THE prohibitory liquor law came into operation on the 1st of January, 1856, The result of the attempt to enforce it was what might have been expected. The law was resisted, liquor continued to be sold, and when attempts were made to prevent the violation of the law, and those who violated it were brought before the courts, able lawyers were employed to defend them, while the sale of liquor by the same parties was continued, thus setting the law at defiance.

In the meantime the Legislature of the Province met on the 14th of February, 1856. A considerable number of changes had taken place in the assembly since its last meeting. The Honorable William J. Ritchie had been elevated to the bench of the supreme court, and the Honorable Francis Rice, a member for Victoria, had been appointed to the Legislative Council, and Mr. Charles Watters, a St. John lawyer, had been elected in his place, and made a member of the Executive Council without office. The speech of the Lieutenant-Governor expressed regret that the expenditures of 1855, had largely exceeded the revenue. It referred to the system by which supplies were granted, as one that had failed to secure that equality between current revenue and ordinary expenditure which was indispensible to the maintenance of financial order, and recommended the House to consider whether the public interests did not demand, that some alteration should be made in the system. It also emphasized the necessity of making full and ample provision for securing the prompt and regular payment of all calls on the Provincial treasury.

On the very day that the House met, Mr. End moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the prohibitory liquor law. Twenty-three members voted to grant leave and only eight against it. But this was no indication of the strength of the sentiment in favor of its repeal. When the bill was discussed in committee, it was rejected by a vote of thirty-three to seventeen, the members of the Government dividing upon the question, Messrs. Tilley, Brown and Fisher voting for postponement, and Messrs. Johnson, Smith and Watters in favor of the bill. Numerous petitions had been received for the repeal of the act, but as most of them appeared to come from interested parties, they were not regarded as proving that public opinion was decidedly against it. When the Legislature met it had only been in operation six weeks, which was too short a time to test its efficiency.

The most important resolution passed at this meeting of the Legislature was one introduced by Mr. George L. Hatheway, of York, by which it was resolved that in order to carry out the principles of Responsible and Departmental Government in such a way as to be beneficial to the country at large, the right of initiating money grants should be conceded to the Executive Government, and the practice of the Imperial Parliament in that respect adopted. This important resolution which is the foundation of our present system of Government, was only carried by a vote of 20 to 18, so that even a reformed Legislature was very reluctant to yield up the financial control of the country into the hands of the Government. It was only by gradual steps that the result implied in this resolution was reached, and the full control of all expenditures placed in the hands of the administration.

Papers were brought down during the session in regard to the European and North American Railway, which was then under construction from St. John to Shediac. The contractors for that road, Messrs. Jackson, Peto, Brassey and Betts, professed themselves to be unable to carry out their contract, owing to the stringency of the money market, due to the Crimean War, and the Attorney General had been sent to England to see what could be done. His mission resulted in the surrender of the contract to the European and North American Railway Company, which was now charged with the responsibility of completing that work. The outcome of this business was that after much negotiation the task of completing the railway fell on the Province, and it became the property of the people and was operated as a Government work.

The Legislature was not prorogued until the 1st of May, and at that time there does not appear to have been any intimation of a difficulty between the Lieutenant Governor and his Executive Council. It is true that he was known to be hostile to the prohibitory liquor law, and that after giving his assent to it, he had entered into a correspondence with the home authorities, suggesting a number of objections to the measure, none of which were considered valid by the Committee of the Privy Council to whom the bill was referred. But it appears that the Governor, besides his hostility to the prohibitory law was not very friendly to his confidential advisers. He was an English Tory, and their ways were not his ways, nor were their views of Government in accord with his own. Looking at the correspondence between him and his Executive Council, it is difficult to acquit him of a deliberate attempt to get rid of his Government by means of this prohibition question. On the 6th of May, just five days after the legislature had been prorogued, the Governor addressed the Executive Council in regard to the prohibitory liquor law, stating that the act had been in operation for some months but that practically it was wholly inoperative, although a few individuals had been punished for its violation. He stated that if the law was capable of enforcement, the Government was bound to enforce it, and that if it could not be enforced, it should not continue on the statute book. He thought the only remedy for the existing state of things was to be found in an immediate appeal to the people. In their reply, the Executive Council said they did not concur in his supposition that the law was wholly inoperative, and they declined to advise him to dissolve the House of Assembly, expressing the opinion that if the law failed to accomplish the results anticipated by its supporters, it would be repealed by the existing House. The Governor persisted in his demand for a dissolution, and as the Executive Council refused to advise a dissolution, he dissolved the General Assembly on his own responsibility, upon which the members of the Executive Council tendered their resignations.

