ACT FOR CHANGING THE NAME OF THE ISLAND. 55

Patterson, dated the third of March, 1781, he says: “ Your passing an act to change the name of the island is con- sidered as a most unprecedented instance of irregularity. The reasons you give why it should be changed are admitted to be of some force, but they insist upon it that you ought, in common decency, to have set forth those reasons in a petition to the King, instead of passing a presumptuous act which is neither warranted by law nor usage.” This act was, of course, disallowed; but the governor did not lose sight of the hint as to petitioning, as appears from a passage in another letter from Stuart to Governor Patterson, dated October, 1783, in which he says: “ I am not unmiudful of your petition for changing the name of the island, but I keep it back till we shall have carried points of more importance. ‘Vhen they are accomplished, I shall bring it forward.” Had the first application been made by petition to the King, it is extremely probable that the proposed 'ehange of name would have been adopted.

Besides the two companies mentioned, a light infantry company and three troops of volunteer horse were formed in the island, who were handsomely clothed and mounted at their own expense, and armed at the expense of the government; at this time every man from sixteen to sixty years of age was subject to the militia laws. These wise pre- cautions prevented any hostile descent on the island during the war, and tended to infuse a spirit of self-reliance and patriotic ardor into the community.

If the reduction of the quitrents failed as an inducement to the proprietors to pay what was no“r really due to govern- ment, it did not fail to lead to brisk business in the sale of property, for from the commutation to the year 1806, nearly a third of the entire land in the island had been transferred by purchase to persons, many of whom were really deter