ms'ronv. 361

promoting the prosperity of the colony, it was not apparently injurious to private individuals. , His ruling passion, during his administration, was that of acquiring landed property in the colony, and he succeeded in securing to himself some of the best tracts, without proceeding to any violent measures against the proprietors; but _he was considered the most severe landlord in the colony, in respect to rents and terms, which, with the common objections of new settlers to become tenants in wilderness lands, retarded the improvement and settlement of the island. He was born and brought up in the United States; and he owed his fortune to accidental cir— cumstances, the advantages of which he had the finesse to seize. Soon after his appointment to this government, two provincial corps were raised, by order of his Majesty, for the protection of the island; and the barracks, as they now (1829) stand, were rebuilt, by order of the Duke of Kent. Three troops of volunteer cavalry were also formed; and the name of the island changed, in 1799, from St John’s, and called, by an act of the colonial legislature, Prince Edward, in honour of his Royal Highness the‘Duke of Kent, then commanding the army in America.

Governor Desbarres, who had previously been Lieu- tenant-Governor of Cape Breton, and who succeeded General Fanning, was a man of considerable talent, liberal education, and well known as an expert and correct hydrographer. He possessed also many kind and generous qualities; but, from being very old, (having been a captain of foot at the siege of Que-