The new Government consisted of the Hon. John H. Gray, Attorney General; Hon. Robert D. Wilmot, Provincial Secretary; Hon. John C. Allan, Solicitor General; Hon. John Montgomery, Surveyor General; Hon. Francis McPhelim, Post Master General; Hon. Charles McPherson, Chief Commissioner of Public Works; and Honorables Edward B. Chandler and Robert L. Hazen, members of the executive without office. The House of Assembly was dissolved immediately, and the election which followed was perhaps the most hotly contested that has ever taken place in the Province. In St. John especially the conflict was fierce and bitter, because, it was in that city that the liquor interest was strongest and most influential. All over the Province, however, the people became interested in the struggle as they had not been in any previous campaign. By the Liberals and the friends of the Government, the action of Governor Sutton was denounced as tyrannical, unjust, and entirely contrary to the principles of Responsible Government. On the other hand the friends of the Governor and of the liqnor interest declared that his action was right, and the cry of "Support the Governor," was raised in {every county. The Liberals at this time found a new name for their opponents, whom they described as "Rummies," while the Tories retorted by designating the Liberals as "Smashers," and these names continued to be used long after the prohibition question was settled. At this day it is easy enough to discern that there was a good deal of unnecessary violence injected into the campaign, and that neither party was inclined to do full justice to the other. At the same time it is impossible not to condemn the Governor for the haste with which he acted, and the manner in which he used his power to drive his council into a corner. A trial of four months was not long enough to prove the impossibility of enforcing the liquor law, and no public interest would have suffered if the matter had been left to be dealt with at the next session of the Legislature.

The result of the elections, was the defeat of some of the principal members of the former Government. Mr. Tilley lost his seat for St. John city, and Mr. Brown, the Surveyor General, was rejected by the County of Charlotte. The Legislature met on the 17th of July, 1856, and it soon became apparent that the new House of Assembly contained a large majority who were opposed to prohibition. The Hon. Charles Simonds of St. John, who had taken a conspicuous part in the work of the Legislature a quarter of a century before, had been returned for St. John county, and he was elected Speaker. The second paragraph of the address in reply to the Governor's speech, contained an endorsement of His Excellency's conduct in dissolving the House of Assembly, but this was not allowed to pass without a division. It was carried by a vote of 23 to 16, a test which should have warned the Government, that their position was not as secure as the result of the elections seemed to indicate. A bill was immediately brought in to repeal the law prohibiting the importation, manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and only two members, Mr. Arthur Hill Gillmor of Charlotte, and Mr. A. R. McClellan of Albert, voted against it. This was practically all the business the Legislature had to do, and it was prorogued on the 29th of July, after a session of ten days.

The prohibitory liquor law having been got rid of, parties in the House and in the Province, began to return to their original principles. The Liberals, many of whom had voted against prohibition, began to see that there was danger for them in the possession of power by a Tory Government. Accordingly when the Legislature met on the 12th of February, 1857, all the Liberals in the House had returned to their former allegiance, and the address in answer to the Governor's speech, was only carried by the casting vote of the speaker in a full House, the numbers being twenty to twenty. This vote was taken on an amendment which was moved by Mr. Fisher, declaring that the constitutional advisers of the Governor did not possess the confidence of the House. The Government was in such a position that it could accomplish nothing, but the session was distinguished by two important events. For the first time in the history of the Province, the Provincial Secretary brought down an estimate of revenue and expenditure, indicating

that the Government had taken full charge of the-finances of the Province. A despatch was received from the Colonial office, placing the control of the surplus civil list fund in the hands of the Provincial Legislature. The delay in this matter is a notable instance of the grudging manner in which the rights of the Province were conceded by the home government, for the control of the casual and territorial revenue, had passed to the Legislature twenty years before, and there was no reason why the surplus civil list fund which formed a part of the casual and territorial revenue, should be held by the British Government.

