THE third Legislature of New Brunswick was dissolved in May, 1802, and the elections were held in June. The contest was a very hitter one and was by no means ended when the polls were closed. The issues involved were numerous hut they might all he resolved into one, for it was really a struggle between the Governor's friends and his opponents. In one of his letters written at this time Winslow says " The spirit of party is pervading all orders. As soon as I recovered health enough to enter into society I found nothing but acrimony, bitterness and recrimination. I was almost rejoiced when the gout compelled me to retreat." The result of the election was considered favorable to the friends of the Governor. Mr. Glenie was re-elected for the County of Sunbury but Mr. Street was defeated and a supporter of the Governor sat in his place. St. John returned a solid phalanx of opponents of the Governor, but York, Kings and Queens were just as solid the other way. Charlotte sent three opponents of the Governor and one supporter, Hugh Mackay, who was so bitter that he declared that peace and tranquility would never be established in Charlotte until Robert Pagan and Ninian Lindsay, two of his colleagues, were dismissed from their positions as Justices of the Peace. Westmorland returned three friends of the Governor and one whose attitude towards him can never he ascertained because he did not live to reach the House of Assembly. This was Hugh McMonagle, who while on his way to Fredericton was drowned in the Kennebeccasis River by the team breaking through the ice. Northumberland also returned two friends of the Governor. In St. John, Ohipinan was again defeated, but he appeared as a petitioner against Edward Sands, who was unseated by a vote of 14 to 0. Election petitions were then tried by the House, and they were usually decided on party lines without any reference to the merits of the case. Great interest was taken in the contest for York, where the regularity of the election was contested by two of the defeated candidates, Messrs. Peter Eraser and Peter McLeod. The vote in the House was a close one, 10 to 9, and it was decided by James Eraser, one of the members for Northumberland, supporting the sitting members. One of these was the Rev. Walter Price, a clergyman of the Church of England. He sat in the House during the whole term of the fourth Legislature. Tie was not, however, the first clergyman who was in the House, for the Rev. John Agnew represented Sunbury in the second Legislature. No one objected to the return of these gentlemen, but when clergymen of other denominations began to be elected to the House there was a change in its feeling. In 1818 a bill was passed in the House and became law excluding clergymen of all denominations from the-House of Assembly. As the Secretary of the-province was a clergyman and also a member of the Council, and as the Bishop of Nova Scotia afterwards became a member of the Council by virtue of his office, the exclusion of clergymen from the House seemed to be rather narrow legislation. Yet only five members opposed its passage in the House while 17 voted for it. and in the Council it passed without a division, and had its third reading on the same day it was received from the House. The act did not become operative until it had received the assent of the King ;a Council. This was given in 1821, and at the next session of the Legislature, Mr. Joseph Crandal, a Baptist minister, and one of the representatives of the County of Westmorland had to give up his seat in the House. Tins disqualification clause still remains on the statute books of the Province, although the Dominion Parliament imposes no such restriction on the choice of voters.

