@rirzce ("Edward 20 
     
    
   
   
    
     del’urfi 
     
    
   
   
    
     legislature and Forwarded to England for the royal assent, 
     
     but were disallowed or never again heard of. Delegations 
     
     sent to the Old Country were not even given a hearing; and 
     
     proceedings for the forfeiture of several estates under a court 
     
     of escheat, which was established in 1818, were stopped by 
     
     order of the Crown, and all claim to forfeiture relinquished. 
     
    

    
     At every general election the settlement of the question 
     
     was made a live issue, only to sink into oblivion when the 
     
     contest was over. The British government did, indeed, about 
     
     1840, assume payment of the civil list, and ordered that the 
     
     quit rents be enforced, but the payments were never made. 
     
     The proprietors not only secured the disallowance of every 
     
     act passed by the Island legislature to remedy the grievance, 
     
     but procured as well an abatement in quit rents duethe Crown. 
     
     The latter action, however, proved beneficial, as it enabled 
     
     some of the estates against which were heavy charges, to be 
     
     sold to parties who endeavoured to bring in settlers—a 
     
     notable instance being the Selkirk estate. In 1860 a com- 
     
     mission invested with powers to settle all matters in dispute 
     
     between landlord and tenant, was appointed, sat, and made 
     
     an award ; but upon a technicality raised by the proprietors 
     
     regarding the manner in which estates should be valued, 
     
     the award was laid aside. Then began again the contest 
     
     between the people and landlordism. The failure of the 
     
     commission almost drove the colonists into a state of rebellion. 
     
     The “Tenant League’ 
     
     the yeomanry of Queen’s County, better known as the “ Posse 
     
     Comitatus,” were called out to suppress the demonstrations. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ’ was formed, meetings were held, and 
     
    
   
   
    
     Affairs remained in sfatu gun until 1875, after the union of the 
     
     Island with Canada, when a sum of $800,000 (under the terms 
     
     of union) was placed at the service of the Island government 
     
     for the purchase of the proprietors’ estates. After the appoint- 
     
     ment of a commission under the “ Land Purchase Act,1875,” 
     
     for the purpose of making the awards, the difiiculty was 
     
     finally disposed of. This question has now become a thing 
     
     of the past, absentee proprietorship has been abolished, and