The Hon. R. D. Wilmot, who was Provincial Secretary, laid the estimates before the House on the 20th of March, and moved a resolution, which was passed that the House should go into committee of supply on the 24th of the same month. When that day came no effort was made to move the House into committee of supply, and on the 26th, the Hon. Mr. Gray announced that it was the intention of His Excellency in furtherance of the public interests, to prorogue the General Assembly with a view to a dissolution, and that His Excellency had come to that determination, with the unanimous advice of his Council. The Legislature was prorogued the same day and the House of Assembly was dissolved by proclamation on the 1st of April, 1857, the writs being made returnable on the 16th of May. The excitement attending this second election was, if possible, even greater than during the election of 1856, for the public mind had been wrought up to a state of great tension by the proceedings in the House, which were watched with the keenest interest. The result of the election was so unfavorable to the Gray-Wilmot Government that they at once tendered their resignations to the Lieutenant Governor, agreeing to hold office only until their successors were appointed. The most bitter contest of the election centered in the city of St. John, and it resulted in the election of Mr. Tilley, with Mr. James A. Harding for his colleague, the latter having changed his views in regard to the question at issue since the previous election, when he was chosen as an opponent of the Government, of which Mr. Tilley had been a member. When the Gray-Wilmot Government resigned the Lieutenant Governor sent for Mr. Fisher, and entrusted to him the business of forming a new Government. The Government thus formed comprised, the Hons. James Brown, S. L. Tilley, William Henry Steeves, John M. Johnson, Albert J. Smith, David Wark, and Charles Watters. The Hon. Charles Fisher became Attorney General, and resigning his seat, was re-elected for the county of York, prior to the meeting of the Legislature on the 24th of June 1857. This session only lasted until the 1st of July, being merely held for the purpose of disposing of the necessary business. James A. Harding was elected Speaker of the House, and the Legislation was confined to the passage of the supply bills, and a few other measures regarding subjects which required immediate attention. Mr. Tilley became Provincial Secretary, and other departments were filled by the appointment of Mr. Brown to the office of Surveyor General, Mr. Charles Watters to the office of Solicitor General, and John M. Johnson as Postmaster General.

The Legislature met again on the 10th of February, 1858, and the speech from the throne dealt mainly with the financial crisis which had affected the mercantile interest of the Province; the Intercolonial Railway, and the progress that was being made in the construction of the line between St. John and Shediac as a part of what was termed the European and North American Railway. The speech also referred to the fact that the surplus civil list fund had been, by arrangement with the British Government, made the previous year, placed at the disposal of the House of Assembly. It was soon seen that the Government was strong in the House, the first test vote being that taken on the passage of the address in reply to the speech from the throne. This came in the form of an amendment, which was moved by Mr. Mcintosh of York, regretting that the arrangement in regard to the surplus civil list fund had been acceded to without the consent of the House. This amendment to the address only received the support of six members. A return brought down at an early period in the session showed that the revenue of the Province for the fiscal year ending October 31str 1857, amounted to $668,252, an increase of $86,528 over the previous year. Of this sum upwards of $540,000 came from import duties and what were termed railway impost, which was simply the duties levied on imports, for the purpose of defraying the cost of the railways then building.

The casual and territorial revenue only yielded $18,000, but the export duties reached almost $80,000.

