late speaker. The Clerk of the House was thereupon dispatched on three separate occasions to demand the same from Stewart. On the first occa¬ sion, he returned with only a few loose papers and reported that Mr. Stewart said they were all he had. The second expedition yielded the journals and part of the other papers. These had been found at the home of the Chief Justice and were brought from the bedroom to the parlour by the Chief Justice himself. The third mission, in quest of Governor Patterson 's answer to the address of the former House , yielded nothing-. Stewart maintained that he had never had that paper in his possession. (It was subsequently necessary for the House to obtain a copy from the Governor). Upon examining the Journals so recovered, member James Curtis reported that he could not help but observe that they were not the orig¬ inals but, rather, copies. Furthermore, matters "of the highest tendency" that had taken place were either totally omitted or mutilated in such a manner that they could be scarcely understood. The House , quite under¬ standably, took a very dim view of the situation, and it was agreed "to call and examine evidences." When examined, Member William Craig testified that the Journals had indeed been recopied by him and under John Stewart 's directions. Craig further volunteered that certain alter¬ ations and interlineations were not in his hand. The inescapable conclusion was that the public record had been falsified with an intention to preju¬ dice the Governor in the minds of His Majesty's Ministers in London. (The Colonial Office, it should be noted, regularly received copies of the Prince Edward Island Journals). Patterson was a doomed man in any event, but the affair does illustrate the depth of Stewart's resentment and the extent to which he was prepared to carry it. That Stewart's behaviour was often reprehensible in the extreme is beyond question. A case in point is the near riot he succeeded in pro¬ voking on the streets of Charlottetown in the autumn of 1784. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon of October 13th when the Hon. Thomas Wright , Assistant Judge of His Majesty's , left his home for the courthouse. Accompanied by John Budd , Clerk of the Court, he had not gone far when he was accosted by Lieutenant Stewart who ob¬ served that he expected his case with Alexander MacMillan would be heard that evening. Wright replied that it would not, as it had been settled in the morning that their case should not be heard until Monday next. "In an increasingly noisy and insulting manner," Stewart insisted that he would have his "tryall" that evening. When reminded that Mr. Wright was a Judge on his way to court, Stewart declared "he was not speaking to him as a Judge but as Mr. Wright and that this was a free country and he would speak as he pleased." The case was not heard but neither did Stewart desist. Later on, the same evening, Wright was at the home of John Spence , a Justice of the Peace. The latter was called out, and, looking through the window, Wright beheld Stewart and Spence fighting. Wright went out and com¬ manded the peace, but to no avail. Spying John Hawkins , Spence's ser¬ vant, he called upon him to part the combatants, whereupon Stewart let go of Spence and fell on Hawkins, beating him unmercifully. Soon after, James Curtis , another Justice of the Peace, arrived and implored the by¬ standers to assist him in securing the lieutenant . He was rewarded for his pains by being struck by Stewart several times on the face. When the culprit was finally restrained, his brother, Charles, came up and begged —15—