OUR ISLAND STORY 33 to which the assent of the Crown had been refused. Tenants who tendered to their landlords, the sum of twenty years rent, in cash, should, according to the award, be entitled to a discount of ten per cent and a deed conveying the fee simple of their farms. If the tenant preferred to pay by instalments for the land he held, he might do so, though the proprietors should not be com¬ pelled to accept less than ten pounds at any one payment, nor should the tenants have more than ten years in which to pay the whole amount of the purchase money. For lands that were not considered to be worth twenty years purchase the tenant might offer the proprietor the amount considered to be its.value; and if the proprietor should decline to accept this sum, the value of the land should be fixed by arbitration, the cost of which should be paid by the tenant if the sum offered were increased by the award; by the proprietor, if decreased. As to arrears of rent due the proprietors, the Commissioners suggested that they should be remitted with the exception of those of the three years previous to the first of May 1861. There were references by the Com¬ missioners to the rights of the Micmac Indians whose forefathers occupied the whole country, to the descendants of the French pioneers who remained on the Island, and to the Empire Loyalists who came here at the end of the revolutionary war in England . Concerning the latter, the Commissioners suggested that the Government of the Island should make free grants to such occupiers of land, as could prove that their forefathers had been lured here by promises that had not been fulfilled. They also recommended the guarantee by the Imperial Government of a loan to enable the Government of the Island to purchase the estates of proprietors who might be persuaded to sell their estates outright upon terms that were deemed to be reasonable. This proposal was not adopted; and few, if any, of the tenants made purchases of their holdings on the plan recommended by the Commissioners. Practically the Award of the Commissioners was set aside; and the labor and expense entailed on account of the Commission were of no avail. The only result was that the principle of Com¬ pulsory Purchase , application of which the Commissioners