Among the Legislative grants of the session of 1802, was one to defray the expenses of a survey of the principal roads of the province, for the purpose of ascertaining what it would cost to put them in a fit condition for travel. Dugald Campbell was selected to make this survey, and his report on the state of the roads lets a flood of light on the difficulties which had to be encountered by the people who lived :n this Province one hundred years ago. At the conclusion of his report Mr. Campbell says that ten miles of road fit for any kind of wheel carriage, is nowhere to be found anywhere in the Province, with the exception of the left bank of the St. John in Sunbury County, where nature had chiefly performed the task of road making. As the road from St. John to the Nova Scotia boundary was not fit to be travelled, Campbell concluded to begin his examination at its eastern end, and embarked at St. John in a sailing vessel for Westmorland. It took him eleven days to reach his destination and he says " The delay convinced me, it proof had been wanting, of the necessity of a land communication to that valuable district of this Province." It was sixteen years since this Westmorland Road had been surveyed and laid out, yet it was, after the lapse of all this time, incapable of being used by wheeled vehicles. There were no bridges over the large rivers and the few bridges that had been built over the smaller streams were in a state of decay. Between St. John and Hampton Ferry, although the road was the main thoroughfare of the province, leading both to Westmorland and to Fredericton, it was in a very bad condition, completely out of repair and apparently so little used that one enterprising settler had built a fence across it. From Hampton Ferry to Fredericton a road could hardly be said to exist, except through a portion of the County of Sunbury- along the River. The road from St. John to St. Andrews, was in hardly a better condition and between Musquash and the settlements on the St. Croix, to use the language of Mr. Campbell, the road was "hardly discernible." On the west side of the river a road had been projected from St. John to Fredericton, but no substantial progress had been made towards constructing it. In summer all travel was by the river on boats and sloops, and 'a winter the ice was used. Above Fredericton there were no roads at all. Such was the condition of the Province with reference to its 'internal communication at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By the close of the century New Brunswick had ten thousand miles of roads, its streams were spanned by four thousand bridges, some of them of magnificent proportions and very costly, and fifteen hundred miles of railway brought every part of the Province within rapid and easy communication with St. John and Fredericton. The journey from St. John to the Misseguash, which it took Campbell eleven days to accomplish, can now be made in four hours, while two hours suffices to carry the traveller from St. John to Fredericton. At the beginning of the nineteenth century any one who did "t in two days either in winter or summer considered himself fortunate and it frequently took a week. Without such comparisons it is impossible to fully realize the difference in the conditions of life between those days and the present or to appreciate the advantages we now enjoy.

Yet although New Brunswick during the first twenty years after the landing of the Loyalists was still in a very bad condition with respect to its means of communication, it had made substantial progress in other directions. In the midst of the wilderness good farms were beginning to appear, and comfortable homes had been built. Although the growth of population had not been satisfactory; those that remained were generally men full of vigor and determined to better their condition.

The idle, the improvident, the dissipated and the discontented had nearly all left the Province, and their going had been no loss to it. On the other hand some had gone elsewhere who could id he spared, men of enterprise and means. A considerable proportion of these had gone to Upper Canada, where they assisted to build up that flourishing province. With them, no fault can be found, but the same cannot be said of those half-pay officers who returned to the United States and continued to live there the remainder of their lives, while drawing their half-pay regularly from the British Treasury. These men instead of assisting to develop the remaining British Colonies of North America, were engaged in building up a hostile nation, and when they abandoned British territory they should also have given up their pensions.

No census of New Brunswick was taken until the year 1824, so that it is impossible to state with accuracy, what was the population of the province in the beginning of the nineteenth century. But Edward Winslow in 180.'5 collected some statistics of population from residents of the several parishes which afford a basis on which to form an estimate of the number of people living in the province. The total population in 1802 was about 25,000. Charlotte county had then 2,022 inhabitants; Queens 2,110; Sunbury, 1,500; Kings, 3,000; York, which included all the territory now embraced in York, Carleton, Victoria and Madawaska counties, 4,000; Westmorland, which included Albert, 3,500; and Northumberland 4,880. The last named county then covered all the territory now included in the counties of Northumberland, Kent, Gloucester and Restigouche. The city of St. John had about 3,000 inhabitants, and the town of Fredericton about 800. The entire territory now embraced in Carleton and Victoria counties had less than 1,000 inhabitants. Yet Governor Carleton had made the claim that by placing the capital at Fredericton, he had greatly promoted the settlement of the upper part of the St. John River. St. Andrews was then a small village, the whole parish only containing 487 inhabitants. The parish of St. Stephen was more populous and had 683 residents. There was no town of any kind on the Miramichi river, or on any part ol the North Shore, so that there was no market for anything the country people produced, When the great fire took place twenty-two years later there were four flourishing towns on the Miramichi.

