Extract from letter of Governor Lawrence to Lords of Trade. September 26th, 1758.

As the day fixed for the meeting of the Assembly draws nigh, I hope I may be able to dispatch such business with them as may be necessary for the present, without too much loss of time in rejoining the Army as directed by the General. The principal point which I apprehend will be necessary (after the Forms requisite to be attended to upon their first coming together) is that of a sanction being given to what the Governors with the Council have hitherto done here in a legislative way, and then appointing a Committee of both Houses to prepare drafts of such laws as may be necessary for the future good Government of the Province, to be passed, upon mine or the Lieut. Governor’s return to this place. I hope I shall not find in any of them a disposition to embarrass or obstruct his Majesty’s service or to dispute the Royal prerogative, though I observe that too many of the Members chosen are such as have not been the most remarkable for promoting unity or obedience to His Majesty’s Government here, or, indeed that have the most natural attachments to the Province.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Council, May 20th 1758.

PRESENT-His Excellency the Governor,
The Lieut. Governor,
Councs: Jonn. Belcher, Benj. Green, Jno. Collier, Robt. Grant, Montague Willmot, Chas. Morris.

…… His Excellency having communicated to the Council an Extract of a Letter to him from their Lordships of the Board of Trade dated February 7th 1758, relative to the Plan framed by the Governor & Council on the 3rd day of January 1757, and transmitted to their Lordships by the Governor, for carrying into Execution His Majesty’s Instructions upon calling General Assemblies within the Province, Signifying their Lordships Approbation of the same in General, with some few alterations, which being Considered the Council came to the following Resolution thereon, vizt., That the said Plan with the amendments proposed by their Lordships shall be forthwith carried into Execution and Published in Form as follows vizt.

His Excellency the Governor, together with His Majesty’s Council having bad undler mature Consideration, the necessary and most expedient measures for carrying into execution those Parts of His Majesty’s Commission and Instructions which relate to the calling of General Assemblies within the Province, came to the following Resolutions thereon vizt.,

That a house of Representatives of the Inhabitants of this Province be the Civil Legislature thereof in conjunction with His Majesty’s Governor or Commander in Chief for the time being, and His Majesty’s Council of the said Province. The first House to be elected and convened in the following manner, and to be stiled the General Assembly, vizt.,

That there shall be elected for the Province at large until the same be divided into Counties Sixteen members, for the township of Halifax Four, for the township of Lunenburg Two.

That until the said Townships can be more particularly described, the Limits thereof shall be deemed to lie as follows vizt.,

That the Township of Halifax comprehend all the lands lying Southerly of a Line extending from the Westermost Head of Bedford Basin across to the Northeasterly Head of St. Margaret’s Bay, with all the Islands nearest to said lands, together with the islands called Cornwallis’s, Webbs, & Bous’s Islands.

That the Township of Lunenburg comprehend all the Lands between Lahave River and the Eastermost head of Mahone Bay, with all the islands within said Bay, and all the islands within Mirliguash Bay, and those islands lying to the Southwards of the above Limits.

That when Fifty qualified Electors shall be Settled at Pisiquid, Minas, Cobequid, or any other Townships which may hereafter be Elected, each of the said Townships so settled shall, for their Encouragement, be intitled to send two Representatives to the General Assembly, and shall likewise have a riglit of voting in the Election of Representatives for the Province at large.

That the House shall always consist of at least Eleven members present besides the Speaker, before they enter upon Business.

[Remaining Clauses the same as those contained in the Minutes of Council of 3rd January, 1757.]

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract from letter of Lords of Trade to Governor Lawrence. Feb. 7, 1758.

We have fully considered that part of your Letter, which relates to the calling an Assembly, and also the Plan for that purpose, contained in the minutes of the Council transmitted with it, and having so often and so fully repeated to you our sense and opinion of the Propriety & Necessity of this measure taking place, it only now remains for Us to direct its being carried into immediate execution, that His Majesty’s Subjects (great part of whom are alleged to have quitted the Province on account of the great discontent prevailing for want of an Assembly) may no longer be deprived of that privilege, which was promised to them by His Majesty, when the Settlement of this Colony was first undertaken, and was one of the Conditions upon which they accepted the Proposals then made.

