PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Legislative Buildings. Charlottetown

that Cobbett took later, a great deal of trouble would have been saved, for the settlement would have been made in due time, in a natural way. As it was, he gave such a good account of the soil and climate that the paternal government decided to colonize it with the least possible delay. The Earl of Egmont had a proposition by which he was to be monarch of all he sur- veyed. His happy thought was to establish a genuine feudal system, in which he was to be Lord Paramount of the island. The land was to be divided into baronies, held under him. Every baron was to have his castle with men-at-arms, lords of manors, and all the paraphernalia of the middle ages, adapted to the climate of America in eighteenth century. The government did not accept this extraordinary proposition, but it did what was nearly as bad, and which led to all sorts of wrangling and trouble for the next hundred years. It divided the island into blocks, which it apportioned among some of the gentlemen who had real or supposed claims on the favor of the Crown. There were certain conditions annexed, as to placing a certain number of settlers on each lot, but with an honorable exception, that was the end of the matter so far as the absentee landlords were disposed to exert them— selves. Thus it was that the land question was the plague of the country until the island became a part of the Dominion, and laws were passed for the appraisement and purchase of properties by tenants who were tired of the old style of tenure.