136 Iusronr or rmxcn EDWARD ISLAND.

Assuming that the imperial parliament guaranteed a loan, there remained to be considered the nature of the security which would be offered. Although it was not improbable that doubts might have arisen as to the ability of the colony to repay so large an amount, a glance at its financial position would show that the required relief might be given without the risk of any loss to the mother country. The commis- sioners showed that the revenue of the island had increased from seventeen thousand pounds in 1839, to forty-one thou- sand in 1859,—more than doubling itself in twenty years. It seemed apparent, therefore, that without disturbing the tarit’r" or reducing the ordinary appropriations, in five years the natural increase of population, trade, and consumption would give six thousand pounds a year, or a sum sufficient to pay the interest on a hundred thousand pounds, at six per cent. As it was not improbable that five years would be required to purchase the estates, and expend the loan to ad- vantage, it might happen that the revenue would increase as fast as the interest was required, without any increase in the tariff, or diminution of the appropriations. But it might be reasonably assumed, when a new spirit was breathed into the island, and its population turned to the business of life, with new hopes and entire confidence in the future, that trade would be more active, and the condition of the people improve. The very operation of the loan act might therefore supply all the revenue required to meet the difference; but it' it should not, an addition of two and a half per cent. upon the imports of the island, or a reduction of the road vote For two or three years, would yield the balance that might be required.

In making their calculations, no reference was made to the fund which would he at once a 'ailable from the payment of their instalments by the tenants who purchased. Two