There was then no regular police establishment in the town, the Magistrates, by turns, attended to police duties with the aid of the town constables, who were annually appointed. All special matters were discussed and settled at the special sessions, which was generally a private meeting of Magistrates in the back office in conjunction with the Clerk of the Peace. Criminal charges of a delicate nature, or when private character was likely to be affected, were usually investigated with closed doors, and no information made public until found to be necessary for the ends of justice. This system continued until Mr. John George Pyke received the appointment of Police Magistrate, about 60 years since. His duties were merely to relieve the Magistrates from the more onerous duties of attending daily at the Police office. Colonel Pyke became incapacitated by age about the year 1825 or 6, when Mr. John Liddell was appointed, who had to his aid three or four Police Constables, two of whom had attended his predecessor, and the valuable assistance of David Shaw Clarke, the clerk of the peace. Such was the arrangement until the Act of Incorporation in 1848. The "Royal Gazette" was published by Anthony Henry, until about 1801, when it fell into the hands of Mr. John Howe, from Boston. The "Weekly Chronicle," another paper, was at this time established by Mr. William Minns, stationer, in Barrington Street, opposite the north-end of the Grand Parade. It was commenced in 1787, and continued to exist until about 1828 or 9. Among the merchants who advertized in these papers we find the names of James Vetch, opposite the woodyard; David Hall & Co., in Hollis Street, opposite Government House, (Crown Prince Building); and George Bell, Granville St. The shops appear to have contained both groceries and dry-goods, like the country stores of the present day. A. & R. Leslie were at the corner of Duke and Water Streets, near the Pontac. Lawrence Hartshorne, Hardware, corner of Granville and George streets, between the market house and the parade. This old corner, so many years known as Hartshorne & Boggs' corner, had a gun at the corner of the platform which extended down the hill to the lower corner, occupied by one Hart, a Jew, afterwards known as Martin Gay Black's, and now occupied by the new building of the Merchant's Bank; this walk was the resort of the merchants in the morning, and the fashionable and idle in the afternoons. 1789. On the night of Friday, the 23rd January, Cochran's buildings, a range of three-storey buildings in the market square, were totally consumed by fire. Firewards were John Fillis, J. G. Pyke, R. J. Uniacke, Michael Wallace, Geo. Bell, Lawrence Hartshorne, William Lawlor, Charles Hill.