In other respects the progress of the Province had been satisfactory. Ship building had been carried on at St. John from an early period. One or two small vessels had been built there before the coming of the loyalists and after that date ship building became a regular industry of the place. Vessels were also built at various points on the St. John River and its tributaries. In 1786, Nehemiah Beckwith built a vessel at Maugerville which was bought by General Arnold and named the "Lord Sheffield." Ship building was also carried on in Kings County, on the Kennebeccasis and George Leonard, Jr., writing to Winslow in July, 1803, states that within the past five years about 7,200 tons of shipping had been built. A statement made up at the same time in regard to Charlotte

County, says that fifty-eight vessels had been built in that County since 1785, aggregating 11,560 tons. Most of these vessels were built at St. Andrews, but St. Stephen, Beaver Harbour, Carnpobello and Grand Manan also contributed to the total. A memorial from the merchants and inhabitants of St. John which was forwarded to Lord Hobart in 1804, states that during the first ten years after the settlement of the Province in 1783, the people of New Brunswdck had built ninety-three square rigged vessels and seventy-one sloops and schooners most of which were employed in the trade with the British West Indies.

Agriculture was then, as it is at present, the principal industry and after it came lumbering and fishing. The farmers of that day grew wheat in considerable quantities, most of it being winter wheat. Kings County at that time besides supplying its population with flour, was able to sell from two hundred to three hundred barrels of flour annually. Other counties did nearly as well, but the province did not produce enough wheat for its own consumption. Lumber was beginning to assume a position of importance although its export was limited while the war was continued. In 1803, there were twenty-two mills in Charlotte County, cutting annually 7,700,000 feet of boards. These mills, as may be gathered from their output, were of small capacity in comparison with the mills of the present day. In Kings County there were four saw mills, and Leonard's report states that among its exports were ton timber, spars and sawed lumber. There are no statistics available of the number of saw mills in other parts of the Province, but they were to be found in every county, and gave employment to a large number of people. The fisheries were also beginning to rise into importance. Charlotte County, in 1802, exported 9,900 quintals and 3,000 barrels of fish. St. John County also hail an extensive fishery and fish were exported to the British West Indies in schooners and brigs which brought back rum and molasses as a return cargo. Some attention was also being paid to the plaster trade, which a few years later assumed great importance. The Island of Campobello became a kind of depot for this trade. In 1794, about 100 tons of gypsum were landed at Campobello from Nova Scotia, and this business continued to grow until in 1802 the shipments amounted to about 14,000 tons. This was brought in British vessels from Nova Scotia and eastern New Brunswick to Campobello, and there transferred to vessels belonging to the United States, by which it was carried to New York and Philadelphia. Thus was trade hampered by absurd restrictions, but the business continued to increase in spite of the navigation laws, and when they were repealed it assumed very large proportions. In the year 1819, 100,000 tons of gypsum were exported from this Province, a large part of it from the Hillsboro quarries, which ever since that time have been sending their products abroad. These figures included plaster from the quarries of Nova Scotia which was transhipped into American vessels.

The first session of the fourth legislature of New Brunswick opened on the 8th February, 1803. The speech of the Lieutenant Governor was quite brief, its only notable features being a recommendation to the House to follow the parliamentary practice of making the necessary appropriations for the public service in anticipation of the periods for which they were assigned, and providing by permanent grants for the payment of salaries. Bearing in mind the troubles he had experienced from the conduct of the last legislature, he closed his speech by stating that, as the happiness and prosperity of the Colony depended essentially on the preservation of the constitution, it was an indispensable duty in all legislative transactions to have a steady eye to that most important object. There was very little heart in his speech; it was the address of a weary man. Governor Carleton had then made his arrangements to return to England that year, but he did not know that he was then addressing the legislature for the last time. If he had known this, his address might perhaps have been a little less stiff and formal although his nature was essentially cold.