We are sensible that the Execution of this measure may in the present situation of the Colony be attended with many difficulties, and possibly may in its consequences, in some respects interfere with, and probably embarrass His Majesty’s Service; but without regard to these Considerations, or to what may be the opinion of individuals with respect to this measure, We think it of indispensable necessity that it should be immediately carried into execution.

We approve in general that part of your plan which establishes Townships and ascertains their Limits as corresponding with the Plan laid down in the Instructions given to Mr. Cornwallis at the first Settlement of the Colony; but We do not think it advisable, that any of those Townships, which has not fifty settled families, should be allowed to send Representatives to the Assembly; and therefore we would propose that for the present, those only, which have that number of Settled Families, should have that Privilege, & that the rest of the members, computing the whole at twenty two, should be elected for the Province at large, considered as one County, according to the Plan agreed upon, but that whenever any of those Townships, which are now established, or any others which may be hereafter established, shall contain Fifty Settled Families, they shall be entitled to a Writ for electing two Representatives, and the number of the members for the whole Province at large, considered as one County, shall be diminished in proportion.

As to the other parts of your Plan, they do not appear to us liable to objection, excepting only that part which establishes the Quorum of the Assembly, and fixes it at Seventeen, which We apprehend to be too great a proportion of the whole; and that it ought not at the most to exceed one half of the whole number, which is more agreeable to what has been judged to be proper in cases of other American Assemblies, whose great Inconveniencies have been found to result from the Quorum of the Assembly being too great a proportion of the whole.

With respect to the time which it may be proper to fix for the Return of the Writs, We would wish that you should inform yourself of what has been the general Rule in cases of the like kind in other Colonies, so far as the situation and circumstances of Nova Scotia will admit of it. What this Rule has been we are not at present sufficiently apprized; but of which you will be able to inform yourself from the many Persons now in Nova Scotia, who have come from other Colonies, and are doubtless well acquainted with what has been the Custom in this case: But whatever this Rule may be, or however short the Term (and we apprehend the shorter it is, the better, provided it leaves sufficient time for the due execution of the Writs) no great Inconveniencies can arise from it, because it will be in your Power whatever day may be fixed by the Writs for the Assembly’s meeting, to postpone it to some further day by a Proclamation of Prorogue, in case you shall find that it will interfere with any particular services which yourself or the Lieut. Governor may be employed in, and which must necessarily prevent their proceeding upon Business.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Governor Lawrence to Lords of Trade. November 9th, 1757.


As the calling an Assembly is doubtless a point of great importance to the welfare & prosperity of the Province and a measure about which I have been much more embarrassed than any other that has occurred since I have had the honor to conduct the administration of affairs here, I am extremely happy to find by your Lordships letter of the 10th of March last that your Lordships are of opinion with me the same reasons may in part tho’ perhaps not altogether, operate against calling an Assembly under the present circumstances of the times and of the Province, as served to obstruct the well peopling and settling the evacuated and other valuable Lands within it.

That those reasons and obstructions did heretofore, and do still subsist was the opinion not only of your Lordships and myself but also of the most knowing of the most substantial and of the truest well wishers to the Colony’s welfare, that are to be found amongst its inhabitants. Of the same opinion were the people of New England whose notions of liberty and of Government your Lordships are too well acquainted with to need any account thereof from me, for when I was amongst them last winter I took every occasion of discovering their sentiments on this subject, in order to be well satisfied whether there was any truth in the reports that had been industriously propagated by some evilly disposed persons amongst us, that to the want of a House of Representatives it was principally owing that the evacuated lands were not already settled, the more I enquired into the truth of such reports the better I became convinced that they were without the least foundation.

