60 PAST AND PRESENT OF

had for some time been out of active public life. He now emerged from his retirement, and took the lead in the agitation against His Excellency. A memorial, signed by forty of the leading inhabitants, was pre- sented to the high sheriff of the Island, Mr. John McGregor, asking him to call a meet- ing of the inhabitants of Queens county, to consider the complaints and charges against the Lieutenant-Governor, and to devise measures to remedy them, and also to call similar meetings, at intervals of a week, in each of the other two counties, for the same purpose. Mr. McGregor called the meeting for Queens county, in Charlottetown, on 6th March, 1823.

The notice or memorial, asking to have the meeting called, states that this step was taken because of a “number of respectable persons being determined to rouse the col- ony into a proper sense of the injuries which have been inflicted on its inhabitants, from the same source.” This source of course, was the Lieutenant-Governor.

At the Charlottetown meeting, the com- plaints and charges were formulated in a series of resolutions of great length, ex- pressed with clearness and remarkable vigor. They repeated and elaborated all the charges and complaints, that had been pre- ferred by the Houses of Assembly in the last sessions, and the meeting expressed their high approval of the conduct of the As- sembly. The charges against the chief jus- tice and the former high sheriff were set out fully. His Excellency’s refusal to accept the address in reply to his opening speech from the Assembly, in 1817, was scathingly de- nounced. The expenditure of public money in unwarrantable ways, in costs to the Gov- ernor, his son-in-law and others, as well as in ways other than those for which it was

intended, were fully set forth. In short, all the charges previously made in the Assem— bly, and many additional ones, were in- cluded and amplified in the resolutions of the meeting, which, it was resolved, should be embodied in a petition to the King, with a prayer for redress, and for the removal of the Lieutenant—Governor from his said of- fice in this Island.

Messrs. Stewart, McDonald, Mabey, Rollings, Dockendorf, Owen and McGr& gor were chosen a committee to act for the county. They were instructed, first, to em- body the resolutions in an address to His Majesty, King George IV, concluding with a prayer for redress, and the removal of Lieutenant-Govemor Smith;second, to send the same around the county for signature; third, to transmit the same to His Majesty.

The meetings for the other counties were duly held, and passed resolutions, dif- fering somewhat, but to the same effect.

The committee had the address largely signed, and it was published in full in the Prince Edward Island Register, in Septem- ber and October of the same year.

On the 14th, immediately on the publica- tion, Hon. Ambrose Lane (registrar of the Court of Chancery, and a master in that court) moved for an attachment for con- tempt, against the seven members of the committee, and on Thursday, the 16th, His Excellency, as chancellor, granted an at- tachment against the persons complained of. The publisher of the Register, Mr. J. D. Haszard, was brought before the chancellor, but, upon giving a full explanation of the publication, he was discharged by the chan- cellor, with a severe reprimand.

The report of the attachment appeared in the Register of 25th October, and in the same number appeared the following: