PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 53 have determined to avoid any contest with the Lieutenant Governor until such time as they should have attended to the press¬ ing business of the community. Conse¬ quently, this part of the session was calm and uneventful. But the House, while it kept its complaints and grievances in abey¬ ance, and preserved a most respectful at¬ titude towards His Excellency , had not, by any means, forgotten its own dignity. They had carefully investigated the public ex¬ penditure, and voted a further supply. The speaker, in behalf of the "Commons of Prince Edward Island ," presented the sup¬ ply bill to His Excellency . The appropri¬ ations, they said, were not so large as they wished, but, knowing the limited means of the colony, they could not do more, and they reposed the highest confidence in His Excellency , that the funds raised would be "strictly and honorably applied." To this bill the Lieutenant Governor delayed his concurrence, in order to afford time for some requisite modifications, which might render it unexceptionable. He then, after consenting to a few bills, prorogued the As¬ sembly. In doing so, he assurred the mem¬ bers that "in all that he had done or ab¬ stained from doing, on the present occa¬ sion, he had allowed himself to be actuated by constitutional principle alone." He in¬ timated that, when what he had reserved his assent to had undergone modification it might meet with his future concurrence. The House was soon afterwards dis¬ solved, and the general election held the same year. The new House met for the de¬ spatch of business on the 3d November, 1818. In opening the session the Lieuten¬ ant-Governor referred, among other mat¬ ters, to the marriage of the Duke of Kent. Passing to local affairs, he expressed his satisfaction with the increase of industry, the great improvement in agriculture, evi¬ denced by the abundant crops, yielding ample means of support for the Island's in¬ habitants and a considerable surplus for ex¬ port. He assured the Legislature that, what¬ ever their collective wisdom might suggest, would be met on his part with very calm consideration—"pure constitutional prin¬ ciples and an earnest desire to do good and to hinder evil." All this sounded very well, but, unfortunately, the views of the mem¬ bers of the Assembly upon constitutional principles differed materially from those of the autocratic lieutenant-governor. On 5th November, the House agreed to an address in reply to the speech. The ad¬ dress, while most dutifully expressed, se¬ verely criticised certain measures, "which were adopted here during the last winter to enforce payment of His Majesty's quit rents upon the original or old scale, and have produced the most distressing effects, particularly upon the lower classes of the community, arising chiefly from the ruin¬ ous costs and expenses thereby incurred, when it appeared to the inhabitants of this colony, by Your Excellency 's proclamation, dated 1st October, 1816, that there was to be a 'fixed scale,' and a new rate of quit rents, to commence." The address further expressed the "hope that this branch of the Legislature will, at no distant period, in common with our neighboring colonies, have a constitutional controlling power over at least part of the public monies of this Island." The address also lamented "that the ef¬ forts of two branches of the Legislature, during the last session of the General As ¬ sembly, failed in meeting with his concur¬ rence, when they presented a bill, grounded