And I am further to observe to your Lordships that no person whatever with whom I have conversed and on whose judgment and advice I could the least rely, have of late considered the measure of calling an assembly of the people, situated and circumstanced as they are at present, and in a state of hostilities with so dangerous and near a neighbor, otherwise than as Chimerical. I have said above that the most substantial of our own Inhabitants have opposed it, and that they have done so may appear by their own memorials begging it might not take place whilst the Province continued in a state of War, knowing of how little use it could be, and of what disservice it possibly might be, those who have urged it, have done so, to inflame the minds of the people, who they have much deceived and misled to deprive me of their confidence and regard, and in short to embarrass the affairs of Government, without any other views -than those of private advantage, and from no other motives than those of resentment for disappointments in places and employments with which it was not in my power to gratify them.

As the uneasiness that has been given on this head has proceeded from scarcely any person that has property in the Province or that has even applied to me for the possession of an Acre of land within it, I shall pass over the Calumnies that have been spread, without troubling your Lordships further than just to observe, that had we been infinitely better prepared for such a measure than we truly are, my being called by the Earl of Loudoun to Boston last winter, my being ordered on the expedition against Louisbourg this summer, my going to Chignecto when that expedition was dropped and the multiplicity of military affairs in which the safety and the ‘very being of the Colony have constantly engaged my attention, have rendered the accomplishment of such a measure utterly impracticable for these twelve months past.

For these reasons I hope your Lordships cannot be displeased that it has not been already carried into execution, nor even that if it be deferred till some happy change in the face of American affairs promises more success in an undertaking of so much moment, nevertheless if it should be still your Lordships express pleasure that at all hazards and events an assembly shall absolutely be called without waiting for a favorable alteration in our circumstances, I beg leave to assure your Lordships that I shall without a moments delay after receiving your Lordships commands execute the plan that I formed last winter for that purpose, by the advice and assistance of His Majestys Council.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract from letter of Lords of Trade to Governor Lawrence. March 10th, 1757

We entirely agree in opinion with you that in the present Situation of things and vexed and harassed as the Province is by the Hostilities of the French and Indians it will be in vain to attempt to induce hardy and industrious people to leave Possessions, which perhaps they may enjoy in peace in other Colonies, to come and settle in a Country where they must be exposed to every distress and Calamity which the most inveterate Enemy living in the Country and knowing every Pass and Corner of it can subject them to, and therefore we do not desire, nor mean to press this measure upon you further than the Circumstances of the Province & of the times will admit of.

It does not however appear to us that the same reasons do altogether, tho’ they may in part, operate against the calling an Assembly, concerning which We have given our Opinion so fully and We hope so explicitly in a former Letter, that no other difficulties can remain than those which arise from the obstruction and Embarrassment which such a measure may give to His Majesty’s Service in time of War and which is a consideration that will however more or less weigh according to the manner in which the measure is carried into Execution, for which reason We thought it proper after pointing out to you as clearly as We were able, the general light in which this matter appeared to Us, to leave it to your Discretion to do it in such manner as you should think most proper, lest by prescribing any peculiar method We should lay you under Difficulties which our Ignorance of particular facts would not permit us to foresee, and in this as well as in every other Direction contained in our Letter upon this subject the principal Point we had in view was to avoid every thing that might give you unnecessary Trouble or Embarrassment in the Execution of a measure which our unprejudiced judgment suggested to us as absolutely necessary for the Peace, Welfare and Credit of the Colony, being one of the fundamental Principles upon which it was first established.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Council, December 3, 1756


PRESENT-His Excellency the Governor,
The Lieutenant Governor, Benj. Green, Jno. Collier, Robt. Grant, Chas. Morris

Jonathan Belcher Esqr. took the Oaths as a Member of His Majesty’s Council of this Province, and his Seat at the Board. Proposals which Mr. Chief Justice Belcher lad laid before him the last Year for Calling a House of Representatives, and which he had at that time transmitted to their Lordships of the Board of Trade for their consideration. His Excellency also communicated Extracts from two letters which he had received from their Lordships on that head, wherein they had directed him to take such measures as he should think most proper for calling such a House, wherefore he desired the Council would give him their opinion and advice thereon.

