member for Sunbury as "that vagabond Glenie" and expresses the greatest regret "that there is not enough good sense and loyalty in the country, to keep out a known and most notoriously violent Democrat and Jacobin." Lyman declares that if he had been present at the Sunbury election, he would not have scrupled "to come forward boldly and assert to the country, that he was an avowed democrat and that I would prove it." Lyman'5?evidently thought that this would have done the business, and there was some ground for this belief, for in that day, to call a man a Democrat, was about the same as it would be today to call him an assassin, or an incendiary. To disturb the existing state of affairs and to give tlie people a larger share in the government of the country, was looked upon as little better than treason. From the very first, Glenie took an active part in the business of the House, and it was not long before lie crossed the Governor's path. That functionary had developed in his brain a remarkable scheme, for fitting up a portion of the Church in Fredericton, for the accommodation of the Legislature and the Supreme Court. A committee consisting of Messrs. Dixon, Glenie, Rodgers and Hardy ami Capt. Lyinan was appointed to examine and report upon the Governor's plan, and their report was adverse. It is hardly conceivable that such a scheme should have been seriously entertained, at any period in the history of this province, and perhaps we may find a means of measuring Governor Carleton's capacity, in the fact that he made such a proposal, and was seriously offended, because it was not adopted.

Glenie also took an active part in the discussions on an Act, which was passed in this session, for regulating marriage and divorce. This act was intended to supersede one which had been passed jn 1787, with a suspending clause, and which had been referred to the Home authorities, the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Nova Scotia, and found satisfactory. The new act placed the power to solemnize marriages, in the Clergy of the Church of England, and in parishes where there was no clergyman, in Justices of the Peace. No recognition was given to Methodists, Baptists or any other denomination dissenting from the Church of England, hut ministers of the Church of Scotland, Quakers and Roman Catholic priests, were permitted to marry persons belonging to their own communion. Glenie and others endeavored to make this act more liberal in its provisions, so as to give the right to marry to clergymen of all denominations, but he was defeated on a test vote by 11 to 6. Messrs. William and Robert Pagan, James Campbell and Colin Campbell, all Presbyterians, voted with him, and also Mr. Dixon of Westmorland, who was a Methodist. Every member of the Church of England, in the House, voted against Glenie's motion. This marriage question became an issue of no small magnitude in later days, but it was not finally settled until almost half a century had passed away.

The act to provide for the election of members of the House of Assembly, wdiich was passed at the first session of the Legislature had been disallowed by the home authorities because the qualification of voters was too low, so that it became the duty of the Legislature to pass another measure, which would be more satisfactory to Downing Street. The new act differed only from its predecessor, in the fact that, it raised the qualification of a voter from the ownership of a freehold worth twenty pounds to one worth twenty-five pounds. The members of the House must have laughed in their sleeves, as they solemnly made this concession to a Secretary of State, who knew no more of the condition of affairs in New Brunswick than the desk at which he sat. The whole affair was a farce from beginning to end. After keeping the former hill for four years, until it was totally forgotten, it was necessary to find some excuse for the neglect with which it had been treated and the easiest way-out of the difficulty was to disallow it. So the form of passing another act was gone through with, although everyone knew that the raising of the-freehold qualification hy five pounds would not make the difference of a single vote in the electorate of the province. This act required members to have a freehold of the value of two hundred pounds, within the county for which they were chosen. In the City of St. John freemen, who had personal property of the value of twenty-five pounds, hail the-right to vote. Polling lasted fifteen days and the term of the Assembly was seven years, unless sooner dissolved. The fate of this act was not without an element of comedy. It was promptly forwarded to England by the Governor, and referred to the law officers of the Crown, who reported favorably on it. Then it disappeared ami could not be found, and it was not until June, 1795, that it was finally ratified by the King in Council. In the meantime another general election had been held under the Governor's authority and with the same franchise as the election of 1785.

