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