The Council then proceeded to consider what measures would be most proper to be taken for convening the Assembly, but not coming to any resolution thereon, they adjourned the further consideration thereof to Monday next at Ten of the Clock in the forenoon.

Jno. Duport, Sec. Conc. CHAS. LAWRENCE.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract from a letter of Gov. Lawrence Io the Lords of Trade and Plantations. Halifax, November 3rd, 1756

In my letter to your Lordships of the 14th of October last, which was forwarded by way of Boston, I had the honor to acquaint you of my intentions to wait on my Lord Loudoun at New York, and that upon my return, the business of a house of representatives recommended by your Lordships, which from the absence of the Chief Justice upon the Continent for some time past, could not be sooner attended to, should be set about with all convenient diligence. But since the receipt of your Lordships last letter, and of one from the Secretary of State, I have laid aside my design of visiting my Lord Loudoun at least for the present, and as the Chief Justice is now arrived, I shall as soon as the business of the Supreme Court, in which he is now deeply engaged is over, proceed to the consideration of what your Lordships have proposed in that respect, and in the mean time I take the liberty to enclose to your Lordships some remarks upon the expediency of this measure, pointing out the different objections & the difficulties we at present labour under in order to pave the way for carrying it into execution & which your Lordships look upon as so essentially necessary to the permanent and lasting establishment of this Infant Colony, which remarks when your Lordships shall have maturely considered, I flatter myself you will agree with me in opinion that in our present critical situation it will be no easy matter to obviate the many difficulties which naturally arise in the making such alterations in the present form of Government as your Lordships have now proposed.

I can with great truth assure your Lordships that I know not of one instance wherein his Majesty’s subjects in Nova Scotia have been in the least molested in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties to the full extent, under the present form of Government and that since I have had the honor to be entrusted with the management of the Province affairs, I have done my utmost endeavours to give satisfaction to every person in it. But my Lords it is impossible for me to redress pretended grievances that I have never been informed of nor can I indeed conjecture what reasons could be given to your Lordships by those Petitioners to induce you to think they labor under such great inconveniences from the want of an Assembly.

This much I certainly know, that those very persons who were so forward in pushing this matter during Mr. Cornwallis’s Government seen now to be entirely of opinion that a House of Representatives in the present posture of affairs instead of obviating the inconveniences complained of would serve only to create heats, animosities and disunions amongst the people at a time when the enemy is as I may say at our doors, and when the whole should join together as one man for their mutual safety and defence.

That there are malevolent and ill designing men who will take occasion to misrepresent things to the prejudice of the Colony and that there are some such in this place I have some reason to conclude. These my Lords will be always the same under any Government, not from any particular regard for their Country, or to the advantage and prosperity of the Colony but from views and motives of a very different and pIerhaps not so disinterested a nature. But that the well disposed part of His Majesty’s subjects here should be in the least uneasy under the present form of Government, I have not the least reason to surmise, because they have never signified any thing of it to me; and I dare say, if any of them have joined in the Petition your Lordships make mention of, they have been led into it through inadvertency and the specious pretences of the persons I have been just describing. But whatever might be their inducement at that time I have the most just grounds to be satisfied that they are now of a quite different way o! thinking.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract from Letter of Lords of Trade to Governor Lawrence. July 8th, 1756

We have in our Letter to you dated the 25th of March last, given you our Sentiments at large upon the Propriety and method of Summoning an Assembly, and as We are fully convinced of the expediency of this measure and are satisfied that until it be done, this Infant Colony cannot be truly said to be upon a permanent and lasting Establishment. We hope you will have thoroughly considered this matter and carried our directions into Execution. We have no doubt but that all His Majesty’s Subjects in Nova Scotia enjoy their Rights and Libertys to the full extent under the present form of Government, but until an Assembly is established, malevolent and ill designing men will take occasion to complain and misrepresent things to the prejudice of the Colony, and even the best disposed of His Majesty’s Subjects there, will be uneasy under the present form of Government, a Petition setting forth the Inconveniency resulting from the want of an Assembly, having already been transmitted.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Extract of Letter from Lords of Trade to Governor Cornwallis, March 25, 1756

