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bring all into conformity with the English model which, though it adjusted itself to, because it had grown up with, the social structure of the Mother Land, was not adapted to the needs of colonial life. Even in the Mother Land, buttressed as it was and is by great endowments, historic asso- ciations, state connections and social pres- tige, it could scarce hold its own against the aggressive spirit of individualism which found its opportunity in the formalism and worldliness of the age. To expect it to stand unmodified without such foundation was a vain hope. '
The winter of 1786 was distinguished by the presence of rival claimants to the post of Lieut.-governor. However, early in 1787 Governor Patterson was dismissed and re- tired from the scene. General Edmund Fanning assumed the Government and with him the Rector enjoyed much pleasanter re— lations. Comfortably housed on his prop- erty at Covehead, with a young family growing up around him, he divided his ac- tivities between attending to the needs of his household, the care of his acres and the fulfillment of his clerical duties. A road had been opened through the forest to Char- lottetown and with the punctilious exacti- tude, which already had become a distin- guishing trait, he rode each Saturday into Charlottetown, holding divine service on Sunday and generally remaining over Mon- day to attend to duties of a more secular nature; for he was a justice of the peace, an overseer of roads, and as its presiding ofli- cer, had to take part in the Cabours of the vestry.
In 1787 the See of Nova Scotia was founded, the first, of the Church of England, for British North America. An entry in Benjamin Chappell’s diary read as follows: “On the 17th May, I789, being Sunday, H.
PAST AND PRESENT OF
M. S. Dido, Captain Charles Sandys, arrived at Charlottetown, four days out from Hali- fax, having on board the Right Reverend Charles Inglis, D. D., Bishop of Nova Sco- tia.” Beyond the mere fact there is at pres- ent available no further record of this, the first Episcopal visitation the Island was favoured with. Next year the Rev. Bernard McEachern, then an unrecognized Roman Catholic priest, but later to become Bishop of Charlottetown, came to minister to the Highlanders settled on Captain Macdonald’s estate. This year (1790) was also notable for the passing of 30 Geo. III, Cap. 6, An act for quieting the minds of His Majesty’s dis- senting subjects in the Island of St. John.” It accorded them liberty of conscience and excused them from “paying rates and taxes to be made and levied for the support of the Established Church of England in this Island.” One of the oldest stones in the parish graveyard, a small slab bearing the initials P. C., also dates from this year. It marks the spot where lie the mortal remains of Phillips Callbeck who administered the government of the Colony during the most critical period of its history.
Under date of the 6th February, 1792, there is to be found the following Minute of 'Vestry: “The Board having taken into consideration the contingent expenses neces- sary to keep the church furniture in repair, provide elements for the sacraments, keep- ing the church clean, ringing the bell, pro- viding new seats, desks or any other articles of use and decency in and about the church. “And, as it appears that poor-rate is very high and the persons therein rated are not all of them of the profession of the Estab- lished Church of England, and whereas it might be deemed a hardship on such dis- senters to rate them for the things immedi- ately relative to the Church of England,—