History of Halifax City. Akins Thomas B.

winter here.

      In May of this year the Governor and Council offered a bounty for sowing land with grass on the peninsula of Halifax, also for the erection of stone fences around the lots, and for raising grain and potatoes.

      Loudon was succeeded in the supreme command by Abercrombie, another incompetent – a debilitated old man who remained in command for a short time. He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Amherst.

      In the following spring about 12,000 troops arrived at Halifax, under the command of General Amherst. They were soon followed by Admiral Boscawen from England with a large fleet consisting of 23 ships of the line and 18 frigates. This great fleet arrived in Halifax harbour in May, 1758, accompanied by 120 transports. The land forces amounted to 12,260 men. On Sunday, 28th May, they set sail from Halifax, 157 vessels in all. They were met by General Amherst, with part of the force, as they went out of the harbour. Governor Lawrence accompanied the army and took command of one of the Brigades, Colonel Monkton being left in command during his absence.

      After the siege, which was protracted for two months, part of the fleet and army returned to Halifax, and some of the vessels remained to refit. The colony was sacked for provisions and the town turned into a camp for the troops. A number of the provincial soldiers and others, having enriched themselves with the spoils at Louisburg, became settlers in the town. All the ammunition and stores, with a quantity of private property, were removed to Halifax, and the town once again began to assume a prosperous appearance.

      This year was also memorable as the one in which Representative Government was established in Nova Scotia. The subject of calling a Legislative Assembly had undergone much discussion. It had been represented by the Governor and Council, to the authorities in England, that such a step at that particular time would be fraught with much danger to the peace of the colony. Chief Justice Belcher, however, having given his opinion that the Governor and Council possessed no authority to levy taxes, and their opinion being confirmed in England, it was resolved in Council on 3rd January, 1757, that a representative system should be established and that twelve members should be elected by the province at large, until it could be conveniently divided into counties, and that the township of Halifax should send four members, Lunenburg two, Dartmouth one, Lawrencetown one, Annapolis Royal one, and Cumberland one, making in all twenty two members, and the necessary regulations were also made for carrying into effect the object intended.

      Much discontent prevailed in the town, and also in other parts of the province, in consequence of the opposition of Governor Lawrence to the calling of a Representative Assembly. Hitherto the Government had been carried on solely by the Governor and Council, who possessed both Legislative and Executive authority. Under the Royal instructions the Governor was directed to call a Representative Assembly as soon as the circumstances of the country would permit, but the Governor was of opinion that it would be injudicious to proceed to a popular election until the country was better prepared for it. After repeated remonstrances from the people of Halifax and some pressure from his Council, it was on the 7th January resolved in Council that an assembly should be called, and a plan was drawn up and submitted to the Board of Trade for the sanction of the home government. We find, however, that in February following it was resolved by the inhabitants of Halifax to petition the Crown against the conduct of Governor Lawrence, not only as regards his unwillingness to establish a representative government, but his oppressive and overbearing conduct in other respects to many of the leading inhabitants. This petition was entrusted to one Ferdinando Paris, a gentleman in London, accompanied by affidavits and a power of attorney, conferring on him authority to represent the subscribers before the Privy Council and the Board of Trade and Plantations. A subscription was set on foot, and about £120 sterling subscribed, to meet the expenses of the application to Government. These documents were certified by Chief Justice Belcher as authentic, on 14th March. As these proceedings bear date in February, 1757, it is probable that the resolution of the Council of the 7th January had not been made known. The petition and power were signed by the following residents of the town who reputed themselves as a committee appointed by the people for the purpose of forwarding their views: Robert Saunderson, William Pantree, Malachi Salter, Jonathan Binney, Otto Wm. Schwartz, Robert Campbell, Henry Ferguson and John Grant. These papers were also accompanied by a copy of an address from the people of Halifax to Lt. Governor Robert Monkton, praying that certain sums of money, collected as rum duties, etc., might be expended on the fortifications of the town as a protection to the inhabitants, and offering to contribute both labour and money for the purpose. It also complains of the "miserable management of those who have had the direction of the defences." This petition bears date 19th October, in the same year. The language of one of the letters addressed to Mr. Paris, the request on the subject of the Halifax grievances and the overbearing military rule of Governor Lawrence, bespeak much excitement to have existed in the town on the subject. The feeling appears to have prevailed principally among the leading inhabitants. We find that the list above referred to was signed by Mr. Binney, Mr. Salter, Mr. Pantree, Mr. Schwartz, Dr. Grant, Mr. Saunderson, Mr. Fairbanks, Mr. Robt. Campbell, Mr. Butler, Mr. Suckling, Mr. Vanput, Mr. G. Gerrish, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Wiswell, Mr. Mason, and many others.

      On the first of November following, the Grand Jury of Halifax petitioned Governor Lawrence that some immediate steps may be taken to fortify the town so that the inhabitants might be placed in a more secure position in case of invasion. They refer to a petition presented to Lt. Governor Monkton on the same subject, to which no reply had been made, and concluded by asking that they might know without further delay what they were to expect; that if no further security is to be provided for the settlement they may have an opportunity of conveying themselves, their families and effects to a place of greater safety in some of the neighbouring Colonies. The names of the Grand Jury were Robert Saunderson, Joseph Rundell, John Anderson, Paul Pritchard, Hugh McKay, Joseph Fairbanks, William Schwartz, Robert Campbell, William Pantree, John Killick, John Brooks, Henry Wilkinson, Walter Manning, John Slayter, Richard Catherwood, Joseph Pierce, Alexander Cunningham, Richard Tritton, Jonathan Gifford and Benjamin Leigh.

      On Monday, the 2nd of October, 1758, the newly elected members met in the Court House in Halifax, pursuant to summons from the Provost Marshall; their names were as follows:

      They sent Messrs. Nesbitt, Newton and Rundell, to wait on the Governor, who sent Messrs. Morris and Green from the Council to swear them in. They then chose Robert Saunderson their speaker, which was confirmed by the Governor, who addressed them as follows: "Gentlemen of the Council and House of Representatives: His Majesty having been most graciously pleased by his royal instructions to his Governors of this Province to direct the calling an assembly of the freeholders to act in conjunction with his Governor and Council as the Legislative Authority, when such a measure should be found essential to his service; I am to assure you that it is with particular pleasure I now meet you convened in that capacity, in consequence of a plan some time since formed here for that purpose, with the advice and assistance of His Majesty's Council, and by me transmitted to the Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations to be laid before His Majesty for his approbation.

      "Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

      "I entertain the most sanguine hopes that you are come together unanimously disposed to promote the service of the Crown, or in other words, the real welfare and prosperity of the people whom you have the honour to represent, in every point to the utmost of your authority and capacity.

      "This, I presume, you will conceive is justly to be expected, not only from the immediate regard due to the Civil Rights and Interests of your constituents, but likewise from the unspeakable obligations you are under to demonstrate in their behalf your dutiful sense of His Majesty's paternal concern for the prosperity and security of those his subjects in those distinguishing marks of his royal favour and protection which we have from time to time so happily experienced in the fleets and armies sent out for our immediate preservation when we were under the most imminent danger of being swallowed up by a merciless enemy; also in the ample supplies of money for so many years annually granted for the support and encouragement of this infant colony; and moreover still, in the continuance of His Majesty's royal bounty for that purpose, when from the seeming inclination of the inhabitants to have an assembly convened some time ago, it might have been presumed, and indeed by an article of His Majesty's Instructions, which