THE third Legislature
of New Brunswick was dissolved in May, 1802, and the elections were held
in June. The contest was a very hitter one and was by no means ended
when the polls were closed. The issues involved were numerous hut they
might all he resolved into one, for it was really a struggle between the
Governor's friends and his opponents. In one of his letters written at
this time Winslow says " The spirit of party is pervading all orders. As
soon as I recovered health enough to enter into society I found nothing
but acrimony, bitterness and recrimination. I was almost rejoiced when
the gout compelled me to retreat." The result of the election was
considered favorable to the friends of the Governor. Mr. Glenie was
re-elected for the County of Sunbury but Mr. Street was defeated and a
supporter of the Governor sat in his place. St. John returned a solid
phalanx of opponents of the Governor, but York, Kings and Queens were
just as solid the other way. Charlotte sent three opponents of the
Governor and one supporter, Hugh Mackay, who was so bitter that he
declared that peace and tranquility would never be established in
Charlotte until Robert Pagan and Ninian Lindsay, two of his colleagues,
were dismissed from their positions as Justices of the Peace.
Westmorland returned three friends of the Governor and one whose
attitude towards him can never he ascertained because he did not live to
reach the House of Assembly. This was Hugh McMonagle, who while on his
way to Fredericton was drowned in the Kennebeccasis River by the team
breaking through the ice. Northumberland also returned two friends of
the Governor. In St. John, Ohipinan was again defeated, but he appeared
as a petitioner against Edward Sands, who was unseated by a vote of 14
to 0. Election petitions were then tried by the House, and they were
usually decided on party lines without any reference to the merits of
the case. Great interest was taken in the contest for York, where the
regularity of the election was contested by two of the defeated
candidates, Messrs. Peter Eraser and Peter McLeod. The vote in the House
was a close one, 10 to 9, and it was decided by James Eraser, one of the
members for Northumberland, supporting the sitting members. One of these
was the Rev. Walter Price, a clergyman of the Church of England. He sat
in the House during the whole term of the fourth Legislature. Tie was
not, however, the first clergyman who was in the House, for the Rev.
John Agnew represented Sunbury in the second Legislature. No one
objected to the return of these gentlemen, but when clergymen of other
denominations began to be elected to the House there was a change in its
feeling. In 1818 a bill was passed in the House and became law excluding
clergymen of all denominations from the-House of Assembly. As the
Secretary of the-province was a clergyman and also a member of the
Council, and as the Bishop of Nova Scotia afterwards became a member of
the Council by virtue of his office, the exclusion of clergymen from the
House seemed to be rather narrow legislation. Yet only five members
opposed its passage in the House while 17 voted for it. and in the
Council it passed without a division, and had its third reading on the
same day it was received from the House. The act did not become
operative until it had received the assent of the King ;a Council. This
was given in 1821, and at the next session of the Legislature, Mr.
Joseph Crandal, a Baptist minister, and one of the representatives of
the County of Westmorland had to give up his seat in the House. Tins
disqualification clause still remains on the statute books of the
Province, although the Dominion Parliament imposes no such restriction
on the choice of voters.
Among the Legislative
grants of the session of 1802, was one to defray the expenses of a
survey of the principal roads of the province, for the purpose of
ascertaining what it would cost to put them in a fit condition for
travel. Dugald Campbell was selected to make this survey, and his report
on the state of the roads lets a flood of light on the difficulties
which had to be encountered by the people who lived :n this Province one
hundred years ago. At the conclusion of his report Mr. Campbell says
that ten miles of road fit for any kind of wheel carriage, is nowhere to
be found anywhere in the Province, with the exception of the left bank
of the St. John in Sunbury County, where nature had chiefly performed
the task of road making. As the road from St. John to the Nova Scotia
boundary was not fit to be travelled, Campbell concluded to begin his
examination at its eastern end, and embarked at St. John in a sailing
vessel for Westmorland. It took him eleven days to reach his destination
and he says " The delay convinced me, it proof had been wanting, of the
necessity of a land communication to that valuable district of this
Province." It was sixteen years since this Westmorland Road had been
surveyed and laid out, yet it was, after the lapse of all this time,
incapable of being used by wheeled vehicles. There were no bridges over
the large rivers and the few bridges that had been built over the
smaller streams were in a state of decay. Between St. John and Hampton
Ferry, although the road was the main thoroughfare of the province,
leading both to Westmorland and to Fredericton, it was in a very bad
condition, completely out of repair and apparently so little used that
one enterprising settler had built a fence across it. From Hampton Ferry
to Fredericton a road could hardly be said to exist, except through a
portion of the County of Sunbury- along the River. The road from St.
