obvious, however, that with the creation of a general governor for all the provinces and the consequent reduction in rank of the governor of Nova Scotia all chance for effective supervision was at an end. 51

Frank MacKinnon, in his book The Government of Prince Edward Island. saw the relationship in slightly different terms:

The Island now had a Governor-in-Chief at Quebec in addition to a Lieutenant- Governor in Charlottetown, and her connection with Nova Scotia was severed once more. Under the new arrangement she kept her own administration, but with her neighbors she came under the general supervision of Lord Dorchester ...Like the preceding change, however, this one was also to have little efl‘ect upon the actual administration of the Island except in so far as the presence of a higher authority would check to a certain degree the rivalry between the colony’s political institutions.52

Without much doubt the migration of the United Empire Loyalists to the Maritime region must be seen as a key development in the movement for the establishment of the first colonial bishopric in Nova Scotia. There was also a certain amount of official backing for the plan in the hope that the Church of England in the colonies could be used to strengthen imperial connections and halt the growth of liberal republican ideals emanating from the United States.

By May of 1787 the Privy Council Committee of Great Britain had completed a study of the controversial proposal and formally recommended that:

it may be advisable for Your Majesty to comply with the request of the said John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert Lord Bishop of London, by sending a proper Person, duly consecrated and appointed by Commission from Your Majesty, to the Province of Nova Scotia, to be Bishop of the said province and its’ (sic) Dependencies; such Bishop to have Ecclesiastical Authority and Jurisdiction in the said province and its Dependencies, without civil Authority except what may be necessary for the discharge of his Jurisdiction in Clerum.53

51. Whitelaw, W.M. The Maritimes and Canada Before Confederation. (Toronto, CUP 1934) p.52.

52. MacKinnon, Frank The Government of Prince Edward Island. (Toronto, 1951) p.19.

53. Fingard, Judith "The Establishment of the First English Colonial Episcopate." lbs

Dalhousie Review. Vol. XLVII Winter 1968 p.477.

34