118 HISTORICAL SKETCH 0F PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

as well as the grand display of fireworks on the night of the Ioth.

The detachment of the 62nd, Captain Wilkison, V. C., sailed on board H. M. Ship Corrack, on the 14th, to join head- quarters at Halifax. His Excellency, Governor Dundas, visited the ship and was received with a salute of 15 guns, which was replied to from George’s Battery ; this was the last duty of the Volunteer Artillery in connection with the Prince’s visit to our shores.

On the 18th of August the Prince reached Quebec, where he was royally received, and again in Montreal on the 25th, he was received with great rejoicing; at Montreal he opened the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence, the chief object of his visit to America.

On the removal of the ordnance from the blockhouse in 1856, as already stated, an 18 pr. gun was allowed to slip from its sling and roll over the bank of the fortress to the water’s edge, where it remained for several years, but in 1860, during July, when all were preparing for the reception of the Prince, the late Theophilus DesBrisay, Esq., had the gun brought to Charlottetown and placed in the ground, in an upright position with the muzzle upwards, at the north angle of Queen and Grafton Streets: a stout flag~staff of considerable length was placed in the bore of the gun, from the summit of which the Union jack was displayed during the three days sojourn of His Royal Highness; and though the staff has been removed many years, the gun remains erect, as a momento of the harbor’s fortifications, and a memorial of the visit of the Prince of Wales to Prince Edward Island.

After visiting the capital and other cities of the United States, His Royal Highness embarked on board H. M. Ship Hero, on the 20th of October, at Portland, Maine, and sailed for England, where he arrived after a passage of twelve days. Among the events of the year were the establishment of the Prince of Wales College, a change in the constitution whereby five additional members were added to the Legislative Council, the purchase of Silkirk Estate, consisting of 62,059 acres, for the sum of £9,879 Island currency, and the opening of the Land Commissioner’s Court, at the Colonial Building, on the 5th September. This court was composed of three members,