A section of this act required a voter if challenged,, to take the oath prescribed by the Act passed by the British Parliament in the first year of the reign of George 1. This oath of Supremacy, as it was termed, could not be taken by a Roman Catholic, and as a consequence, all persons of that faith, might be prevented from voting, if challenged. At the session of 1791, a bill was introduced by

PREMIERS OF NEW BRUNSWICK.
Hon. D. L. Hanington Hon. H. R. Emmerson
Hon, Andrew G. Blair Hon. Gen. E. King Hon. J. J. Fraser

Mr. Hardy, to enable Roman Catholics to vote for members of the Assembly, and it was actually passed in Committee, but on the third reading it was defeated. The Journals do not give the names of those who voted, so that we are left without information as to the persons whose bigotry stood in the way of an act of justice. This wrong was not remedied until the session of 1810, when an act was passed, repealing the provisions of the former act, with respect to oaths, and requiring the elector merely to take an oath of allegiance. Then for the first time Roman Catholics obtained the right to vote at elections, and to take their proper share in the government of the country.

Shortly after the opening of the Legislative session of 1791, it was announced that Mr. Stelle, one of the members for York, had left the province, and did not intend to return. Upon this, his seat was declared to be vacant, and a writ was ordered issued, for the election of a new member. The only person who offered as a candidate, was Mr. Justice Saunders, who had been elevated to the bench of the Supreme Court a few months previously. Judge Saunders was declared elected, and before the end of the session he was duly sworn in as a member without any objection being raised. All his associates on the bench were members of the Council so that it seems not to have-been thought improper that a Judge should become a member of the House of Assembly. Judge Saunders, sat in the House during the sessions of 1791 and 1792, but in 1793, he was appointed to the Council and the House of Assembly, saw him no more in the capacity of a member. Judge Saunders had been an active Cavalry officer, attached to the Queen's Rangers during the war of the Revolution, and his raid into the House of Assembly was quite in keeping with his character for boldness and vigor. Saunders was a better Cavalry officer than he was a legislator or judge. He was the only member of the Supreme Bench of New Brunswick, who ever sat in the House of Assembly, yet up to the year 1849, there was nothing to prevent a judge becoming a member of the Assembly, and it was not until 1873, that all judges were excluded from the British House of Commons.

An act was passed at this session which settled for ever the question as to the validity of acts of the Legislature of Nova Scotia passed at the time when New Brunswick was a part of that province. This act declared that no law of Nova Scotia should have any force or validity in New Brunswick, but that the act was to have no retrospective operation.

The revenue of the province for the fifteen months ending the 17th of January, 1791, amounted to £1,509 7s. 6d., of which £L426 Is. 5d. was collected at St. John. This was an increase, but it was due not to increased trade, but to higher duties. The rum imported at St. John reached a total of 80,218 gallons, which was not much more than two thirds of the quantity imported during the previous fifteen months. But the duty on rum was now 2d a gallon, so that with a smaller consumption of liquor there was a larger revenue. The cause of this decline in imports is not quite clear. It may have been because the people were becoming more moderate in the use of liquor, or it may have been the result of a decline in population. There is some reason for thinking the latter reason to be the true one. Rum was not the only article that showed a decline; there was also a decreased import of breadstuff. At this period a good many people were leaving the province some of whom went to Canada, while other's returned to the United States. Of the twenty six members of the first legislature elected in 1785, no less than six left the province before the term of the legislature expired. If the other inhabitants abandoned it in the same proportion as the member's of the legislature, there must have been a very large emigration from it between 1786 and 1792."

