In October, 1825, the council passed a resolution to the effect that
they would not in future be disposed to give their assent to any bill
for appropriating money, unless the sums and services therein contained
should be submitted in separate resolutions for their concurrence. This
resolution was not agreeable to the assembly, who claimed the sole right
of originating all money bills, and who denied the right of the council
to alter or amend them. This difference of opinion led to a protracted
controversy. In May, 1827, the council sent a message to the assembly,
in which the question was elaborately argued, to which the assembly
returned an equally elaborate reply. The dispute resulted, in 1827, in
the council agreeing to the two principal bills of supply, and rejecting
an _ad valorem_ duty bill; but in the following session—that of 1828—the
appropriation bill was rejected by the council, which obliged the
governor to confine the expenditure of the year to purposes of
necessity. In meeting the house, in 1829, the governor expressed the
hope that the unfortunate dispute of the last session would be brought
to an amicable adjustment, and recommended a system of mutual compromise
as the most effectual mode of securing that object. Although the council
had resolved to transact no further business with the assembly until the
latter body expunged a previous resolution from their journals
containing certain imputations on the council, yet the house had refused
to do so. Business communication was, however, resumed, and continued as
if nothing had happened.
On the sixth of January, 1825, died Benjamin Chappell, late postmaster
of the island, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He and his brother
William emigrated from England in the year 1775. They owned one of the
first packets that sailed between Charlottetown and the mainland. He saw
the country in its rude and wilderness state, and was an attentive
observer of all the vicissitudes it underwent in its gradual progress
towards improvement, and few took a deeper interest in its prosperity.
He was a man of sterling piety, actively devoted to the cause of
religion, and may with truth be considered the founder of the present
Methodist establishment of the island. He was personally known and
beloved by John Wesley, who was in the habit of corresponding with him
for many years; and it afforded Mr. Chappell much delight to detail to
his friends many interesting anecdotes that grew out of his intimacy
with that great and good man. He was brought up to the millwright
business, and was well acquainted with machinery in all its extensive
branches. He was a man of intelligence and strong mind, and, with a
perfect knowledge of his own business, possessed a great deal of useful
information. If a life of consistent piety, as expressed in the virtues
that dignify human nature, can endear a man to society, the memory of
Benjamin Chappell will be long and affectionately cherished in the
island.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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