LOAN NOT GRANTED. 149

battled every attempt at solution. His Grace, at the same time, held out no hope—for reasons which he did not state ———that the loan of one hundred thousand pounds, in order to buy the estates of Prince Edward Island from their present owners, would be guaranteed. Mr. Labouchere, the colo- nial minister, suggested such a loan in 1855, and it was warmly advo 'ated by Lord Stanley in 1858, when he held that ottice; and the people of the island had fair ground for additional complaint against the home government, when that, government did not condeseend even to state manfully the reasons for such a point-blank refusal, more especially as the commissioners had advocated most earnestly the imperial guaranty of such a loam—such recommendation being one of the cardinal points in their award. The duke further intimated in the despatch that there appeared to be insuper- able objections to that multiplicity of separate land arbitra- tions which would be the effect of the alternative measure alluded to in the commissioners’ report. Shorn of the vital portions of the award, which were thus politely ignored, the report was divested, to a large extent, of its immediate prac- tical value; and the ottieial compliment paid to the commis- sioners was but very poor compensation for the rejection of incomparably the most important portions of' an award which had been arrived at after a painstaking and complete investigation, in the conduct of which was enlisted an amount of patience, impartiality, discrimination, and ability which it would be ditiicult to match. The secret of the mild manner in which imperial delinquencies, in the treatment of Prince Edward Island, were touched upon in this production may probably be found in a duo appreciation by the commis— sioners of governmental sensitiveness on the- point, producing the conviction that to ask for more than would probably be granted would injure—rather than promote—just claims to compensation.