John to St. Andrews, was in hardly a better condition and between
Musquash and the settlements on the St. Croix, to use the language of
Mr. Campbell, the road was "hardly discernible." On the west side of the
river a road had been projected from St. John to Fredericton, but no
substantial progress had been made towards constructing it. In summer
all travel was by the river on boats and sloops, and 'a winter the ice
was used. Above Fredericton there were no roads at all. Such was the
condition of the Province with reference to its 'internal communication
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By the close of the century
New Brunswick had ten thousand miles of roads, its streams were spanned
by four thousand bridges, some of them of magnificent proportions and
very costly, and fifteen hundred miles of railway brought every part of
the Province within rapid and easy communication with St. John and
Fredericton. The journey from St. John to the Misseguash, which it took
Campbell eleven days to accomplish, can now be made in four hours, while
two hours suffices to carry the traveller from St. John to Fredericton.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century any one who did "t in two
days either in winter or summer considered himself fortunate and it
frequently took a week. Without such comparisons it is impossible to
fully realize the difference in the conditions of life between those
days and the present or to appreciate the advantages we now enjoy.
Yet although New
Brunswick during the first twenty years after the landing of the
Loyalists was still in a very bad condition with respect to its means of
communication, it had made substantial progress in other directions. In
the midst of the wilderness good farms were beginning to appear, and
comfortable homes had been built. Although the growth of population had
not been satisfactory; those that remained were generally men full of
vigor and determined to better their condition.
The idle, the
improvident, the dissipated and the discontented had nearly all left the
Province, and their going had been no loss to it. On the other hand some
had gone elsewhere who could id he spared, men of enterprise and means.
A considerable proportion of these had gone to Upper Canada, where they
assisted to build up that flourishing province. With them, no fault can
be found, but the same cannot be said of those half-pay officers who
returned to the United States and continued to live there the remainder
of their lives, while drawing their half-pay regularly from the British
Treasury. These men instead of assisting to develop the remaining
British Colonies of North America, were engaged in building up a hostile
nation, and when they abandoned British territory they should also have
given up their pensions.
No census of New
Brunswick was taken until the year 1824, so that it is impossible to
state with accuracy, what was the population of the province in the
beginning of the nineteenth century. But Edward Winslow in 180.'5
collected some statistics of population from residents of the several
parishes which afford a basis on which to form an estimate of the number
of people living in the province. The total population in 1802 was about
25,000. Charlotte county had then 2,022 inhabitants; Queens 2,110;
Sunbury, 1,500; Kings, 3,000; York, which included all the territory now
embraced in York, Carleton, Victoria and Madawaska counties, 4,000;
Westmorland, which included Albert, 3,500; and Northumberland 4,880. The
last named county then covered all the territory now included in the
counties of Northumberland, Kent, Gloucester and Restigouche. The city
of St. John had about 3,000 inhabitants, and the town of Fredericton
about 800. The entire territory now embraced in Carleton and Victoria
counties had less than 1,000 inhabitants. Yet Governor Carleton had made
the claim that by placing the capital at Fredericton, he had greatly
promoted the settlement of the upper part of the St. John River. St.
Andrews was then a small village, the whole parish only containing 487
inhabitants. The parish of St. Stephen was more populous and had 683
residents. There was no town of any kind on the Miramichi river, or on
any part ol the North Shore, so that there was no market for anything
the country people produced, When the great fire took place twenty-two
years later there were four flourishing towns on the Miramichi.
In other respects the
progress of the Province had been satisfactory. Ship building had been
carried on at St. John from an early period. One or two small vessels
had been built there before the coming of the loyalists and after that
date ship building became a regular industry of the place. Vessels were
also built at various points on the St. John River and its tributaries.