After the re-election of Mr. Botsford to the office of Speaker, which was considered to be a matter of course, the first business was that relating to the clerkship of the House. Mr. Glenie moved that the House proceed to the choice of a clerk, but this was negatived by a vote of 15 to 8, and by the same vote the House resolved that the office of clerk was a patent office and the appointment thereof vested in the Crown. This division may be regarded as an index of the strength of the Governor's friends m the House. The minority consisted of Mr. Glenie, William and Robert Pagan, Bradford Gilbert, Hugh Johnston and George Younghusband of St. John, and Ninian Lindsay and Joseph Porter of Charlotte. These gentlemen although in this instance wrong in point of law, formed a compact body of reformers whose numbers were more likely to increase than to diminish.

Another test of the strength of the friends of the Governor was furnished by the vote on the question of a provincial agent. Thomas Knox had been the agent of the Province in England, but in 1798 the House had dispensed with his services, because he refused to act on its behalf in the quarrel between the House and the Council. It was now resolved that it was expedient to appoint an agent in Great Britain, the vote on this resolution being 13 to 8. By the same vote William and Thomas Knox were appointed joint agents for the Province, in England. This agency cost the province one hundred pounds a year or more, and it cannot be said that any great benefit was derived from it. The amount of work that was done by the agent was quite inconsiderable, and was confined to writing two or three letters a year to the legislature.

The legislation of the session was not important and does not demand any particular mention. But the session was rendered interesting by numerous election petitions from defeated candidates and their friends. The warmest contest was in the County of Sunbury, where Mr. Glenie had been elected and Mr. Street, his colleague, defeated.

Mr. Street petitioned against Mr; Miles who had been returned by the Sheriff, and the Rev. John Agnew, D.D., and others petitioned against Mr. Glenie. In both cases the person returned by the Sheriff retained his seat. Dr. Agnew's petition against Mr. Glenie stated that the latter in his address to the electors, on the hustings used the following words:—"Such gigantic strides of despotism have been made by the Governor and Council of this province against the rights and privileges of the people, that the like has not been known since the days of Henry VIII., the most despotic prince that ever ruled on the English throne." Mr. Street in the same petition was charged with saying in his hustings speech "It is owing to the exertions of your faithful representatives in the late Assembly in guarding your rights and privileges against the attacks of the Governor and Council of this province, that you are now able, as freeman and freeholders, to give in your votes at the election." The petition declared that it was in consequence of the use of such language, that the minds of the electors were so worked upon as to cause them to give Mr. Glenie a majority of their votes and to Mr-Street a sufficient number of votes, to induce him to petition against the return of Mr. Miles. The petition <l impressed with the sincerest principles of loyalty to His Majesty, and attachment to the Government" prayed that James Glenie and Samuel Denny Street be declared incapable of sitting as members of the House. As Mr. Street was not then a member of the House this modest petition must be taken to mean, that the gentlemen referred to were to be declared disqualified from being candidates, by reason of their speeches against the government. This was what George III. had induced the British House of Commons to do i :i the case of Wilkes, thirty years before, but the success of that precedent was not such as to give much encouragement to a New Brunswick House of Assembly to pursue a similar course. Air. Glenie was not unseated, neither was he declared disqualified. But the session of 1803, was his last appearance in the House of Assembly. No session was held in 1804, and before the session of 1805 he returned to England where he died in the year 1817. Air. Glenie may have had some unamiable qualities as his enemies asserted, but he is deserving of the kindly remembrance of the people of this province as its first reformer, who, standing almost alone, resisted a tyrannical governor and his subservient council who were encroaching on the people's rights.

Lieutenant Governor Carleton took his departure from the province in October, 1803, after a continuous residence in it of nineteen years. His family accompanied him, although he intended to return at the end of two years. This intention was never carried into effect. The reasons which caused him to remain in England have been variously stated. One of these, is the appointment of Sir James Craig as Governor General of Canada, but this appointment was not made until 1807, two years after the time Governor Carleton had set for his return. It appears from letters written by him an July, 1804, that he was preparing to return to New Brunswick in the summer of 1805. Again he wrote in March, 1806, that at that time he intended to return to New Brunswick after the 1st June of that year. But he was then seventy years old, and when the time came he may have shrunk from the difficulties incident to the long journey to America. Evidently, no one either in New Brunswick or in England was anxious for his return. His influence with the Home authorities as a non-resident Governor was not considerable, and it is on record that Edward Winslow was appointed a judge against his protests. Governor Carleton died at Ramsgate in February, 1817, holding the office of Lieutenant Governor, and drawing half the salary of that high position to the last.

