Mooring the sum of eight pounds, and Renold McDonald the sum of two pounds ten shillings, all the said fines in sterling money of Great Britain, and all the said persons to quit the said island by 25th of November ensuing.

To Charles Garland, Esq., one of His Majesty's
Justices of the Peace at Harbour Main.

T. BURNETT.

The above were not the only parties who received this hard measure for indulging their religious preference. There were no less than sixteen others in Harbour Main subjected to various penalties for the same crime. There were others at Harbour Grace. A large number were in the same case at Carbonier, and in the adjoining fishing villages. In every instance where the service had been celebrated, the order was peremptory for the place in which it had been held to be burnt down, or otherwise destroyed, as though it were judged a plague or a curse might linger within the walls.

It is not pleasant to read the evidence of a persecuting spirit established by the foregoing facts. It is especially disagreeable to Protestants to find that the persecutors were on their side. The facts, however, cannot be set aside, neither can they be excused: the only pretence of an apology that can be offered is by referring the facts to a period when all religious parties in their day of power were not distinguished for charity, or even mercy towards those who differed from them, and by remembering that at that time the English nation had not learned to draw a distinction between the adherents of the Papacy, and the designs

EXPLANATION OF INTOLERANCE.

95

of what were termed popish recusants, and a popish pretender. It was not till nearly a quarter of a century after the tyrannical proceedings noticed as taking place in Newfoundland that the British House of Commons repealed laws which made it felony or treason for a Catholic priest to teach or officiate in the services of his Church-which gave to the son or other nearest relative, being a Protestant, power to take possession of his father's or his kinsman's estate during the lifetime of the rightful owner, and which debarred the Catholics from the power of acquiring legal property by any other means than by descent. Even this tardy and scant measure of toleration was followed by a strong no-popery organisation which, rising in Scotland, spread through the sister kingdom until it culminated in the Gordon riots in London. It is a satisfaction to the Englishman of the present day, that these stains on his country's rule have passed away with the prejudices and the plots with which they were associated. And if he is ashamed at reading some of the records of a not very distant past, he may also feel indignant wonder that there are countries in which the same blemishes are still cherished even now, when the latter half of the nineteenth century is far on its way.

In reference to the oppressive proceedings against the Roman Catholics in Harbour Grace and its neighbourhood, it should be stated that that portion of the population against which they were directed appears to have been characterised by a lawless rebellious spirit towards the institutions and the

government* under which the people lived; scarcely wonderful, indeed, considering how hard the institutions and the Government bore on them. As evidence of this spirit, and also as proof of the jealousy of the authorities in respect to any slight on the established government, the following order may be transcribed:

Whereas it has been represented to me, at a court held at Harbour Grace, at which you, George and Charles Garland, Esqrs., were present, at which time there did appear by evidence, that George Tobyn, master of the St. Patrick brig, had threatened the life of Philip Payne, merchant, and it likewise did appear that he frequently wore Irish colours, and sometimes hoisted them at the ensign-staff and his English ensign hoisted on his jack-staff, to bid defiance to the English and Jersey men of this Harbour, and as it appears all this was done to stir up a spirit of rebellion amongst the Roman Catholics of this Harbour, they being far superior in number to the Protestants, insomuch that it is sometimes a difficult matter to bury their dead, and have been obliged to make use of all the force they could assemble, to prevent their insolence whilst they were burying their dead; We think proper, therefore, to fine the said George Tobyn the sum of ten pounds for his insolent behaviour. I do hereby require and direct, &c.

T. BURNETT.

Of the too prevalent lawlessness and crime existing

The following note to this part of the Records was made by some person writing apparently in 1787, who has left a careful analysis of the volumes up to the preceding year.

'N. B.-A war with France having broken out at this time, Government suspected that the Irish Catholics could not with safety be trusted, and that they would be inclined to join the enemy in case the island should be invaded, which probably was the cause of the severity exercised towards them by the Governor.'

in the colony, the letters of the several governors furnish abundant testimony. Here is an example:

Whereas I think, for the good of this island in general, that gallows should be erected in the several districts in order to deter (frequent robberies that are committed by) a parcel of villains, who think that they can do what they please with impunity. You are therefore hereby required and directed to cause gallows to be erected in the most public places in your several districts, and cause all such persons as are guilty of robbery, felony, or the like crimes, to be sent round to this place in order to take their trial at the annual assizes held here, as I am determined to proceed against all such with the utmost severity of the law. Given at St. John's, the 12th of October, 1754.

H. BONFOY.

Copies of this order were directed to be sent to all the justices of the peace throughout the island.

One more extract from the records of this period (1749-1762) shall conclude this chapter. It is curious, as illustrative of the care of the magistrates to fix under what category, whether virtuous or otherwise, to class the inhabitants of their districts.

At a court held in Ferryland the 27th day of August, 1750, at the request of the justices of the peace, John Allen and Elizabeth Gobbet (commonly called Elizabeth Allen) were brought into court, and declared that they were not married, but only kept company together.*

Two instances of the mode of dealing with women whose conduct or disposition was offensive are noticed in the records of 1757.

1st. Eleanor Moody, having given liquor to a seaman and

H

stolen his money and his buckles, was ordered to be put in the whirligig, and then sent out of the country.

2nd. A justice of the peace at Trinity, having struck a woman said to be of a troublesome and turbulent disposition, on the case being reported to the Governor, the magistrate was ordered to pay 5l. to the woman's husband and to erect at his own expense a cage for the punishment of turbulent women.