the sheriff appointed the meetings to be held at certain specified dates
at Charlottetown, St. Peter’s, and Princetown.
This very legitimate procedure on the part of the people did not accord
with Governor Smith’s notions of propriety, and he deemed it proper to
remove Mr. McGregor from the office of sheriff, and to confer it on his
late deputy, Mr. Townshend. On the eighteenth of February, the Hilary
term of the supreme court commenced, and Mr. Townshend, at the request
of the governor, struck out the name of John Stewart from the panel.
During the term, petitions were presented to the grand jury, complaining
of the conduct of the acting receiver general and his deputies, and true
bills were found against the latter; but no trial took place in
consequence of the interference of the governor.
On the sixth of March, the first meeting called by the sheriff took
place at Charlottetown. Considering the deep snow on the ground and the
state of the roads, it was numerously attended, and the proceedings were
conducted with the utmost order and regularity. A number of resolutions
were passed, which were embodied in an address to the King, containing
grave charges against the governor. It was said that, though he had
resided on the island for ten years, he had only been once absent from
Charlottetown, when he ventured to drive eighteen miles into the
country, thus failing to make himself acquainted with its actual
condition. He was charged with illegally constituting a court of escheat
in 1818, and, in violation of his own public proclamation of the 8th of
October, 1816, harassing by prosecution the tenants of township number
fifty-five. He was charged with refusing to receive an address from the
house of assembly in answer to his speech at the opening of the session
in November, 1818, though he had appointed an hour for that purpose. In
addition to this public insult, he was accused of sending a message, on
the fifteenth of December, to the assembly, requiring both houses to
adjourn to the fifth of January following; and before the business in
which they were then occupied was finished, and when the lower house was
on the point of adjourning, in accordance with the said message, it was
insulted by Mr. Carmichael, the lieutenant-governor’s son-in-law and
secretary, who, advancing within the bar, addressed the speaker loudly
in these words: “Mr. Speaker, if you sit in that chair one minute
longer, this house will be immediately dissolved,” at the same time
shaking his fist at the speaker; and while the house was engaged in
considering the means of punishing this insult, the lieutenant-governor
sent for the speaker, and, holding up his watch to him, said he would
allow the house three minutes, before the expiration of which, if it did
not adjourn, he would resort to an immediate dissolution; and this
extraordinary conduct was soon after followed by a prorogation of the
legislature, in consequence of the house having committed to jail the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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