APPEAL TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

409

Parke. On January 11, 1843, the last-named judge, by instruction from their lordships, rose to state the reasons for the advice they would give to Her Majesty to reverse the decision of the Court below. Of the House of Assembly he said, 'They are a local legislature, with every power reasonably necessary for the proper exercise of their functions and duties; but they have not, what they have erroneously supposed themselves to possess, the same exclusive privileges which the ancient law of England has annexed to the House of Parliament.' Therefore the judgment will be reversed.' So important was this decision of the highest court in the realm, that it established a precedent in reference to all questions of like character which might arise in any part of the British colonies.

เ

By this period, another party had taken possession of the Government in the United Kingdom. Sir Robert Peel, at the head of the strong conservative reaction against the policy of the Whigs, had displaced and succeeded the Melbourne ministry. Lord Stanley, now Lord Derby, held the seal of the colonies. Both that minister and the cabinet to which he belonged, were less likely than their predecessors to tolerate the confusion which had arisen in the working of legislative institutions in Newfoundland. Accordingly the constitution was suspended, and in 1842 an Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament for amending the constitution of the Government of Newfoundland.'

The chief provisions of the Act were, that Her Majesty was empowered to abolish the council as a distinct branch of the legislature, and to authorise its

members to sit and vote in the House of Assembly as members thereof, as fully in all respects as the elected members of the said house. Thus was formed what is known in the colony by the name of the amalgamated legislature. The change was effected under Governor Sir John Harvey, who, though he had been commissioned and had entered on his duties in 1841, yet, after the change in the constitution made by the Act above mentioned, received a new commission under the Great Seal, accompanied by instructions under the Royal Signet as to his conduct in relation to the change.*

It is pleasant to turn from the political controversies which were carried on with such virulence, and which brought forth such noxious fruits during many years after the establishment of the powers of self-government, to note some really useful legislation which was produced in this disorderly time. One of the subjects which engaged the attention of the Assembly and the Executive was the want of lights on the island, to give intimation to mariners of their approach to a rocky coast. Previous to 1835, there was only one lighthouse on the shores of Newfoundland, and that was situated at the entrance to the capital. In the year just mentioned, the local legislature passed Acts for the erection of a lighthouse on Cape Spear, on a high point of land about four miles from St. John's, and another on the Harbour Grace Island in Conception

* The constitution was restored in 1849 by an Act of Parliament passed in the session of that year.

† Probably a corruption of Espère.

IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE MEASURES: 1843. 411

Bay. In 1841 an Act was passed to make provision for a lighthouse at or near Cape Bonavista, and in 1844 another Act was passed for the maintenance of a lighthouse at Cape Pine. These, and several others which have since been added, confer a great benefit on navigation, and still there are many parts of the coast in which such an institution would be of great

use.

A still more important and beneficial object employed the deliberations and elicited the action of the Government and the Assembly in 1843. This was the passing of an Act for the encouragement of education in the colony. Up to that period, all that had been done on this behalf had proceeded from the voluntary efforts of individuals, churches, and charitable societies, with some slight aid from the Imperial Government. Though much good was undoubtedly done through these agencies, yet in such a scattered population as that of Newfoundland, there was a very large proportion of each rising generation growing up in ignorance, and without the means of acquiring the elements of learning.

By an Act passed on May 22, 1843, a sum of 5,1007. was granted annually for the promotion of education, of which sum one half was appropriated in support of Protestant and one half in support of Roman Catholic schools. The above amount was further distributed among a number of districts whose boundaries were defined by the Act, and which embraced the whole island.

In each district a board was to be appointed by the

pay

Governor, consisting of seven persons, of whom the senior clergyman of the district was to be one. In all those districts in which the majority of the population were Protestants, the schools were to be under a Protestant board, and where the majority were Roman Catholics, the schools were to be held by Catholic boards. A yearly fee of one dollar was to be required from each pupil attending the schools, the several boards being empowered to remit the fee where persons were unable to the same. In the following year an Act was passed to provide for the establishment of an academy in St. John's for the promotion of a superior order of education. By that Act, the sum of 3,000l. was appropriated for the erection of an academy, and for providing a library and apparatus. The institution was to be under the management of nine directors appointed by the Governor. His Excellency had also the appointment of senior and junior master, 'provided that no minister of religion having any fixed pastoral charge should be eligible as a master.' The salary of the senior master was fixed at 3007., that of the junior master 2501., payable out of the general revenues of the colony.

Such were the earliest legislative provisions made for the education of the people in Newfoundland. Various alterations have since been made in the system thus introduced; some of these alterations have doubtless the character of improvements; others, again, are of a more dubious sort, especially such as have been framed to suit the lines of a more sectarian divi

THE CREATION OF A BISHOPRIC: 1839.

413

sion. The general results of the educational provision made in the colony are, at this day, disappointing. With a grant of upwards of 13,000l. sterling expended annually by the legislature on this object, the culture of the labouring people in St. John's, and especially in the outports, is of a lamentably low order. And it is difficult to foresee any considerable improvement, as the chief hinderance in the way lies in the indifference and apathy of the people themselves.

In 1839 an important change was made in the position of the Church of England in the colony. Up to that year it had formed part of the diocese of Nova Scotia. But on October 2, Royal instructions were forwarded to Governor Prescott, under the signmanual, wherein he was informed that Her Majesty had detached the islands of Newfoundland and the Bermudas from the see of Nova Scotia to form a new diocese, to be called the bishopric of Newfoundland; and, further, that Her Majesty had been pleased to appoint our well-beloved Aubrey George Spencer, Doctor in Divinity, to be the first bishop thereof, with full power and authority to him and his commissary or commissaries to exercise jurisdiction, spiritual and ecclesiastical, throughout the said see and diocese, according to the canons of the Church of England.'

6

On Saturday, August 9, 1845, St. John's was honoured by the presence of an illustrious visitor, in the person of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of the Netherlands. An intimation of his intention to come to Newfoundland had been given beforehand, and His Excellency the Governor, Sir John Harvey,