The Intercolonial railway still continued to engage the attention of the Legislature, and correspondence with the Secretary of State, with the Government of Canada, and with the Government of Nova Scotia, in regard to this great work, was laid before the House soon after the session opened. The Government of New Brunswick consulted with the Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, as to what assistance should be given by the Imperial Government, towards the construction of the Intercolonial from Halifax to Quebec, in the form of a guarantee of interest. The British Government, through the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Labouchere, replied, on January 15th, 1856, that while the British Government felt a strong sense of the importance of the object, they would not feel themselves justified in applying to parliament for the required guarantee, because they felt that the heavy expenditure to which Great Britain had been subjected, did not leave them at liberty to pledge its revenue for the purpose of assisting in the construction of public works of this description, however desirable in themselves. In other words, the British Government had so exhausted its resources in fighting useless battles in the Crimea and elsewhere, for the sake of the degraded and effete Mahommedan power, that it was unable to give any assistance to a necessary work of a peaceable character for the consolidation of the Empire. The Intercolonial railway has now been constructed without the British treasury being drawn upon to the extent of one penny, and the British Government is now glad to use it and its kindred work, the Canadian Pacific, for the purpose of forwarding its soldiers from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These two great works remain as monuments of the spirit and courage of the people of the British Provinces of North America, but they redound nothing to the credit of any British Government or any Imperial statesman, it apparently being impossible for any one, brought up under the shadow of Downing Street, to discern any good thing in the colonies. The correspondence on the subject of the Intercolonial extended over a period of more than twenty years, and grew to enormous proportions, but it is entirely safe to assert that this line of railway would not have been constructed in our own time, but for the fact that it was undertaken by the Canadian Dominion, as a work which had to be built, for the purpose of carrying out the terms of confederation, as set out in the British North America Act.

Correspondence was brought down during this session on the subject of immigration to New Brunswick. Mr. Moses H. Perley, immigration agent, had visited the United Kingdom for the purpose of promoting the movement to induce people to emigrate to this country, but he did not find the British Government disposed to lend any assistance in relieving their cities of the unemployed, who might have been able to make a good living in this Province if brought to it. At this time there was a considerable amount of competition on the part of the Australian Colonies for immigrants, and New Brunswick was not looked upon favorably as a field of immigration. It does not appear that the result of Mr. Perley's mission to England was very fruitful, the principal difficulty being, that he had no authority to expend much money for the purpose of promoting the object in view. There has always been a certain small movement towards this Province, on the part of the people of the British Islands desiring to change their residence, but the condition of the Province is such, both as to its labor market and its resources, that it would be unwise to bring people here in large numbers, unless arrangements had previously been made for settling them comfortably. British immigrants now prefer to go to those lands where there is no forest to be felled, or where the cities are large, and the chances of employment in various lines of industry are greater.

The financial statement brought down by Mr. Tilley, showed that the public debt of the Province at the end of the fiscal year, 1857, amounted to $2,050,000, of which $1,376,000 was funded, and bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. This debt had been largely incurred in railway construction or in stock taken in railways. The ordinary revenue was estimated at nearly $650,000, and the ordinary expenditure at about $2,000 less. These figures do not greatly differ from those of the present time, notwithstanding the fact that confederation had relieved us of many items of expenditure which the Province formerly had to bear. Everything, however, was on a small scale in those days. A committee was appointed at this session of the Legislature, to inquire into the manner in which the work of railway construction to Shediac was being carried on. The committee reported later in the session. Their report seemed hostile to the Government, and censured the manner in which the contracts had been given out, and work done in many places without tenders. The people of this Province were then quite ignorant of railway building, and there is no doubt that the line to Shediac cost far more money than it ought to have done. The committee reported that according to the Engineer's statement the line would cost, when completed, £930,702, or £8,460 a mile; but the cost was considerably more, and exceeded four million dollars, and may be roughly put down at forty thousand dollars a mile, or twice the sum for which a similar railway could be constructed now. This report was received by the House, but was not adopted, although the vote upon it was a close one.

The railway to Shediac was finally completed and opened for traffic on August 5th, 1860, its length being 108 miles. The nineteen miles between Point Du Chene and Moncton, had been open as early as August, 1857, and the nine miles from St. John to Rothesay on June 1st, 1858. The railway was opened from St. John to Hampton, in June, 1859, and to Sussex, in November of the same year. Although the people of the Province had abated something of their enthusiasm for railways by the time the St. John and Shediac line was finished, still, its opening was a great event, because it was the commencement of a new era in transportation in this Province, and gave St. John access to the North Shore, from which it had been practically shut out previously. Goods could now be sent by means of railway and steamer to Prince Edward Island, and to the New Brunswick ports on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and a community of interest was thus created between the most remote sections of the Province, which did not exist before. The traffic receipts of the complete line were thought to be highly satisfactory ; the business for the first three months amounted to about $45,000, and yielded a revenue of $18,000. This was a good showing and gave promise of still better things for the future. It may be interesting to state, that in the last year that the railway was operated by the Government of this Province, the gross receipts amounted to $148,330, and the net receipts to $51,760. The gross and net revenue of the road had shown a steady increase from the first, and although it had been a costly public work, the people of the Province considered it a good investment. It was only after it had passed into the hands of the Government of Canada, and become a part of the Intercolonial railway, that any color was given to the accusation that it was an unprofitable line. The railway, from St. John to Shediac, has always paid well, and probably, if dis-associated from its connecting lines, would at this day pay three or four per cent, on its original cost.

