THE QUESTION OF CONFEDERATION. 185

to Port Hill. These terms were not acceptable to the com- mittee of the privy council. A compromise was, however, ultimately ett'ected, and on the fifteenth of May a memoran- dum, embodying terms mutually approved, was signed by the committee and the delegates.

The delegates returned immediately to Charlottetown, and the terms and conditions of the proposed union, which were substantially those procured by Messrs. Haythorne and Laird, as agreed to at Ottawa, were submitted to the house of assem- bly, then in session. The principal terms and conditions were the following: that the island should, on entering the union, be entitled to incur a debt equal to fifty dollars a head of its population, as shown by the census returns of 1871 ; that is to say, four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars ; that the island, not having incurred debts equal to the sum just mentioned, should be entitled to receive, by half-yearly payments in advance, from the general govern- ment, interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum on the difference, from time to time, between the actual amount of its indebtedness and the amount of indebtedness authorised; that, as the government of Prince Edward Island held no lands from the Crown, and consequently enjoyed no revenue from that source for the construction and maintenance of public works, the Dominion government should pay, by half-yearly instalments, in advance, to the government of Prince Edward Island, forty-five thousand dollars yearly, less five per cent. upon any sum not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars, which the Dominion government might advance to the Prince Edward Island government for the purchase of land now held by the large proprietors ; that, in consideration of the transfer to the parliament of Canada of the powers of taxation, the following sums should be paid yearly bv Canada to Prince Edward Island, for the support