28 HISTORY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

advanced quitrent, which, by the-terms of the grants, would have become due and payable from the said first of May, 1785).” 1n accordance with this decision, a bill was pre« pared, which not only granted the redress specitied in the above quotation, but also disallowed the act of 1781, and repealed the act of 1774, and rendered all the sales efl"ected under it void, on the payment by the original proprietors of the purchase-money, interest, and charges incurred by the present holders, compensation being also required for any' improvements made on the lands since the date of sale.- This bill was drawn out in London, and sent to Governor Patterson in 1784, in order that it might be submitted to and adopted by the house of assembly.. But the governor, having been himself a purchaser to a large extent of the:

confis :ated property, assumed the responsibility of post» poning ot'Iicial action in the matter, on the ground that the - government was mistaken as to facts connected with the sale

0f the land, and, on consulting with the council, it was resolved to send to the home government a correct represen— tation of the circumstances under which confiscation took place, in justification of delay in submitting the bill to the assembly for approval.

A Mr. John Stuart,ale ,an intimate friend of" Governor Patterson, and who had resided in London for fourteen years, was in 1781 appointed by the house of assembly as their London agent. \Ve have been favored with the perusal of a, number of private and confidential letters

* This gentleman was not John Stewart, of Mount Stewart. The latter was only twenty-three years of age when John Stuart was appointed by the assembly their agent in London, and he had been only three years on the island at the time of the :ippmntnicnt. His Honor Sir Robert lIollgson, the Lieutenant Governor, has taken the trouble to peruse the correspondence which passed between Governor Patterson and John Stuart, and in a note addressed to the writer, says: “I feel convinced that John Stuart was the