In 1786, Nehemiah Beckwith built a vessel at Maugerville which was
bought by General Arnold and named the "Lord Sheffield." Ship building
was also carried on in Kings County, on the Kennebeccasis and George
Leonard, Jr., writing to Winslow in July, 1803, states that within the
past five years about 7,200 tons of shipping had been built. A statement
made up at the same time in regard to Charlotte
County, says that
fifty-eight vessels had been built in that County since 1785,
aggregating 11,560 tons. Most of these vessels were built at St.
Andrews, but St. Stephen, Beaver Harbour, Carnpobello and Grand Manan
also contributed to the total. A memorial from the merchants and
inhabitants of St. John which was forwarded to Lord Hobart in 1804,
states that during the first ten years after the settlement of the
Province in 1783, the people of New Brunswdck had built ninety-three
square rigged vessels and seventy-one sloops and schooners most of which
were employed in the trade with the British West Indies.
Agriculture was then,
as it is at present, the principal industry and after it came lumbering
and fishing. The farmers of that day grew wheat in considerable
quantities, most of it being winter wheat. Kings County at that time
besides supplying its population with flour, was able to sell from two
hundred to three hundred barrels of flour annually. Other counties did
nearly as well, but the province did not produce enough wheat for its
own consumption. Lumber was beginning to assume a position of importance
although its export was limited while the war was continued. In 1803,
there were twenty-two mills in Charlotte County, cutting annually
7,700,000 feet of boards. These mills, as may be gathered from their
output, were of small capacity in comparison with the mills of the
present day. In Kings County there were four saw mills, and Leonard's
report states that among its exports were ton timber, spars and sawed
lumber. There are no statistics available of the number of saw mills in
other parts of the Province, but they were to be found in every county,
and gave employment to a large number of people. The fisheries were also
beginning to rise into importance. Charlotte County, in 1802, exported
9,900 quintals and 3,000 barrels of fish. St. John County also hail an
extensive fishery and fish were exported to the British West Indies in
schooners and brigs which brought back rum and molasses as a return
cargo. Some attention was also being paid to the plaster trade, which a
few years later assumed great importance. The Island of Campobello
became a kind of depot for this trade. In 1794, about 100 tons of gypsum
were landed at Campobello from Nova Scotia, and this business continued
to grow until in 1802 the shipments amounted to about 14,000 tons. This
was brought in British vessels from Nova Scotia and eastern New
Brunswick to Campobello, and there transferred to vessels belonging to
the United States, by which it was carried to New York and Philadelphia.
Thus was trade hampered by absurd restrictions, but the business
continued to increase in spite of the navigation laws, and when they
were repealed it assumed very large proportions. In the year 1819,
100,000 tons of gypsum were exported from this Province, a large part of
it from the Hillsboro quarries, which ever since that time have been
sending their products abroad. These figures included plaster from the
quarries of Nova Scotia which was transhipped into American vessels.
The first session of
the fourth legislature of New Brunswick opened on the 8th February,
1803. The speech of the Lieutenant Governor was quite brief, its only
notable features being a recommendation to the House to follow the
parliamentary practice of making the necessary appropriations for the
public service in anticipation of the periods for which they were
assigned, and providing by permanent grants for the payment of salaries.
Bearing in mind the troubles he had experienced from the conduct of the
last legislature, he closed his speech by stating that, as the happiness
and prosperity of the Colony depended essentially on the preservation of
the constitution, it was an indispensable duty in all legislative
transactions to have a steady eye to that most important object. There
was very little heart in his speech; it was the address of a weary man.
Governor Carleton had then made his arrangements to return to England
that year, but he did not know that he was then addressing the
legislature for the last time. If he had known this, his address might
perhaps have been a little less stiff and formal although his nature was
essentially cold.
