E t i

THE LAM) COMMISSION OF 1860. 139

the first of May, would be for the benefit of both landlords and tenants.

\Vith regard to the case of the descendants of the loyalists who sought homes in Prince Edward Island after the confis- cation of their properties in the old revolted colonies, the commissioners considered that they had claims on the local government. His Majesty’s government, in 1783, felt the full force of tl e claims of their ancestors, and was sincere in its desire to make a liberal provision for them; but the rights which they had then acquired, when the proprietors had engaged to make certain grants of land for their benefit, were, mitertm‘iately, not enforced. The commissioners re- commended that the local government should make free grants to such as could prove that their fathers had been lured to the island under premises which had never been fulfilled.

With regard to the claims of the descendants of the original French inhabitants, the commissioners, with every desire to take a generous View of the sufferings of persons whose only crime was adherence to the weaker side in a great national struggle, could not, after the lapse of a cen- tury, rescue them from the ordinary penalties incident to a state of war.

The Indian claims were limited to Lennox Island, and to grass lands around it; and as it appeared by evidence that the Indians had been in turinterrupted occupancy of the property for more than half a century, and had built a chapel and seve‘al houses on the island, the commissioners were of opinion that their title should be confirmed, and that this very small portion of the wide territory their fore- fathers formerly owned should be left in the undisturbed possession of this last remnant of the race.

The commissioners closed their report by expressing their conviction that, should the general principles propounded be