The legislation of the Province between 1854 and 1861, although it included many useful measures, evolved nothing that calls for particular mention, with the exception of the law which provided for voting by ballot. This was an innovation to which many were opposed, but which the Liberal party very properly considered necessary for the protection of the voter, who was liable to be coerced by his employer, or by those who had financial relations with him. The ballot system introduced by the Government, was quite imperfect and did not insure absolute secrecy, because it did not provide for an official ballot, such as is required in the system of election which now prevails for members of our Canadian Parliament. Yet it was a vast improvement on open voting, not only because it gave the voter a certain degree of protection, but also from the fact that it tended to promote order at elections, and do away with that riotous spirit which was characteristic of the earlier elections in the Province.

In 1859, an important step was taken for the reorganization of King's College, which, by an act passed in that year, was changed into the University of New Brunswick. This act was based on a bill which had been prepared by the commissioners who had been appointed in 1854, to inquire into the state of the College. It transferred to the University of New Brunswick, all the property of King's College, and made the University liable for the payment of its debts. It created a new governing body for the College, to be styled the Senate, to be appointed by the Governor in Council, and it conferred upon it the power of appointing professors and other officers of the University, except the President, and also the power of removing them from office, subject to the approval of the Governor in Council, it abolished the professorship of theology, and provided for the affiliation of other institutions with the University. Thus a new era in the higher education of New Brunswick was commenced, and a long step was taken, in advance, towards making the College more acceptable to the people of the Province. The University became what it should have been at the beginning, a non-sectarian institution, in which all denominations had equal rights. Great hopes were entertained at the time, that this change in the constitution of the College would lead to a large increase in the number of its students and a more general interest in its work, but unfortunately, as the sequel showed, these hopes were only partially realized. Denominational Colleges had, in the meantime, been founded, which drew away from the University many of the young men of the Province, so that it did not become the University of the whole people as it should have been. Having been founded upon the model of Oxford, as Oxford was seventy years ago, it was slow to adopt the modern system of college education, and it never won the favor of its graduates to the extent of receiving any considerable private benefactions, such as have enriched other colleges. Thus its work was and restricted by lack of money, for its revenues have not received any material addition for half a century or until 1907, when $5,000 a year additional was voted.

During the spring of 1860, circumstances occurred which led to the resignation of the Post Master General, Hon. Charles Connell. The Legislature having adopted the decimal system of currency, in the place of pounds, shillings, and pence, which had been the currency of the Province since its foundation, in March, 1860, Mr. Connell was authorized to obtain a new set of postage stamps, of the denominations required for use in the postal service of the Province. No person at that time thought that a political crisis would arise out of this order, but it appears that Mr. Connell, guided by the example of Presidents and Post Masters General in the United States, had made up his mind that, instead of the likeness of the Queen, which had been upon the old postage stamps of the Province, the five cent stamp, the one which would be most in use, should bear the impress of his own countenance. Accordingly the Connell postage stamp, which is now one of the rarest and most costly of all in the list of collectors, was procured, and was ready to be used, when Mr. Connell1 s colleagues in the Government discovered what was going on, and took steps to prevent the new five cent stamp from being issued. The correspondence on the subject, which will be found in the Journals of 1861, is curious and interesting, but it ended in the withdrawal of the objectionable stamps and in the resignation of Mr. Connell, who complained that he had lost the confidence of his colleagues, and who, in resigning, charged them with neglecting the affairs of the Province. Only a few of the Connell stamps got into circulation, the remainder of the issue being destroyed. If anyone could have foreseen the enormous value which they would attain at a future day, a fortune might have been made by the lucky individual who succeeded in ' getting possession of them. Mr. Connell's place as Post Master General was filled by the appointment, of James Steadman to that office.