He met the House of Assembly, for the ﬁrst time, on the 12th November, 1805. In the early days before responsible govem- 'ment, the lieutenant-governor was the au- thor of his speeches to the House of Assem- bly, a fact to be borne in mind in reading the speeches to their “faithful Commons” of some of these gentlemen who held that distinguished position. In Des Barres’ case, there was little in any session of the Legisla- ture to call for comment. In his opening speech to the ﬁrstHouse, he simply expressed his anxiety to provide for the welfare of the colony, and felt conﬁdent that, in his efforts, he would have the assistance of that body.

War was raging in Europe, and the struggle with the United States, though it did not break out until 1812, was already looming on the horizon. It threatened long before it came, and the governors of British colonies were instructed to take measures to provide for the contingency of war. Throughout Des Barres’ time he was ever anxious on this point, and continually urged upon the House of Assembly the necessity for the Island’s defence.

In 1806, he summoned a new House of Assembly. In opening it he referred to an increase of settlers, which had taken place. but complained of the slow progress being made by the colony.

In March, I808, the House of Assembly memorialized the Duke of Kent, who seems to have been looked upon as the special pa- tron of the Island named after him, for his influence with the British government to obtain a temporary allowance from the quit rents paid by the proprietors, to be laid out in the erection of public buildings, and in forming other establishments suitable and requisite for the convenience and respecta- bility of the govemment, which, * * *

PAST AND PRESENT OF

without help, the inhabitants are unable to effect. They do not seem to have succeeded in their application, as the following year the Legislature itself passed an act to misc money for these purposes.

On the very date of this memorial (28th March) the lieutenant-governor sent a mes- sage to the House of Assembly, in which he called attention to the necessity of providing measures for defense, and said:

“The uncertainty of the continuance of the peace and amity which has existed be- tween His Majesty’s government and the United States of America, and the defence- less state in which the Island is at present left without military protection, oblige me to call your particular attention to this cir- cumstance, under a full persuasion that you will see the necessity of making provision for a sufﬁcient supply for the expenses, which must unavoidably attend the subsist- ence of the militia in the event of their being required to perform military duty.” ‘

The House of Assembly went into com- mittee on this message and resolved “That, in the present state of the country, it was not in their power, after the fullest consider- ation, to devise any means for immediately defraying the expense of the subsistence of the militia, in case of their being called upon to do military duty, in the absence of the detachment of His Majesty’s troops.”

This was evidently a disappointment to the old soldier, who, in his speech pro- roguing the House, said, “that he had sug- gested raising such a sum of money as might enable him, in case of need, to resist and re- pel any hostile attempts, he had trusted that the justice and expediency of his recom- mendations would have appeared sufﬁciently obvious, important and forceful to prompt its successful result.”