conferred on the colony, both in regard to the requirements of peace, and the sterner necessities of war. In reply, His Excellency assured the gentlemen whose approving testimony he was called gratefully to acknowledge, that in the future, though separated as to official position from the country, he should ever take an interest in its affairs, and be ready in any way he could to contribute to its prosperity.

During the three years of his administration, the number of resident inhabitants of St. John's had risen from 5,530 (in 1809) to 7,075 (in 1812), the relative proportion between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics being about the same in both sets of figures, the latter being more than two-thirds of the whole.

In concluding this chapter, the following notice of two calamities which, in 1812, visited Conception Bay, where the writer was resident at the time, is taken from Anspach :

The small-pox as universally dreaded as it was always fatal in its consequences, on account of the deeply-rooted prejudice of the inhabitants of the island against any mode of inoculation, created a considerable alarm in Conception Bay, where the fishery was then entering into its full activity. Means of prevention were therefore employed by the inhabitants, under the sanction of the magistrates, which were fortunately attended with the desired success.

While the inhabitants of the whole district of Conception Bay were distracted by the dread of this infection, a fire, either accidentally or designedly kindled in the woods, was, by the direction of the wind, making rapid approaches towards

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the town of Harbour Grace, which it soon threatened with complete destruction. The inhabitants, collected together by the ringing of the church-bell, proceeded to the place under the direction of the chief magistrate, and by cutting and carefully clearing a semicircular space between the town and part of the woods on fire, put a complete stop to the ravages of that destructive element, and saved the town,

CHAPTER XI.

1812-1818.

A FEW days after his return to England in 1812, Sir John Thomas Duckworth was invited by the electors of New Romney to allow himself to be put in nomination as one of their representatives in Parliament; and as his holding the government of Newfoundland rendered him ineligible for a seat in the House of Commons, he requested Lord Bathurst to lay his commission at the feet of the Prince Regent. In answer to this application, he was informed that His Royal Highness had been graciously pleased to accept the same.'

Previous to tendering his resignation, the Governor had transmitted to Earl Bathurst a detailed report of the events of the season, of the measures which he had deemed it proper to adopt, and of the actual situation in which he had left the settlement. The first part of that report related to the alarm which had been produced in the island by the breaking out of the war with America-an alarm which was all the greater from the fact, that for 'years Newfoundland had been exempt from the smallest pressure of the war. No cruiser of the enemy had appeared upon its

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coasts: the fisheries had been undisturbed and secure as in time of peace: the trade had passed and repassed without convoy: every battery in the island (except those at St. John's), had been dismantled, and certainly there was not on his arrival a second harbour into which the smallest vessel of war belonging to the enemy might not have sailed, and destroyed the shipping and provisions stores, and, in short, reduced the inhabitants into a state of little less than absolute want.' After reciting what steps he had taken to provide for the defence of the settlements, the writer gives an account of the state of the fishery for the season, which had been moderately successful, in some instances remarkably so. there had been a great want of shipping to export the produce―'a circumstance which was the more to be regretted, as the European markets had been particularly advantageous, and the demand for fish unusually great.'

But

In the same communication, reference is made to a memorial from the merchants and housekeepers of St. John's, from which it appears that Parliament had lately passed an Act, levying a duty of sixpence per gallon on rum imported from the West Indies ; and of one shilling and sixpence on other spirits. These duties the memorialists regarded as imposing a heavy burden, and as a departure from the wise policy which the British Government had hitherto pursued of encouraging the fisheries. They also

stated that the tax will fall on the consumers who do not use it (rum, &c.), as an article of luxury, but

necessity, not having it in their power to procure malt liquor, as have the labouring classes in Britain.'

In another communication, Sir John Duckworth submitted some reflections which had been suggested to him during the period of his government of the colony, in reference to changes needed in the administration of the laws there. His views on this point are given with great caution, and based, as he states, not only on his own observations, but also on the opinions he had collected from experienced and sensible men. On one point, there was a general concurrence, viz. that the fisheries of Newfoundland had become decidedly sedentary—i.e. chiefly confined to the resident population, and that the tendency in this direction had been so stimulated and extended under the protracted war, that it was not likely that any material change would be produced by a return to the state of peace. The settled population of the island had become so large, that every attempt to lessen it, or even to check the rapidity of its increase must be completely vain. This population must be supported, and had no other resource than in the fishery: therefore the quantity of fish caught by the resident inhabitants must be so great as to leave but little opening for adventurers who might fit out ships from His Majesty's dominions in Europe, if they should be disposed by the return of peace to make the trial.'

From this state of affairs it followed that regulations whose professed object had been to afford every encouragement to the fishing ships so fitted out, and