PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

to repair to his charge at the same time that the governor set out to assume his gov- ernment.

But in those days the acceptance of an office—even such a, sacred one as that of a minister of the gospel—did not necessarily involve the performance of its duties. At any rate, neither then nor at any future time did this reverend gentleman enter upon

his cure.

A chaplain to the governor was also provided for and 3 Rev. R. Grant appointed, but this office was apparently recognized from the first to be a sinecure. Such ap- pointments were by no means singular at that time, but in this instance it had an im- portant bearing upon the welfare of the church of England in Prince Edward 15- land, as we shall have occasion to note later.

On his arrival, the Governor (W. Pat- terson) reported that there were only some one hundred fifty families resident on the Island, settled, for the most part, near Princetown, St. Andrew’s and Three Riv- ers. The two houses that had been erected some three years before on the site of Char- lottetown, by order of Lieutenant-Govemor Franklin of Nova Scotia, had so fallen out of repair that it was with difficulty he had them made habitable before winter set in. There was not a loaf of bread or a pound of flour to be bought on the Island and he had to permit his chief justice to return to Halifax for the winter, as he could obtain neither food nor shelter. Yet even under such conditions he was sufficiently versed in the principles of government to appreci— ate the need of a religious establishment, as esseritial to the social fabric he hoped to set up. This in his dispatch to Lord Hills- borough, dated October 2 5. 1770 (he landed August 30th) :

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“I take the liberty to repeat here what I have often had the honour to mention to your Lordship before I left London, the great want of a church, jail and courthouse, and the impossibility there is of our being able to build them for many years, at the expense of this Island. * The necessity I find from experience to be much greater than I could imagine. We have not at present even a barn nor any other place to assemble the few people who are already here to di- vine worship, the ill consequences the want of which will produce your Lordship and all His Majesty’s ministers are much better judges than 1.”

He estimated that the church would cost one thousand pounds sterling, and sug- gested that plans should be prepared in Eng- land, while he, on his part, undertook that the work of construction should be effected at the least possible cost.

This appeal, strengthening as it did the petition of the proprietors was not without effect, for under date of January 20, 1771, Lord Hillsborough writes that he will en- deavor to have provision made to supply this want and on March 6th, of the same year, informs the Governor that three thousand pounds sterling (of which one thousand pounds was for the church) had been voted by Parliament, but instructed him to take no action without further orders.

Governor Patterson acknowledges re- ceipt of this dispatch July 24, 1771 (the date is suggestive of the difficulties of com- munication in those days), expresses his gratitude and promises to have the money judiciously expended.

In the light of the subsequent fate of this money there is an unconscious ironical sug-

' (AYI‘he pro rietors had. by Detitlon. dated December 4 1709 addressed the Lords of the Treasgaé sought the aid

of the home government to supply these n