xxxii arrsamx.

to arrest the ordinary course of law. All that they could do was to hasten their decision, and now it was quite clear that the sooner that the Award was confirmed by legisla- tion, the sooner would the tenantry be protected from any pressure of this kind.

On reviewing the actions of our ancestors we sometimes think them great fools, as our posterity will think us here- after. or all the acts of folly committed in relation to this Island perhaps there was none greater than that of drawing a cordon of 500 feet all round the Island, and calling it a Fishery Reserve. In Nova Scotia, where no such Reserve existed, a resident Fishery had sprung up all round the coast. In Prince Edward Island, with the re- serve, the Fisheries were of comparatively little value. The Commissioners abolish this absurd reservation, and allow the lands to merge into the adjoining properties, whoever may own them. But, that a resident Fishery may spring up. they provide that any man wanting to carry on the Fishery may purchase from the Government a lot be- low high-water mark, and be entitled to purchase from the owner of the upland an acre immediately behind it. If there is any dispute about the price of the acre, which in nine cases outof ten there is not likely to be, then the value is to he fixed by arbitration. Of course a man's or- chard or barn yard is not to be taken. But he had no doubt that the good sense of the Legislature would regu- late the mode in which the general views of the Commis- sioners were to be carried outi and‘he had as little doubt that a valuable residentFishery would be the result of this policy.

The loyalists claims had not been forgotten. It was ap- parent that some of the proprietors had in good faith and in a generous and patriotic spirit, dedicated portions of theirlands to the relief of the loyalists. There was too much reason to suspect that others merely made the tender to evade the payment of their Quit Rents. But after the lapse of more than half a century, the Commissioners could not distinguish between them. nor could they com- pel those who owned the lands now to appropriate them for the benefit of others without their own consent. But the matter as it stood in the papers was not creditable, and these old claims ought to be set at rest. That they might be, the Commissioners recommend that outot any Crown Lands that now are or hereafter may be in possession ofthe Government. they shall be satisfied, the burthen of proof that his claims are valid resting upon the applicant.

The claims of the French had seriously engaged the at- tention of the Commissioners; but the facts of history