74 HISTORY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

his decision on this occasion cannot be said to have been in accordance with his general character. Had the resolution passed, the assembly would have had the honor of being in advance, on this question, of the parliament of Great Britain. As subjects of the Crown, the Roman catholics, in asking to have a voice in the election of the legislature, —whose laws they were bound to obey in common with p1‘otestants,——~claimed no favor, but a right which ought never to have been withheld, and the subsequent concession of which experience has proved to be as satisfactory in prac- tice as it is equitable in principle. On the presentation of the petition in 1825, a voluminous and very able correspon- dence was carried on in the columns of the Register, in the conduct of which the best talent in the island, on both the catholic and protestant sides, was enlisted. Theological questions, that had no bearing on the subject in dispute, were, unhappily, imported into the controversy; and, what- ever difference of opinion may exist as to the discussion in its religious aspect, there can be none as to the fact of every argument advanced against the Roman catholic’s right to be put on an equal footing with the protestant in all matters appertaining to civil and religious liberty, being completely demolished by the accomplished advocates of the Roman catholic claims. “Thile the elaborate communications to which we have referred were imbued on both sides with considerable bitterness, yet, to the credit of the island com- batants, it may be truly said that such bitterness was sweet- ness itself compared with the venom characteristic of similar controversies, as carried on at this period in other places. Fidelity to historical accuracy, at the same time, constrains 11s to state that, while on the part of catholics, as the aggrieved party, whose rights were tyranically and persist- ently disregarded, paroxysms of irritation were the natural