OUR ISLAND STORY 141

to become free-holders... He ‘was for this reason highly regarded and popular. But the School question was obtruded into the politics of the Province while he was in office to the confusion of the Party by which he .was supported. Some of his followers favored the maintenance of a non-sectarian schools system while others favored the scheme of settlement propounded by the Hon. I. C. Pope,—-—viz., Payment for Results in respect to non—sectarian subjects of study. In the General Election of 1876, the former united with thevictorious partisans of the Hon. Louis H. Davies I and the latter joined the Opposition led by the Hon. W. W. Sul- livan. Left without a following, Mr. Owen returned quietly and with dignity to his private business, and passed the remainder of ,a long life with but little regard to politics.

No. VHF—Sir Louis H. Davies

The Hon. Louis Henry Davies succeeded to the Premiership of theProvince. He was the second son of the Hon. Benjamin

Davies, whowas for many years a prominent merchant and poli- ' tician of Prince Edward Island. He was born at Charlottetown-

in the year 1845. . Educated in the Central Academy and Prince

of Wales Collegehe took high rank as a student. Subsequently '_ he studied law in the office of Messrs. Palmer & McLeod. Then.

he proceeded to London. , He completed his professional studies

in the Inner Temple under the direction of the Attorney General» . of Great Britain, and became. a member of the BritishBar in the '

year’1866. Upon his return to Charlottetown he formed a partner- ship with Mr. George Alley who subsequently became Judge of the County Court of Queen 5 County, and the firm Soon obtained an extensive and lucrative practice. '

In the year 1872, he entered the Island Legislature as a re- presentative of the Murray Harbour District, and became a cham-L - piOn of the ‘tenantry who were then in the midst 0f their battle with the Absentee'Proprietory System. After the paSsage of the Land Purchase Act of 1875, under the Conservative Government

led by the Hon. Mr. Owen, he was, though Leader of the Opposis-

tion in the Legislature, chosen to be one of the Counsel on behalf