An Act was passed this Session authorizing the sale of the Orphan House,
the Court House, the Public Slaughter House, and the Old Jail, and to
erect a Jail, and also to erect on the Lower Parade a Public Hall, a
Province House of Brick or Stone for the setting of the Legislature and
Public Offices. The Commissioners appointed for this purpose were John
Newton, Richard John Uniacke, John George Pyke and Mr. Taylor. Such
parts of this Act as have been executed were afterwards repealed by Act
of 1797.
1788. An Election for Members for the Town took place this winter, which
was attended with extraordinary excitement. On the 20th February the
poll opened, at the Court House, in Halifax; the candidates were Mr.
Charles Morris and Jonathan Sterns. It closed on the Friday following,
when it stood: Morris, 415; Sterns, 274. Majority for Morris, 141. Mr.
Morris was carried through the Town and then taken home to his father's
house. Hand-bills had been posted up reflecting on the government.
Serious riots at the election occurred and many persons were hurt, some
of whom received fractures of the skull and other severe injuries. Armed
persons paraded the Town assaulting individuals. As this was a very
remarkable election, and resulted in more turbulence and riot than had
ever before occurred in the town on such occasions, we here copy the
following extract from Anthony Henry's _Gazette_ of 25th February:--"The
unwearied and spirited exertions of a number of respectable gentlemen in
a great measure calmed the minds of the people, and prevented their
violence being carried to any very great length; nevertheless it was
utterly impossible, in such confusion, to prevent many persons from
being wounded and hurt, two of whom, we are sorry to inform the public,
remain in a dangerous state; one having his skull fractured by some
persons who rushed out of Laycock's house on the beach, and the other
having been dangerously wounded by a shot from a window in the same
house. We are likewise sorry to inform the public, that Mr. Benjamin
Mulberry Holmes and his son, have been much beaten and abused by the
populace on Friday night, and were it not for the very fortunate and
timely interposition of Mr. Tobin's man and some others, it is probable
they would have fallen a sacrifice to an enraged multitude."
The excitement had been caused partly by certain proceedings on the part
of the judges of the Supreme Court against Mr. Sterns and Mr. Taylor,
two practising lawyers in the town, whose names had been struck off the
roll by Chief Justice Deschamps. One of the gentlemen, Mr. Sterns, was
the defeated candidate at the election.
On the 3rd June, Bishop Inglis held his primary visitation of his
Clergy, when he delivered a charge, received an address, and held a
confirmation in the afternoon at St. Paul's, when one hundred and twenty
young persons went through the ceremony of confirmation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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