About this time a destructive epidemic made its appearance in the town, and it is said nearly 1000 persons fell victims during the autumn and the following winter. On the 14th day of October, the Government found it necessary to publish an ordinance, commanding all Justices of the Peace, upon the death of the settlers, to name so many of the neighbourhood or quarter (not exceeding 12) to which the deceased belonged, to attend at the burial and carry the corpse to the grave, and whoever refused to attend without sufficient reason should have his name struck off the Mess Book and Register of Settlers as unworthy of His Majesty's bounty; again in December, another order was made commanding all householders to report their dead to a clergyman within twenty-four hours. Owing to the frequent alarms of invasion from the Indians and French stragglers during the winter, it was resolved in Council to organize a militia force for the protection of the settlement, and on the Sunday following the 6th day of December, after divine service, all the male settlers, between the age of sixteen and sixty, were assembled on the parade, and drawn up in the following order:--"Those of Mr. Ewer's and Mr. Collier's divisions to face the harbor, those of the quarters of Mr. Galland and Mr. Foreman to face the Citadel, and those of Mr. Callendar's division at one end of the parade." The proclamation bears date the 7th day of December, 1749. On the 16th, information arrived that a French force had been dispatched overland from Canada, to attack Halifax, and that the Indians were to co-operate with them, also, that two vessels with six hundred men were in the Bay Verte under LeCorne, and with ammunition and stores of all kinds for a winter expedition. The people having been again assembled on the parade after divine service, the proclamation was read and the settlers commanded to fell all the trees around the town without the forts and barricades. No attempt was, however, made upon the town, either by the Indians or French during the winter. These hostilities were being carried on by the Government of Canada, while the two Crowns were nominally at peace, under pretence that the Treaty of Utrecht only ceded to the Crown of Great Britain the peninsula of Nova Scotia proper. The Governor deeming it expedient that some permanent system of judicial proceedings to answer the immediate exigencies of the Colony should be established, a committee of Council was accordingly appointed to examine the various systems in force in the old Colonies. On 13th December, Mr. Green reported that after a careful investigation, the laws of Virginia were found to be most applicable to the present situation of the province. The report was adopted. It referred principally to the judicial proceedings in the General Courts, the County Courts, and other tribunals.