252 PAST AND PRESENT OF bilities was the support of the poor, for whose maintenance they were empowered to levy a rate to be fixed by a meeting of all the inhabitants of the Parish , called especially for that purpose. The following extract, from one of the early minute books, affords an insight into the practice. "Ordered, that the following advertisement be put through¬ out the parish:" "Wanted—Board, lodging and washing for Robert Blair and John Barns , two aged blind paupers now on the parish. Any per¬ son or persons willing to agree to take the said Blair and Barns , or either of them, are requested to signify the terms for which they will provide the same per year, by noti¬ fying thereof in writing to the undernamed Church Wardens at Charlottetown on or be¬ fore the tenth instant in order that they may be treated with. "Signed " Thomas Wright , " James Curtis ." In response to this Donald McFarlane agreed to provide "fit and sufficient meat, drink, washing, mending and lodging at the rate of £40 per annum, payment to be in good orders on the respective stores at Char¬ lottetown, in consideration that Elizabeth, daughter of the said Robert Blair is by the Parish indented to him as an apprentice until she attains the age of eighteen years." The preamble to another act passed this same year (1781), tells its own story. "Whereas, The due observance of the Lord's Day in this Island has been hither¬ to much neglected and many abuses of the same have been committed to the manifest prejudice and dishonour of religion and the shameful violation of public decorum and good order." This statute enacted that "no person shall sell or send out any goods save mjlk and fresh fish before 9 a. m. and after 5 p. m." No labour or business to be performed nor any sport or pastime practiced under penalty of 1 os. This act is still in force having continued so without amendment for 126 years. In this year the Governor, having ob¬ tained legislation for the purpose, began es¬ cheating the lands of Proprietors who had not paid their quit rents. This raised a storm of protest, not only on the part of the Proprietors but also on that of the settlers whose interests were effected adversely, and the issues arising therefrom rent the little community into factions. Colonel Thos . DesBrisay, his son the Rector, and later the Chief Justice strongly opposed Governor Patterson . This resulted in the Governor suspending the Chief Justice and putting his office in commission. The Rector's comment upon the personnel of the last, in which he stated that the individuals composing it "were as little qualified for the bench as for the pulpit," shows how outspoken he was in his opposition. The spirit of the members of the Assembly may be gathered from the petition they drew up to be laid before the King, in which among other things it was charged that "His Excellency 's ungracious, forbidding and notoriously unpopular char¬ acter and conduct interfered to prevent set¬ tlers coming to the Island." Under these conditions the claims of reli¬ gion received scant recognition. His Ex ¬ cellency had appropriated and spent the f 1,- 000 granted by the Britsh Government for the erection of a church. No action could be -hoped for on the part of the officials in Charlottetown —the only residents who were in the position to do anything—and the S. P. G . absolutely refused to contribute