At this time a question arose between the home authorities, and Governor Carleton with regard to the proper place in the province for a military depot. In 1791, it had become evident that war with France was imminent, and it became necessary that New Rrunswick should be put in a proper state of defence. Governor Carleton had made Fredericton the capital of the province at a time when the military features of the selection did not seem to be important, but when he proposed to place the military depot there and fortify the place, the Duke of Richmond, who was Secretary for war, objected. Carleton was fond of surrounding himself with military pomp and at this time he kept the larger part of two regiments at Fredericton who had no other duties but to mount guard over his residence. Carleton objected to St. John as the military depot, because it was on a harbour open all the year round, but the Duke of Richmond thought this a strong argument in its favor. He was of the opinion that a military depot should be accessible to the King's ships at all times, and not ninety miles up a river that was only navigable for light craft, and that was closed by ice five months in the year. Besides lie pointed out that Fredericton, being in a valley dominated by high land, was incapable of being fortified, while St. John could be fortified without difficulty. The fact that Carleton should have seriously proposed to leave St. John undefended, and to fortify Fredericton, may be taken as a measure of his military capacity, for it ought to be evident to the meanest understanding, that if St. John was occupied by an enemy, Fredericton could neither be reinforced nor supplied with food and ammunition, and therefore could not be held at all. Carleton's project for fortifying Fredericton was therefore nipped in the bud, but lie succeeded in obtaining permission to build a costly barracks there, and he established two fortified posts farther up the river, at Presque Isle and Grand Falls, which he garrisoned by three companies of infantry. As there were no roads, the difficulty of sending supplies to these up river posts was great and the cost excessive. Glenie in a letter to Secretary Nepean, says that both these posts were well within the limits of the United States, and that the only reason given for their creation was to encourage the settlement of the upper part of the river, for neither the engineer nor any other military man was consulted.

When the Loyalists came to New Brunswick many of them brought slaves with them, who continued to live with them and work, for the remainder of their lives. Just how many slaves came to New Brunswick can never be known, but one may infer that the larger part of the 441 persons, who were classed as servants in General Campbell's muster made in 1784, were negro slaves. But this institution never took any firm root in the soil of the province, and although slaves were occasionally bought and sold, that kind of property was not regarded as valuable. The conditions of life in the province were against it, and the sentiments of the people were not in its favor. Slavery was never recognized by any act of the legislature, and in the course of time a doubt arose whether it was legal. This doubt was intensified by the result of a case, which arose in the Supreme Court in 1800. It came up on the return of a wriit of Habeas Corpus issued by Judge Allen to Caleb Jones, directing him to bring into court, Nancy, a colored woman in his possession, whom he claimed to hold as a slave. A great deal of interest was taken in this case and much feeling was aroused, for it was evident, that the value of ail the property in slaves in New Brunswick, depended upon the decision. No less than five counsel appeared for the master, and as these men were the leaders of the bar, and their services must have cost a good deal of money, it is perhaps not unreasonable to infer that Jones, the master, was assisted by other interested persons in the defence of slavery. The counsel for the master were Jonathan Bliss, then the Attorney General and afterwards Chief Justice, Thomas Wetmore, who succeeded Bliss as Attorney General, John Murray Bliss and William Botsford, both of whom were afterwards Judges of the Supreme Court. For the slave appeared Ward Chipman and Samuel Benny Street. The Court divided on the question, the Chief Justice and Judge Upham being of the opinion, that under the existing laws of the province, negroes might he held as slaves, while Judge Allen and Judge Saunders thought that as slaves could not exist in England, neither could they in New Brunswick. Under this decision, the master took hack his slave, hut its practical effect was almost as great as if slavery had been declared illegal. For, if the Court could not declare that slavery existed, any turbulent negro might escape from his master and set him at defiance. Judge Allen, as the logical consequence of his own decision, liberated all his slaves, and it was felt that from that time, slave property was of little value. In the course of the next ten or fifteen years, slavery died out altogether, although no person can state exactly the time when it ceased to exist.

But all the negroes who came to the province with the Loyalists were not slaves. Some of them were free men, who had given their services to the British armies during the war, while others had escaped from slavery to the British lines, and remained under the protection of the flag. The latter had been emancipated by the proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, and Sir Guy Carleton refused to restore them to their masters at the end of the war.

A distinction was made between these free negroes and those who had escaped from slavery; the former received grants of land with their corps; the latter were considered as only entitled to asylum and freedom, but they were granted lots in St. John, and remained on them as long as rations were served out. Then they began to make demands for farms, and three tracts of land were laid out in fifty acre lots, for their use. But only five of the negroes, to whom lots were granted, attempted to cultivate them, most of them having entered into the service of families. At this time Nova Scotia, had a still larger number of discontented black people on her hands, and as many of them complained of the climate and expressed a desire to go to Africa, they were shipped to Sierra Leone. Of the New Brunswick negroes, 222 were sent, at their own request, to Digby, to be shipped to Africa. The British government would have preferred them to enlist for service in the West Indies, but Africa was the-land of their choice and to Africa they went.