LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE—COLONIAL BUILDING. 97

On the sixteenth of Mav, 1813, the corner stone of the colonial building was laid bV the Governor, Sir Henry Vere Huntley. A procession was fol med at government house, and moved in the following order: masons, headed by a band of music; then followed the governor 011 horseback, surrounded by his staff; utter whom came the chief justice, the members of the executive and legislative councils, the building committee, the various heads of departments, the magistracy,—the members of the Independent Temperance Society bringing up the rear. Having, with trowel and mallet, gone through the ceremony, His Excellency said: “ The legislatule having glanted means for the erection of a provincial building, and the corner stone hav 111g been new laid, I trust that a new era of prosperity will open in this colony, and am satisfied that the walls about to rise over this stone will resound with sentiments expressive of British feeling, British principles, and British loyalty.” A royal salute was then fired, and three hearty cheers for the Queen were given by hundreds who had collected to witness the proceedings. The design was drafted by Isaac Smith, President of the 1\Iechanies’ Institute, and the building was to be composed of freestone, imported from Nova Scotia,— the estimated cost being nearly eleven thousand pounds currency.

At the annual meeting of the Central Agricultural So- ciety, a letter was read from JMr. T. H. Haviland, intimatiug that in consequence of recent; public measures with relation to government house, the governor withdrew his name from the public institutions of the island, and that consequently he ceased to be the patton ot the agricultural society. It :seems that the governor deemed the action of the assembly, in reference to government house, illiberal in a pecuniary :sense; but that was a very insufficient reason for a step so

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