6o 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 McGre¬ 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 - Governor 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 . (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 Rxcellencv. 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: