i 2 PAST AND PRESENT OF / uors," which passed its third reading by the Council, and was agreed to on nth October, is of interest, as being the first act, other than a license act, to regulate the liquor business, and also as being the first attempt to raise money for public purposes by a law. Only twenty pounds a year was expected from it, and the Governor's reason for assenting to it was the absolute necessity for a little money to answer the common exigencies of government and to pay off some small debts already contracted. In February, 1775, owing to the vessel in which his despatches were to have gone to England having been frozen into the harbor ota the 21st December, when there happened severe frosts (remarkable as being uncom¬ mon so early in the season), Patterson de¬ termined to attempt a winter mail service. He endeavored to persuade some men to at¬ tempt a passage in a small canoe to Nova Scotia . He points out that, if successful with6ut great difficulty, it would remove an objection made by many people against being here, "namely, being shut out from inter¬ course with' the-rest of the world for so long in winter, and if successful, he would have rendered an essential service to the Island. The attempt was made from Wood Islands , and succeeded. Thus Patterson is entitled to the credit of inaugurating the winter mail service. On 2d August, the Governor, who had been granted a year's leave of absence, sailed in the ship "Two Friends" for England , and, in the absence of the lieutenant governor, Mr. Callbeck , as the oldest councillor, as¬ sumed the administration of the government The year 1775 was not only marked by the inception of the winter mail service, and by the governor's departure for England , but is notable for the descent of American privateers, which plundered the place, and carried away the leading members of the government, prisoners, to General Washing ¬ ton's headquarters. There were two priva¬ teers, which hailed from Marblehead. They were of about sixty tons each, and mounted six carriage guns and ten swivels each, and each carried a crew of eighty men. Their instructions were from General Washington to cruise at the entrace of the River St. Law¬ rence, to intercept such vessels as should be loaded with supplies for the British army at Boston. Mr. Stewart , who treats but briefly of this episode in our Island story, says: "Upon the arrival of these gentlemen (that is, Messors. Callbeck and Wright) at the headquarters of the American army, then at Cambridge in New England, it appeared that the rebel officers had acted in this man¬ ner totally without any orders from their superiors; they were immediately dismissed from their commands, and told by General Washington in their own. style, 'that they had done those things which they ought not to have done, and left Undone those things which it was their duty to have done,' their prisoners were immediately discharged with many polite expressions of regret for their sufferings, and the plundered property was all honorably restored." This, from the well- known character of Washington, and also from the fact that it was not the policy of the revolting provinces to antagonize the other colonies which had not joined in the revolt, is what might have been expected. It is not, however, what the victims of the raid themselves say. Mr. John Russell Spence , a member of the Coun¬ cil, writing from Canso on 23d November, to Lord Dartmouth , informs him that, while