116 HISTORY or PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

of assembly that it was with much regret that Her Majesty’s advisers felt themselves constrained to oppose the wishes of the people of Prince Edward Island, and that it was his own wish to be' spared the necessity of authoritative interference in regard to matters affecting the internal administration of their affairs.

\Vith regard to the main object which had been frequently proposed by a large portion of the inhabitants, namely, that some means might be provided by which a tenant holding under a lease could arrive at the position of a fee—simple proprietor, he was anxious to facilitate such a. change, pro- vided it could be efl’ected without injustice to the proprietors. Two ways suggested themselves : first, the usual and natural one of purchase and sale between the tenant and the owner; and, secondly, that the government of the island should treat with such of the landowners as might be willing to sell, and that the state, thus becoming possessed of the fee-simple of such lands as might thus be sold, should be enabled to afford greater facilities for converting the tenants into freeholders. Such an arrangement could not probably be made without a loan, to be raised by the island government, the interest of which would be charged upon the revenues of the island. Mr. Labouchere intimated that the government would not be indisposed to take into consideration any plan of this kind which might be submitted to them, showing in what way the interest of such loan could locally be provided for, and what arrangements would be proposed as to the manner of disposing of the lands of which the fee-simple was in- tended to be bought.

In 1856 the legislature presented an address to the Queen, suggesting the guaranty of a loan for the purchase of town- ship lands, with a View to the more speedy and general con- version ofleaseholds into freehold tenures. In answering this