58 to thirty eight thousand nine hundred and seventy six feet,—the whole value amounts to the sum of six thousand eight hundred and twenty-pounds sixteen shillings, Halifax currency. Thus certified at Quebec , this seventeenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty seven. WM . PHILLIPS JOHN PHILLIPS J. HUGHES , C.E . (29th October, 1838) Extract from a Report of a Committee of the Executive Council dated 29th of October, 1838, and approved by his Excellency the Earl of Durham, G.C.B. , Governor General, on a claim of Miss Holland . The Committee have had before them the despatch of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, relating to the claim of and its enclosure, ( Miss Holland 's petition) they have examined the Register of Patents in the Provincial Secretary's Office, the books of the Council office, and made such enquiries as suggested themselves to them, both in the Civil Secretary's Office and the Engineer Department, and of private individuals. The circumstances relating to this case, as far as the Committee have been able to trace them are as follows:— On the 10th November, 1764, Mr. Holland then Surveyor General presented a petition for a small lot of ground, sufficient for a house and garden, on the street leading from the Parade to , adjoining the Castle of St . Lewis on one side, and the on the other, leaving room for the use of the . The same day the Council ordered the lot to be sur¬ veyed, and recommended, if it should not appear to over reach any ways on King's ground appropriated for the use of the Governor for the time being, and not already granted to any other person, that it should be granted as prayed. On the 13th March, 1766, (not 176 S as stated in Miss Holland 's petition,) the patent was granted accordingly, by General Murray , then Governor, with the reservation mentioned in Miss Holland 's petition. The situation boundaries and form are distinctly set forth in the patent, to which a plan is annexed, a quit rent of two shillings reserved. The grant did not include the on the cliff, but left a clear space of 50 feet to the battery and the south line of the lot granted. It was in length about 460 feet by a main width of about 100 feet. The grant the committee consider an acknowledgment by Gen. Murray that the ground was not an encroachment on that attached to the Chateau. Whether Mr. Holland was ever in actual possession does not appear, probably not. He very possibly merely held it, without using it, in the expectation of its rising in value. It would seem certain that he did not build a house upon it. There has been much difficulty in obtaining any information upon the subject,—the only person who remembers anything of it, is a very intelligent clerk in the Engineer's Office, of the name of Morrison, now 73 years of age, but he only came into the country in the year 1780, when General Haldimand was Governor . The government was then in possession of the lot in question as a garden, and a small battery of 5 guns (not the battery mentioned in and excepted from the grant) was placed upon it. The idea in the Engineer Department has always been that this lot was held by the Government, by that battery, and that if the guns were removed, the ground could be instantly resumed. The battery is stated by the Engineer Officers to be useful as bearing upon the opposite height and the harbor from a commanding situation, but the greater part of the lot is not required for the use of the battery, though in common with much neighboring ground on which houses now stand, it would be preferable that it should not be built upon. These circumstances induces us to believe that a tradition, which is very common in Quebec , is (at least in substance) correct, namely, that General Haldimand wishing for this ground for a garden, offered Major Holland £800 for it, which Major Holland refused to take, upon which General Haldimand declared that he would take it for the use of the works, and ordered the 5 gun battery to be constructed upon it, and upon that tenure it has since been held, though about 99 parts out of 100 of the superficial area has been appropriated to a kitchen and flower garden for the use of the Chateau. But the Committee may be mistaken in coming to this conclusion. The idea, however, receives further confirmation from other circumstances. General Haldimand purchased several lots of the ad¬ joining ground in 1782, one from Mr. Parisien (the conveyance of which the Committee have seen,) and a number of others from various persons who had buildings upon them. In 1784 the fence now standing, consisting of a low wall and wooden railing, was put up along the garden from the corner of the wall to the end of the garden. General Hamilton was then the Governor and Governor-in-chicf, General Haldimand having left the Province. There was a ruinous wall there at the time Parisien 's ground was originally purchased by General Haldimand , for the sake of the well in it, to obtain water for the use of the garden, the water was lost by attempting to deepen the well. The lot adjoining Mr. Parisien 's property was purchased by Sheriff's sale, in 1817. Governor Haldimand , in 1782, on some opposition or difficulty on the part of the inhabi¬ tants, stopped up the road in the street, by putting fences from the lower to the upper garden