We have taken into Our Consideration your Letter to us dated the 8th of December last, inclosing the Proposals of the Chief Justice for convening an Assembly in Nova Scotia, and although We are fully sensible of the numberless Difficulties which will arise in carrying this or any other plan for an Assembly into Execution in the present state of the province and that many of the Inconveniences pointed out in your Letter must necessarily attend it, yet We cannot but be of Opinion, that the want of a proper authority in the Governor and Council to enact such Laws as must be absolutely necessary in the Administration of Civil Government, is an Inconvenience and Evil still greater than all these; and altho’ His Majesty’s subjects may have hitherto acquiesced in and submitted to the Ordinances of the Governor and Council, yet we can by no means think, that that or any other reason can justify the continuance of the Exercise of an illegal authority; what you say with regard to the Council of Virginia’s passing laws in the first Infancy of that Colony is very true; but then they derived the Power of doing it from their Commission, which was also the case of many other of the Colonies at their first settlement, tho’ it was a Power of very short Duration, and in later times since the Constitution of this Country has been restored to its true principles has never been thought advisable to be executed.

Whether the measure proposed by the Chief Justice is or is not a proper one depends upon a precise knowledge of a variety of Facts which we at this distance cannot be competent Judges of; but whether that or any other plan is followed it will only be a temporary Plan and in no degree a precedent for future Assemblys when the circumstances of the Province will admit of other Regulations.

The first Assembly Convened be it in what form it will, must necessarily consist of Persons of Property in Trade, because there is no Person who can be truly said to have any considerable landed Interest, until the Country is cleared and the Lands laid out, yet it may be proper and it will be necessary to take care, that a certain landed property, be it ever so small, be the Qualification as well of the Electors as the Elected, because the Commission directs that the Assembly shall be chosen by the majority of the Freeholders.

The Election of twelve Persons or of any greater or lesser number to represent the whole Province considered as one County, may be a proper method as far as appears to us, but this must be left to your Discretion, who, by being upon the spot will be better able to determine upon this point, perhaps a Division of the Province into Districts or Townships may be the more eligible method, for altho’ Halifax is at present the only Town in which there are any Inhabitants qualified to be Electors or Elected, yet as it is not proposed that actual Residence should be required in order to qualify a Person to act in either one or other of the Capacitys, the making a few Grants of Land in any of the Districts, as Minas, Chignecto, Piziquid, Cobequid &c. will remove this difficulty, and if this can be done, the first Assembly will bear the nearer Resemblance to the form, in which it must be convened when the Province becomes better peopled and settled.

This however We only throw out for your Consideration and desire it may be understood, that this point is left to your discretion under the Powers given you by your Commission.

This being settled, The next Consideration will be the form of the Writ of Summons, the manner of executing it and the previous points to be settled before the Assembly proceeds upon Business, so far as regards the Election of a Speaker and the Rules to be observed with respect to Dissolutions, Prorogations and Adjournments: as to all which Points, We must refer you to the inclosed Copy of the form of a Writ made use of in the Province of New Hampshire, which appears to us (regard being had to the different circumstances of the two Provinces) the best adapted to the purpose, and to the inclosed Copies of the Instructions lately given to the Governor of Georgia and to the members of the Council of that Province, showing the manner in which these Instructions were carried into execution.

There is one part of the Chief Justices proposal however which we can by no means approve of, and which must be particularly guarded against, and that is the continuance of the first Assembly for 3 years which, might be and probably would be attended with great inconveniences, for, altho’ We have no doubt but that the first Assembly will be constituted of proper Persons and Persons well disposed to promote the Public Service, yet it may happen either from some Defect in the first formation of the Assembly or from their irregular and improper Proceedings, that the Governor may find it necessary for the good of the service to dissolve them and as it would be highly improper that his hands should, in such case be tied up, We thought it necessary to say thus much upon this Point, as it appears to us of great consequence.