From the departure of Lieutenant-Governor Carleton until his death, the government was administered by eight different persons who received the title of President. The first of these was the Honorable Gabriel G. Ludlow, a brother of the Chief Justice, who was the senior member of the Council. He was a Loyalist, had fought through the war of the Revolution, and had been a Colonel of the Third De Lancy Battalion. He had been Mayor of St. John and was the first Judge of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. Colonel Ludlow was not much in favor with the officials at the Capital, because he persisted in residing in St. John. Ward Chipman, in a letter written to Edward Winslow in December, 1805, gives a graphic description of the administration at that time. "With regard to public affairs here, we are really a self-governed people, and get on just as well without a governor as with one, and so T think we should, without their honors the judges. The President is more retired and secluded from the world than ever at Carleton; everything is done by a sort of necromatic action and reaction of a committee of Council, the head of which has an influence I think never again to be shaken, unless we have a young, active, vigorous and enterprising governor to bring forth the energies and capabilities of the country, an event most devoutly to be wished."

When Governor Carleton left New Brunswick the war between Great Britain and France which had been brought to a close by the peace of Amiens, had just been renewed and the parsimonious folly which caused the disbanding of the Provincial Fencible Regiments was being freely criticized. The New Brunswick Fencible Regiment, after an existence of nine years, was disbanded in the summer of 1802, but before two years had elapsed, the recruiting officers were again in the field looking for men to fill up the ranks of a New Brunswick Fencible Regiment. Recruits were sought for not only in New Brunswick but in the Province of Quebec and in the course of time, a regiment larger in numbers than the one that had been disbanded and equally efficient, was obtained. This corps at a later date, became the 104th Regiment of the line, and did good service on many a hard fought field in Upper Canada during the War of 1812.

President Ludlow's speech at the opening of the Legislature in 1805, was a modest document, and its principal subjects were the War, and the state of the finances of the Province. He recommended the passing of a better militia law and the making of better provisions for the payment of the public creditors. Both these recommendations were attended to, the militia act then passed, being the fifth enacted by the Legislature in eighteen years. An act which was passed to provide for punctuality of payments at the Treasury, authorized the issue of Treasury notes to the amount of five thousand pounds. But the most important act of the session was one entitled "An act for encouraging and extending Literature." This act, notwithstanding its curious title, was a practical measure for the establishing of a grammar school at St. John, an institution which in the course of years, became remarkably efficient and provided a. means of education to many of the prominent men of the Province, until it was finally absorbed into the free school system. The act also provided that there should be established in each County except, St. John, two schools, and ia the County of St. John, one school for instructing the youth of both sexes in the English language, and in writing and arithmetic. These schools were to be under the control of the Justices in the General Sessions of the Peace. A curious feature of the act was, that those schools were only to be held in any one parish for a year, after which they were to be removed to the next parish, so that every parish might enjoy the benefit of them. The sum of £375 or £25 for each, was appropriated for the support of these schools. This act was a long step in advance of any former enactments with regard to schools in the province, and was a recognition of the fact that the youth of the Country were entitled to the benefits of an education.

Another act of the session was one to prevent the importation or sale of goods by persons not His Majesty's subjects. The excuse for this kind of legislation was, that the revenue laws were being evaded by aliens who imported goods, but there was no reason shown why aliens were likely to be more successful as smugglers than His Majesty's loyal subjects. In fact the restrictions on commerce were so numerous that evasions of the law seemed to be almost a necessary part of business and were looked upon as much more venial than would be the case at the present day. The law against importations by aliens was limited to three years and at the end of that time it quietly disappeared from the statute book. It was so easily evaded that it was virtually a dead letter from the beginning.