122 PAST AND PRKSKXT OF ing to law and equity, and to constitute and appoint judges and commissioners for the proper administration of justice. Governor Patterson arrived in the au¬ tumn of 1770 and in the same year the su¬ preme court of judicature was constituted in pursuance of the powers conferred upon him by royal commission. The court thus estab¬ lished was a court of King's Bench Common Pleas and Exchequer. In civil actions the practice was to con¬ form as nearly as might be to that of the Court of Common Pleas in Westminster Hall. An appeal in the nature of a writ of error was allowed in certain cases to the gov¬ ernor or commander in chief in council and from the governor or commander in chief in council to His Majesty in council. The bench consisted of a chief justice, with two assistant judges, or more properly, puisne judges, The chief justice was appointed by royal warrant, by virtue of which authority letters patent were made out under the great seal of the colony and tested by the governor or commander in chief for the time being. The puisne judges were appointed by the governor. They appear to have been in most cases men of good standing and education, but without legal training. Their pecuniary reward consisted of such fees as they could collect within fixed limits. John Duport was the first chief justice of the colony. His commission was delivered to him by Governor Patterson , 19th Septem¬ ber, 1770, and on the twenty-fourth day of the same month he opened his court for the dispatch of business. The first grand j ury of the colony assembled in Charlottetown 12th August, 1771. Their first act was the drawing up of an address for presentation to King George III , thanking him for having granted to the island a separate government. These pio¬ neer "gentlemen of the grand jury," the first of a long line of self-sacrificing men were: David Higgs ,foreman; John Russell Spence , John Patterson , Robert Stewart , George Burns , David Lawson , John Ramsey , Wil ¬ liam Warren, George Fead , John McDon ¬ ald, Donald McDonald , John Urquhart , James Davidson , William Lawson , John Webster . The chief justice reports as one result of this first meeting of theassizes that three per¬ sons, convicted for petit larceny, were ordered to be whipped. Small range of choice in punishments was given the court in a colony where there did not exist "a house or place that could confine a man an hour contrary to his inclinations." If we accept the esti¬ mate of Governor Patterson the Island- greatest need at this time was a gaol, its next a church and for the rest a court house. "Government," he said, "without a gaol or court house is only a shadow without the substance." Therefore he asked from the British Gov ¬ ernment a grant of one thousand five hundred pounds for a gaol, one thousand pounds for a church and five hundred pounds for a court house. For a community, the nmber of whose white inhabitants of all ages and sexes did not exceed one thousand two hundred and fifteen souls the goal accommodation pro¬ posed would appear ample. But it was written in the book of fate that the bold scheme of this ambitious man to provide for the safe keeping of so many of the colonists was to be thwarted by his own act. When the British Government granted the sum required, the Governor, yielding to the clamor of his friends in office and to his own neces¬ sities, applied the money to the payment of salaries long overdue, leaving the other colo-