After the re-election
of Mr. Botsford to the office of Speaker, which was considered to be a
matter of course, the first business was that relating to the clerkship
of the House. Mr. Glenie moved that the House proceed to the choice of a
clerk, but this was negatived by a vote of 15 to 8, and by the same vote
the House resolved that the office of clerk was a patent office and the
appointment thereof vested in the Crown. This division may be regarded
as an index of the strength of the Governor's friends m the House. The
minority consisted of Mr. Glenie, William and Robert Pagan, Bradford
Gilbert, Hugh Johnston and George Younghusband of St. John, and Ninian
Lindsay and Joseph Porter of Charlotte. These gentlemen although in this
instance wrong in point of law, formed a compact body of reformers whose
numbers were more likely to increase than to diminish.
Another test of the
strength of the friends of the Governor was furnished by the vote on the
question of a provincial agent. Thomas Knox had been the agent of the
Province in England, but in 1798 the House had dispensed with his
services, because he refused to act on its behalf in the quarrel between
the House and the Council. It was now resolved that it was expedient to
appoint an agent in Great Britain, the vote on this resolution being 13
to 8. By the same vote William and Thomas Knox were appointed joint
agents for the Province, in England. This agency cost the province one
hundred pounds a year or more, and it cannot be said that any great
benefit was derived from it. The amount of work that was done by the
agent was quite inconsiderable, and was confined to writing two or three
letters a year to the legislature.
The legislation of the
session was not important and does not demand any particular mention.
But the session was rendered interesting by numerous election petitions
from defeated candidates and their friends. The warmest contest was in
the County of Sunbury, where Mr. Glenie had been elected and Mr. Street,
his colleague, defeated.
Mr. Street petitioned
against Mr; Miles who had been returned by the Sheriff, and the Rev.
John Agnew, D.D., and others petitioned against Mr. Glenie. In both
cases the person returned by the Sheriff retained his seat. Dr. Agnew's
petition against Mr. Glenie stated that the latter in his address to the
electors, on the hustings used the following words:—"Such gigantic
strides of despotism have been made by the Governor and Council of this
province against the rights and privileges of the people, that the like
has not been known since the days of Henry VIII., the most despotic
prince that ever ruled on the English throne." Mr. Street in the same
petition was charged with saying in his hustings speech "It is owing to
the exertions of your faithful representatives in the late Assembly in
guarding your rights and privileges against the attacks of the Governor
and Council of this province, that you are now able, as freeman and
freeholders, to give in your votes at the election." The petition
declared that it was in consequence of the use of such language, that
the minds of the electors were so worked upon as to cause them to give
Mr. Glenie a majority of their votes and to Mr-Street a sufficient
number of votes, to induce him to petition against the return of Mr.
Miles. The petition <l impressed with the sincerest principles of
loyalty to His Majesty, and attachment to the Government" prayed that
James Glenie and Samuel Denny Street be declared incapable of sitting as
members of the House. As Mr. Street was not then a member of the House
this modest petition must be taken to mean, that the gentlemen referred
to were to be declared disqualified from being candidates, by reason of
their speeches against the government. This was what George III. had
induced the British House of Commons to do i :i the case of Wilkes,
thirty years before, but the success of that precedent was not such as
to give much encouragement to a New Brunswick House of Assembly to
pursue a similar course. Air. Glenie was not unseated, neither was he
declared disqualified. But the session of 1803, was his last appearance
in the House of Assembly. No session was held in 1804, and before the
session of 1805 he returned to England where he died in the year 1817.
Air. Glenie may have had some unamiable qualities as his enemies
asserted, but he is deserving of the kindly remembrance of the people of
this province as its first reformer, who, standing almost alone,
resisted a tyrannical governor and his subservient council who were
encroaching on the people's rights.
Lieutenant Governor
Carleton took his departure from the province in October, 1803, after a
continuous residence in it of nineteen years. His family accompanied
him, although he intended to return at the end of two years. This
intention was never carried into effect. The reasons which caused him to
remain in England have been variously stated. One of these, is the
appointment of Sir James Craig as Governor General of Canada, but this
appointment was not made until 1807, two years after the time Governor
Carleton had set for his return. It appears from letters written by him
an July, 1804, that he was preparing to return to New Brunswick in the
summer of 1805. Again he wrote in March, 1806, that at that time he
intended to return to New Brunswick after the 1st June of that year. But
he was then seventy years old, and when the time came he may have shrunk
from the difficulties incident to the long journey to America.
Evidently, no one either in New Brunswick or in England was anxious for
his return. His influence with the Home authorities as a non-resident
Governor was not considerable, and it is on record that Edward Winslow
was appointed a judge against his protests. Governor Carleton died at
Ramsgate in February, 1817, holding the office of Lieutenant Governor,
and drawing half the salary of that high position to the last.
From the departure of
Lieutenant-Governor Carleton until his death, the government was
administered by eight different persons who received the title of
President. The first of these was the Honorable Gabriel G. Ludlow, a
brother of the Chief Justice, who was the senior member of the Council.
He was a Loyalist, had fought through the war of the Revolution, and had
been a Colonel of the Third De Lancy Battalion. He had been Mayor of St.
John and was the first Judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. Colonel
Ludlow was not much in favor with the officials at the Capital, because
he persisted in residing in St. John. Ward Chipman, in a letter written
to Edward Winslow in December, 1805, gives a graphic description of the
administration at that time. "With regard to public affairs here, we are
really a self-governed people, and get on just as well without a
governor as with one, and so T think we should, without their honors the
judges. The President is more retired and secluded from the world than
ever at Carleton; everything is done by a sort of necromatic action and
reaction of a committee of Council, the head of which has an influence I
think never again to be shaken, unless we have a young, active, vigorous
and enterprising governor to bring forth the energies and capabilities
of the country, an event most devoutly to be wished."
When Governor Carleton
left New Brunswick the war between Great Britain and France which had
been brought to a close by the peace of Amiens, had just been renewed
and the parsimonious folly which caused the disbanding of the Provincial
Fencible Regiments was being freely criticized. The New Brunswick
Fencible Regiment, after an existence of nine years, was disbanded in
the summer of 1802, but before two years had elapsed, the recruiting
officers were again in the field looking for men to fill up the ranks of
a New Brunswick Fencible Regiment. Recruits were sought for not only in
New Brunswick but in the Province of Quebec and in the course of time, a
regiment larger in numbers than the one that had been disbanded and
equally efficient, was obtained. This corps at a later date, became the
104th Regiment of the line, and did good service on many a hard fought
field in Upper Canada during the War of 1812.
President Ludlow's
speech at the opening of the Legislature in 1805, was a modest document,
and its principal subjects were the War, and the state of the finances
of the Province. He recommended the passing of a better militia law and
the making of better provisions for the payment of the public creditors.
Both these recommendations were attended to, the militia act then
passed, being the fifth enacted by the Legislature in eighteen years. An
act which was passed to provide for punctuality of payments at the
Treasury, authorized the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of five
thousand pounds. But the most important act of the session was one
entitled "An act for encouraging and extending Literature." This act,
notwithstanding its curious title, was a practical measure for the
establishing of a grammar school at St. John, an institution which in
the course of years, became remarkably efficient and provided a. means
of education to many of the prominent men of the Province, until it was
finally absorbed into the free school system. The act also provided that
there should be established in each County except, St. John, two
schools, and ia the County of St. John, one school for instructing the
youth of both sexes in the English language, and in writing and
arithmetic. These schools were to be under the control of the Justices
in the General Sessions of the Peace. A curious feature of the act was,
that those schools were only to be held in any one parish for a year,
after which they were to be removed to the next parish, so that every
parish might enjoy the benefit of them. The sum of £375 or £25 for each,
was appropriated for the support of these schools. This act was a long
step in advance of any former enactments with regard to schools in the
province, and was a recognition of the fact that the youth of the
Country were entitled to the benefits of an education.
Another act of the
session was one to prevent the importation or sale of goods by persons
not His Majesty's subjects. The excuse for this kind of legislation was,
that the revenue laws were being evaded by aliens who imported goods,
but there was no reason shown why aliens were likely to be more
successful as smugglers than His Majesty's loyal subjects. In fact the
restrictions on commerce were so numerous that evasions of the law
seemed to be almost a necessary part of business and were looked upon as
much more venial than would be the case at the present day. The law
against importations by aliens was limited to three years and at the end
of that time it quietly disappeared from the statute book. It was so
easily evaded that it was virtually a dead letter from the beginning. |