Another inconvenience necessary to be guarded against is long Sessions, which will not only be attended with Expence, but will also, in the present situation of affairs greatly obstruct and hinder you in the necessary attention which you must give to other important matters; and therefore you will take care, that the Sessions be as short as possible and the meetings at such times as shall be most convenient as well to the members as to yourself.

These are all the Points which occur to us at present upon this important question, and it only remains for us to desire that you will take the earliest opportunity after the first Session of the Assembly to acquaint us in the fullest and most particular manner of all the steps you have taken in this matter, of the effect and operation of this measure with regard to the Public Service, pointing out to us at the same time the Conveniences and Inconveniences of it, how far the Plan on which you proceeded is defective, the cause of those Defects, and in what manner you would propose to have them remedyed to the end that we may lay the whole matter before His Majesty and the Plan for future Assemblys- ascertained by proper Instructions to you.

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Governor Lawrence To Lords of Trade and Plantations December 8th, 1755.

My Lords,- I have the honour by this opportunity to transmit to your Lordships the opinion of the Chief Justice 2 upon the manner of convening an Assembly in this Province. Tho’ this is a matter, that in many of its parts, I am by no means qualified to judge of, yet I think it my duty to lay before your Lordships such reflections as have occurred to me upon so important a subject.

The general necessity of convening an assembly upon account of the present invalidity of the laws, being altogether a point of law, I can say no more upon that head than that the Laws are chiefly such, as it appeared indispensably necessary to make, for the good regulation of the Town of Halifax and the encouragement of its commerce, they were mostly made at the request of the Merchants, or the people whom they concerned, who have been perfectly satisfied therewith and have never made the least question of their validity that ever I heard, I have been well informed that at the first establishment of the Colony of Virginia, Laws were enacted in the same manner and continued in force until an Assembly could be easily convened for their confirmation.

The enclosed opinion seems to be founded upon the necessity of performing a promise made to the first Settlers of their having an Assembly. I believe from the first settlement of the Province to the present time the Governor has been required by the 86th Instruction to call an Assembly, by causing two Members to be elected for each Township, but as the Town of Halifax is the only place qualified to elect two members, they alone would not be sufficient to form an Assembly, therefore I humbly apprehend such a promise, cannot in any wise be said to have been broke through, but its performance not yet become possible, by the circumstances of the Province. As to the manner proposed by the Chief Justice for convening an Assembly at present, by electing 12 Members for the Province in the form of a County Election if it is to be any precedent for future elections, it will be attended with a very great inconvenience. As it is to be held at Halifax, which most likely will not be the residence of the landed people, but of the Merchants, the former whose well being is much more connected with the security of the Province, will be mostly excluded and the Assembly chiefly composed of the latter, who are not so nearly concerned in its welfare, and who may sometimes have views & interests incompatible with the measures it may be necessary to take in a Province so contiguous both by land and water, to the whole force of the French in North America.

I have now laid before you fully my thought upon this subject, which I flatter myself, your Lordships will receive with your usual candour, and excuse any error that may be found therein, upon reflecting how seldom it has fallen in my way to consider things of this nature.

If it is thought necessary to put this Plan or any other to the same purpose in execution, I beg of your Lordships that I may have full instructions upon the subject, which I will take care most punctually to execute. It would be necessary, in this case, to provide for the expense of a House for the Assembly to sit in, and for a Clerk and sucli salaried Officers as may be thought necessary for their attendance, for I can venture to assure your Lordships that the people here in general, are not in a condition of contributing any sum of money to defray such an expense.

I am, &c. CHAs. LAWRENCE

Kennedy, William P. Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1713-1929. Oxford Univ. Pr., 1930. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_03428

Page 3 of 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 10