HON. EDWARD PALMER

The Hon. Edward Palmer was born in Charlottetown Sept. 1, 1809, the third of eight sons of James B. Palmer, a barrister of Dublin, Ireland, who came to Prince Edward Island in 1805, and was active at the Bar and in public life during the early part of the century. After an early education at Brown's Grammar School, Charlottetown, Edward studied law with his father. He began the practice of the law in 1854, and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1857. One of the active leaders of the Bar for nearly forty years,he was raised to the Supreme Court Bench to succeed Sir Robert Hodgson as Chief Justice in 1874, which position he held until his death on November 5, 1889. He is buried in Sherwood Cemetery.

Edward Palmer entered public life in 1855 as a representative for Charlottetown, and held the seat in the Assembly until 1860, when he was appointed to the Legis- lative Council, and was afterwards twice returned to that body under the elective system.

He was Solicitor-General for three years from October 1848, Attorney-General a short while in 1854. Prem- ier of the Province from 1859 to 1865, Attorney—General 1865 to 1867 and again 1875 until he went to the Bench in June of that year.

mr. Palmer was twice a delegate from the Colony to the Imperial Government in England;0nce in 1847 with Joseph Pope and Andrew Duncan to procure the recall of the man described by Dr. McKinnon, as "the blundering Governor Huntley, noted for his language rather than his sagacity," and again with W. H. Pope in 1865, to negotiate for set— tlement of the land question, then an acute one on the ISlando

As a delegate to represent this Colony, he attended the conference at Charlottetown in 1864 called to

consider union of the Maritime Provinces, and also the later one at Quebec, to which the first conference had been adjourned to consider the larger question of Confederation Like many of our leading public men of the time, Palmer was at first strongly opposed to our joining Canada, particu— larly on the earlier terms offered, and only reluctantly agreed to union in 1875, when it became apparent that the economic situation to which the Island had been brought by the construction of our Railway, made it imperative.’

Most of Palmer's public life covered a period of